“Questo è il segno”. Una benedizione sotto i colori dell’arcobaleno (Genesi 9, 1-17)

Sermon on Genesis 9, 12-13 held by Pastor Elizabeth Green* al blessing service of Carmela and Ioana celebrated in the Baptist church of Lentini (Syracuse) on 20 October 2025

"God said: “Here is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and all the living creatures that are with you, for all future generations. I place my bow in the cloud and it will serve as a sign of the pact between me and the earth.
It will come to pass that when I gather clouds above the earth, the bow will appear in the clouds; I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature of every kind, and the waters will no longer become a flood to destroy every living creature.
Therefore the bow will be in the clouds and I will look at it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living being of every kind that is on the earth." God said to Noah: «This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every living being on the earth». Genesis 9, 1-17

The song we have just heard tells of the NEW BEGINNING that God gives to Noah, his family and the animals as soon as they come out of the ark. Even for Carmela and Ioana today is a new beginning. To indicate this they asked us to wear or carry some representation of the RAINBOW. Maybe you thought this detail was:

• A quirk, to add some color to worship;
• Or a demonstration of how the churches are in step with the times or again,
• Let it be one rather unfortunate contamination, example of how the church bows to the values ​​of the world.

Nothing could be more wrong because, as the episode we have heard demonstrates, the new beginning given to humanity takes place under the sign of the rainbow 9.12-13. This means that wherever the rainbow is reproduced, in the flags that fly at demonstrations or hung outside homes and offices, there is the sign of the pact with which God blesses the earth and all those who live there. A sign that starts from God and goes towards the world.

What does the blessing consist of?

The chapter opens with the words “God blessed Noah and his sons.” Let us immediately think of Aaron's well-known blessing:

"May the LORD bless you and protect you! May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be favorable to you! May the LORD turn his face towards you and give you peace!“.

Yet there is nothing like it here. Instead, we find two instructions: the first "Grow, multiply and fill the earth", is the same one given at the beginning of creation. After the flood, creation recovers and the human task is to prosper, to live fruitful lives, to produce, in the language of the NT of fruits, lives that have a positive impact on everyone around them. Lives that themselves become a blessing to each other.

But since this is a NEW beginning after the first one had gone wrong, God introduces another element, the responsibility of one for the other, a responsibility that even reaches the creatures. What was only implicit the first time now becomes explicit. Humanity is given a new beginning in the name of mutual responsibility.

It is not difficult to see the relevance of these instructions for Carmela and Ioana's life as a couple. We can all testify to the fruitfulness of their lives, to how they help each other to have that abundant life that God desires for everyone and how they are united by a pact of mutual responsibility.

The blessing, therefore, involves a task, a task in which humanity had already failed, an arduous task. How is it possible to move towards a new beginning of the world? of a relationship? It is possible because God is also involved. Indeed, God commits himself first. Because the blessing is accompanied by the divine promise that has already been made in chapter 8 (21s.)

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of this promise. A new beginning is possible because God guarantees the stability of the earth. Embarking on a new beginning, turning a relationship around requires considerable courage, especially in these times. Betting on the future of a relationship might seem crazy if you were not accompanied by the promise of God. If God will no longer destroy the earth, but guarantees the succession of the seasons, then we can – you can – be confident in the future and what it will bring. Face its challenges not with fear but with faith and hope.

The pact and its sign

The blessing – the mutual responsibility of abundant life – is now formalized in a covenant. Even if it involves humans, it is unilateral, it starts from God who had to bow to the intrinsic violence of humanity, who set limits, and God himself who laid down his weapons. God will never wage war against humanity again. And by abstaining from violence, he makes peaceful coexistence possible, between peoples, between people, and as a sign he places his bow in the clouds. Here is the blessing that we are about to invoke on Ioana and Carmela takes place under this arch, under the colors of the rainbow.

Subsequently there will be other covenants – the one that God makes with Abraham, for example, until arriving at the new covenant sanctioned by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Who is this pact for? For whom is the divine promise and the blessing that comes with it?

Religions (and some political parties) have a bad tendency to limit the blessings and promises that each offers to just one group of people, just one people, or just one gender, or just one type of person. The extraordinary thing about the pact that God establishes with Noah, about the new beginning in which we still lead our lives, is its universality. In the 9 verses ranging from v 8 to v 17 the pact is spoken of 4 times. In other words, the pact, the promise of God and its recipients are repeated 4 times, sometimes with the same words, sometimes adding others. VV. 9-10.

It is as if God, unlike the churches, did not want to exclude anything or anyone from this pact, so much so that he speaks of "every living being", of any species, of all flesh, humans and animals, of now and of future generations , of the animals that had entered the ark up to “all the animals of the earth”. Indeed, in the end God establishes his pact with the earth tout court, the earth and everyone who lives there now and forever.

CONCLUSION

Today we invoke the Lord's blessing on Carmela and Ioana, reminding them that it consists in helping each other to live abundant and fruitful lives by taking responsibility for it.

Who could ever take on such a responsibility? Only those who, like them, have placed their future in the hands of a benevolent and merciful God who creates the conditions for a new beginning by promising never to destroy the earth again and placing his bow in the clouds as a sign of this promise.

The rainbow of which each one brought an image is the sign under which the blessing of our dear sisters, friends, companions, Ioana and Carmela, takes place today in this church.

And, by pronouncing it, I dare to say that this church, that is, us gathered here today, also becomes a sign - in a terribly divided world, full of hatred and violence - of the God who loves and embraces everyone without distinction and without exclusion of any kind and creates the conditions for peaceful coexistence with each other and with the whole earth. In other words, a church that says: another world is possible.

*Elizabeth E. Green is pastor emeritus of the Italian Baptist Evangelical Christian Union. Member of the Coordination of Italian Theologians, she was Burns Fellow at the University of Otago (New Zealand) and Guest Professor at the International Baptist Seminary of Rüschlikon (Switzerland) and the Waldensian Faculty of Theology (Rome). He is currently Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Lateran University. She mainly deals with theology, feminism and gender.
Among his publications we remember:Our Father? God, gender, parenting(2015);Christianity and violence against women(20152);A spiral path. Feminist theology: the last decade(2020), all published by Claudiana, eDating. Memoirs and perspectives of feminist theology(with C. Simonelli; San Paolo 2019);All sisters(with S. Zorzi and S. Segoloni Ruta, Meridiana, 2021).