Hinde Street Methodist Church Sunday 11 th March am Revd Val Reid. Numbers 21: 4-9 Ephesians 2: 1-10 John 3: 14-21

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1 Hinde Street Methodist Church Sunday 11 th March am Revd Val Reid Numbers 21: 4-9 Ephesians 2: 1-10 John 3: Sermon A Russian spy and his daughter are found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in Salisbury. Day after day new pieces of the jigsaw are revealed. The first police officer to approach them was also fighting for his life. Some form of nerve gas is involved. Not the sort you can put together at the kitchen table. Where has it come from? Who is behind this? Traces of the un-named nerve gas have been found at the local Prezzo. Where has it come from? Who is behind this? There have been other stories this week that have taken up far less space in our papers. On Wednesday night more than 90 people were killed in eastern Ghouta in what doctors and rescue workers have called an insane bout of violence. Incendiary weapons and chemical attacks were reported. Aid deliveries have been postponed because of the risk. Why do we agonise over Salisbury daily on the front page, while the suffering in Syria is relegated to a short paragraph on page 2? Or even towards the back, in the World News section? The things we give space to in the media are the things that touch a nerve. So why? What are we afraid of? What scares us, what obsesses us, are the domestic fears. The things that come close to home. The things that make our personal world feel unsafe. We ve all had a meal in Prezzo That s why this story has dominated our news this week. The plot of a John Le Carré novel invades the quiet prosperity of middle England. 1

2 In our odd little reading today from the book of Numbers, the people of Israel are afraid. They have escaped from being enslaved in Egypt, and are free at last. You would think that they would be delighted. Relieved. Exuberant. But they find that freedom is terrifying. At the beginning of this chapter they find themselves locked in battle with the Canaanite king Arad, who lives with his people in the Negeb desert. The people of Israel are defeated. Some of them are captured. Suddenly independence from their slavery in Egypt doesn t look quite so attractive. But God comes to their rescue. They defeat their enemies. They utterly destroy the Canaanite towns. But they don t feel safe any more. There are enemies lurking everywhere in this place. And they are terrified there won t be enough food. They complain to Moses about their fear of starvation. They get nostalgic for Egypt, for the fish they used to eat, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic. The Lord provides manna like coriander seed, the writers of Numbers tell us which the people grind in mortars, and boil, and make cakes. But then they complain that they are bored with manna. They want meat. And so they long for the security of Egypt. Although they were slaves, the military might of Egypt protected them from aggressive tribes. And they had food. A nice varied diet. At least their slavery was familiar. Secure. In Egypt they knew where they were. And so their fear takes the form of complaining. As so often our fear makes us angry. Makes us aggressive. The people complain to God and to Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? 2

3 And in the story, God s response to their complaints is to send poisonous serpents, which bite the people, so many of them die. So this story is perhaps about coming to terms with another fear. The fear of an unpredictable God. Who one moment liberates us from slavery, and the next moment leaves us to fend for ourselves in the wilderness. Who one moment provides us with water to drink and manna to eat, and the next punishes us with venomous snakes when we dare to complain. We long for a God who will keep us safe. Who will protect us from our enemies. Who will give us each day our daily bread or, if we are anything like the people of Israel, our daily avocado toast and latte. No wonder they melted down their gold earrings and asked Aaron to make them a golden calf. A gleaming metal God who was rather more visible and rather more tame than the Yahweh they were coming to know in the desert. In our story, faced with the serpents, the people are abject. They are repentant. They would do anything to appease this controlling and punishing God. They beg Moses to pray to the Lord to take the serpents away. But the God who is the projection of our own worst fears is no more real than the golden idol we have made for ourselves. God is the God of reality. And God wants the people to face the reality of their situation. The reality of the freedom they have been given. Even though it terrifies them. So he doesn t send them back to Egypt. He doesn t promise them an easier time in the wilderness. He doesn t remove the snakes. Moses is told to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. If you are bitten by a serpent, and you look at the snake on the pole, you will live. Ophidio-phobia is the clinical word for fear of snakes. It s one of the most common phobias. Around a third of humans are seriously scared of snakes Ophidio-phobia is certainly longstanding in human stories and myths. Think of the temptation in the garden of Eden. Think of Medusa s hair. 3

4 Most common treatment for ophidio-phobia is based on cognitive-behavioural therapy. You may be encouraged to talk about your fear and taught new messages to replace your fearful self-talk. You may also be slowly exposed to snakes, beginning with photographs and gradually building up to a live encounter with a small snake in a controlled environment. I do love the idea of a live encounter with a small snake in a controlled environment! But the people of Israel were not in a controlled environment. They were in the wilderness. Even so, their cure for the poisonous serpents was not to avoid them. Not to go back to where they felt safe. Their cure was to keep going. To continue with their journey. To learn to cope with the demands of freedom. Put the thing you are most afraid of on a pole. Look at it openly. Face your fears. But I have a question about this message. Facing your fears is all very well. But sometimes it can be foolhardy. In February this year Lauren Pond published her new book: Test of Faith; Signs, Serpents, Salvation. Lauren Pond is a photographer, who, back in 2011, spent time following Pastor Mack Wolford of the Full Gospel Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus, one of the few remaining Appalachian Pentecostal sects known as sign followers. They take literally a passage from the Gospel of Mark. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Pastor Wolford regularly handled poisonous snakes as a sign that God was on his side. One day in 2012, when Lauren Pond was photographing one of his services, the pastor was bitten. Wolford and his family refused medical treatment convinced that God would perform a miracle. Eight hours later, he died. Four years ago, Jamie Coots, a Kentucky pastor who hosted a reality TV show called Snake Salvation also died from a snakebite. He too had refused medical treatment. 4

5 So on the one had we are asked to face our fears. On the other hand, we are not meant to be stupid. We need to be realistic. To recognise our limitations. Not to put the Lord our God to the test. So where do we go from here? What does it mean for the life of faith to face our fears, but not to take outrageous risks? In our gospel passage, John uses this image of the snake on a pole. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This comment is part of Jesus long conversation with Nicodemus, the Pharisee who comes to him at night. Nicodemus is an interesting character. He is a Pharisee, but not an unthinking one. He doesn t simply jump on the bandwagon with his colleagues, who find Jesus threatening. Who see their power and influence crumbling as this travelling preacher from Galilee gains in popularity. Who plot to destroy him in order to maintain the safety of the status quo. Nicodemus wants to find out more about this subversive and challenging teacher. Unlike the others, he is willing to face his fears. Not openly, perhaps he does sneak in to see Jesus under cover of darkness. And darkness, in John s gospel, always has a negative connotation. But at least he is there. Nicodemus begins his conversation by telling Jesus what he thinks he knows. We know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no-one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God But after that the conversation goes all over the place. What Nicodemus thinks he knows is open to question. He is told he must be born again. Or born from above. The Greek anothen carries a double meaning. Nicodemus search for nice clear definitions about the life of faith is doomed to failure. No more comfortable certainty. The wind blows where it chooses, Jesus tells him. You have to let go of what you thought you knew, and be willing to face an encounter with the living God. You need to risk a relationship where you are not in the driving seat. Where you can t entirely control your environment. Where the carefully calibrated rules by which you have lived are torn up. 5

6 Where words carry more than one meaning. Nicodemus is, like the people of Israel, invited to step into a new freedom. To let go of certainty and safety. Not risk-taking for the sake of it. Not in order to test the presence of God. But because that is the way to life. Life in all its fullness. In John s theology, the snake on a pole is Christ on the cross. The Greek word hupsoo - means both to be physically lifted up, and to be exalted. Another of those double meanings in John s gospel. Because for John the crucifixion and the resurrection are inextricably bound together. The life and death and resurrection of Jesus is, for him, a single event. Jesus takes the road to Jerusalem, knowing that he will face there the fears and the insecurities of the religious and political establishments. Knowing that, as so often, fear will turn to anger, anger to violence, violence to murder. But in facing his own fears of betrayal, torture and death, he makes it possible for us to face our own worst fears too. And to know that we do not face them alone. Jesus will be with us on our own road to Jerusalem. Jesus has conquered fear. Jesus has conquered death. The cross is also the gateway to resurrection. In one of the most well-known Bible verses, John reminds us that: God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. This is the only place in the fourth gospel where John uses the verb didomi gave. He gave his only son More normally he uses one of two words meaning sent. God gave Jesus to the world, because God loves the world. And that gift is based on freedom. God s freedom to choose to create. To choose to give. The son s freedom to choose the way of the cross. Our freedom to choose light or darkness. The same scary freedom that made the people of Israel angry and fearful in the wilderness. 6

7 Another story that hit our papers this week is the latest research on the building of Stonehenge in 2,500 BC. Bizarrely, Stonehenge is less than ten miles from that bench in Salisbury. Archaeologists have always wondered why the stones for the henge were brought from the Preseli Hills in South Wales. Surely there was a suitable quarry a bit nearer? According to this new evidence, animals were also brought to the site for feasting from as far afield as north-east Scotland. In contemporary culture, said Susan Greaney, English Heritage senior historian, we try to make things as easy as possible. The least possible effort and expense. But that probably wasn t the case when Stonehenge was created. The difficulty was the point. Bringing stones from hundreds of miles away; driving animals from one end of the country to the other; the difficulty of the project was a powerful tool in demonstrating the strength of the community. To outsiders, and perhaps to themselves. So this weekend they are inviting anyone to turn up to the site on Salisbury Plain, and try to move and set up a four tonne stone. Not in order to puzzle out scientifically how it was done over four thousand years ago. But to bring people together to enjoy and to learn from a communal experience. I wonder whether that was what the people of Israel learned in the desert? That overcoming adversity, working out how to survive on manna, finding a cure for a plague of serpents, learning to live with their terrifying freedom, trusting their leaders and God for their very survival this was how they built a community that might survive, and even thrive. By naming their fears. To each other and to God. By facing their fears, and learning how to live with them. By finding out the hard way that God was still there in the wilderness. I wonder whether, if we could learn to be better at facing our fears, we might be willing to negotiate a way forward in Syria, and in other intractable places of conflict. Instead of anaesthetising ourselves with dramatic stories that don t require us to do anything or change anything or risk anything ourselves. And I wonder, perhaps, if this is the lesson of Mother s Day. Not the saccharine messages in cards and on mugs. No-one s mother is that perfect. 7

8 No family relationships are that straightforward. But the experience of learning to live together in family groups the naming of our fears and our frustrations and our heartbreak and yes, at times, our anger and the working together on the impossible project of doing relationships despite everything that is what we might celebrate today. If we might just look behind the surface sentiment and face the reality. I like it that Mother s Day comes during Lent each year. Because this is surely another good Lenten discipline. The Hebrew word for poisonous snakes, in our Numbers story, is Serafim. Literally, fiery serpents. The serpent on a pole which Moses is told to make is a Saraf. God s fiery Seraphim can both kill and save. They are messengers of God. They bring comfort, but not easy comfort. God does not promise an absence of snakes. You may get bitten. God does not promise that if you challenge the vested interests and suppressed fears of society everything will be OK. You may get crucified. God says: I have not lost sight of you. However deep in the wilderness you are. However much you murmur against me. However frightening it is to face the truth. I am with you. Amen. 8

Book 10. Book 10. John 3: The New Birth. John 3: The New Birth. Read John 3:1-3 and answer the following questions.

Book 10. Book 10. John 3: The New Birth. John 3: The New Birth. Read John 3:1-3 and answer the following questions. Read John 3:1-3 When is your birthday? Is it possible for you to be born a second time? Sounds like a stupid question, right? Jesus was asked this very same question by Nicodemus, a smart, older man. The