In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Last summer we witnessed the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina as it pulverized the Gulf coast of the United States and in particular the city of New Orleans. The flooding that took place when the levees breached destroyed a great deal of property and took many lives. This week on the CBC evening news there has been a series of reports concerning the status of Mardi Gras and the recovery operations that are taking place. There is some rebuilding going on but unfortunately it is slow and pretty few and far between.

It is perhaps those images from last summer that came to mind when we heard our first reading from Genesis chapter 9. It is the story of the great flood that wiped out every living thing on the face of the earth but for Noah and his family and the animals two by two. The story is familiar to many of us here this morning. It is a serious story but what I find strange is the amount of infant and children’s items that reflect the Noah’s Ark theme. It is as if the theological message of the story has been totally ignored so that it can find its way onto sheets, pillows, children’s stories and pictures.

The tale itself is a very adult story of God who made all of creation and declared it good but because of human sinfulness things went from good to bad. And so God caused the rains to fall and the waters to rise with tragic results. Now the Noah story is a significant one in the history of Israel and of the early church, there are references to the Noah story throughout the scriptures.

The Noah stories of Genesis - when we really consider the whole story evokes a sadness and a recognition that things are not all that different today, that is that  humanity  turns away from God, despite God’s love and faithfulness . . .
The ancient time of chaos - the world before the flood - the world in the state
        that grieved God’s heart so - is not so remote to us –
You know - maybe that is one of the reasons why this story has such appeal in popular culture - because we do recognize ourselves in its telling -but we know that the Noah story does not end with the flood -That it ends in hope and the revelation of a faithful and loving God . . .

Walter Brueggemann, a wonderful Old Testament scholar has written about the Noah story - that it presents us with a God who is not static, who is not immovable and unchanging - but rather through the movement of the story - it is God’s heart that is changed, and by that we are brought into closer fellowship and relationship with God -
It is God’s heart that is changed – God repents and the relationship is intensified because of God’s great grief and the hurt of  betrayal....

And with the subsiding waters of the flood God begins again -Many of the same statements about the creation of the world in Genesis 2 are repeated in our passage -In the newness of creation there is hope - to begin again - to live in covenant with God - the creator....Now this concept of covenant is found in our story this morning and throughout the Bible. In fact the theology of covenant is probably one of the main pillars of our Presbyterian tradition and so it is important to understand what the term covenant means.

Each of us is familiar with contracts both formal and informal. We buy a car- we sign a contract. We buy a house-we sign a contract. They are usually for goods or services. But they also define relationships. Contracts spell out the terms of the relationship and help to specify failure in these relationships. Now the Lord did not establish a contract with Noah he created a covenant. There is great difference between the two.

Contracts are broken when one of the parties fails to live up to the terms of the deal. Let’s say you make an appointment to see the doctor but for some reason you fail to show up. The doctor is not obligated to call you up and see where you are. He/she simply goes on to the next patient. You have broken this informal contract and you find it a great deal harder to get a second appointment.

A convenant is more like the ties of a parent to his/her child. If the child fails to show up for dinner, the parent’s relationship to the child isn’t cancelled. The parent doesn’t sit down and tie into dinner but rather goes looking for the child in order to bring the child home. One member’s failure does not destroy the relationship. A covenant puts no conditions on faithfulness. It is unconditional.

In our passage then, the last word will not be failure but rather God’s word of love. We are forgiven, the story begins again and a rainbow is given as a sign of the convenant that God has made not just with humanity but with all of creation. One scholar has suggested that the sign of the rainbow - is that of a bow unarmed -  you know like an archery bow -
a weapon for destruction and death - but it is at rest - and by God’s covenant God is promising not to act in anger again toward humanity - not to take up the weapons of punishment or anger...

This is not to say that we no longer stand before God in judgement -
But rather because of God’s covenant with Noah - and through
God’s new covenant with humanity through the death and resurrection of  Christ –
God our heavenly parent pursues us when we are lost, enters into our suffering, our anguish our grief, enters into our loneliness with us -to endure it with us, to bring us strength and comfort, love and hope....

God is faithful then to us as individuals and as a community of faith, Lo, I am with you until the end of the age. And we are called to live in response to that powerful love of God
    - to walk with others in their suffering.
         
The image of the rainbow - mysteriously beautiful with its hues and
    colours shimmering against the blackened clouds of a fading storm
        is a powerful sign and symbol of hope for our Lenten journeys -
                 and for our lives -
    For the rainbow tells us of God’s love and desire to be faithful with
         those he created....
This gives us not only a faith in the future but also a power in the present.

This indeed is the Good News!!!!
Thanks be to God!!
Amen.