February 17, 2020 Lent 1 Ash Wednesday

Genesis 9:8-17

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰ 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.^[a] 11 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.” ¹² 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: ¹³ I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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.” ¹⁷ 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.”

On Ash Wednesday, today, we like many Christians in different denominations throughout the world begin the season of Lent. A forty day season of repentance, fasting, and prayer leading up to Easter. On this day we are marked on our forehead with Ash, traditionally made from the palm branches from Palm Sunday the year before.

Like everything else lately, Ash Wednesday will look different. We’ve learned as the Church to adapt and change possibly better than ever before. And that is what the season of Lent is really all about, change. Repentance is what we are called to do you will hear that word over and over in our scripture texts in the upcoming weeks.

It’s no accident that this reading after the flood when God establishes a covenant with Noah is the Old Testament reading for the first Sunday of Lent. Though the time after the flood is not the children’s story book Bible image we have in our minds, it was a time of great destruction, pain, and death. It is a reminder that God is in control not us, and that God chooses again and to enter into relationship with us. God’s people, God’s beloved creation that God made from just dust.