THE SIGN OF THE BOW IN THE CLOUDS

From the Lectionary:

Then 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 rainbow in the clouds signs to us God's everlasting covenant with every living thing, not just egocentric humans, the plants, the fish, the birds, the animals, the whole earth that teems with life we cannot see. God will never again destroy the whole earth with a flood, but what have we egocentric humans done with God's great gift of the whole earth? And what will we do in days to come?

Picture from Wikipedia.

A CAUTIONARY WORD....

From the comments to the post at Thinking Anglicans on Michael Poon's paper titled "The Anglican Communion as Communion of Churches: on the historic significance of the Anglican Covenant", comes a cautionary word from a member of the Roman Catholic Church:

Speaking as a very progressive Vatican II Catholic, the last thing Anglicans need is central authority and a magesterium. The Reformation was a good thing and millions of us are praying for a second Reformation in the Latin Rite Churches. The Bishop of Rome would be a nice unifying symbol but should have no more authority than any other bishop and he should be elected by lay people and clergy. The present system is in a state of decay and it is on the verge of imploding. Anglicans have a better system, especially Anglicans such as those in the American Episcopal Church. The minute fundamentalists try to force their views down the throats of their fellow Christians, is the minute the people of God need to stand up and say enough! May the structure of Anglican autonomy continue and show the rest of the Catholic and Orthodox world that this way is preferable and more in keeping with the early Church.

Posted by: Chris Smith on Wednesday, 24 March 2010 at 9:55pm GMT

Well-spoken, Chris Smith. Thank you.

Why is it that so many within the Anglican Communion cannot see the treasure that is the Anglican way? The creeds, common worship, and the bonds of affection are sufficient. If the bonds of affection are not present, the Covenant cannot force their presence. The Archbishop of Canterbury should be, as Chris says, "a nice unifying symbol but should have no more authority than any other bishop". And rather than a Covenant, we might consider Chris' other suggestion, "he should be elected by lay people and clergy".

Thanks to Lapin for drawing the comment to my attention.