The Readings
Old Testament
Numbers 21:4-9 From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “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.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
The Gospel
John 3:14-21 Jesus said, “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.
“For 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.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
The Sermon
God's
Mercy and Love
Does
this reading from Numbers seem a little bizarre to you? I had to
reach really deep to come up with a message that made some sense. I
mean, snakes are biting and killing the people of Israel. God fixes
the problem of death by snake bite by having Moses make a bronze
serpent and put it on a pole and the bitten people would look at it
and not die.
God
shows mercy to the people in this story even though they had done
little to deserve it. This is a reoccurring theme in the old
testament. The people were hungry and they were given manna. They
were thirsty and God told Moses where to drive his staff to open up a
spring.
When
we read these stories, I am sure some of you raise your eyebrows and
question the literal nature of what was being told. Did Jonah
actually survive three days in the belly of a fish? Was Noah
actually able to fit all of the eight million species of the world's
animals on one boat? Did Lot's wife actually turn into a pillar of
salt because she looked behind her?
These
stories like the one we read today are there to teach. The messages
may be about faith. They may be about mercy. The may be about
following God's commands. The stories are meant to guide us along on
our own spiritual path and I believe they do it quite well.
Jesus
is having a conversation with the pharisee Nicodemus and he likens
himself to the serpent in the story from our old testament. The
people who were stricken by the serpents were healed when they looked
up and believed. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he will be lifted up as
well and the people who believe in him will be saved.
The
message in the gospel reading from John is one of, if not the best
known, in the New Testament. “God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but
have eternal life.” Remember, this was Jesus choice to give his
message of love and mercy to us. It was his choice to sacrifice
himself on the cross for our salvation. I do not pretend to
understand why that needed to happen, I just know that it did.
What
I do know is that Jesus message and his sacrifice have created a bond
between Him and his followers that has endured through the ages.
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