Rev Hugh Perry
Theme: Snakes and Darkness to the Light of Christ
Numbers 21: 4-9
This reading opens with a typical whinging in the wilderness prevalent in the Exodus saga and moves into a strange story that, Maurice Andrew says is not to be taken literally but, seeks to explain that the bronze serpent, which was to be found in the temple, was not a forbidden graven image.
The complaints arise in our reading because the Edomites refused to allow passage through their land so a detour had to be made.[1]
The significance for us is the allusion to it in John’s Gospel where the image of the snake on the pole is substituted by the crucified Jesus.
Hear what the spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
John 3:14-21
This reading is part of the theological discourse given to Nicodemus which starts at the beginning of chapter 3 with Nicodemus coming in the night to Jesus.
From the opening of this sermon on, salvation by baptism, Jesus uses crucifixion as a saving symbol. Just as the serpent, a symbol of evil from Genesis, becomes a symbol that heals those afflicted by snake bites so the symbol of evil in a cruel and tortuous death, becomes a symbol that gives life and, lifting up to die on the cross, becomes lifting up to resurrection.
In Numbers, God passes judgement on the people but in this passage the judgement is self-judgement in accepting the transforming light or ignoring it.
Bill Loader writes:
This sets the scene for 3:14-15 which belong closely with what precedes. The Son of Man must be ‘lifted up’. Like the ascent in 3:13 this refers to the event which begins at Jesus’ death. ‘Lifted up’ is wonderfully ambiguous. He will be lifted up on a cross. He will also be lifted up/exalted to God’s presence. John plays on the double meaning in typical fashion. Here he uses what may have already been a traditional association between Jesus’ death and the snakes in the wilderness. A Crucified Jesus is like the bronze snake which Moses fashioned and put on a pole.
John is tending away from a picture of God who wants to punish people forever towards a picture of God who wants life for people. Whatever our own solution to the issues of inclusion and exclusion, John’s Gospel asks us to recognise, that to reject the love, light and truth we see in Jesus, is to choose death.[2]
Sermon
As a boy I used to listen to a radio programme called ‘My Word.’ You will not be surprised to learn that I liked it because of the way it manipulated words in a way that was funny. In the introduction the listener was told that it was a programme about words by people whose business was words.
John the Gospel writer was obviously in the word business. He manipulated words extracting meaning from them in the way he twisted and arranged them. Many of the writers of what we call the Old Testament played the same games and if we could read ancient Hebrew, we would find that they used puns as well as allusion and quotations from older texts.
This twisting and turning of words and meaning is very apparent in today’s Gospel reading that contains layer upon layer of meaning as John passes on to us the passion he has for following Jesus, and his enthusiasm for encouraging others to also follow Jesus.
The interesting thing about the use of a snake as a symbol in today’s readings is that it is an image that twists and turns through scripture in a very snake like way.
Beginning in Genesis it is the serpent that tempts humanity away from the limitations God imposes. The snake therefore becomes the symbol of the evil side of humanity that turns away from God.
Therefore, it is logical that image is picked up in our Numbers reading where snakes are the punishment for complaining about the freedom God has given the people.
Complaining about freedom’, or as I like to call it, ‘whinging in the wilderness’ is a constant theme that runs through the Exodus saga and highlights the reality that to be truly free means to live off the resources of the journey.
We have recently remembered the devastating damage Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle inflicted on the North Island bring floods and loss of life to Auckland and isolating parts of the East Coast around Gisborne.
As the stories of those isolated communities emerged, we not only learned of acts of heroism but also people who did what they could with what they had. People who had bulldozers and people who had inflatable boats who cleared paths and recued people off roofs. Surf lifesavers that took their IRBs up rivers instead of out to sea. People who accepted the journey and made the most of what they had.
But complaining about adversity and inconvenience is also alive and well in Aotearoa. We recently lived through the first and most deadly wave of a pandemic. Our death rate was lower than most nations in the world. But just like Moses’ people folk had to divert their journey to avoid conflict. There was a cost to avoiding a potentially deadly pandemic. Closed boarders enforced quarantine, and compulsory vaccination for those employed caring for people interfered with a lot of peoples’ individual journeys and personal beliefs. So, they not only complained bitterly but made up alternative facts.
Recently real estate agent Janet Dickson has taken legal action against her Continue reading Sunday 10th March