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Mark 6:45–56 ESV

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

B-O-W

THE BOW IN THE SKY

“Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue, I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.” - a song made famous by W. Carter Merbreier, a Lutheran Pastor, better known to the kids of the greater Philadelphia area as “Captain Noah” with his “magical ark”- a morning children’s program on WPVI TV Channel 6, often on in the background as my brother and I were getting ready for school. He was a local competitor to the likes of Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo, and Winchel Mahoney, and got better ratings than any of them. The set was an ark upon which he and his wife, “Mrs. Noah” taught children lessons of love, acceptance and faith. Pretty bold for a secular TV station during the early 1970s!

Of course, the rainbow has been co-opted from what God intended. While used as a logo for various “special interest groups” today, the true meaning of the rainbow is that it is a promise from God.

Genesis 9:12–16 ESV

And 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 cloud, 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.”

If you pay attention, it is very curious.

Noah and his family have just been saved by the flood from the evil world. Everything had been destroyed. By the way, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that the earth had been covered in water— such as the strata in places like the Grand Canyon; Fossils in places that they ought not be, and the like. If you want a lot more detailed information, Google “Ken Ham”. You can read his marvelous research.

God makes Noah and his family, and by extension the whole world— including you and me— that he would not destroy the world again with water. The same water that is necessary to make a rainbow when the sun hits it and does its ROYGBIV refraction! Notice, God does not say that He will never destroy the world again— He is clear that He will, on the last day, with fire. But He won’t destroy it again with water.

The question is: For whom is the rainbow set in the sky? The quick answer is, “for us” so that we remember God’s covenant. But the right answer is, God placed the rainbow in the clouds for HIMSELF. “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 makes the rainbow a reminder to Himself that He has covenanted with the crown of his creation, mankind, that He would not flood the entire earth at one time ever again.

Noah is the first one in the Bible to ever hear God utter the word, “Covenant.” In our minds a covenant and a contract are the same thing, a conditional arrangement that says if you do this, I’ll do that. If you pay me money, I will put a swimming pool in your back yard. If you don’t pay me, I don’t have to dig the pool. If you don’t put a pool in my yard, I won’t pay you. But a covenant, a true Biblical covenant, is not like that at all. When God makes a covenant, He binds the promise to Himself. It is not conditional. When God says “I will never leave you or forsake you”, He means it. Even if I turn my back on Him, even if I walk completely away from God, He will never walk away from me. Because He has bound His promise to Himself, not to our response. Marriage, beloved, is a covenant. It is the closest gift that God gives us here on earth to understand His love for you. I love you, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death parts us. Nothing in that promise about the other person holding up his or her end of the “bargain.” No 50/50 arrangement here. Marriage binds your promise to yourself. It is never conditional. This is why divorce is so destructive.

God makes a covenant with Noah and you and me about water. That He will never use it to destroy the earth again. He sets the rainbow in the sky as a reminder to Himself that He has bound this promise to Himself.

His Word is true. Yes there have been floods— really bad ones. Just last week they had to close down Hershey Park because of the storms that flooded it out. But it’s not the entire earth, as it was in the Days of Noah.

ONE New Covenant

God makes many important covenants in the Old Testament. For instance, He makes a Covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. He cuts a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai: I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and then gives them the commandments to follow out of love for them. He makes other Covenants as well. That would be a good word study for you to do if you want to really get into the Bible this Summer.

But Jeremiah begins to talk about this “new covenant” that God is about to forge with His people. A covenant where they could do nothing to deserve it; nothing to keep it; nothing to initiate it. The writer of Hebrews, quoting Jeremiah, writes:

Hebrews 8:8–11 ESV

For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

The writer to the Hebrews goes on to say,

Hebrews 8:13 ESV

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

What is this covenant? What is its sign?

The new covenant is salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It is through Him, with Him and in Him that we have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. This is now the one and only covenant that God has cut with you.

He cuts it not with a knife, as He did of old, but with water. As the world was flooded and all life ceased, save Noah and his family and the life upon the ark, so He takes your life. That filthy, wretched, know it all, opinion laden, hating, angry, sinful, separated-from-God-self and drowns it out until the bubbles stop. Dead. Drowned. The things drowned are the exact things that keep you from receiving the covenant that God gives freely in His Son. Baptismal drowning knocks you off of the throne of your life and replaces you with Jesus.

And then He brings you out of the flood. He saves you by the Flood, which Peter declares is totally and completely fulfilled in Baptism.

And how does He do it? He puts you in the ark! The ark is the Church. There is no salvation outside of the Church. It is being gathered together, by the Holy Spirit, around Word and Sacrament, where the Word is divided rightly and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s command, that there is life. No lone ranger Christians. No sole canoes and kayaks in this water. You must be in the ark.

But that is exactly what this New Covenant does. God Himself places you in the ark by the Holy Spirit. That one who calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us. That one given you in the flood of Baptism. That one who has bound you into Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 3:16–19 ESV

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

WALKS ON WATER

Our Gospel brings back the water. This time, the Sea of Galilee. It is stormy, once again. However, this time, the storm is not scaring the disciples. It was bad, the text says that they were making headway “painfully” but it was nothing like that storm we heard about a few weeks ago where they all thought they were going to die.

They were out on the water between 3am and 6am— known as the “fourth watch of the night.” It’s a scary time. It’s when people are usually sleeping at their deepest level. And, out in the water, they see someone walking toward them. I’ll say that again. Someone walking toward them.

Of course, we know it was Jesus. The text causes a little chuckle when it says that “[Jesus] meant to pass by them.” “Oh, hi guys, I’m just out on a little stroll on the lake…don’t mind me”. Ok.... people cannot do this. It was way too deep and stormy to “know where the rocks were” as the old joke goes. Sooooo, they think Jesus is a ghost.

Wouldn’t you? Get in a boat, go 2 miles off the coast of Center Moriches in the middle of the night, one thing you don’t want to see is someone walking on water. And… at that eerie time, it makes it all the more scary

Jesus sees them fearing and calls out to them, “Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid!”

If I were to write this way in my doctoral thesis, my professor would circle the word “I” in a red pen, and write the word “me” next to it. I hate it when people say “I” when they should be saying “me”. It happens all the time. Mind your pronouns, people! That’s a novice mistake. Jesus should have said, “take heart it is ME!”

Why the bad grammar, Jesus?

For the answer to this, we have to go back to the Greek. Greek, of course, has different rules of grammar than English. English has some really difficult rules compared to an ancient language. And in the Greek, Jesus actually says something extremely important and profound:

Ego emi.

He doesn’t say, “It is ‘I’” He says “It is ‘I AM’”. God’s Name. “It is YAHWEH” God is coming to you on the water, and in the water to make the covenant with You. The only covenant that you need: “I AM will remember your sins no more.” “I AM saves you.” “I AM sealed this covenant in the blood of the cross where your sins were damned to hell, and you were baptized into this damnation of Jesus on the cross. I AM has burst the bounds of death and the grave cannot swallow you up, it must spit you out, just as the flood of Baptism did as the new creation. And you thought walking on water was a miracle.

God’s covenant is for you. From the Rainbow to the Cross. From the Cross to the Grave. From the Grave to heaven. From heaven to eternity. So when you see the rainbow, God’s thinking about you. When you see the crucifix, God’s dies for you. And when you see the water, God has seals you through it as His own.

Plunged in these depths, sin’s stranglehold on Adam’s children dies,

With Pharaoh’s host and Noah’s world beneath the water lies.

The sign of Jonah now fulfilled in everlasting day,

The Lord of Life bursts forth from death and rolls our stones away.