Today's sermon

Service in the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Nativity
first Sunday in Lent 22 February 2015 at 7 and 8.30

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

Your bow in the clouds proclaims your covenant …

A bow - the rainbow - a rainbow nation!

The first reading, from Genesis 9:8-17 is part of a biblical narrative that so many people in the history of humankind, have identified with.

We see the rainbow as a symbol for many things.

• South Africa, a rainbow nation
• The Gay and Lesbian community uses a rainbow flag
• Greenpeace had a boat called rainbow warrior, sunk by the French intelligence service in 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand.
• A Swedish Rema Church has it in its logotype.

We all love the rainbow. It reminds us of the covenant.

But the narrative is problematic.

It says:

… never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth …

Say that to the people of Malawi and Mozambique some months ago …

Never again …

It reminds me of the speech that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela held at his inauguration as President of South Africa in Pretoria 10 May 1994:

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.

How about today? With xenophobia and corruption?

But there are also other problems. The narrative speaks about a covenant. We know how this concept has been used and abused.

The covenant that God made with the Afrikaner people at the battle at Blood River or Ncome river. 16 December 1838.

And if we continue to read in Genesis 9 we get the story of Noah drinking wine and getting drunk, which results in him taking of all his clothes and falling asleep in his tent. One of his sons, Ham, sees him naked (a taboo) and a curse is cast on the grandson, Canaan:

Noah wakes up and says:

Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.
May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.

These verses were used by the apartheid theologians as a way to explain why black people should serve white people.

Isn’t it strange how we make use of the biblical text, the word of God, to further our own privileges?

Let’s go to the Epistle text where we learn about the New Covenant through Christ. Peter writes about

… the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But even in this context, in the beginning of the same chapter, Peter writes about how wives must accept the authority of the husbands. He describes women as the weaker sex.

Haven't these verses been used for oppression? Although Peter also says that husbands must show consideration for their wives. A verse we men often forget to read.

Always those contending voices in the bible; oppression and slavery side by side with liberation and salvation!

It is not strange. Even in Jesus’ own life here on earth there was a spiritual war. A fight between powers! The middle section of the Gospel tells us what happened directly after Jesus’ baptism and reads like this:

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

These were the different characters in the drama:

• Jesus
• The Spirit
• Satan
• Wild beasts
• Angels

Of course the Biblical narrative is influenced by the evil power in the same way.

But the Word of God – which is Jesus Christ – is there. In the middle of the Bible and in the Church!

When we enter this time of lent we do it with an objective to live close to Jesus; to walk beside Jesus or allow Jesus to walk next to us.

We need to revisit the Bible, as in the Lent Course, every Wednesday up to Easter.

We need to engage with one another in the congregation. Yes, we may and we should read the Bible on our own but even more, we should do it together.

We should also allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, when we share the bible.

So that we may understand, on a deep level, that we really are in a covenant with God. A covenant which is not there only for our sake! We should not forget others.

It is a covenant that God made with us and

… every living creature that is with you, for all future generations

There can be no oppression. We are in this together.

Let us digest this during lent. Let us pray to God, that we become Christ-like in loving the whole world, just as God loves the whole world.

There will be other forces in our lives. Trying to distract us, trying to draw us away from what is right.

Let us therefore also see lent as a time to live closer to Jesus in this sense, asking for his grace and forgiveness.

It is only in him and through him we can achieve this.