Genesis 9:8-15 / 1 Peter 3:18-22 / Mark 1:12-15
We are into the Lunar New Year (or the Chinese New Year) and according to the Chinese zodiac, this is the Year of the Goat.
So if you are born in the Year of the Goat, and going by the sound that the goat makes, then our wish for you is that “Meeh the Lord bless you.”
The Chinese zodiac has twelve animal symbols, and a person born under particular animal symbol is said to manifest the characteristics of that animal.
So in that sense, it is good that there is no year of the toad. That would be rather challenging where looks are concerned.
Even if that is changed to its relative, the frog, then one of the attributes won’t be that of singing.
As we all know, whether it is frogs or toads, they can’t sing; they can only croak.
But there is one frog that can sing. If we are from the era of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show, then we will know who that frog is.
We would know, or at least heard of Kermit the frog. Kermit is a singing frog, at least in the Muppet Show.
And he has a hit in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979, and the title of the song is “Rainbow Connection”.
The song begins with “Why are there so many songs about rainbows, and what’s on the other side?”
And you know what they say about you will find at the other end of a rainbow? Whatever they may say, at the other end of the rainbow is just the letter “W” :P
The 1st reading talks about a bow in the clouds, meaning to say, a rainbow.
It was a rainbow that came after a lot of rain, 40 days of rain. It was a lot of rain and also with a lot of pain.
It was with a lot of pain that God decided to cleanse the world of sin and evil with the flood and only Noah and those with him and those animals in the Ark were saved from the flood.
And so after the flood subsided, God set the rainbow as a sign of the Covenant with Noah and every living creature for all generations – that water shall never again become a flood to destroy lives.
Sin has a destructive effect. It destroys the relationship between God and man, between man and his fellow man, and between man and creation.
The waters of the flood washed away and destroyed that sin, and water has now become a sign of salvation and the rainbow bears testimony to it.
If the rainbow in the 1st reading is the sign that bears testimony to the saving love of God, then in the gospel the sign of God’s saving love is none other than the desert.
We heard that the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness of the desert, and He remained there for 40 days, and He was tempted by the devil.
In the harsh and torturing environment of the desert it is easy to give in to the temptations of the devil and to give up the fight.
And there is also this rather interesting line - He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after Him.
Why would the gospel mention in particular the wild beasts?
Well, the 1st reading also mentioned about wild beasts, those wild beasts that Noah brought into the Ark.
Those wild beasts were saved from the destruction of the flood.
In mentioning that the wild beasts were with Jesus, the gospel wants to point out to us that the saving mission of Jesus has begun.
And it began, of all places, in the desert, and in being with the wild beasts, Jesus brought nature back to God, just as Noah brought along the wild beasts into the Ark.
Jesus brought nature back to God in the harsh environment of the desert and from the devil’s temptations.
The next stage of His saving mission will be more difficult, and that is to bring mankind back to God.
And it will have to happen, more painfully, on the cross with the pouring out of His blood.
But just as there can be no rainbows without the rain, there can be no salvation without the pain.
Jesus knows that. And He wants us to know that too.
Life is like a rainbow. We need both the rain and the sun to make its colours appear.
But the damp disappointments followed by the scorching frustrations of life can make us forget the love of God for us.
Yet, it can also bring out the true colours within us, the colours of love that God has painted in our lives.
Oh, about Kermit the frog singing that song “Rainbow Connection”. It may sound like some kind of lullaby or kiddies song.
But in the Muppet Movie where Kermit first sang that song, he was in a swamp and he looked at the rainbow. He was told that it’s just a vision, just an illusion.
But he goes on to sing that as he reflected on the rainbow, he hears a voice and he heard it too many times to ignore it, and it’s calling him to be something that he’s supposed to be.
It all started out by just looking at the rainbow, and its colours, and then he found the connection with his life.
The colours of the rainbow bears testimony that God wants to brighten our lives with His saving love.
We bear that rainbow of God’s love within us and that is the Good News that Jesus came to proclaim.
If we believe in that Good News, then we in turn must bear witness to that Good News and be a rainbow of God’s love in other people’s lives.