Now, let's talk about rainbows for a second. Not the Julie Andrews version, not the Kermit the Frog version, but the actual rainbows you see and encounter on a daily basis. You all know by now the lore about rainbows, yes? The lore that says that there's a pot of gold at the end of it? Yes, you know that leprechauns, those crafty devils, they hide their pots of gold at the ends of rainbows. As a child, I was told the same legends that everyone else was, that if you could find the end of the rainbow, you would find the pot of gold that the leprechaun wanted to hold onto. Sounds good in theory, but of course, the facts of the matter drag it down significantly.
There is no end of the rainbow. I'm sorry to tell you this. The end of the rainbow doesn't exist. It doesn't exist, because the rainbow is round. It may not look like it when you look up at it in the sky, but trust me, and trust physics, what you see as a rainbow is actually a rain-circle. Completely round. If you've been up in a plane or on a high building, and have seen a rainbow, you will have seen it as a circle. Believe it or not, though, that's just one reason that you can't find the end of the rainbow. First of all, there is no end, and secondly, the rainbow moves with you.
I know, I know, there are stories of people flying over rainbows, of people seeing be being next to the place where the rainbow ends, but it's not true. You can't get to a rainbow. It depends on the angle of your eyes and the water falling through the sky.
Why do I mention all this? Because the rainbow is a far better show of a covenant than you'd possibly think. Oh sure, on the surface, it's a nice origin story for rainbows, but it's bigger and deeper than that, and to get to that, we have to ask ourselves what a rainbow actually is.
So what is a rainbow? It's an almost illusion. That is, it's a real thing, that doesn't exist. If that sounsd elusive, then buckle up, because we're just getting started. For the rainbow, though it looks real, you can't grab it, and wrap your hand around it. It's ephemeral, and that's important for how God, and God's promises work. Think about the rainbow that you see up in the sky. Think about how you look up, and see it there. Now think about all the smaller rainbows that you see in your life. Think about the rainbows that you see with your sprinkler, at the splash pad, behind speed boats, anywhere that there is light and water droplets. If you move around, you will see the rainbow in different places. And if you move and see the rainbow in a different place, you will know that the people who are with you will all be seeing the rainbow in a different place from you. Do you know why? Because the rainbow depends on your angle of view.
This is why it is such a good reminder of God's promises. It's such a good reminder of them because of the way the rainbow works. The magnificence of the rainbow is that everybody who looks up at it will see their own individual rainbow. The rainbow you see is both the same as, and at the same time different from everyone else's. The principles are the same, the colours will always be the same, but the rainbow you see, based on where you are standing, will be only for you. Everyone else will be seeing a different one.
This applies to the promises made in the scriptures, and the aspects of the worship services, by showing us how God is experienced. The Bible, it's only one book. Everyone gets the same Bible. If you join a church, and get a wonderful presentation Bible, the cover may be different, but the contents will be the same as everyone else's. If you go to church, you will be part of the same
When Jesus speaks to his disciples about Holy Communion, he tells them that the bread is his body, and the wine is his blood, given 'for you.' It's the same as the promise, the covenant, made through the rainbow, where God tells Noah that he is making that covenant with everyone. And sure enough, as we all look at the rainbows, we realize that we each see our own rainbow, reminding us that the covenant was made with each and every one of us.
And there's something else that helps with this being the means to remind us of the covenant. As Christians, we count on the faithfulness of God's promises. The Christian belief was never an exchange between us and God. It was never as though we bring something to the table, God brings something to the table, and then we make an exchange. No no, the way it works is that God makes a promise, and is trustworthy and true, and keeps his promises to us. And the rainbow is a fantastic marker of that. It's a fantastic marker, because it is regular, it is predictiable, and it is constant. God's promise to his people to never again flood the earth, is marked by a rainbow, which is a permanent thing. There have to be raibows, because that's how light and water when refraction happens. You know what else depends on those same properties? Your eyes, your vision, everything about their interplay depends on the same forces and laws that show you rainbows. That' the way light and fluids work. The reason this is such a great marker for God's promises is that he can't just stop rainbows cold. Stopping them cold would essentially require an unworking, or a reworking, of the way matter and light interact.
And this is how his promises work. Once he's made them, he doesn't go back on them. He holds fast to those promises, and does not back down. The appearance of the rainbow doesn't happen as long as you say the right words or do the right things. The rainbow appears when there is rain, sun, and you to witness it. You don't make it appear, but you have a vital part to play, since if there is nobody around to witness the rainbow, it doesn't exist.
When God speaks to his people, when he gives his body and blood to eat and to drink, when he pours out his love in holy baptism, when his words are spoken in his Holy Church, these things need to have people as a vital part to play. Given and shed for you. I baptize you. I forgive you all your sins. In the service, in the scriptures, you realize very quickly that none of this happens in a vacuum. God's words are for his people. And the words may always be the same, but they are all individually for us. There's only one Bible, and yet it speaks to us all individually. There's only one Christ, and yet we all encounter him individually. One Lord, one Faith, one Church, and yet all the believers are spoken to individually. Just like how there is one refraction, one ROY G BIV, and yet we all see our own, personal rainbow, just like everyone else's, yet only for you.
Just like the rainbow.
PJ.
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