First Sunday of Lent B Feb 18, 2024

After each storm we find a rainbow in the sky as the sign of a time of peace and calm. In this season of Lent we will hear about many storms, (the cross will be a frequent presence), yet we will also look for the rainbows. Rainbows are a sign of hope. Lent can seem to be a season without hope. We began this season by being reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return. The hope of this season is the knowledge that when we become dust we are cared for by our God. We find hope in the passion and resurrection at the end of these 40 days of retreat. The name of this season is a name for hope. Lent means “Spring”. As we journey through this season the winter will end and spring will be with us.

We find hope in the dark places of our lives. In the next few weeks we will hear about the transfiguration on Mt Tabor, in the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent we, with the Catechumens will hear about the nature of sin as we meet the woman at the well, the man born blind and Lazarus who is raised from the dead. In all these stories about the challenges of life we will find hope, like a rainbow, as the light of our God shines through. We will find the rainbows, or in the words of the green theologian, Kermit the Frog we find the rainbow connection:

Why are there so many songs about rainbows

And what's on the other side?

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions

And rainbows have nothing to hide

So we've been told, and some choose to believe it

I know they're wrong, wait and see

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection