Rainbow Connection Genesis 9: 8-17 Rev. Megan Cochran 06/12/2016 Something big happened in 1979. Yes, the United States and the United Republic of China established full diplomatic relations, McDonalds introduced the Happy Meal, Neptune became the outermost planet sure, all of those things happened, but I m not talking about those things. Because in 1979, The Muppet Movie was created. One of the best creations of all time, in my humble opinion. Now, I don t remember the first time I saw The Muppet Movie, but I feel like Waka Waka has been a part of my vocabulary pretty much since I was born. And possibly the best part, in my opinion, is one of the opening scenes. It starts with a sky shot of some beautiful tall trees surrounded by water. And as it zooms in, the banjo begins to play. And then after a few moments you hear this squeaky, sweet voice begin to sing. And of course, it is Kermit singing The Rainbow Connection. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me. Today, we are going to be those lovers and dreamers and do our best to dig through this text in Genesis to find our own rainbow connection. Today, we come in on the tail end of a very familiar story: Noah s Ark. Now, there are two very common interpretations of this story. The first common interpretation is as a children s story. We see this image all of the time, a gigantic boat floating on some nice water filled with smiling animals and Noah, a big rainbow overhead and maybe a dove floating in the sky nearby for good measure. In this interpretation God loves humans and animals it s all happiness and rainbows. The second common interpretation is definitely not a children s story. Actually, it s a very adult story and one that I don t like very much. In this interpretation, God is angry, filled
with rage at human beings and just how awful they are so God floods the whole world, wipes out almost every living thing. This angry God is not one who I would want to spend much time worshipping. It s terrifying and upsetting. So, that s where we usually begin. I m guessing all of us here have one of those two images in mind when we think about Noah s Ark or maybe some messy combination of both. But, today I want us to explore the text again together with fresh eyes, as lovers and dreamers, who are interested in seeing what s beneath these common interpretations. I don t want to sugarcoat it. This is a hard story. Things haven t been going that well since creation. After all of that talk about it all being good, it turns out it hasn t been so good at all. Adam and Eve had some trouble in the garden, there was a heartbreaking end to the Cain and Abel story, and now here we come to Noah s Ark. God is grieved. That s where this story starts. God is not angry or vengeful or filled with rage. God is grieved to the heart and really trying to figure out where it all went wrong. So, God tells Noah the plan. With a broken heart God decides to start over because people just aren t getting this glorious vision that God had for the world. And I can t make this part easy to hear. There is a lot of death and seemingly at the hands of God. I wish I could tell you that it was all rainbows and love, but it isn t, there is pain and suffering in this passage, both on the part of God and on the part of humanity. So, no I can t make the story easy to hear, but what I can do is help us to zoom our lens out a bit. Let s remind ourselves that this is a story, not history. And I don't mean story in a belittling sense, I mean story in the way that stories are what makes us human, stories are how we create meaning, stories are if not the most important at least one of the most important things that we do in our lives. So, this story matters, but it is not a description of scientific factual
events that happened. This is a story written by people who are trying to make sense of the world they live in and the things they believe. So, a good question to ask ourselves when biblical stories get really difficult like this one is: What is this community trying to say about themselves and the God they believe in? I think they were trying to say a couple things. First, I think it was really important for God to be all-powerful. Joy mentioned last week that polytheism was common during this time period. So, if you were going to be a community that believed in only one God that had better be a pretty darn powerful God. And to prove that God is powerful you would want to show that God is in charge of everything, especially the waters which historically often metaphorically represent power and life. So, if we ended the story there this would be an all-powerful God who controlled the natural world, who could grieve, and could also be violent. But, the story doesn t end there. This community, this author, has more to say about who this God is. Turns out, the end of the story isn t violence. The end of the story isn t death. We know a few other stories where death isn t the end, but those mainly come in the New Testament. Death isn t the answer here either, this author is thoughtful, and this author knows that there is more to the story and more to God than what first meets the eye. So, after all of that trauma, we come to our scripture reading for today God making a covenant with the world. Oh and this matters. It matters so much. It doesn t do away with all of the chapters before, all of the pain and grief, but it adds another layer, an important layer. Because, you see, this bow in the sky it means more than just a bright arch of colors. God putting the bow in the sky is thought to represent the bow of battle. Ancient depictions of a deity armed with bow and arrow are not unusual. And to hang up one s bow is to retire from battle. 1 1 https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1222
Theologian Elizabeth Webb says, That bow in the clouds is the sign of God s promise that whatever else God does to seek our restoration, destruction is off the table. 2 This community believes in a God that chooses nonviolence. Turns out, the violence didn t work so well. It didn t heal God s heart in this story. So, God chooses a different way. And that bow in the sky, that weapon of war, is hung up for good. Violence is never the answer. This is a God of peace. This would have been so radical for this time period. Alright now we re getting closer to some kind of rainbow connection here aren t we dreamers? I found an interview with Paul Williams, the guy who wrote Rainbow Connection, and he had some really interesting things to say. He says, Kermit, he s like every frog. He s the Jimmy Stewart of frogs. So how do we show that he s also a thinking frog, and that he has an introspective soul, and all that good stuff? We looked at his environment, and his environment is water and air and light. And it just seemed like it would be a place where he would see a rainbow. But, we also wanted to show that he would be on this spiritual path, examining life, and the meaning of life. 3 Now, that s pretty deep for a description of a frog, especially a Muppet frog, but I like it. Now, this may be a jump, but I wonder if the author of this story was trying to show some similar things about God with this story as Paul Williams was with this song? This God isn t stagnant. This God we worship is on a journey to figure out what kind of God to be just like we all are on a journey to figure out what kind of people we want to be. This God isn t interested in superficial relationships. This God is interested in deep, authentic relationships. That s what hanging up that weapon is all about. God will try everything else, except violence, to move forward in relationship with us. 2 Ibid. 3 http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/paul_williams/
So, it turns out, that rainbow in the sky is all about connection: God s connection to us and our connection to each other and to God. And we need reminders sometimes, don t we? We need to be reminded that we can affect God s heart. We need to be reminded that violence is never the answer. We need to be reminded that all of the struggle is worth it because we believe in a God who is going to do everything to stay in relationship with us. And we will keep trying and trying to do the same for God. And as for stories like this that are rich in complexity, we may never find the answers, but I don t quite know if answers are the point of these stories in this book. So, friends, here s to that rainbow connection, someday we might find it, but until then let s just live into being lovers and dreamers and see what happens. Amen.