Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

Texts: Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 25:1-10; I Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15

Dear Friends in Christ, God’s grace and peace be with you.  Amen

After 40 days and 40 nights of flood and despair, God establishes a covenant with Noah and every creature of the earth. God opens the heavens and sets a bow in the clouds as a sign of the permanence of the promise. The rainbow is every color, all creation is included, the diversity, the variety, the beauty, the difference, all will be held in this promise: never again will God destroy the earth.

There’s no assurance that we won’t. After 40 years and 40 centuries, humans are more prone than ever to deplete the minerals, clearcut the forests, pollute the skies and the waters, and ignore the needs of our neighbors. In the years since the rainbow first appeared in the sky, it has been humans who have forsaken the covenant God made with creation[i].

Do you notice how many signs of heaven on earth we catch in these texts? We hear of dry earth and wilderness, creatures, rain and flood, river and flesh, birds of every kind.  And voices from beyond, Spirit, heavens torn open and pouring down light and beauty, angels in the wilderness. It’s as if someone wants us to wonder whether the gifts of heaven are not as distant as we might presume.

We begin our 40-day journey in the Lenten wilderness, being reminded that we were created for communion with God and with all that God has made. Rainbows remind us of the hope for which we were created, to remember how we’re made of the very elements beneath our feet, and to strive for future generations to be able to enjoy all that has sustained us.

Lent draws us back to our baptism, the flood of life from which God says again and again, “I have opened all of heaven to rain upon you, my beloved children. You are and forever will be mine.” Lent calls us to remember the covenant that claims us, and invites us to be refreshed in the purpose it offers.

But life has a way of drying our baptismal bath, and leaving us parched in the wilderness, focused much too much on the dryness.

Our post-baptismal stories, whether 40 days, or 40 years, or maybe 2 ½ times longer, are always lived under the beauty of the rainbow, colors and peoples and all the treasures of the cosmos. Angels are right here, waiting on us with gifts of wonder and delight, things to learn, games to play, friends to enjoy, covenants to honor, and mysteries to explore. But we also encounter beasts of hardship and loss, pain and sorrow, discouragement and opposition.

We don’t know what wild animals Jesus meets in his post-baptismal retreat, but we know some of the ones that lurk in our wilderness, and they feel anything but heavenly. Tiresome political discourse that continues to divide us. 24-7 reports of war, the death of those trying to stand up to despotism. Nationalistic tropes drowning out voices of reason. People more willing to criticize pop stars than to care about poverty, homelessness, or racism. Throngs of those seeking a better life at our borders, and politicians more focused on disagreeing with others than finding common ground to stand on.

Of course, some of the dangers are more personal. Contract negotiations that break down. Jobs that aren’t fulfilling, or supervisors who don’t recognize our efforts. Friends facing frightening diagnoses, and enduring painful treatments. There are the monsters of loneliness or anxiety. Wild terrors of addiction and mental illness. It can be tempting to think those beasts have the last word in our lives.

It can be easy to overlook the angels waiting on us at the same time. But right in the middle of the hardest challenges of life, we are always surrounded by grace.

Maybe you heard the same story I did on Valentine’s day – a Love Train in Ukraine carries sweethearts to meet soldiers on leave from the battlefield[ii]. Against all odds, across war-torn cities, in refugee camps and homeless encampments, people keep falling in love. Children create works of art and learn to read, and ask questions of the universe, and adults work to find answers. Choirs sing anthems that lift our spirits, and stadiums fill up with fans singing at the top of their voices along with their favorite bands. A friend going through chemotherapy told me that the prayers others are offering on his behalf feel like a lifeboat buoying him above the storm.

Some of the angels are at work inspiring us here, too. In the last few weeks, as they do throughout the year, members of Gloria Dei came to bake fresh bread and wash robes for worship. A few more gathered to pack backpacks with groceries for neighborhood kids, and others came to finish a quilt for someone in need. Confirmation students gathered to create Valentines to deliver to our homebound members. Mentors met with 9^th and 10^th graders to discuss their faith, and Sunday School teachers prepared lessons.

On Thursday evening this week, our Faith and Science group will discuss matters of the mind, and on Friday, some folks will get together just to play games and get to know each other. You’re invited.

In just a few minutes, prayer teams will stand by to pray with anyone who is feeling alone or afraid. Someone else will stumble forward to this table just to hear the unbelievable words that Christ’s body was broken for them. Who can say whether angels haven’t been quietly waiting on us all along our wilderness path? Perhaps they’re right here, quieting the wild animals, and stirring us to acts of healing and hope.

We have been created for community with each other, and with the creation itself. Even at the end of each of these too warm winter days, the sun sets with a magnificent display of color and joy.

Stuart Pimm, a biodiversity expert from Duke University cautions us about the negativity that often clouds ecological reporting. Without denying the very real crisis the climate is experiencing, Pimm reminds us to notice efforts that are paying off, too. Wetland birds through Europe and North America are faring much better today than they were 30 years ago. The populations of bald eagles, trumpeter swans, Louisiana Black Bears, and swift foxes have all dramatically increased. Fully 17% of the earth is now under protection of conservation efforts and environmental organizations.  Pimm’s message is hopeful, “We’re learning the craft of conservation, and we’re getting better at it.”[iii] He encourages us to resist the despair that can overwhelm us by taking part in any small local effort at healing the planet. “It’s not all good news,” Pimm says, “but it’s not all bad news, either.” Taking action is a way to ward off unhelpful senses of hopelessness.

There are angels waiting on us in the wilderness. It’s tempting to ignore them. It helps to remember the life that birthed us. Jesus is sent out to meet wild animals and angels not as a test to see if he’s worthy of God’s love, but because he has already been fully immersed and claimed in baptismal grace. He is sent into the wilderness to face both the treasure and the sorrow that life will offer. His wilderness journey will remind him that wherever he goes, and whatever he encounters, God’s love goes before him and remains with him.

At the end of the journey, he will remain assured that the good news of God is trustworthy enough to carry us from death to a life we can’t imagine.

The floods of destruction don’t get the last word. The heavens have already opened with a multicolored reminder of God’s never-ending promise to us. All future generations are washed into the arc of promise, life, purpose and beauty. The wilderness is brimming with grace and hope. We may yet find life, even in the coming 40 days.

Thanks be to God.

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[i]Schade, Leah H. “God’s Rainbow Is A Symbol For Peace With Creation,” EcoPreacher, Patheos. February 8, 2024. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2024/02/gods-rainbow-symbol-peace-with-creation/?fbclid=IwAR1j5OPfNsC1_UzQtKBuQlFz1f8zHwXPwptkdFV-pAdkYTuKZCxvxamY1Tc

[ii] Kakissis, Johanna, “Train of Love: When Ukrainian soldiers get a break, loved ones travel to see them,” on Morning Edition, NPR, MPR news, February 14, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/14/1231313584/train-of-love-when-ukrainian-soldiers-get-a-break-loved-ones-travel-to-see-them

[iii]  Perková, Veronika,” How Leading US Conservationists Manage to Hold On to Hope: Tips from environmental leaders on staying optimistic in the midst of the climate and extinction crises,” Sierra: the Magazine of the Sierra Club, December 10, 2023.  https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/how-leading-us-conservationists-manage-hold-hope