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Sermon - The Fourth Sunday in Lent (B) - 22nd March 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 and 10am
Readings: Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21
They were their own worst enemies, the Israelites on the move from Egypt to the land of promise, but then, who of us is not? Of all of the harm inflicted upon us in life, is not the most of it self-inflicted? Of all the judgment we encounter in life, is not the majority of it self-imposed? Their own worst enemy, the people were again complaining. Why had Moses brought them out into the wilderness to die? They loathed this food that appeared on the ground daily by God's grace.
God, who was not only providing the daily food but also leading the expedition, responded in judgment, sending fiery serpents to bite and kill the people. I do not understand the concept of God sending serpents. As some are bitten and begin to die, the people flock to Moses, confess their sin against God and plead with Moses to intercede: "God, Take the serpents away." Moses does. God in response does not take away the serpents. Instead, God tells Moses to fashion a brass serpent, affix it to a pole and place it where the people can see it. All who look upon it will be healed. Rather than remove the deadly serpents, God provides an antidote to their venom. Rebellion and sin have their consequences: death. God graciously provides a cure that lies readily at hand for all who will look and live. There is a judgment in that grace: look and live or turn away and die. They can't have it both ways. There is a necessary judgment to God's grace.
This story would probably have faded into the history of wilderness wanderings had not Jesus used it in his conversation with Nicodemus. As Jesus seeks to explain Nicodemus' perception as a result of new birth, Nicodemus is even further confused, and asks, "How can this be?” Jesus replies: "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.” God's antidote to sin and death will be lifted up for all to see, with the invitation: "Look and live."
We regularly sing, "Lift high the cross". The cross is the crux of our faith, the place where we see the love of God revealed, the cost of God's self-giving antidote to the venom of our sin. "Lifted up" means more than the cross. The words "lifted up," both in the Old Testament account of Moses lifting up the serpent and Jesus' words, also mean, "exalt". "As Moses exalted the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of Man be exalted....". Certainly that is how John's first readers would have understood "lifted up," not simply his crucifixion, but also his elevation and exaltation at the resurrection. Jesus was lifted up. He was exalted as Son of Man, the title he most preferred and Son of God. In those three days of suffering, death and resurrection the Church calls the paschal mystery, the Christian Passover, God's love for the world is revealed. When Jesus says, "so must the Son of Man be lifted up," he is talking about more than the way he will die. He is talking about what will be revealed in his death and resurrection, his exaltation as Lord, Christ and Saviour, his role as God's antidote for sin. To look at the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is to see what God has done because of God's love for a world in stubborn, disobedient rebellion. To believe it is to be born anew into life; new life, now! Remember, this is still part of Jesus' answer to Nicodemus about being born anew from above, born into life John calls eternal.
Eternal life: what does that mean? This is another of those double meaning words that John so frequently employs. Eternal life not only means length of life, its duration but also its quality of life. Eternal life is life that is actual, not merely possible and available right now because of what the Triune God has done in the Son. Eternal life is the kind of life that emerges when you and I believe this, when we look and live, when we say "yes". Belief in Jesus does not mean simply thinking something about him is true, that he died to save us from our sin in much the same way you and I believe two plus two equals four. That is simply assent to a fact. Belief in him means living with him as the one who saves us from sin and the one who is the multiplier of this life, life that becomes abundant when you and I put him at the centre of our lives. There he shapes, guides, corrects and leads us into his life, multiplying life into an inexplicable abundance John calls both abundant and eternal. Eternal life is as much about the here and now as it is about life beyond death. This is the grace promised here, promised to all who will look and live.
There is a judgment in that grace, as surely as there was a judgment in the grace of the bronze serpent in the wilderness. Though "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him," here is the judgment: "those who do not believe in the name of the only Son of God are condemned, not simply in the future, but already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
That sits us up in our seats. It startles us. God's act of salvation is, at the same time, an act of judgment? It is a judgment that does not simply wait out there into the future to punish those who have rejected the Son. It is a judgment that is taking place as we speak. What has happened to God's amazing grace, whose sound has been so sweet to our ears? The answer is simply this: it is not sweet to every ear it falls upon. There are those who think that the only way to deal with an enemy is to destroy it. There are those who believe that forgiveness is only for those too weak to take vengeance. There are those who think the world is simply for the taking by those with the most opportunity and determination and those who do, get what is rightfully theirs after all they have earned it, while those who don't, deserve what they don't get. There are even those who believe that killing in the name of God is doing God's work. We live in a world that loves violence and embraces the use of power and violence and rejects the ways of love. There are those in this world for whom any activity that will make money is acceptable if you don't get caught, whether it is dealing in drugs, arms, or the variations on the abuse of human flesh, whether pornography, sexual slavery, sweat shops, or trafficking in illegal entry.
Jesus says it this way: "The light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil". The judgment of God's grace is that it is light in the darkness; it shines light on how we live. God's grace and judgment are not two separate actions, but one. God has given the Son, lifted him up for the life of all to look at, shining his light into this world's darkness. For some that light is a joy and gift to be embraced. For others it is a curse because it sheds light on what they truly love. The coming of the light into the world is not something universally welcomed, but then, we know that. To witness to the light, to talk about what that means for you and what it calls forth from you, will always be heard by some around you as a judgment upon them. It reveals what they truly love and their preference for the dark. It reveals things unacceptable to God, the paraphernalia of human disobedience and stubborn rebellion. Though we call the gospel good news, for some it is not. Rather, it is a crisis that reveals they love darkness more than light.
The judgment of grace is that there is a consequence attached to our decisions and actions that begins to play itself out immediately. Ask the cocaine addict, the alcoholic, the promiscuous person for whom sex is simply physical gratification rather than an act of self-giving to another in committed love. Ask the person losing her life to gain the whole world. Ask the former master of the universe now behind bars because of his greed that made bending accounting rules seem reasonable. It is just the beginning of the self-inflicted judgment on those who love darkness. Just as God did not take the serpents out of the wilderness, God does not remove the darkness from the world. God knows that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also.7
Rather than remove the darkness, God comes as light, driving back the darkness and providing an antidote for the human stain of sin in our blood. God's Son can be embraced at any moment we decide to follow him as Lord and Saviour.
One other thing: when you and I face the light, the shadows of our lives fall behind us, but there is a truth more profound than that. When you and I stand centred in the light, there are now no shadows at all. When you and I put on the light of Christ in baptism and bear him in our daily living, the shadows begin to disappear, until they are gone once and for all. For in Christ's presence there is light everywhere, no darkness, no shadows at all.
This sermon based upon one prepared by The Reverend F R Anderson, 26/3/06 www.mapc.com/html/07_sermons/sermondisplay.asp?sermonDate=3/26/2006&sermonTime=300.