Each week until Easter, I’m musing on the Sunday Mass readings: specifically, through the lens of the first readings. Read in turn, these stories from the Old Testament take us on a journey through God’s plan to save us. They focus on our covenant relationship with God: how it began, how it progressed, and how it led to our New Covenant in Christ. We start in the early chapters of Genesis….
Readings for the 1st Sunday of Lent: Gen 9:8-15; Psa 25:4-9; 1 Pe 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15
+ + +
Adam was not aware.
He lived in blissful beauty, he did not know the primal chaos. He couldn’t know the bleak facts of life without God: darkness; void; formless waste. He did not witness the glory of land rising up from the sea.
Adam did know what it meant not to have animals, and then what each meant in its own special way as God brought them to him, one by one, to name. His was a life of discovery, from sleep to wakeful wonder: here at last is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! But everything was brought to him in beauty, as a gift from God.
Noah, however, knew.
He lived in a good world gone bad. The crown of God’s creation, man and woman, sunk in hate and violence. He saw the de-creation of the flood, an echo of the fall of men: earth sinking below the waves and taking life with it.
From the window of the Ark, Noah saw the stark truth of life-without-God that is no-life. For 40 days, he saw the earth recede until it was without form and void. And then he saw the new creation.
- Life, to Adam, was a gift added to beauty and order.
- Life, to Noah, meant salvation from chaos and evil.
God spoke to Noah and his sons of his bond with all creation. They’re all in it together, not just Noah and his family against the world but Noah’s family and God; the birds, the frogs, the goats and camels; the date palms and olive trees; the desert sands and fertile valleys – all in it together. God made his covenant with them, bound himself to the whole kit and caboodle. And the rainbow shone over it all, tying earth to heaven and gleaming like a wedding band in the sky. A token of God’s love.
Image by Cindy Lever from Pixabay
You and I are not accidents of life on a random planet. God created the world so he could live with us and we with him, together in love.
If you feel that you’re adrift on a sea of darkness — your family is broken, or your livelihood lost, or you fear the shadow of evil: take heart! The Church is like an Ark in the world, floating through the chaos. Stay aboard and it will take you to safety.
Take time to read the Sunday readings this week. Ask God what he wants to say to you, in them.
- Maybe it’s a promise: “I am now establishing my covenant with you” (Gen 9:8).
- Maybe it’s a reminder that the action of the ark “prefigured baptism, which saves you now” (1 Pt 3:21).
- Or maybe it’s a challenge: “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).
God has given you life as a gift. He also has saved you from a life without him, which is formless chaos. Be sure to respond to him as you read. These words are for you! The Responsorial Psalm will help you do it. It will lead you into a conversation about your covenant with God, your personal relationship with the God who loves you:
Responsorial Psalm (Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9)
R. (cf. 10) Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Good and upright is the LORD,
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and he teaches the humble his way.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
May your prayers and reading this Lent lead you into a deeper covenant relationship with God.
+ + + + + + +
What did you learn, or how did this speak to you? I’d love to hear from you below (or email me at Sarah@ComeIntotheWord.com). Bless you!
Read about this series here: Lent, Year B: GOD HAS A PLAN!
Coming next: 2nd Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
+ + + + + + +
KEEP READING!
Take Scripture into your week during Lent with this free Monday-Friday reading plan for Year B (2024, 2027, 2030…): Download 40 Days in the Bible-Yr B.
© 2015 Sarah Christmyer
“. . . And the rainbow shone over it all, tying earth to heaven and gleaming like a wedding band in the sky. A token of God’s love.”
What a beautiful metaphor — the wedding band in the sky — the promise of love — “oneness” in a never-ending circle! The epitome of all hopes and dreams. This speaks of rest in the middle of chaos. Thank you for that picture.
This entire content is so beautiful. So much to meditate on. From the beautiful image of a Gods love, and the rainbow gleaming like a wedding band … to the world floating around in chaos. We can’t live in this world without God. We would surely drown in the chaos. God longs to have a covenant with each of us… And we should long to have a covenant with him. I even took the time to create my own covenant with God. So so beautiful… There is so much to unpack here. Thank you Sarah!
I love what you said.
The Church is like an Ark in the world, floating through the chaos. Stay aboard and it will take you to safety.
I never thought of it that way. If you don’t stay on the Ark you will drown. I look at all the empty pews. Those people are out there in the chaos without God. God is waiting for them to come back because he loves us so much.
Your writing is comforting and inspiring. God is love. Your words reminded me of some of the ways he demonstrates that love.
Thanks for this beautiful reflection, Sarah. Like the previous commenters, I was particularly struck by the image of the rainbow as a wedding band by which God marries himself to all creation. Looking forward to Lent with you.
Like the other commenters, I’m on the wedding bandwagon! God bless you and thank you.