Healing and Wholeness a sermon based on Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-21 preached at Trillium United Church Caledon March 11, 2018

Numbers 21:4-9

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom. The people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then God sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many died.  The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against God and against you. Pray that God will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

God said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

John 3:14-21

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life.”

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. Whoever lives by truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Ahh those people who followed Moses….in theological and church circles, we call them the “Back to Egypt Committee”. All the while they were in slavery, they cried to God to free them. They didn’t actually have a very hard life in slavery – they had food, good shelter and clothing – and Moses was a respected official with the Pharaoh’s retinue. But slavery is slavery after all – they were free to do only so much.

And so they follow Moses, meandering through the Sinai.  The heat from the sand forms a natural oven that blisters the skin and dries up the water. Not much food on the Sinai -a scorpion here, a tortoise there. Always with manna. In Hebrew it is pronounced, man-hoo, which meant, "what’s that?" Now, "what’s that?" was really a nourishing food that was exuded by plants during the cool desert nights, and dried into solid pieces when the sun arose. Well, yeah, so it was a lifesaver but after month after month of travel, it very likely began to taste like dry oatmeal. So began the grumbling and griping; whine a little here, wheedle there, crab and complain.

Nothing is ever enough for these people. Moses refers to them more than once along the way as a ‘stubborn and stiff-necked people’ – because every time the going gets a little rough, they want to go back to the comfort of Egypt, where everything was familiar. Nothing new happened. Now, there’s little water, little food, and they gripe at Moses as if everything is his fault. And then the poisonous snakes come out too – and Moses is basically accused of trying to kill the people off....

Many died on the spot. But the story does not end with snakebites in the outback. Repentance from this ravaged community comes to the ears of Moses and Moses raises their cry to Yahweh. So God tells Moses what to do: "Make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole; whoever has been bitten yet looks up at the homemade snake will survive."

So Moses makes a rough approximation of a snake and raises this monstrous piece of art skyward. Sure enough, as long as victims were in eye shot of Moses’ snake, no one else died. Hopefully also no one complained any more - at least not loud enough to be heard.

Well, we all know what John 3:16 says – it appears at almost every sporting event one way or another. The problem is, it overshadows the rest of the entire text. It’s not a text where you can cherry-pick one verse, taking it out of context altogether. All together the verses are a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, What surrounds John 3:16? A conversation. Jesus says “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Jesus refers to the story of Moses to in his conversation with Nicodemus. It would have been familiar to Nicodemus.

But what is this story of the Israelites in the wilderness really about? What about the story of Jesus and Nicodemus? Are they really literally true? Or are they stories about the human condition which can hold us back? That when we harbor hatred and resentment which are motivated by fear, we open the door to a deadly venom that eats away at our lives. Medical science confirms this. When we submit to wrong and hurtful feelings, insist on getting revenge for perceived slights or wrongs, we open the door to the snakes. And their bites can be lethal.

Here in Ontario there are quite a few Jewish families, but for some people, even one is too many. Both north and south of the border we are seeing people putting on their KKK hoods and marching, shouting abuse. Here in Canada we’ve always had the KKK, though many don’t know – Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta – we still have hatred, racism, bigotry. It’s always been here – as people of colour know. Yet still, many simply don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, or hide from dealing with it. I had that experience this week.

Rev. Thomas Hall tells a story of an incident in Billings, Montana, where one faith community in town responded to the hatred against Jews by putting small menorahs in their own windows. And the circle of rage and hate against the families, and against their supporters grew. Within a week the faith community itself was pelted with rocks and paint and its doors were smashed by these angry people. We have seen this throughout our own country, with hatred directed to faith communities which offer a message of peace.

But resentment and bitterness against others is ultimately resentment against God. And in our journey of faith, with resentment against God comes the snakes. And with their venom comes spiritual, and sometimes literal death.

Think back – only to 2016 – to Parkdale United Church in Ottawa, and the Ottawa Muslim Association – where swastikas and racist graffiti were spray-painted. The minister of Parkdale, Rev. Anthony Bailey, happens to be black. Parkdale has supported Muslims against bigotry and racism.

So now, a thousand years after the story about poisonous snakes, we see a man talking to a Pharisee, Nicodemus – who comes to Jesus ‘under cover of darkness’ because he doesn’t want the other Pharisees to know.  Jesus doesn’t talk about hatred, racism, or other poisons. I guess by this time, the fact that humans have all been bitten by poisonous snakes at one time or another is obvious. So Jesus moves to the antidote. "When I am lifted up on that pole - just like when Moses erected the snake in the wilderness - people will recover and experience fullness of life."  

John is letting us see Jesus, crucified on a cross in the name of hatred and fear. All the serpents of jealousy, greed, grasping at power, hatred, bigotry, racism, sexism, and unforgiveness. CBS picked up the story of the little congregation and Jewish families who joined together to fight hatred. Donations and money for repairs came from all over the US to that little congregation and its Jewish neighbors. Here in Canada expressions of support came from all over to Parkdale and to the Ottawa mosque. And there in Ottawa, a local synagogue held a ‘solidarity’ evening, standing together against hatred and fear.

In the end, it will always be love, not hate, which wins. The poisonous bites can be healed. Faith in goodness, generosity, and love will always supersede anger and fear. In our walk to Good Friday and beyond, this is the message we are called to carry. May it be so.

Sources:

Venomous Bites, Uplifting Antidotes a sermon based on John 3:14-21 and Numbers 21:4-9
by Rev. Thomas Hall