Sermon Fourth Sunday in Lent 3/14/21 RCL B
Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21
Mary McPherson
For Lent this year, I have been engaging in a practice which was offered to us by the Sandpoint United Methodist Church. Every morning, I light a candle, take 3 deep breaths, read a Psalm, and listen for God’s guidance. Then I journal the prayers that God inspires me to pray. It is a communal exercise. Various people from different churches in Sandpoint each signed up for a block of time. Mine is at 8 am and I can’t say I am always on schedule, but I try to be close. We are invited to pray for our own church as well as all the churches in Sandpoint, the state, nation, and world as God inspires us.
This exercise has put me in touch with the realization that we are truly part of a communion of saints. By that I mean we are a community of Holy People, spiritually connected. It has reminded me of how our Christian faith is truly communal in nature.
As a result, during the service last week, I was drawn to all the prayers in the liturgy that are corporate or group prayers. I invite you to take note today of all the occurrences of WE and OUR that we say. (Our father, not My father who art in heaven....)
Sometimes I get too preoccupied with my relationship with God as an individual. Maybe you do too. Today’s example from Numbers is one illustration of how a covenant love was granted to Israel as a whole, not to just one individual. If we focus on our individual salvation, we can find ourselves adrift and alone, in a huge ocean of others who are also trying to save themselves – neither assisting nor relying on one another or the whole body of Christ. It is good to be reminded of the membership we belong to.
As I prepared for the sermon, I was literally obsessed for days with how a serpent on a stick has any similarity to Christ. Christ himself draws a connection between the serpent of bronze and his crucifixion. What is up with that?
Over and over again in the stories of the OT, we see a recurring pattern with the Israelites. Things are good for a period, then they struggle over some hardship. They get ornery and rebellious. They cry out to the Lord. The Lord rescues them, and they return to God. Time and again, they go from songs of triumph to grumbling in just a few verses! They get it, they lose it, they get it, they lose it and so on. They seem to have a great deal of trouble remembering – a human trait we all share – to whom they belong! Which is why we all come to church weekly. To be reminded … of who it is we belong to!
Just before this passage in Numbers takes place, Moses had asked the King of Edom, very politely and diplomatically, if they could take a shortcut through Edom, and the King responds firmly, “No”. I’m sure this was a setback that set the people off. “We don’t want to endure this camping and nasty food any longer!” If you recall, this “nasty food” was the food God had provided for them when they complained about being hungry. The Manna? The Bread of Heaven? Ouch. Not showing much appreciation for God’s provision!
So, God sends them snakes. The people admit they were wrong, repent, and God gives Moses a directive to create a bronze serpent, put it on a rod. Looking up at it was sufficient to cure anyone bitten by a snake. That’s such a bizarre idea.
The net of my long pondering of the likeness between the serpent and the crucifixion is this:
Quoting John, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
“God did not send the serpents to the Israelites to kill them, but in order that the Israelites might be saved through them.”
I repeat.
“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
“God did not send the serpents to the Israelites to kill them, but in order that the Israelites might be saved through them.”
God uses the serpents to regain the Israelites attention.
This story demonstrates how God does whatever it takes to maintain a relationship with humankind. He will use fiery serpents, a pandemic, cancer, addiction, financial devastation, natural disasters, you name it. God will use EVERY opportunity to redirect us back to Him.
Notice how the Israelites called out to God for deliverance as a group.
The whole assembly of Israelites in the desert was all one, all of them loved corporately and individually by God, just as we are. In this worldview, we are saved by being “part of the body”. Interrelationship is the lifeblood of our faith.
I’ve been touched this week, thinking about the Communion of Saints that surrounds us, past, present and future. We are part of them. We leapfrog from their growth to reach higher levels. Our descendants will have a leg up given to them from us. The Israelites in the desert knew God was the source of their very survival. They turned to him in their hour of despair. We, too, are God’s people, and we are members of a communion of saints.
We are not just individuals who follow God and come together for church on Sundays, we are a community of believers. We are members. We belong to God and to each other.
I remember when I worked for Hewlett Packard. I had just changed jobs moving to Marketing from the R & D lab. I took a business trip to Dallas, and John decided to rendezvous with me on my way back for a weekend in New Mexico. He had worked at Los Alamos Labs one summer and wanted to show it to me. It turned out unbeknown to us, it was the weekend of the annual hot air balloon festival. One of my Marketing co-workers recommended I call the HP sales office in Albuquerque. I reluctantly did, and what an amazing experience. They were having a barbeque to watch the hot air balloons from the HP parking lot. We knew no one going in. We were welcomed like we were long lost friends by the people who worked there. All because I was an HP employee. That is an example of what being in a community is.
We are in this life together. We are in community within Holy Spirit Church, within Sandpoint, within Idaho, within the nation, within the world. God has called us to be a community of compassionate love, a holy people touched with the fire of the Spirit, summoned to go forth as companions bringing divine compassion into everyday life for all those we encounter. I am well aware that all of you here do this already. Let this simply serve as just a reminder to keep doing what you are doing. Working together empowers us to do and be what we can’t do by ourselves.
We are individuals, but we are in this together.
Let us pray.
Holy Father, please bless Holy Spirit Church and all the churches of Sandpoint. Bless this world in which we live. Help us to make it a more just and compassionate place. Like your Israelites in the desert, we are broken people. Many people are suffering. Remind us to continually look to you, lifted up on the cross, as the way to everlasting life and peace of mind. In Jesus holy name we pray, Amen.