My Neighbor’s Faith: The Sun & the Rain

Robin McGonigle
University Congregational Church
June 12, 2022
My Neighbor’s Faith: The Sun & the Rain
Matt. 5: 45
The Windmill at Wijk by Jacob van Ruisdael c. 1668-1670
Eric and I recently visited the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam and the painting depicted in your bulletin caught my attention and my imagination. Windmill at Wijk depicts a real place. In this painting, the sky responds in its cloud formations to the mighty wings of the windmill. You will notice that the horizontals and verticals are coordinated with the diagonals, which are still alive and help to create a mighty spaciousness. The atmospheric quality is as important as ever in uniting the whole impression. Light breaks in with greater intensity through the clouds and the clouds themselves gain in substance and volume. The sky forms a
gigantic vault above the earth, and it is admirable how every point on the ground and on the water can be related to a corresponding point in the sky.
On the left of the landscape, you will notice a 13th century castle, along with some other buildings. The central depiction is of a windmill, elevated on a dune, with its arms not making a cross (as is the norm), but in an X. Behind the windmill is a church and some other buildings of the city. In the foreground are some women who are walking along a road. On the water are at least a couple of boats, but their sails are slack, and the water is calm enough to show reflections of the sails in the water. A few workers are shown on the largest boat.
The skies assume most of the painting – with ominous clouds, except one light cloud giving a sign of hopeful light among the darker clouds. Every element in this painting plays a role in depicting the message the painter wanted us to understand. Look, for example, at the Miller, who is standing at the railing of the mill, looking out at the water and the approaching weather. Look at the grasses in the foreground slightly bent in the air. Each leaf is individually brushed to show the fragile nature of these plants. The waters come from two different directions because they are limited by the diagonal banks.
At heart, this painting is about humans and how we live.
• They built churches to honor their God.
• The ancestors claimed the land from the river and reinforced the shoreline to keep the soil from eroding into the water.
• They built ships to transport people and goods.
• They used their energy to grow crops and their mechanical ingenuity to feed the people.
• They had the help and favor of a benevolent deity who offered sun and rain and sustained life itself.
• The storm clouds remind the viewer that the rain falls on the whole village – the church, the mill, the houses, the castle, those who work, those who are walking, those who are wealthy, those who are poor, those who are already wet and those who want to remain dry.
As I was looking at the painting, a scripture came to my mind. The gospel of Matthew records Jesus as preaching this tidbit during the famous Sermon on the Mount. He has just said the words about “loving your enemy” and “turn the other cheek.” In fact, Jesus makes the love of God and neighbor the fundamental command on which all else depends. Nearing the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tucks in this sentence: “(God) makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Matt. 5:45b
We know this is true. It does not seem right. We have other ways of expressing this truth:
• In the song “I never promised you a rose garden,” we are reminded: I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden Along with the sunshine There’s gotta be a little rain sometime…
• Rabbi Kushner’s well-known book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”
• “It’s Murphy’s Law” we say.
• That is life; no one said it was going to be easy!
• We must take the bad with the good.
• The song “Into Every Life a Little Rain Must Fall”
• You were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• The Carpenters singing “Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down”
• It is karma… it is natural law…. It is bad luck…. There is a purpose for everything…
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in “The Poet’s Tale” of Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863): “For after all, the best thing one can do … When it is raining, is to let it rain.”
What does this have to do with “My Neighbor’s Faith”? So often we hear from the conservative fundamentalist Christians that in order to be Christian, one must believe this or that. In order to go to heaven, a person must say this and believe that. In order to be saved, a person must pray this and do that. Only Christians
will receive God’s favor. But the Bible shows that grace (and rain) is given to all God’s people. Humans want things to be “fair” and “just”. We are the ones who demand that the workers in Jesus’s parables get paid the correct amounts for the work done. But God is generous and forgiving and provides for each person with love and compassion. Love (and rain) pour from the heavens on us all!
To fully appreciate the text “God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous,” we need to put it in the context of the preceding verse. In the verses immediately prior to verse forty-five, Jesus notes a popular sentiment and then gives a countercultural command: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (verses 43–44). Then, in the first half of verse forty-five, Jesus gives the rationale behind the command: “That you may be children of God in heaven.”
So, how does God love God’s enemies? There are a number of ways, but in Matthew 5:45 Jesus gives two practical examples. “God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” In that agrarian society, good weather was all-important. There are righteous farmers (who would be considered God’s friends) and unrighteous farmers (those who would be considered God’s enemies). Regardless of the farmer’s disposition toward God, God gives sunshine and rain to all the farmers in equal portion. When God gives good sunshine and good rain to an evil farmer, it is an example of God loving God’s enemies. God makes no distinction between the evil and the righteous in this instance—God gives good gifts to all of them. Since God is so generous with those who curse and mock God, then we should be loving and generous to those we consider our enemies as well.
The rain falls on the wealthy and noble inhabitants of the castle. The rain falls on the working people on the boat. The rain falls on the vacationing/ relaxing people on the other boat. The rain falls on the owner of the mill and his workers.
And, as the Dutch painter reminds us, even on the stormiest and cloudiest of days, there is a bright spot somewhere in the sky where the sun is waiting to shine through – also on the just and the unjust!
Resources Used:
The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, volume VII. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 2015.
Yale University Art Gallery; Lecture 3: Jacob van Ruisdael’s Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede and Dutch Landscape. Youtube.com. Feb 8, 2015.
“In their own words, how Americans explain why bad things happen”. By Benjamin Wormald, Bill Webster, Joshua Alvarado, Becka A. Alpher and Justin Nortey. Pewresearch.org. Nov. 19, 2021.