Fourth Sunday in Lent
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who loves the world. Amen
This Lent
we are spending time
with stories of wilderness wandering and coming home
as we remember Jesus’ last days
moving with him and the disciples
to the cross and the grave
and ultimately to the new life of Easter morning.
On Ash Wednesday
we heard God call us home to the heart of God
through the transforming of our own hearts.
In the first week of Lent
we heard about how transitions in life
are often marked by water.
In the second week of Lent
we heard about how it is never too late
to start a new journey with God.
Last week we heard about how wilderness times
often begin with cleaning house,
getting rid of things
with the intention of returning God to the center of our lives.
This week
we hear about the consequences of impatience
in the midst of the wilderness
and God’s ultimate response.
We start with the Israelities in the wilderness,
they’ve been out there long enough
to be fully in the wilderness,
but not long enough
to realize just how long they’re going to be there
and we hear “but the people became impatient on the way.”
God is taking care of their needs- food and water,
but they want more,
so they complain against God and Moses saying:
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
I love the way this is written,
it’s so real to human life,
the exaggeration and immediate contradiction.
There’s no food and we hate this food!
It’s like a teenager looking into a full refrigerator
and calling out “Mom, there’s nothing here to eat!”
or a toddler refusing to eat a perfectly fine dinner
and then five minutes later
requesting a snack.
And God, like many a parent in this situation
gets fed up and loses it,
only because it’s God,
instead of yelling,
God sends poisonous serpents among the people
who kill those they bite.
Now we could debate about how this might be a bit of an overreaction
and wonder what it says about God
but that’s not really the main point at the moment,
the people acted
and there were consequences for their actions,
the people repent,
they confess to God and Moses that they sinned by speaking against them
and they make a humble request
that God remove the serpents from among them.
God doesn’t do that
just because we’re sorry
doesn’t mean the consequences of our actions go away.
What God does do
and this is the main point,
is to provide a way through the trouble caused by the consequences
telling Moses to make a serpent out of bronze
and put it up on a pole and if someone is bitten,
if they look at this bronze serpent
they will live,
and that’s what happens.
And we see this cycle happen over and over again
with the people and God,
humans act,
they sin,
there are consequences,
and God provides a way to live with the consequences.
God doesn’t have to
but God is rich in mercy and love
and so God continually
provides a way through the trouble we encounter and even cause
to the life on the other side,
and we believe that the ultimate act of love and provision
is what God does through Christ on the cross.
As Paul says in Ephesians “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us live together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
God acts out of love
And offers us the result
Not because we deserve it
But because God loves us.
John in his gospel is a little more technical in his explanation,
likening Jesus and his lifting up
(both on the cross and later to the right hand of God)
to the bronze serpent,
so that like those who were bitten and looked on the serpent lived,
those who are bitten by the power of sin
and believe in Jesus will live eternally.
Now we could debate what John means by believe
and just how much human participation and will
it takes to access this salvation
Paul and John seem to conflict a bit,
or at least the interpretations of their writings do-
but for today that is not the point-
the point is that God acted out of love,
and not just love for one certain people
but for the whole world,
all of the good creation that God made,
the creation which is hurting and broken
by the consequences of the actions of sin-
and in response God has provided a way through,
a way to life.
It is God who does this,
out of love.
And so whether we understand the particulars,
Or are completely confused
what we do know is this:
God loves us
and this means
that when we get impatient in the midst of the wilderness,
when we turn against God and others,
while there will be consequences,
God will help us find a way through them,
a way that will bring life,
not just for us but for the whole world. Amen
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