Numbers 21: 4-9 Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2: 1-10 John 3: 14-21
Speak Lord, for your servants are listening.
I am not a preacher who puts titles to her sermons, although I have many colleagues who do. Like pithy sayings on a church reader board, sermon titles can take on a life of their own. One pastor, preaching during Stewardship season, entitled the sermon “The Sermon on the Amount”. Another preacher, whose subject was the Demoniac, came up with the title “A Nude Dude in a Rude Mood.” And there was the preacher whose subject was the demon cast into the herd of pigs who entitled the sermon “Deviled Ham”.
The texts for this day are not easy ones to understand and they do not necessarily lend themselves to catchy sermon titles. “Snakes on a Stick” was about the best I could do. And catchy as the title might be, there wasn’t a lot I could do with it.
But one day this week, I saw a caption under a photo on Facebook. It said “Hope in black and white.” Hope in black and white. Now, the photo was of the newborn daughter of a colleague, named Hope. And it was, in fact, in black and white.
But this phrase has stayed with me throughout this week. Hope in black and white.
So few things in life are actually black and white. We think it would be nice if they were. Is this choice good or bad? Right or wrong? Am I happy or sad? Will I be in or out? All or nothing? Instead, we live, in this world, smack dab in the middle of gray.
So, while we’re living in gray, which seems appropriate for both this rainy late winter we’ve endured these days in Seattle, and which seems appropriate for this season of Lent, we look at our readings for this day through a grey lens, one that admits to the messiness of life, to the uncertainty of life, and to the way our texts invite us, even call us, directly into that messy gray.
So, what do we do with this reading from Numbers, that is the story of the snakes God sent, even inflicted upon the people of Israel, God’s chosen beloved people? The people of Israel have been released from Egypt and Moses is leading them to Caanan, to the land God has promised to them. But they are tired, and they have detoured around Edom, which means this is taking longer than they had anticipated. And so they whine. The text says they became impatient. And they speak out against both God and Moses, complaining even about the manna that God has sent to sustain them. Just send us back to Egypt, where even though we were slaves, at least we had food.
And apparently this made God angry. Very angry. Angry enough to send poisonous snakes to bite them, and as part of them lay dying, the rest of them began to plead with Moses. “We have sinned! We were wrong! Pray to God to take the snakes away.”
But God doesn’t take the snakes away. Instead God instructs Moses to make a pole with a snake at the top, so that all who, in repentance, look at it, will be healed from their snakebite.
Wouldn’t it have been easier for God to have simply taken the snakes away? For God to hear Moses’ plea on behalf of God’s people and relent? Instead, God sends a way for them to be healed. The trouble is not taken away. Instead, a way is found for healing, for repentance, for reconciliation.
This story from Numbers serves as a bridge to the Gospel reading. In the first verse of our Gospel reading, Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, notes that “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” Certainly, he is eluding to his being lifted up on the cross, and for the Gospel of John he is also noting that his crucifixion and resurrection lift him to an exalted state.
But this is all very gray. How is the crucifixion, how is the cross, like the snake on a stick, if you will? Can we get from gray to black and white?
We can certainly try.
Let me ask this question….how many of you have every prayed for something, something specific, that you did not receive? I have. And yet, despite my fervent and heartfelt prayers I have lost two best friends to cancer, the father of my children to drug addiction, and have not gotten parking spaces close to the grocery store during rain. Was this a sign of my unfaithfulness? Was this a sign of God’s capricious nature?
Remember, the prayer of Moses’ on behalf of the people of Israel was that the snakes would be removed. And they were not. Instead, a sign of God’s presence with them, of God’s mercy, of God’s healing, of God’s grace to them, was raised up.
When we have prayed that the illness be healed, or the addiction taken away, or the errant child returned, or the job be ours, or the childless become parents, or the heartache healed and we have not received the specific answer to our prayers….has God sent another sign? Have we, in fact, received a way where there was no way. A way that toward healing, toward reconciliation, toward wholeness?
For God so loved the world, that God sent Jesus, the Son, the Beloved, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but should have eternal life.
Jesus Christ, raised up.
Perhaps we have lost friends, loved ones, dreams, relationships…I am certain that we have. But what God has sent to us, and not just to us, but to the entire world, is a way where we thought there was no way. God has sent Jesus Christ, and in fact, sent him to die and be raised in our place, so that in the midst of all of life’s gray-ness, we might have healing. We might have reconciliation. We might have, hope. There, on the cross, in black and white.
And not only did God send Jesus, but God sent him to save the world, not to condemn the world. This is the verse that we should be putting on signs at sporting events and posting with such enthusiasm. God didn’t send Jesus to condemn us, for if that were the case, we would all be lost. We have ALL sinned, we have ALL fallen short. Every last one of us. But God sent Jesus because God loved the WORLD. Oh, this is the best news of all! And not for condemnation, not for finger pointing, not to put our flaws and faults in the spotlight, but to bring us light. To bring light into our darkness.
The cross, an instrument of torture, and instrument of death, seems an unlikely sign of healing. And yet, in our troubles and our sadness and our confusion and our sorrows, God has sent us just such a sign. While our prayer is “take away this struggle…take away this pain” God says “Here, I am sending you my very self. I am sending you my Son. I am sending you Jesus. And I send him not to judge you, not to condemn you, but because I love you.”
It’s that simple. Is it easy to understand, though? No. And so we keep trying. We keep struggling along. We continue to pray, we continue to believe. We continue to live in gray, even as we look at Jesus, raised up, in whom God has sent hope to the world. Hope, in black and white.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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