Something About a Rainbow

I never really thought much about rainbows until it started to pour down rain for two straight days. I didn't really care about rainbows until my neighborhood was under mandatory evacuation. I couldn't even tell you the last time I even saw a rainbow.  But how I yearned to gaze upon the bright colors of one when the river started flowing just in front of my house already engulfing the park where I take my daughter to play every day.

By this time not just my neighborhood but thousands of homes and businesses throughout the Greater Binghamton Region were now inundated by the Susquehanna River.  The word inundated is not one you hear every day, it means to flood; cover or overspread with water. I think the second definition however says it better, and it's simply to overwhelm.  The communities we live in our homes, favorite stores, restaurants, and churches have been overwhelmed with water.


The water was so overwhelming it seemed like every ten minutes you heard rumors of more levy's breaking, another flood wall being breached, or that the river crest was delayed once again, offering little sign of hope.  Streets and highways were closed, power outages, and the sounds of sirens and helicopters filled the air.  Everywhere you looked people were scrambling to remove water from their homes using everything from pumps to small kitchen bowls.  For some people the word overwhelm doesn't even do justice to what what the water did to their home or business.  It seemed like the water sucked everyone dry of laughter and happiness, while there certainly were not any rainbows to be found.  At least not your ordinary rainbow let me explain.


After a long day of pumping out my basement which held 3ft. of water at its highest, my father-in-law and I went to go look at his church which was completely surrounded by water.  At the time, the closest we could get was about 400 yards to the building from the edge of the water line.  On the edge of the water a tractor business was frantically trying to keep water out and more damage from happening to their property.  My father-in-law told them he was the pastor of the church down the street that was surrounded with water, and asked if he could pray for them and their business.  So all the employee's gathered in a circle and we prayed, after prayer we began to head to our car.


We only walked a short distance when we heard on of the employee's yell, "Hey Pastor!" We turned around to see this big man all covered in dirt soaking with water and his facial expression giving the impression he was wrestling with something.  The he inquired very sheepishly, "Doesn't the Bible say something about a rainbow?"  Long pause as he looked down defeated only to follow with this statement.  "You know that God will never destroy us."  To which my father-in-law grinned and replied, "You better believe it."  The man now smiling headed back to work with hope that our community has been overwhelmed but has not been defeated.


So there is something about rainbows after all, rainbows don't have to be some color phenomenon in the sky.  I believe rainbows are any sign of hope that we can move on and there is a heavenly Father up there looking out for us.  Among the chaos and devastation; if you look hard enough you can find small glimpses of hope and restoration. You can start to see the rainbows of humanity arching over an inundated community encouraging everyone to persevere and press on. Rainbows are found in neighbors working together or forming new relationships.  Rainbows are the random acts of kindness and hospitality that would not normally take place.  In a way I believe this tragedy has broke this region of selfishness and implemented a scene of giving.


I only pray that the churches here will continue to work together so that we can inundate the Greater Binghamton Region with hope and the loving presence of God.  We are far from no longer feeling the pain, but I believe we are well on our way to a recovery that will eave us better than the river orginally found us.  Maybe this is easy for me to say because I was fortunate not to lose much; I can't imagine how it must feel to lose everything in your basement, your home, or even your church/business.  But in the end no lives were lost and all that was destroyed was just stuff, stuff we can't take with us when we die anyway.  What we are left with is the choice to be a light or should I say a rainbow to a neighbor or our surrounding community.


"The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.  The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace." Psalm 29:10-11

The Church: Christ's Body "Love & Justice"

Over the past few weeks my wife and I have had some excellent conversations about our relationship and marriage.  For me the season of Valentine's Day  has allowed me to reflect deeply at who I am as a husband, but also what lens I tend to view the world through and what lens my wife uses.  A couple of sources of these great talks with my wife and personal reflections have stemmed from, doing ministry together, small conflicts within that ministry, our couples small group we attend, and my recent thinking and reading about the church.

I guess what I am trying to get at is that through all these sources one particular theme keeps popping up, and that is the balance of love and justice in our relationships; both to God and others. 

Naturally, I am a very forgiving person if someone wrongs me I don't really think twice about it.  I immediately give the person the benefit of the doubt and try to see the good of any situation.  If I know the person well enough that has wronged me I will choose to believe that they are better than that and must just be having a bad day.  If you were to place my view into one of the two categories it would be that of a more loving character or attitude.  In context of what I am trying to write about here, the way I do ministry or be a husband is through love and forgiveness when someone has wronged me.

My wife however leans strongly to the other side, the characteristic or attitude of justice.  She will immediately want the negative action justified or corrected.  Or when she sees injustice taking place, she is not afraid to speak up for the person or correct the unjust act no matter what it takes.  If my wife is personally wronged by either myself or another forgiveness is not easily given, instead it must be earned so to speak by correction or changed attitude.  Therefore, how she views herself as a wife and does ministry would be through the lens of justice and correction.

I am not saying love or justice is more important than the other, or my way of seeing things is better than my wife's. In fact I believe if you lean to heavily to one side of the spectrum and not create a healthy balance the relationships you have will begin to suffer. For instance my view can come off as though I don't really care or that I am even emotionless because I don't let others see how there actions have effected me.  Whereas, my wife could come off as strict, harsh, or even unloving.  When in fact she is actually one of the most loving people I know.

My point or question in all this would be, has the church leaned to far to one side of the spectrum when we do ministry? God no doubt displays the perfect balance.  In the Old Testament we see both sides when his people have wronged him, you can find stories of love, forgiveness and mercy; but also stories of justice, wrath, and correction.  God's ultimate goal of restoration in the lives of his people cannot be brought about without a balance of love and justice. 

So as the church how can we expect to aid God in this restorative mission if we don't communicate the same type of balance?  I think in the church we are very quick to let people get away with their sinful, negative, or wrong actions and just give them love and forgiveness.  After all if we call them out they could just decide to leave our church or cause other drama that we don't really want to deal with.  Scripture says that it should be used for correction or it shows how to up hold justice, yet we very seldom hold people accountable for their actions.

The Church: Christ's Body "Mission & Purpose"

What is the mission and purpose of the church?  To be brief let's just say it is to aid God in the restoration of humanity and creation.  Apart from creating a space for believers to fellowship, worship, and be ministered to individually or as a family. 

But as a church have we lost our focus to restore what has been lost or broken?  Or in other words do we emphasize "outreach"  in our decisions, vision, or programming within the church body? Has the church lost touch with culture so much that we have no idea how to "make disciples" anymore?  Or is it the fact that for too long we have been trying to reach others with only part of God's great story and plan.

Let me explain the philosophy of outreach or evangelism has solely revolved around the concepts of salvation and resurrection of Christ.  So we tell those who are "lost" that because everyone is a sinner we need to be saved, because sin separates us from God.  They only way that one can be saved is if they believe God sent his son as a sacrifice, taking our place of punishment and death.  So because Christ died for us and then rose from the dead he conquered death, thus giving us eternal life.

This is a very compelling argument and is great news even wonderful for humanity, but we are only sharing the pinnacle part of the story.  We tend leave out the beginning (creation) and the end (restoration) of God's narrative.  It is frustrating or confusing to say the least when you only know or hear part of a story.  Or  say the climax of any movie would not be that exciting if you did not watch it completely from beginning to end. 

Hearing or watching a completed story allows you to be more involved emotionally, gives you a better understanding of why, and therefore you gain a better sense of what that story could mean or how it applies to your life.  If the church changed its approach to making disciples of all nations by sharing the whole story of God, would we be more effective? Have more of an impact on culture? Would new and old Christians have a better sense of mission and purpose with a "whole/complete story" mind-set?