Hope Lifted Up
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Object:
It was a mystery. Hezekiah, the twelfth king of Judah, the father of Manasseh, asked around about the mysterious bronze snake, named Nehushtan, on display in a corner of the temple. Encouraged by the prophet Micah, Hezekiah wanted to restore and strengthen the monotheistic religion of his forefathers. The veneration of such a "graven image" was inconsistent with the worship of the one God, the God of Abraham and Moses. No one knew the origin of the thing. Hezekiah didn't research the matter. He ordered that the snake be destroyed. That was the end of idol worship on the side within the very walls of the temple.
Much later, some Jewish rabbis took the dusty case records out of the files and more earnestly did the research. They concluded that the destroyed bronze serpent had something to do with the plight of their ancestors in the wilderness. The historical records revealed that the Hebrews in the wilderness had camped for a long time at a place called Kedesh, a place about fifty miles south of the land of Canaan. The people of Moses were losing their fascination with the spectacular rescue event orchestrated by God and executed by Moses.
The more the monotony and bleakness of the wilderness dampened their spirits, the louder was their cry to return to the "good old days" in Egypt. Their desperation finally expressed itself in a bold plan to attack and enter Canaan from the south. Moses was not convinced but reluctantly agreed to send a couple of spies to check out the strength and the position of the enemy. Most of the spy party advised against the attack, citing the greater stature of the Canaanites and their military strength. But the bravado of Joshua and Caleb convinced Moses to attack. The Hebrews were routed and quickly broke camp and headed east on the king's highway and tried to enter Canaan from the east, finally to enter the promised land from the eastern side of the Jordan.
Hope Lifted Up In The Wilderness Time
What about the bronze snake? Between the time of the failed conquest of Canaan from the south and the decision to head east, the Lord sent an army of poisonous serpents to attack the faithless people. The people recognized the error of their ways and quickly repented and confessed their apostasy. God told Moses to place a bronze serpent upon a pole as a sign of their deliverance from the serpents. In faith and trust, the people looked at the serpent and were delivered from the jaws of death.
Later they would remember that God and his grace were manifested in three gracious signs: the manna, the pillars of fire by night and smoke by day, and, thirdly, the bronze serpent. The bronze snake in the temple was not there to encourage veneration but it had been there to remind the people of God's mercy and deliverance in the wilderness. In retrospect, the time in the wilderness had been a good time.
Two brothers drove down the once-familiar highway toward their childhood home. They stared silently at the changes wrought by time. If they had not known the name of the roads, they could never have relied on their memories of where to turn and when. The town that they entered had been their home for twenty years and many years had passed since they left it.
Their parents had died at a retirement home in the Sunbelt and it was the boys' job to take care of the details at the house in the north. It had been locked up for the winter some months before. As they drove into the driveway, they had the eerie sensation that time had reversed itself and that their mother was waving at them from the kitchen window.
The back door key still required just the right twist to make it work, and the throw rug still bunched up when they pushed open the door. They stepped into the kitchen, looked around, and years of memories were revitalized. They both sat down at the kitchen table with tears in their eyes and sighed, "Home." It was a moment of grace.
The invocation of memory sometimes smooths down the rough spots and highlights the good times, the moments of laughter, the moments of family solidarity, the tender moments of forgiveness, obstacles surmounted, and challenges met. Perhaps that was the real purpose of the bronze snake in the temple, to remind the people of the hope God raised for them in the wilderness, their home for forty years.
Hope Lifted Up In Our Time
So what does a snake in the wilderness have to do with us? According to the gospel writer, John, who quotes Jesus, there is a connection: "... 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" (John 3:14-15).
Jesus predicted his own elevation upon the cross. The Greek word implies that Jesus is not to be identified with the snake, but it is in the "elevation" (or the ascension of Jesus) that there is salvation. The Hebrews looked on the bronze snake because they wanted to believe (they repented -- they already believed) and we look upon the person on the cross because we "believe" in his work of salvation. The Jews looked at the elevated snake and they were rescued from death; we, the believers, look at the crucified Christ and we are likewise delivered from sin, death, and the devil.
Visitors to Jerusalem today go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to see an enclosed marble chapel many believe marks the spot of the tomb of Jesus. At the other end of the structure are the remains of the hill of Golgotha, barely visible behind stone walls. The visitor is offered the opportunity to "see" the place where the cross was raised, raised to inspire abiding faith.
Emperor Constantine came to the Roman throne at the beginning of the fourth century in part through his spectacular victory in his face-off with Maxentius in northern Italy. Constantine, a non-Christian, prayed for victory in the afternoon before the battle. He had a vision, a cross of light in the heavens accompanied by the inscription, "Conquer by this!"
God appeared in a later dream and commanded him to use the sign of the cross in all encounters with his enemies. Constantine prevailed, relocated the Roman capital to Byzantium, sent his mother, Helena, on a trip to the Holy Land, and convened the first of four Christian ecumenical councils at Nicaea in 325 AD, a meeting which began the process to define the orthodox Christian faith. The hope, literally "lifted up" in Constantine's battles, paved the road for the Christianization of the western world.
Sometimes, God lifts up hope for his creatures when humans desperately seek hope. In the case of the Hebrews in the wilderness, however, the "chosen people" were driven to the search for hope by God's punishment. Perhaps the story implies that they were heading in a hopeless journey of abandonment of the God who had delivered them from slavery. God hit them with a two-by-four. The fiery snakes were only a foretaste of their future fueled by reckless apostasy. Only more "fiery snakes" awaited them in a future of godless destitution given over to self-indulgence and pride.
Recourse to the faith of Sinai drove the people to cast their eyes upon the bronze snake of healing. Hope was restored and the road to the promised land was rediscovered.
Today's people of God are not safe from the temptation to backslide. A well-known gambler answered the altar call at a revival. The preacher asked him to burn his cards and his gambling equipment in front of witnesses as a testimony to his conversion. He answered, "I can't do that because if I did, what would I do if I backslid?"
Lent is the time to confess our propensity to abandon life in and with God. When we're "in the money," we forget whence material blessings come. We forget our promises to share with others. We complain if we're losing the battle to keep up with the Joneses. Manna and water are not enough. We want to drink the best wines, own the high-end automobiles, and live in spacious homes with at least three televisions and an entertainment room with stadium seating. What God gives to us is ours, we believe, not God's things given to us to share with others in God's name. Perhaps unemployment and health crises are God's "fiery snakes," snakes of grace lifted up to drive us back to our senses.
The girl, Helen Keller, was taken hundreds of times by Miss Sullivan to the well with the pump. Her tutor held Helen's hands beneath the flow of water and patiently spelled out the letters, w-a-t-e-r, on Helen's palm. Poor Helen, totally dumb, blind, and deaf, just didn't get it.
Suddenly, one day, the child grabbed the hand of her teacher and in turn spelled out the word, w-a-t-e-r. The months of patience paid off. Why did it take so long for Helen to recognize the freedom and grace offered to her by her teacher? Why does it take so long for the drug addict to make that life-saving decision? Why does it take so long for many to discover the life that faith in God offers? Later, Helen Keller said of herself, "I was a no-thing living in a no-world and I did not know that I was."
We struggle and hobble along in lives that are only half-lives. We are, in part, "no-things" living in a "no-world" and we do not know that we are.
The young man, Augustine, lived a life of hedonism and abandon until, alone in a garden in Milan, prompted by a soft voice, he began to read the letter of Saint Paul to the Romans. His eyes fell upon the words, "let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:13-14). Further inspired by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, the young man gave up his concubine and became the Bishop of Hippo, perhaps the greatest Christian thinker the world will ever know.
Augustine was driven by the fiery poison of his loose living to gaze upon the Christ on the tree and "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." The young North African replaced the destructive fire of reveling and licentiousness for the fire of faith in Christ. It can happen to anyone: a felon in prison, a corporate head who turns from greed to compassion for his or her employees who depend upon the company pension, a runaway teen who returns to the love of the parental home.
God revealed his love in the bronze serpent in the wilderness. God revealed his love again in the man on the cross. "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" (John 3:16). Amen.
Much later, some Jewish rabbis took the dusty case records out of the files and more earnestly did the research. They concluded that the destroyed bronze serpent had something to do with the plight of their ancestors in the wilderness. The historical records revealed that the Hebrews in the wilderness had camped for a long time at a place called Kedesh, a place about fifty miles south of the land of Canaan. The people of Moses were losing their fascination with the spectacular rescue event orchestrated by God and executed by Moses.
The more the monotony and bleakness of the wilderness dampened their spirits, the louder was their cry to return to the "good old days" in Egypt. Their desperation finally expressed itself in a bold plan to attack and enter Canaan from the south. Moses was not convinced but reluctantly agreed to send a couple of spies to check out the strength and the position of the enemy. Most of the spy party advised against the attack, citing the greater stature of the Canaanites and their military strength. But the bravado of Joshua and Caleb convinced Moses to attack. The Hebrews were routed and quickly broke camp and headed east on the king's highway and tried to enter Canaan from the east, finally to enter the promised land from the eastern side of the Jordan.
Hope Lifted Up In The Wilderness Time
What about the bronze snake? Between the time of the failed conquest of Canaan from the south and the decision to head east, the Lord sent an army of poisonous serpents to attack the faithless people. The people recognized the error of their ways and quickly repented and confessed their apostasy. God told Moses to place a bronze serpent upon a pole as a sign of their deliverance from the serpents. In faith and trust, the people looked at the serpent and were delivered from the jaws of death.
Later they would remember that God and his grace were manifested in three gracious signs: the manna, the pillars of fire by night and smoke by day, and, thirdly, the bronze serpent. The bronze snake in the temple was not there to encourage veneration but it had been there to remind the people of God's mercy and deliverance in the wilderness. In retrospect, the time in the wilderness had been a good time.
Two brothers drove down the once-familiar highway toward their childhood home. They stared silently at the changes wrought by time. If they had not known the name of the roads, they could never have relied on their memories of where to turn and when. The town that they entered had been their home for twenty years and many years had passed since they left it.
Their parents had died at a retirement home in the Sunbelt and it was the boys' job to take care of the details at the house in the north. It had been locked up for the winter some months before. As they drove into the driveway, they had the eerie sensation that time had reversed itself and that their mother was waving at them from the kitchen window.
The back door key still required just the right twist to make it work, and the throw rug still bunched up when they pushed open the door. They stepped into the kitchen, looked around, and years of memories were revitalized. They both sat down at the kitchen table with tears in their eyes and sighed, "Home." It was a moment of grace.
The invocation of memory sometimes smooths down the rough spots and highlights the good times, the moments of laughter, the moments of family solidarity, the tender moments of forgiveness, obstacles surmounted, and challenges met. Perhaps that was the real purpose of the bronze snake in the temple, to remind the people of the hope God raised for them in the wilderness, their home for forty years.
Hope Lifted Up In Our Time
So what does a snake in the wilderness have to do with us? According to the gospel writer, John, who quotes Jesus, there is a connection: "... 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" (John 3:14-15).
Jesus predicted his own elevation upon the cross. The Greek word implies that Jesus is not to be identified with the snake, but it is in the "elevation" (or the ascension of Jesus) that there is salvation. The Hebrews looked on the bronze snake because they wanted to believe (they repented -- they already believed) and we look upon the person on the cross because we "believe" in his work of salvation. The Jews looked at the elevated snake and they were rescued from death; we, the believers, look at the crucified Christ and we are likewise delivered from sin, death, and the devil.
Visitors to Jerusalem today go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to see an enclosed marble chapel many believe marks the spot of the tomb of Jesus. At the other end of the structure are the remains of the hill of Golgotha, barely visible behind stone walls. The visitor is offered the opportunity to "see" the place where the cross was raised, raised to inspire abiding faith.
Emperor Constantine came to the Roman throne at the beginning of the fourth century in part through his spectacular victory in his face-off with Maxentius in northern Italy. Constantine, a non-Christian, prayed for victory in the afternoon before the battle. He had a vision, a cross of light in the heavens accompanied by the inscription, "Conquer by this!"
God appeared in a later dream and commanded him to use the sign of the cross in all encounters with his enemies. Constantine prevailed, relocated the Roman capital to Byzantium, sent his mother, Helena, on a trip to the Holy Land, and convened the first of four Christian ecumenical councils at Nicaea in 325 AD, a meeting which began the process to define the orthodox Christian faith. The hope, literally "lifted up" in Constantine's battles, paved the road for the Christianization of the western world.
Sometimes, God lifts up hope for his creatures when humans desperately seek hope. In the case of the Hebrews in the wilderness, however, the "chosen people" were driven to the search for hope by God's punishment. Perhaps the story implies that they were heading in a hopeless journey of abandonment of the God who had delivered them from slavery. God hit them with a two-by-four. The fiery snakes were only a foretaste of their future fueled by reckless apostasy. Only more "fiery snakes" awaited them in a future of godless destitution given over to self-indulgence and pride.
Recourse to the faith of Sinai drove the people to cast their eyes upon the bronze snake of healing. Hope was restored and the road to the promised land was rediscovered.
Today's people of God are not safe from the temptation to backslide. A well-known gambler answered the altar call at a revival. The preacher asked him to burn his cards and his gambling equipment in front of witnesses as a testimony to his conversion. He answered, "I can't do that because if I did, what would I do if I backslid?"
Lent is the time to confess our propensity to abandon life in and with God. When we're "in the money," we forget whence material blessings come. We forget our promises to share with others. We complain if we're losing the battle to keep up with the Joneses. Manna and water are not enough. We want to drink the best wines, own the high-end automobiles, and live in spacious homes with at least three televisions and an entertainment room with stadium seating. What God gives to us is ours, we believe, not God's things given to us to share with others in God's name. Perhaps unemployment and health crises are God's "fiery snakes," snakes of grace lifted up to drive us back to our senses.
The girl, Helen Keller, was taken hundreds of times by Miss Sullivan to the well with the pump. Her tutor held Helen's hands beneath the flow of water and patiently spelled out the letters, w-a-t-e-r, on Helen's palm. Poor Helen, totally dumb, blind, and deaf, just didn't get it.
Suddenly, one day, the child grabbed the hand of her teacher and in turn spelled out the word, w-a-t-e-r. The months of patience paid off. Why did it take so long for Helen to recognize the freedom and grace offered to her by her teacher? Why does it take so long for the drug addict to make that life-saving decision? Why does it take so long for many to discover the life that faith in God offers? Later, Helen Keller said of herself, "I was a no-thing living in a no-world and I did not know that I was."
We struggle and hobble along in lives that are only half-lives. We are, in part, "no-things" living in a "no-world" and we do not know that we are.
The young man, Augustine, lived a life of hedonism and abandon until, alone in a garden in Milan, prompted by a soft voice, he began to read the letter of Saint Paul to the Romans. His eyes fell upon the words, "let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:13-14). Further inspired by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, the young man gave up his concubine and became the Bishop of Hippo, perhaps the greatest Christian thinker the world will ever know.
Augustine was driven by the fiery poison of his loose living to gaze upon the Christ on the tree and "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." The young North African replaced the destructive fire of reveling and licentiousness for the fire of faith in Christ. It can happen to anyone: a felon in prison, a corporate head who turns from greed to compassion for his or her employees who depend upon the company pension, a runaway teen who returns to the love of the parental home.
God revealed his love in the bronze serpent in the wilderness. God revealed his love again in the man on the cross. "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" (John 3:16). Amen.
