Today I’d like us to pick-up and reflect on images found in our lectionary readings. I am sure all of you are quite familiar with objects and events in the readings especially in the Old Testament. And I know that you are also keen to know how the people in the New Testament (based on the writings) take these objects and events into account. For example, the floodwater that brought God’s judgment to the people in Noah’s time is the water by which we are all baptized. New meanings have been attributed to things, persons and events. Objects have become reminders and symbols for the faithful of old and today.

But before that let me give you a summary of what we can understand or learn from the set of readings:

God’s act of salvation has been through the ages: In Noah’s time, God sent rains and floods to save from total annihilation human kind, with only a few righteous persons, eight to be exact, and pairs of animals remaining. But God changes his manner by which to save humans from their own destruction. No longer by a wrathful deluge but by means of grace and forgiveness made possible through a divine-human Redeemer.

This by which God reveals the Godself is also expressed in terms of covenants. God’s covenant with Noah is that “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” (Gen 9:11).

God made a new covenant with God’s people by sending God’s own Son, Jesus the Christ to be the Saviour of the world. And in accordance to the Scriptures, Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan.

 

Water and Ark

In the Noah story of the deluge, we have known the floodwaters have been taken into account in many ways both in the Old and New Testament. One is the crossing of the Red Sea by the escaping Israelites led by Moses. Elijah repeated this parting of bodies of water later on by dividing the waters of Jordan (2 Kings 2:8). God’s people would often sing praises and psalms to God in recalling these events, which evidenced God’s salvific acts. In the New Testament, John believed to be Jesus’ cousin was using the waters of the River Jordan to immerse repentant believers, not to wash off dirt in their bodies, but to receive God’s forgiveness and “make straight the way of the Lord” (Jn 1:23).

The ark may not be that significant except that is a flotation vessel where Noah’s family and several pairs of animals stepped on as the rain fell and water rose till nothing can be seen on the surface of the earth but water and the ark. Another ark in the OT is the Ark of the Covenant. This is the ornate, gilded case built some 3,000 years ago by the Israelites to house the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written.

Hebrews 9:4 states that the Ark contained “the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.” Revelation 11:19 says the prophet saw God’s temple in heaven opened, “and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple.”

Yet these two arks, Noah’s Ark and the Ark of the Covenant have become subjects of archeological interests for hundreds of years, yet nothing has been found substantive. Perhaps this is the way God wanted it to be, that these are not to be found, so that people will be reminded that they should not rely on material objects in order to be saved but rather to trust God as the only power who can save.

There is another Ark of the Covenant, which I found, but this time it is not spelled as ‘ark’ but ‘arc’. What could be this so-called ‘Arc of the Covenant’?

Yes, it is the rainbow, which God made to appear as a sign of the covenant God had with Noah after the flood. That never again shall God destroy the earth with flood. This is also called the Noahic Covenant.

 

Question: To what thing can it be compared so that it was called a bow?

Answer: A bow from where you shoot arrows.

 

So when God said “13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth”, we can perhaps imagine God as a warrior setting aside his bow never again to be used against God’s own creation. Would you agree to this comparison?

If you do, there is another question coming: If God uses a bow, what could be God’s arrows? Answer: Lightning!

What is lightning?

 

Lightning is a flow of electrons (a negative charge) that zigzags downward in a forked shaped pattern (scientists call this a step leader).[1]

Lightning is electricity. Positive charges and negative charges collect in different parts of a cloud — no one really knows exactly how. When enough charges collect, there is a bolt of lightning as the electricity travels between areas of opposite charge. Lightning can flow between clouds or from the cloud to the ground. The lightning jumps through the air, heating the air and making it expand. The air then quickly contracts again as it cools. This movement of air makes the sound wave called thunder. [2]

There are 35 verses in the Bible about lightning and several of these compare lightning to arrows.[3] The one’s I’ve chosen are very illustrative and suggestive:

Psalms 144:6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them; Send out Your arrows and confuse them.
Zechariah 9:14 Then the LORD will appear over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning; And the Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, And will march in the storm winds of the south.

God said, “I have set the bow aside” which means, “No longer will I use the bow”. Does this mean that God will not shoot with arrows or bolts lightning as well?

Yet it seems that after the Noahic Covenant, there is one last lightning that God will send. What would this lightning or arrow be? Chosen verses:

Matthew 24:27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Matthew 28:3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

In our Mark reading last Sunday, we remember the lightning-like transfiguration of Jesus who all of a sudden appeared with his clothes become dazzling white, where in the presence of a cloud, God spoke of the beloved the Son.

So we now see that even lightning, or God’s arrows are associated with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit! The arrow takes the shape of a dove which as the heaven was torn apart, came down upon Jesus and will come down on the believers at Pentecost.

So when we read and meditate on the Bible, what seem to be ordinary things and events begin to assume new meanings as God’s story progresses in the Scriptures. And I believe these biblical elements and events will continue to be relevant in our lives today as they take on new meanings and significance as God history is being made.

Let me conclude this reflection with a short poem that came out of our reflection on the things and events in our Readings:

 

Deluge and flood

Over the earth is poured.

Lightning rains like arrows

To unrepentant souls.

 

Human hands built the ark

But only God can make a rainbow.

No more destruction for humankind

As the bow is set aside.

 

Dazzling lightning

On a mountain top

Heaven sends forth a dove.

 

God’s Spirit descending

Christ emerging

Father sends His beloved Son

The Kingdom is at hand.

Amen.

 

 

[1] Peterlin, Al The Basics of Thunder and Lightning, Scholastic.com http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/basics-thunder-and-lightning(Accessed 17 Feb 2015)

[2] Peterlin, Al The Basics of Thunder and Lightning

[3] http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Lightning#sthash.eMRs8HUj.dpuf