by Bishop Bill Gohl
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 be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 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…" – Genesis 9:12-15a
Peter Rollins, a contemporary theologian, tells this story: It's Sunday evening and the local pastor is at home reading. One of her parishioners knocks on the door. She opens the door. Sweating, panting; it’s obvious that he ran all the way to the parsonage. Tearfully, he says, "Listen there is a family that lives just down the road. The guy lost his job, she is looking after three kids, their mother stays with them. They don't have enough money for their rent. They've got no money at the moment. And they're going to get kicked out of the house. Even if they are one day late on their rent, they are just going to get kicked out on the street. It's the middle of winter. We've got to do something. Please, let's do something." So the pastor says, "Yes, we will go and we will collect some money – fast." Just in passing she says, "Oh and how do you know them?" And he says, "Oh, well, I'm their landlord."
That is why we have Lent. Lent is a time to reflect on how our regular life and our faith life have become out of sync, incongruent with one another. A good Lent is when we reflect on what are the things we are doing and saying that bring about death in the world, like the cross; instead of bringing about life, like the resurrection. And consider together how we are called to repentance; to change those things about our lives so as to change the world. Most of us know how hard change is; that's why we don't like it.
The relegated-to-Sunday-School-story of Noah and the Ark, with its many animals and devastating floods, begins with God looking upon the earth and seeing how violent humanity has become. It grieved God; so much so that God regretted making humankind at all. God was so hurt and so pained to see what sin had made of humanity, that God grieved the very creation after God's own self and heart.
Ten years ago, I heard Susan Klebold speak in Washington, D.C. Susan is Dylan Klebold's mother; Dylan was one of the shooters in the Columbine School shooting 20 years ago. She said, "In the weeks and months that followed the killings, I was nearly insane with sorrow for the suffering my son had caused; It was impossible to believe that someone I had raised could cause so much suffering."
That speaks of how God reckons the situation that Noah and his family find themselves in. And so, in heartache, God made a decision – to start over. To wipe out all of creation, to kill everything that breathed – except, of course, for Noah and his family, and two of every kind of animal. God uses violence to wipe out violence. Nursery-themed-décor to the contrary, it was awful. So devastating was the flood – physically and of the heart, that God's heart changes, it turns back to the creation with the covenant promise to never do violence to wipe out sinful violence again. If you have ever done something out of anger that you later regretted doing, that devastated you or someone you love, then you have fleeing glimpse of what God experienced.
God makes a covenant with humanity and all of creation, giving the bow in the sky as a promise. God makes a promise of peace, by hanging up God’s bow; like a boxer hanging up their gloves, or a hunter hanging their gun on the wall to become a memento, a reminder.
These last days, my thoughts and prayers have been much with the people of Parkland, Florida as they bury their children. Still, my well-intentioned thoughts and prayers seem a bit tone deaf while, as a nation, we stand weeping over our children again. And while each of these mass-killing episodes grind down my sense of humanity and further numb me to violence, it doesn't diminish the gravity of the altars on which we continue to sacrifice our children and our common sense. I keep thinking about this whole situation and circumstance, mindful of the Second Amendment - and convinced that one doesn't need an AK-15 to bag a deer or defend one's home. The gridlock among our elected leaders to effect any sensible change or response makes me feel utterly helpless. As the mass murders with their infamous perpetrators continue to increase in frequency, it is so easy, too easy, to just simply forget and put it behind us, because Florida's far away. Still, one only need look to the local papers in Wilmington, Baltimore, Frederick, Hagerstown, Glen Burnie, Cumberland, Westminster, Annapolis, Towson to see that our own children are dying in the streets, victims of violence and, increasingly, addiction.
In my thoughts and prayers, which so easily flee and fade, my faith and my life are no longer congruent; action is called for. What are we willing to hang up to make real change? What sacrifice are we willing to make for the sake of our children and those who come after us?
After Sandy Hook, I lobbied and I called my congressional delegation; I gave sacrificially of my resources not to take people's guns, but to implement sensible laws to steward our Second Amendment rights carefully. That momentum was thwarted by the cowardice of our elected leaders; our fervor was made impotent by the inaction of those whose attention we sought to gain. In Baltimore, I've been a part of interfaith efforts to get illegal guns off the streets and to help make our communities safer for our children – mine, included; still, we seem to be stymied by our own unwillingness to change.
Our streets are running with innocent blood, parents weeping over their slain children; as people of faith and people of this country, our faith and our life are no longer congruent. What are we willing to change, to sacrifice, to do differently so as to not simply continue sacrificing our children to lesser gods and an idolatrous obsession with addressing violence with escalating violence?
Our presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton writes: "All of us, including the church, must take a close look at ourselves. How are we cultivating a culture of violence, hatred, anger and fear, and how can we participate in building a counter-culture where people can experience God's intended peace and life abundant for all?"
Lent is a time when we are invited – individually and collectively – to reflect on where our regular life and our faith life incongruent with one another. And so, as we repent, we purposefully contemplate how it is we are being called to change – ourselves and the world; change and self-sacrifice, so as to bring about more life and less death.
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." 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 be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 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. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth." – Genesis 9:8-17
The relegated-to-Sunday-School-story of Noah and the Ark, with its many animals and devastating floods, begins with God looking upon the earth and seeing how violent humanity has become. It grieved God; so much so that God regretted making humankind at all. God was so hurt and so pained to see what sin had made of humanity, that God grieved the very creation after God's own self and heart.
Ten years ago, I heard Susan Klebold speak in Washington, D.C. Susan is Dylan Klebold's mother; Dylan was one of the shooters in the Columbine School shooting 20 years ago. She said, "In the weeks and months that followed the killings, I was nearly insane with sorrow for the suffering my son had caused; It was impossible to believe that someone I had raised could cause so much suffering."
That speaks of how God reckons the situation that Noah and his family find themselves in. And so, in heartache, God made a decision – to start over. To wipe out all of creation, to kill everything that breathed – except, of course, for Noah and his family, and two of every kind of animal. God uses violence to wipe out violence. Nursery-themed-décor to the contrary, it was awful. So devastating was the flood – physically and of the heart, that God's heart changes, it turns back to the creation with the covenant promise to never do violence to wipe out sinful violence again. If you have ever done something out of anger that you later regretted doing, that devastated you or someone you love, then you have fleeing glimpse of what God experienced.
God makes a covenant with humanity and all of creation, giving the bow in the sky as a promise. God makes a promise of peace, by hanging up God’s bow; like a boxer hanging up their gloves, or a hunter hanging their gun on the wall to become a memento, a reminder.
These last days, my thoughts and prayers have been much with the people of Parkland, Florida as they bury their children. Still, my well-intentioned thoughts and prayers seem a bit tone deaf while, as a nation, we stand weeping over our children again. And while each of these mass-killing episodes grind down my sense of humanity and further numb me to violence, it doesn't diminish the gravity of the altars on which we continue to sacrifice our children and our common sense. I keep thinking about this whole situation and circumstance, mindful of the Second Amendment - and convinced that one doesn't need an AK-15 to bag a deer or defend one's home. The gridlock among our elected leaders to effect any sensible change or response makes me feel utterly helpless. As the mass murders with their infamous perpetrators continue to increase in frequency, it is so easy, too easy, to just simply forget and put it behind us, because Florida's far away. Still, one only need look to the local papers in Wilmington, Baltimore, Frederick, Hagerstown, Glen Burnie, Cumberland, Westminster, Annapolis, Towson to see that our own children are dying in the streets, victims of violence and, increasingly, addiction.
In my thoughts and prayers, which so easily flee and fade, my faith and my life are no longer congruent; action is called for. What are we willing to hang up to make real change? What sacrifice are we willing to make for the sake of our children and those who come after us?
After Sandy Hook, I lobbied and I called my congressional delegation; I gave sacrificially of my resources not to take people's guns, but to implement sensible laws to steward our Second Amendment rights carefully. That momentum was thwarted by the cowardice of our elected leaders; our fervor was made impotent by the inaction of those whose attention we sought to gain. In Baltimore, I've been a part of interfaith efforts to get illegal guns off the streets and to help make our communities safer for our children – mine, included; still, we seem to be stymied by our own unwillingness to change.
Our streets are running with innocent blood, parents weeping over their slain children; as people of faith and people of this country, our faith and our life are no longer congruent. What are we willing to change, to sacrifice, to do differently so as to not simply continue sacrificing our children to lesser gods and an idolatrous obsession with addressing violence with escalating violence?
Our presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton writes: "All of us, including the church, must take a close look at ourselves. How are we cultivating a culture of violence, hatred, anger and fear, and how can we participate in building a counter-culture where people can experience God's intended peace and life abundant for all?"
Lent is a time when we are invited – individually and collectively – to reflect on where our regular life and our faith life incongruent with one another. And so, as we repent, we purposefully contemplate how it is we are being called to change – ourselves and the world; change and self-sacrifice, so as to bring about more life and less death.
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." 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 be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 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. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth." – Genesis 9:8-17