I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth (Genesis 9:13)

“Who built the Ark? (Noah! Noah!)

Who built the Ark (Brother Noah built the Ark)

In come the animals two by two

The elephant and the kangaroo”

I remember that song from when I was a kid. Some parts of the Bible, even for a child growing up in a non-religious household, conjure up fantastic images and the story of Noah’s Ark is one of them. It’s a version of a story that was common in cultures across the Middle East - the Flood Narrative. What the writer of Genesis - or one of them - does, though, is sheer, inspired genius.He takes that story, blends it, probably, with Hebrew folk-tales and uses it to tell us something important about God; about the relationship between God and humanity.

For me the events that take place after the Flood are every bit as important to the story as the whole boat-building and animals bit. For our purposes this morning I want to focus on God’s placing of the rainbow in the sky. Sure I know what a rainbow is. I can even tell you, in terms of the refraction of light how they work. To focus on the question of fact or fiction or the mechanics of this story is to rob it of its truth; of its beauty. A truth and a beauty that are especially important this morning on the first Sunday of Lent - the period when we reflect on our sins and our failings ahead of Holy Week. A truth that will be vital as we make our way through Lent and a beauty as glorious as God’s bow in the clouds.

Both of our other readings this morning refer to baptism, and Peter’s letter explicitly associates baptism with the story of Noah. So what is baptism? Peter says is an “appeal to God for a good conscience.” What does that mean? Let me tell you about Constantine the Great - the first Christian Emperor of Rome. Constantine embraced Christianity after winning an important victory in 312 AD, but he didn’t actually get baptised until 25 years later shortly before his death. Why not? In those days many Christians thought that baptism was a one-shot deal. It cleansed you of your sins but, if you sinned again after that, that was your chances of salvation shot. 

So let’s go back to Noah. In the story God goes nuclear on sinful humanity. What people were doing was so awful that he decided to wipe us all out apart from Noah and his family. When that’s all done with, though, God decides he’s never going to do that again. He puts his bow in the clouds as a symbol of that decision. He knows fine well that humanity is going to keep on doing stuff wrong - Noah and his family in the events that follow are scarcely paragons of virtue - but that bow in the clouds is God’s token that he will be merciful.

That’s important. I’m guessing most of us here are baptised. If what Constantine feared was right then, I suspect, we’d all be in deep trouble. Because we all do wrong sometimes. We don’t always mean to, but we all, from time to time, say things that hurt others or which we regret. We all, from time to time, adopt attitudes that are heard-hearted or judgemental, or which stem from selfishness or prejudice. We all, from time to time, do things we aren’t proud of because temptation overwhelms us, or we don’t think we’ll get caught.

That’s part of being human. That’s the part of ourselves we think about and reflect on during the season of Lent. And there’s a danger that, in doing so, we can allow our sense of fallibility, of frailty in the face of temptation or guilt to overwhelm us. It can lead us to think ourselves worthless and, at worst, beyond the reach of God. We can get to intone those old words: “We have sinned. We have grievously sinned. There is no good in us”. There is all the difference in the world between acknowledging our sins and wallowing in them.

Whenever we reflect on human sin - our sin - we have to keep before us the bow in the skies: the promise of God that he will not destroy or cast aside his Creation. We have to keep before us the image of Christ - God himself sharing the life of a human being like you or me - stepping into the waters of the Jordan alongside faltering, failing, broken humanity; setting the seal of God’s forgiveness on any and all that simply accept it.

Any and all. That’s why the bow is in the clouds; in the sky where it can be seen by anybody and everybody. We have no business condemning ourselves as “miserable sinners”. We are forgiven sinners. And if that is true, how can we dare to suggest that that forgiveness should be denied to others. How can we suggest that there are those for whom that bow does not shine in the clouds? How can we suggest that there are those who are so far beyond the pale that the grace of God cannot reach them? How can we condemn anyone - however dark and dreadful their sins may be - when we - you and me - have been forgiven every rotten, selfish thing we have ever done? 

Yet you’ll see plenty of folk in the press who’ve done bad stuff. Some of them have committed terrible crimes. Some have engaged in some illicit peccadillo while being a footballer or some other celebrity. The headlines are often lurid and they allow their readers, in their smug sense of moral superiority, to stand in judgement of such people, and of asylum seekers and benefits claimants and the workshy or whichever fabricated demon they’ve conjured up as “the dregs of society” this week.

God’s bow is in the clouds where it can be seen by all. That’s the point. Let’s not buy into all that stuff the media feeds us. Let’s buy into the Gospel of Jesus Christ: the good news that God loves his children so much that nothing we do can separate us from that love. This is what Peter is getting at in his letter. Baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience - for a desire to be the kind of people we are meant to be: honest, faithful, kind, generous, thoughtful, gracious people. We may not always succeed in being all those things - we might never get all those ducks in a row - but the desire, the willingness to try is important.

This is what the promise of God - the promise enshrined in baptism - is all about. Sure, it’s something you only do once, but its effects are forever. They mean that every day, if we need to, we can come to God and say sorry and know that we are forgiven. Every day, if we need to, we can let go of all the stuff that we’ve regretted saying and doing and resolve to do better in future. Every day we can embrace the offer made by God’s bow in the sky - “Yes. You messed up. But I’m going to let that go. Now you let it go and make a better job today of being the person you want to be.” 

There are those who say that Christians are judgemental. That we are stern and condemning. Let’s not be any of those things to those we meet in the world. Instead, as forgiven sinners, let’s show them what forgiveness looks like. Let’s show them God’s bow in the skies.

Lord, we know we have let you down. We have let ourselves down. Yet, though your Son, we are forgiven. Let us rejoice in your forgiveness and let others, through our forgiveness of thgem, know your mercy and grace.

Preached at Gretna:St. Andrews Parish church