4 Lent B March 15, 2015
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Numbers 21: 4-9 + Ephesians 2: 1-10 + John 3: 14-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Throughout this Lenten season the Old Testament readings have been hopeful stories….stories of God’s covenant with humanity….stories of bows in the sky, and re-naming, and laws that are like the tent poles of our faithful living. So, it’s not entirely unreasonable to imagine that the Old Testament reading today might offer another hopeful image. And what do we get? Snakes. Poisonous, biting snakes.
This rather strange story from the book of Numbers is a part of the Israelite’s story. The people have journeyed long and it has not always been pleasant. According to their formal complaints to Moses they have no food and no water and that non-existent food? Well, it’s terrible. And they barely have their complaints out of their hungry little mouths when, the text says, “the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.”
I suppose at first glance this text might appear to offer a warning against complaining to God about the food. But what we know is that the Hebrew Scriptures are filled with people crying out to God: crying out their complaints, whining, and wishing death upon their enemies. More than 1/3 of the book of Psalms are songs of lament and complaint. Why, God? Even Jesus cries out in his last breaths: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” There is much in Scripture to indicate that God receives our cries of Foul! No Fair! What next! Are you kidding me? And more. If this is not true, I’m in trouble.
The snake serves as an ancient symbol in many different cultures. It is depicted as the manifestation of the Evil One in the Garden of Eden. In Cannanite goddess worship Asherah was imaged as a serpent on a tree pole; and when a snake shedded its skin it was a symbol of new life. In our modern culture, a snake on a pole is the symbol of modern medicine, but I get ahead of myself.
Have you ever prayed for something with all of your heart….something very specific…. and then it did not come to pass? I have. And I’ve done that enough times that I finally realized that I needed to come to a new understanding of how God works in the world. That God is not, as I am fond of saying, a big chess playing old white guy with a long beard in the clouds arbitrarily determining who will die in a plane crash today or whose child will be diagnosed with cancer tomorrow or who will lose their job today or whose lover will walk out the door next week. God gave us minds and wills of our own choosing, to do what we will. And the truth is, we sometimes, some might even say, we often…mess things up. And that is when we find ourselves in the desert, trying to make our way back to the promised land.
I don’t know about you, but when I read the story of the snakes from Numbers, I get a little bit caught up in the whole “The Lord sent a bunch of snakes” part and if I’m not careful I miss the redemptive part. Because just as the people were dying from their snakebites, God provided a way for them to live. What the people wanted God to do, though, wasn’t what God chose to do. It wasn’t how God provided life for the people. You see, the people wanted Moses to pray to God that the snakes would be removed from them. After Moses offered that prayer, the Lord said to Moses “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” And do you know that when Moses did that, fashioning a serpent out of bronze, the people with life threatening snake bites looked upon the serpent on the pole and they lived.
There was life in the midst of death. God had made a way.
There are times in our lives when we believe that death is all around us. When we are surrounded by danger. When our own actions and choices have put us in something that feels as terrible and as hopeless as being surrounded by poisonous snakes. A part of our coming to wholeness in those times is being able to look with honesty at the dangerous things in life and to trust that although we have been snake bitten….God is in the business of providing a way through.
But wait just a minute….you’re probably thinking….didn’t you just say that God isn’t up there fixing all of our problems? Well, yes. Because the way that God chose to be present in our darkness and in the midst of the dangers of our lives was to send Jesus, who we heard in our Gospel reading from John today, was also lifted up, only this time on a tree, on a cross. And God did this so that we might be saved in the midst of our despair.
From time to time people will ask me how non-believers get through dark times without a belief that God is with them. And my very truthful answer is: “I have no idea.” And I think this is what John is talking about when he writes in today’s Gospel of those who do not believe being condemned. It’s not that God condemns them to eternal punishment but they are condemned to hopelessness because they have no belief that somewhere in the midst of the despair, that somewhere in the midst of the brokenness, that somewhere in the midst of the snake ridden desert….God has offered a way out. And that way is Jesus, crucified and risen. Lifted up.
The very best part of all of this is that this gift of grace is unearned. That is the very nature of grace. That nothing we have done earned it and nothing we can do will lose it. Paul writes of this in our reading from Ephesians today. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
Grace, given freely to all and poured out upon us. Grace that made a way out of a snake ridden desert. Grace that makes a way out of a sin ridden life.
The letter to the Ephesians goes on to note that God created us for good works. They aren’t what saves us at all – only Jesus does that. But the good that we do in this world – the good that we do, no matter how large or how seemingly small – that’s what we were made for. That is our purpose for being on this earth. For we are what he has made us, writes Paul, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
There are days in every life when we feel surrounded by forces that are more than we think we can overcome. And our temptation is to look away or to busy ourselves so that we don’t have to think about them. It’s only human that we would not want to look at that which threatens to destroy us – snakes, or illness, or unemployment, or addiction, or broken relationships, or death or temptations or disappointments or discouragements. And while we might be praying beggy prayers:
Take this away! There’s no food and water and we hate this miserable food! Protect us! Are you kidding me, again? Show yourself!
While we are praying those prayers, God is bidding us to trust God enough to look at whatever scares us squarely and head on and to trust that God will make certain that whatever threatens us will not separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
You see, God so loved the world, so loved each one of us…God so loved you….that God sent the only begotten Son. God was done raising up bronze serpents on a pole. Instead, God sent Jesus….God’s Son and God’s self….to be raised up on a cross….for us. For you and for me. And that is the Good News of the Gospel for this and every day. Thanks be to God. Amen.