Green in the Rainbow

Text:Genesis 9: 8-17

This week is observed as the Environment Week and this Sunday the Church meditates on the Ecological Sunday.  The text involves the communication of YHWH with Noah after the great flood. The flood story and the incidents followed by it have a great ecological relevance.

I. An Altar that affirms a Cosmic centered community.

The whole passage happens in the context of worship and an altar. Soon after the great flood, YHWH establishes a covenant. Unlike the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic covenants, this covenant is an everlasting universal promise by YHWH. This covenant can be seen as a promise with not only Noah but to the whole creation. It is the first covenant in the Bible that is applicable to the generations for ever. In other words this law is an attempt to remind and reaffirm that human beings, how advanced they are, is a part of the Cosmos.  

The so-called ‘developments’ of our times are aimed more towards an isolated growth of human beings secluded from the nature.  Modern technologies are also interested in ‘creating’ environments rather than adapting to the nature [Whatever weather outside you stay cool inside!]. This Isolated growth assisted by modern technologies had compelled human beings to destroy nature and its resources. Nature is considered as a mere object for manipulation, a sink to dump waste products. This Anthropocentric, Ando-centric view has ruined the nature. In this context, this covenant is an attempt to rejoin human to the nature’s link.

More often in the funeral services we are reminded that human beings are a part of cosmos and will return to the soil from where they are taken. This passage reminds that the voices arise from the altar must always enable the people to have a cosmic centered spirituality. By overcoming the third temptation Jesus overcame the enticement to become a Super Human by overriding the laws of nature. Human beings are not isolated beings but called to be a cosmic centered Community.

II. Listening to the Groaning of Creation through Calamities

The covenant mentioned here reveals that flood will not become an agent of destruction again.  It was also a promise that water will not became an agent for destruction of the Earth.

Traditionally natural calamities are considered as the signs of God’s wrath that is irresistible.  Even the warranty/guarantee of many damaged gadgets could not be covered if it is caused by God’s activities. But a close examination of this covenant reveals that Natural Calamities are not Natural or God’s action. This covenant reveals that natural resources are not the basic agents of natural calamities. In other words, neither the Nature nor God cannot be blamed for the disasters; Human induced activities are the key agents of natural calamities. In this context the Global warming, global dimming, Snow sliding of our times can be interpreted as the groaning of creation due to human exploitation.

III. Rainbow as a ray of hope 

The flood narrative ends not with a catastrophic devastation but with a graceful hope to the entire creation. Whenever YHWH see the bow [usually interpreted as the rainbow], YHWH promises to remember the creation. The weapon used for fighting and killing has now transformed to a tool for love and redemption. Rainbow is not only a natural phenomenon nor an optical illusion; it has a great theological significance. It is the most powerful symbol of hope from Genesis to Revelation. In Ezekiel and in Revelation, rainbow is symbolized as the God’s glory.  Rainbow reflects the idea of diversity. Diversity is the only treasure and tool in the nature that sustains life and hope in the midst of all calamities. The ark of Noah too is an outstanding example of this bio-diversity. 

 Lastly, rainbow often appears in a cloudy sky. But the presence of rainbow affirms that there is sunlight behind the one who views it. This is our only hope in our journeys and struggles for a new alternative world. Whenever we saw the cloudy complex conditions in our actions, the rainbows in the journey reflect the  our God’s presence with us. Amen