Art Reading Scripture

Landscape With Noah Offering a Sacrifice of Gratitude, Joseph Anton Koch, 1803, Stadel Museum Frankfurt, Germany

God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall ne a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ..." Genesis 9:12-13

After the storm Noah offered an offering of thanksgiving from the extra clean animals he had brought onto the ark. The LORD smelled the pleasing odor and promised never to curse the ground and destroy the living from the earth. God renewed the original blessing, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." The knowledge of evil remained, as well as its consequences. Significantly, the relationship between living things was altered. "The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered." Humanity continued to be a threat to the goodness God intended for creation. Difference in kind disrupted unity in being. The other living things would flee our presence. Storms would also still rained down upon the earth from dark clouds, with thunder, lightening, hail and wind. People still feared the power of the storm. Some people's would see in the storm the wrathful and fickle power of the gods. God instead set a promise in the clouds that people might not fear God's complete devastating wrath. "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."

Rainbows are beautiful. After a storm people go out to take pictures. As much as the power of the storm fascinates us, the beauty of a rainbow delights us. We know the storm has passed and we are safe. The symbolism of the rainbow has been debated as to just what it represents.

One idea might be that the bow held up the sky, the firmament that separated the waters from the waters. Ancient peoples conceived that the world was surrounded by water and that a dome, like a terrarium covered the earth. At the end of the land, above and below the land were the seething and endless waters of chaos. In the flood God opened the windows of heaven and the doors of the deeps to let the waters devastate the earth. The bow arching across the dome of the sky promised that the windows of heaven would never remain so open. The bow closed the windows of the sky.

Others saw in the bow the imagery of a weapon, a bow and arrow. The bow was a divine weapon shooting arrows of lightning, judgment towards the earth. The bow facing away from the earth symbolized the promise that God would not direct the bow towards the earth again. Instead it would face away. God disarmed God's wrath. The symbol of a weapon became a symbol of promise and peace.

Ancient people would not have considered a different idea expressed in the image of a rainbow: the refraction of light, from unity to diversity. Light appears as brightness, whiteness, and the unity of "color." Light is all colors combined. When light passes through a prism, like water or glass, the colors appear, every color in the whole spectrum can be discerned. The rainbow may then be interpreted to express God's delight diversity and unity, one light and all colors, one creation and every manifestation of being in it. It continues the theme begun with God's preservation of every living thing on the ark, those we enjoy as well as those who do not seemingly fit into our desires or values. The rainbow expresses the full diversity of light which began when God said, "Let there be light," and continued as every thing in creation refracted from that light. There are primary colors and secondary colors and all the shades in between. There are hot colors and cool colors, dark and light, gray and fuchsia. In 1978 artist Gilbert Baker created the Pride Flag inspired by what he called the natural flag of the sky, the rainbow. Originally he included 8 colors but reduced it to six for the sake of simplicity. The colors symbolized for him a beautiful and joyful diversity that expressed the LBGTQ+ community as fully part of the diversity of humanity. For him the colors symbolized: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, indigo for harmony, and violent for spirit. Against the destructiveness of prejudice and fear of difference the flag symbolizes a basic unity of humanity refracted into a wide diversity of peoples, values, and hope.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer