3/15
 |
| Amanda |
Our friend Executive
Presbyter Bob Foltz-Morrison has joined us for worship this morning. And as the
service begins, Amanda has joined us as well .
As we continue our series, Pathways: Into the
wilderness and out again today’s special theme is The
Path of Love. We begin with our Lenten chant: Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within my
soul with it's eastern European Jewish feel.
Our lessons begin with
the strange snakes in the desert
story of Numbers 21: 4-9. And in honor
of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day sing Be Thou My Vision, Amanda coming
forward to join Jeremy and I. We do Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22 with the refrain His steadfast love endures forever. Our Gospel lesson, John 2: 13-22, brings back those snakes
again. Time for reflection.
Did you ever hear the story about two people in a restaurant?
The first says The food here is terrible and the second says, yes, and such small portions…that’s what
our first lesson or as I call it the prequel is like today…it’s like the Bible written by Yogi Berra…
The people say, For there
is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food. They’re in the
wilderness and they’re miserable and for the first time they grumble not only
against Moses but also against God.
And all of sudden there are nasty snakes biting them. And of
course the author says it’s punishment…a
classic post hoc ergo proctor hoc
logical fallacy, IE, after this because
of this…(one of the best course I ever took was my college logic course
that helped me understand all the classic logic fallacies from Latin
debate…once you’ve studied them, you know them when you hear them…)
It makes sense. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone
in the hospital say,…I don’t know what I must
have done to deserve this… We’d rather believe in punishment than randomness…that’s
almost too scary.
And what happens? Why doesn’t God just get rid of the snakes? Or just heal the people?
Instead we have this lifting up on a
staff…(like sympathetic magic…) and they have to look on the raised snake to be healed…
(Like the hangover cure…a
bite of the snake that bit you…)
I could go off on a whole snake here….the Greek staff of Aeschylus…the role of the snake
in native American culture…physicians and EMS symbols…we retain this serpentine
iconography in our own culture.
(And can we work
St.Patrick in there somehow?)
Two points…eventually, over the years, this snake on a rod
became the object of worship so Hezekiah had to get rid of it...that’s what we
do…mistake the symbol for the essence, the door to truth for the ultimate
truth…this is the source of a lot of religious problems, mistaking the symbol
for the reality.
Second.. the story tells us how people were feeling about
God…there’s nothing gentle here…remember…they’d witnessed nasty plagues,
killing of the first born,a drowning Egyptian army..…sure, all for their
freedom, but it couldn't help but make you nervous….
We’re talking about all this because it's a key symbol so much
in the Gospel story..
It’s part of an ongoing conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus…Jesus
somehow comparing himself to that snake on a cross…it’s a bit of a head scratcher…
What
is it we’re supposed to see? Lifted up….in Jesus’ being lifted
up, what do we see?
First…and really get this…the cross was a from of state
terrorism…Roman citizens, , would be asked to drink hemlock…that’s like the (supposedly) more humane
lethal injection of its day…I remember
when the son of the pastor I was working with in Oklahoma as a state
representative introduced lethal
injection as a humane alternative to electrocution…a supposed step
forward…the pastor was anguished…
No…the cross was for political
prisoners…it was public, scandalous, humiliating…bodies left for all to
see…like public hangings…or maybe lynchings…
A five year study published by the Equal
Justice Initiative in 2015 found that nearly 4,000 black men, women and
children were lynched in the Southern states alone between 1877 and 1950. It’s
shocking to see photos of people with their picnic baskets and children…Keep
that in mind when you see videos of ISIS beheadings…
What are we supposed to see….? When we see Jesus on the cross?
The body on the cross is not to be
worshipped…it’s a door … to John 3:16…
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….
The word
loved here is agape…self-sacrificial
love….Jesus willingness to undergo humiliation on our behalf…
We need to push beyond beyond signs at football games and bumper
stickers…back to the snakes in the wilderness…The cause of the pain is involved in the healing….
The willingness to endure pain for others is the pathway to
healing…but see
this…it’s not the suffering itself…it’s a doorway ,a pathway..it is never about look what I did for you, OK?
How’s that work? In AA one person’s experience
of healing can help another’s … my loss of a child helps me be with you in your
loss…your experience of divorce can help me in mine…see how this works?
In his willingness to suffer for others, Jesus
is lifted up…the people who endured bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettis, Jr.
bridge 50 years did so on behalf of those who couldn’t step on the bridge..
Last week I visited with my new friend David
Goodman. …brother of Andrew Goodman..we lifted up Andrew and James Cheney and
Mickey Schwerner…their families were right here last June… He went back to
Selma last week. Today….the Foundation dedicated to his brother’s memory has
student ambassadors at 25 colleges. In the fall they do organizing around
voting, encouraging college students to vote. The after elections, they select
a local issue to organize around for the rest of the year. …voting…and
organizing…see how this works? Taking the tragedy of the past to create an hope
for the future….
It’s God
so loved the world…not an exclusionary proposition but a inclusive act of
love…
God so
loved the world…
Once again, as a lead in to our prayers we sing I Want Jesus to Walk With Me. And for our offertory, Jeremy sings the classic He Looked Beyond My Fault
to the tune of Oh Danny Boy. St. Patrick’s Day again with Amanda and i on harmony.
We conclude with He came
down…
He came down that we may
have love, Hallelujah!
…..light
….peace
…..joy
And our service is over.
Amanda sings us two of her songs, one her ghost song from Arkansas and the
other and old Quaker song, Peace from a
silent spring .She stays for our Session meeting to get caught up on what
we’re up to. And then we head to the Gate for brunch. There’a a lot to catch up
on. She’s always good to call us …and me…back to the original vision that began
with sweeping the steps…
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