Today begins the first Sunday in Lent. Rev. Ron Bartlow begins a Lenten sermon series "Courageous Faith: Values and Practices for When Life Gets Hard". The Old Testament story of Noah and the flood can be a troubling one, raising questions about the nature of God. The end of it should give us courage: God gives the rainbow as a sign of the covenant that God's steadfast love will ever be with human kind and the world in which we live. There remain many difficult things in this world that we are troubled by, that we don't fully understand, or that harm us. The strength we have to face such rests in God's promise to always be with us. God's covenant of steadfast love is with all people. Today's sermon is drawn from Jeremiah 31:31-34, Genesis 9:8-17, and Mark 1:9-15.