Readings: Psalm 107, 1-3,17-22, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-17, Numbers 21:4-9
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 14th 2021
Harry Potter fans will be familiar with the spoilt child known as Dudley Dursley who appears at the beginning of the very first book. You may remember when it is Dudley’s birthday, his parents have assembled a huge collection of presents for him. He rushes in looks at the boxes and is immediately angered. There were more boxes last year. It was not fair. What a nasty kid! Still, if you remember, he gets what is coming to him.
For his birthday treat Dudley is taken to the zoo. There he has a nasty encounter with a snake. The snake, for Dudley turns out to be an experience of judgment... but for Harry Potter, becomes a sign that right is on his side... and that maybe, for the first time in a long while, things were going to go well for him.
In our bible story this morning, the Israelites are like a crowd of Dudley Dursley's. Although God has delivered them, and they are getting nearer the promised land; although God has continually nourished them with manna from heaven on their journey, they are in a moaning mood. 'How long are we going to be mooching around this desert? When are we going to get something else to eat other than moldy manna and queasy quail-meat? It’s not fair!'
As in Harry Potter, their answer comes in the form of a snake. Venomous snakes appear amid the camp and start to bite the Israelites. Some of the people die and the rest cry out to the same Moses whose leadership they were a short time ago rejecting. 'Oh, Moses, help us, please... we’re sorry!'
God asks Moses to do something a little strange. To make an image of a fiery serpent out of bronze, (or some translations say brass), and put it on the end of a long pole. Whoever lifted their heads to gaze at the snake, would be healed, and the scriptures tell us that is exactly what happened.
Many years later, when John was writing his gospel, he remembered this story of Moses and the snake, and some words that Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a young ruler among the Pharisees, who has come to Jesus with a question as to what he must do to be saved. Jesus explains to Nicodemus that Nicodemus must be born again, (or ‘born from above’) and explains, about His crucifixion and resurrection that was to happen; “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up” so that “whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”
In a similar way to the way the people of Israel found salvation from their poisonous problem in the wilderness, by looking up to the snake, so by looking to the cross of Jesus we can find salvation from the poison of sin and gain eternal life.
Whilst ‘Lifting up our eyes to God in times of need and salvation’ is surely the important message we can learn from this passage; I do not think it is the only lesson. I will return to the salvation theme again before the sermon is through, but on the way, let me mention a couple of other things.
Beware the attitude of ingratitude.
The 18th Century architect of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, has this to say about verse 5 of our reading, (the verse that pictures the Israelites complaining about the food they had to eat.) “Whereas it appears it yielded excellent nourishment, because in the strength of it they were able to go so many and tedious journeys, contemptuously did they speak of the Manna”.
I was extremely fortunate in my teens, when I started attending church, there were still a few old school, fiery Welsh preachers, who used to be in the pulpit. They had a passion for words and a way of preaching, that was somewhere between a dramatic performance and a political rally. I was trying to imagine what they would have done with this passage. Indulge me!
“Are you today harboring in the darkness of your heart, contempt for the manna? Is there with your soul the spiritual poison of ingratitude towards God your Gracious Father? Is there lurking in the depth of your being a cursing, murmuring spirit causing you to make light of the blessings of Almighty God? My friend... beware. You are in a stony place. You are in a rocky place. And among the rocks there are the snakes, and they are ready to bite, and that attitude of ingratitude is even now giving them the opportunity to strike at your spiritual life with their venom. Death, Death, the ancient snake of Eden’s garden, is crouched and ready to wound! Oh friend, cast out those contemptuous demons. Look up to God and away from empty self-desire. Look up, today, lest that contemptuous poison of ungratefulness grants you no blessing in the morrow”
I could go on! That is one way of putting it. How else could it be said? In one of the youth retreats I have helped lead, the young people made up alternative versions of bible passages. I was thinking, how would today's passage turn out if you gave it that sort of rhythmic structure of a rap song?
“Yo, listen up. Fool. I’m doing what it takes, Talking about the snakes, You wanna be deceived? Rehash Adam and Eve? The poison of snake bite, will take away your life-light, cos in your heart there’s an attitude, of contempt and ingratitude, my God ain’t into messing, my God He’s into blessing, but your mouth don’t stop whining, and your light it's not shining, so it’s time to stop complaining, it’s time to get your game on, it’s time to lift your eyes high, time to look and listen, ‘cos you don’t know what you’re missing, God’s grace is all around you, don’t let this world confound you, east coast, west coast, when will you believe us, I’m tired of fooling around, - the only way is Jesus!”
Those two demonstrations confirm, once and for all, why I am not a holy rolling Welsh preacher or a rap singer, but however you say it, the fact remains that the snakes are always ready to strike. When complacency takes a hold, we stop looking for them.
When we lose sight of God’s blessings, and start focusing on ourselves, then we can guarantee trouble will not be far down the road. But that is not the whole story.
Be aware what bites us now could bless us later.
I took as a theme for our series during Lent 'Covenants of Grace'. Strictly speaking this story of the snake on a stick is not associated with any Old Testament covenant, but what it does is point us towards the New Covenant that God would make with all creation through Jesus Christ.
Moses took the image of what was biting them and made a bronze serpent and set it upon the pole. As the people gazed upon that image, healing came. As the people turned from their ingratitude towards God and again realized their total dependence on God, then there was a turning, a repentance, a renewal, a time of blessing, once again.
It took a while for the people to realize that it was their own sin that was destroying them. It took time for Moses to meet with God, to receive what God was revealing to him, to set about creating the serpent of bronze, refine it through the fire, explain to the people what was going on and what they needed to do, to hold it high on the pole and ask the people to look up. And even when he had done all of that, the snakes continued to bite, and for sure there were those who refused to do as Moses instructed and continued to die.
Sometimes we must go through a bad experience or a hard time in order to realize where we are going wrong. Sometimes we must hit rock bottom before we realize we are heading the wrong way. It can happen with our health. We know we need to make changes, but only when we get that doctors report that says our health is not all we thought it was and that we are on the brink of something nasty, do we start to take any notice.
It can happen with our finances. That credit card can be a snake. All those offers of interest free this and do not pay till later can be very tempting. But if we allow them to bite, we can end up in serious debt. Spiritually we can fool ourselves into thinking we are doing simply fine, when really, we are running on empty. A crisis hits and we fall to pieces rather than drawing upon our relationship with God, because it is a relationship we have not nurtured or attended to.
Yet God is a God of grace. When we fall God holds an out-stretched hand. When we mess up, God offers to forgive. When we lose our way, God leaves the light on. That is the most important thing we can learn from this passage.
Looking up always remains an option.
Just as Moses bid the people to look up to the image of a snake on the pole, Jesus tells Nicodemus to look to the Christ who was lifted up. The One who comes, not to judge the world, but to save the sinner. The Cross reminds us that God does not stand far off from human suffering and strife, but that deep in God’s heart there is a pain and grief that seeks to redeem us.
I began talking about the first Harry Potter book. By the time, the final seventh volume came along, the series had grown alongside its young readers. The initial innocence of the first story had long gone.
The series ends with violent conflict, significant characters lose their lives in the battle, and Harry himself lays down his life for his friends. I wonder where J.K. Rowling, who in religious terms describes her heritage as Presbyterian, got that idea from? Especially when it appears, as his friends carry on, Harry's not dead, but alive!
Of course, Harry Potter is only fiction, but it was C.S. Lewis who observed that there really was only one great narrative, that all others eventually follow... that of the great drama of Christian salvation found through Jesus Christ.
Lewis, an accomplished literary scholar, before ever being a Christian author, suggested that was one of the reasons he eventually came to believe. That if this narrative, the one about loss, redemption, and salvation, is one that echoes throughout time and history, then it had to reflect a greater reality. He believed he had found that greater reality in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. Maybe he would also encourage us to “Look up and live!” How do we do that? This passage offers pointers.
- Beware the attitude of ingratitude. When the people of Israel grumbled against God's grace, they found there were snakes among the rocks. Snakes that had come about through their rebellion.
- Be aware what bites us now could bless us later. Going through bad times, sometimes can strengthen us to face worse times.
- But above all, look up. I can frame this in no better words than that classic hymn of Joseph Scriven, a favorite of many a congregation.
“What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear,
What a privilege to carry,
Everything to God in prayer.”
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
No comments:
Post a Comment