1 DATE: March 18, 2012 SERMON TEXT: Numbers 21:4-9; JOHN 3:14-21 SERMON TITLE: "Throw Out the Snakes, and Turn on the Lights" You remember that crazy Australian guy, Steve Irwin, don t you? He died several years ago following a deadly encounter with a stingray. Steve was known as The Crocodile Hunter. Steve not only hunted crocodiles; he liked to get his hands on every living creature that most folks find repulsive. Snakes seemed to be his specialty. He loved to play with snakes. And the more poisonous they were, the more he liked it. From the sound of it, the Children of Israel could have used the Crocodile Hunter's expertise in one such encounter that they had with snakes. Our Hebrew lesson from Numbers tells the story. Once again we have been invited to peer inside the soap-opera-like relationship that existed between God, Moses and the Israelites. In Numbers 21 we have yet another story about the Hebrews complaining against Moses and God. But on this particular occasion, the punishment was a little bit more severe than the discomfort of a dry mouth or bad food. This time the Hebrews were invaded by a brood of venomous snakes that bit the Israelites, causing many to die. What was the cause of such an atrocity? The people of Israel had sinned. The interesting thing is that the recognition of their sinful ways was not an observation made by Moses, but by the Israelites themselves. "We sinned," they
2 told Moses. "We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and you. That is why the snakes have come. So pray for us, Moses; pray so the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed. And as Moses conversed with God through prayer, God told Moses to erect a pole with a bronze snake on it. Whoever was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake would live. (If you have ever wondered about the shield with two snakes twisted around a staff and a pair of wings that you sometimes see in doctors offices or on the uniforms of military medical personnel, you now know the inspiration behind it. The symbol is called the caduceus (ka-doo-se-us). This story about the snakes and the children of Israel and Moses and God took place during a time when people believed that one s misfortunes in life were directly related to the sin in his life. From serious illness to personal misfortune, all atrocities in life were the result of the sin in one s life. But today we are more sophisticated than that, aren't we? For the most part, we are not as quick to make a connection between our faithfulness to God and the level of illness or calamity or the number of venomous snakes we encounter in our lives. And that is a good thing because that is not the point of our text. The message of Numbers 21 is a message about the grace and the goodness of God. The reason for the story is to remind Israel that in a time of their sinfulness God
3 remained faithful to them. God did not desert them, but lifted them up, just as their eyes were lifted up to see the bronze serpent on a pole. It is the very reason Jesus references this story in his encounter with Nicodemus in our Gospel reading. Even though these two texts are separated by hundreds of years, the situation remains the same: God's people remain snakebitten. What is it about sin that is so alluring? For some reason, we human beings cannot seem to break free of the darkness of sin that plagues our very existence. We try. We know that it is a struggle, but for some reason we just cannot rid ourselves of sin's seductive power. I hope you are not sitting out there this morning saying to yourself, "Well, he's not talking to me; he must be talking to this person sitting next to me." The fact of the matter is that I am talking to each and every one of you and to myself as well. We are all snakebitten, darkness-dwelling folk when it comes to our struggle with sin. The problem is that when we read the text this morning it sounds as if Jesus is referring only to the really bad people in our world. Certainly Jesus is not talking about the people in the church. Jesus has to be talking about the real sinners of our world. Who else would you classify as people who love darkness? Those are the people who do really horrible things in the dark. You know the ones I am talking
4 about: the perverts, the fornicators, the child molesters and the like. Those are the people of the darkness. Those are the ones Jesus is talking about. He certainly is not talking about me. And then there are the ones whose deeds are evil. You know, the drug dealers, the crime bosses, the murderers, the thieves, and the gang members. Those are the ones Jesus is talking about when he talks about the evil ones. Brothers and sisters, if you are one of those folk who interpret the particular passage in this particular way, have I got some bad news for you this morning. The fact of the matter is that not one of us here is immune to the snakebite of sin that pervades our world today. There is not one of us whose life journey will escape passage through the dark shadows of sin. When Jesus announces the verdict, the verdict is our verdict; it is about you and me and all of humanity. The fact of the matter is that we are all from time to time snakebitten and lovers of darkness. Perhaps you are saying to yourself, "Preacher, you need to back off a little this morning; you are being too hard on us. We worked so hard serving pancakes yesterday. Last Sunday we gave up an hour of sleep just to be here and now you are calling us a bunch of snakebitten, darkness-loving, sinners." I am not saying that; Jesus is. Jesus is simply describing what has been part of the human predicament since the beginning of time. The world is at times a
5 dark and dreary place. We are part of the world, and as a result, sometimes that darkness and dreariness is part of who we are. But praise be to God, the story does not end here, does it? The Bible tells us "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (Say it with me.) The promise that was present in the sign of the bronze snake, the promise that is present in the sign of an empty cross these are still our promise today, my brothers and sisters. Our God is a God of grace and reconciliation. Our God loved this world so much that he sent his only Son so that whoever believes in God's Son and what God's Son represents and stands for and believes and preaches and teaches, whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have life eternal. Is that good news? Does this not sound like a way out of our human predicament? Our world needs the message of Christ now more than ever. Humanity needs the message of Jesus Christ now more than ever. I believe very strongly that the message of Christ is the only message that will allow this world to reconcile itself to God. I believe if the Kingdom of God is to be a reality it will be a reality only when people the world over have embraced the message of Jesus Christ. World harmony will not come because of a dramatic drop in the oil prices; it will come not because of a balanced free-trade agreement, and it will not come
6 because of bombs and missiles. The kingdom of God will be a reality when the world is able to embrace the message of Jesus Christ. What we need to do as people who call ourselves "Christian" is to live like we truly are Christian. This notion of living out our faith is much more important than trying to convert others. Actions speak louder than words. If we want to be about proclaiming the message of Christ, let us first live it, practice what we preach, allow our lives to be an open window to the Gospel message that Christ teaches. Can you imagine what effect the millions of Christians around the world would have on the world if we simply lived out the things we say we believe to be true about Jesus? The change in our world would be overwhelming. When that happens, that will be the day the kingdom comes. Until that day, we will continue to live out our faith plagued by snakebites and darkness. What gives us hope for tomorrow is knowing that the one we strive to emulate is the one lifted up high on a cross. Just as Moses raised a bronze snake in the desert to heal a people from their aimlessness and sin, so too God raised up His Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have life eternal. That is where our Lenten journey takes us, my brothers and sisters. We travel through the deserts of our souls, souls plagued by the pain of snakebites of
7 sin and darkness to a hill called Mount Calvary, where our eyes are lifted up to the one who died so that we might live. Praise be to God! Amen!