Today's Scripture Readings
Numbers 21: 4-9 (NRSV)
Ephesians 2: 1-10 (NRSV)
John 3: 14-21 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
Most of us know what it is to move forward reluctantly, but still clinging to what we left behind. Even in the 21st Century, we love nostalgia. We long for the return of the days of sitcoms that were actually funny on TV, perhaps an economy that was working better for all of us, or an age that did not know what September 11th means. As much as we need to live our life in the here and now, taking care of ourselves in the present to move along, we just can't seem to leave the past behind us.
I think this is what was happening to the Israelites in today's reading from Numbers. Most of us just cannot imagine what they might have loved about being slaves in Egypt. They were forced into slave labor. Their first born sons were thrown in to the Nile. Why would they want to go back to that? In Egypt they had their food supply. They had their variety. Now, here they were. Wandering about in the desert for some forty years. Most of their ancestors had died. Years before, they grumbled against Yahweh that they had not food or water. God provided them manna from heaven and water from the rock. But, for them, that wasn't enough.
It appears from the narrative told that Yahweh had just had it with these people. They found themselves facing serpents that were biting the people, causing illness and death. When they cried out to Yahweh, realizing that they had messed up, again. God through Moses' staff gave them the bronze serpent. Those who looked upon the bronze serpent were healed.
Now, wait just a minute. Didn't God punish the people of Israel for worshiping the golden calf in Exodus 32? Didn't God say in Exodus 20: 4 and 5a "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything is in heaven or above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them..."?
Minnesota United Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck preached on this very idea in her sermon at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral today. To understand what the issue with the serpent was, you have to go back to while the Israelites were in Egypt. In Exodus 7: 8-13 is the story of how Aaron through down his staff and it became a snake. When Pharaoh's sorcerers through down their staffs, they also became snakes. But, Aaron's snake swallowed theirs. Thus the serpent of God was more powerful than the that of Pharaoh.
The serpents were a reminder of how much injustice they experienced in Egypt. To turn back would return them to disaster. Only by looking at the bronze serpent could they see that moving forward on God's terms was the way they would in due time, see the promised land that God promised to their ancestors.
When I think about what all of this might mean for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people, Christians and other wise, is that we must continue moving forward. As I read the story of Moses and the serpents, I am reminded of how serpent like ex-gay and/or reparative therapy groups are. They literally want to take LGBTQ people back to seeing our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression as something awful. Ex-gay groups want us to go back to the days when we had a secure future, so long as we did not dare to love another person physically, without a healthy attitude towards who we really are. They want us to go back to those closets of death. Where we lived according to the opinions of others, especially Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics/Anglicans/Orthodox etc. A time when our parents were proud of us, so long as they thought we were straight or single gender minded.
If we go back to those days, as ex-gay groups suggest, we shall only be hurting ourselves and others around us all the more. We may have the better promise of owning the family business someday, or getting family money to go to college, or our inheritance back. But, we will have sacrificed our true dignity and handed over ourselves in to the enslaved world of dishonesty and self rejection.
It is no accident that the Gospel for this weekend picks up on the theme of Moses and the serpent. Jesus starts there, and then leads us to who he really is. God's Son, whom God sent so that everyone who believes in him, regardless of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression or any other name that is among the marginalized, can have eternal life. Jesus came into the world not to condemn it, or any one of us in particular, but that we might be saved through the Son of God.
The verses that follow scare me a bit, because they might imply some anti-Semitism, and/or against any other religion. These verses need to be understood from the point of what this means for Christians. There are many Christians who claim to believe in Jesus Christ, who live as though they had never known him, especially with regards to how we live in relationship with those who are different from ourselves. I believe this is the "light" vs the "darkness" that Jesus is referring to here.
To live in the love and light of Jesus Christ is to recognize our own frail humanity. To see ourselves as in need of God's saving grace through faith as is mentioned in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. What has come to us, in Jesus, was not something we did by ourselves. It was because of God's unconditional and all-inclusive love, that the Light of Jesus Christ came into the world, to save us from our sins and to lead us to heal those broken relationships that are in the darkest places of our lives.
For those people who insist that the Christian Faith is about fear of hell only, and being sure that we remain a religion that rejects all others, shames women who have abortions and use contraception, LGBT people, and other races and cultures etc, they are already in a darkness. The light of Faith was lit, and then extinguished through the darkness hate speech, encouraging violence through bullying and scare tactics born out of ignorance and stereotyping. All in the name of making Christianity a religion of exclusion and a set of litmus tests, that almost all of us would fail.
The authentic Christianity that Jesus founded, was one that sought out the marginalized and those who lived with injustice and oppression, to find in God the compassionate and merciful Savior. One who would call all of us by name (see Isaiah 43: 1-2) and invite them with generous hospitality and the opportunity for healing and reconciliation. The Christian Faith that Jesus began welcomed diversity of opinions with the opportunity to find peace amidst conflict born out of necessity. The idea of one group of people dominating another, was constantly and consistently rejected and avoided.
As we move forward in the remaining two weeks of Lent, we go towards Jerusalem where we will walk the way of the Cross with Jesus. At the Cross we will be embraced by the loving outstretched arms of Jesus, as God and humankind are united in a holy and self sacrificing bond. The willingness to lay down our lives for the one's we love. Without exception. Even those who often place us on the Cross. Even those who reject us, call us names. Those who won't listen to us try to explain to them, why LGBT people are good Christian people. In spite of all, we are called to love them. And lay down our lives, Even forgive them, for they know not what they do.
All of this requires a certain death to self. A willingness to let go of what was before, embracing the Cross in the here and now, and moving forward with love and light as our new direction. With God's grace we will arrive with Jesus at the empty tomb on Easter Day, having experienced the resurrection.
Amen.
Prayers
Numbers 21: 4-9 (NRSV)
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.
Ephesians 2: 1-10 (NRSV)
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
John 3: 14-21 (NRSV)
Jesus said to Nicodemus, "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."
Blog Reflection
Most of us know what it is to move forward reluctantly, but still clinging to what we left behind. Even in the 21st Century, we love nostalgia. We long for the return of the days of sitcoms that were actually funny on TV, perhaps an economy that was working better for all of us, or an age that did not know what September 11th means. As much as we need to live our life in the here and now, taking care of ourselves in the present to move along, we just can't seem to leave the past behind us.
I think this is what was happening to the Israelites in today's reading from Numbers. Most of us just cannot imagine what they might have loved about being slaves in Egypt. They were forced into slave labor. Their first born sons were thrown in to the Nile. Why would they want to go back to that? In Egypt they had their food supply. They had their variety. Now, here they were. Wandering about in the desert for some forty years. Most of their ancestors had died. Years before, they grumbled against Yahweh that they had not food or water. God provided them manna from heaven and water from the rock. But, for them, that wasn't enough.
It appears from the narrative told that Yahweh had just had it with these people. They found themselves facing serpents that were biting the people, causing illness and death. When they cried out to Yahweh, realizing that they had messed up, again. God through Moses' staff gave them the bronze serpent. Those who looked upon the bronze serpent were healed.
Now, wait just a minute. Didn't God punish the people of Israel for worshiping the golden calf in Exodus 32? Didn't God say in Exodus 20: 4 and 5a "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything is in heaven or above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them..."?
Minnesota United Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck preached on this very idea in her sermon at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral today. To understand what the issue with the serpent was, you have to go back to while the Israelites were in Egypt. In Exodus 7: 8-13 is the story of how Aaron through down his staff and it became a snake. When Pharaoh's sorcerers through down their staffs, they also became snakes. But, Aaron's snake swallowed theirs. Thus the serpent of God was more powerful than the that of Pharaoh.
The serpents were a reminder of how much injustice they experienced in Egypt. To turn back would return them to disaster. Only by looking at the bronze serpent could they see that moving forward on God's terms was the way they would in due time, see the promised land that God promised to their ancestors.
When I think about what all of this might mean for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people, Christians and other wise, is that we must continue moving forward. As I read the story of Moses and the serpents, I am reminded of how serpent like ex-gay and/or reparative therapy groups are. They literally want to take LGBTQ people back to seeing our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression as something awful. Ex-gay groups want us to go back to the days when we had a secure future, so long as we did not dare to love another person physically, without a healthy attitude towards who we really are. They want us to go back to those closets of death. Where we lived according to the opinions of others, especially Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics/Anglicans/Orthodox etc. A time when our parents were proud of us, so long as they thought we were straight or single gender minded.
If we go back to those days, as ex-gay groups suggest, we shall only be hurting ourselves and others around us all the more. We may have the better promise of owning the family business someday, or getting family money to go to college, or our inheritance back. But, we will have sacrificed our true dignity and handed over ourselves in to the enslaved world of dishonesty and self rejection.
It is no accident that the Gospel for this weekend picks up on the theme of Moses and the serpent. Jesus starts there, and then leads us to who he really is. God's Son, whom God sent so that everyone who believes in him, regardless of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression or any other name that is among the marginalized, can have eternal life. Jesus came into the world not to condemn it, or any one of us in particular, but that we might be saved through the Son of God.
The verses that follow scare me a bit, because they might imply some anti-Semitism, and/or against any other religion. These verses need to be understood from the point of what this means for Christians. There are many Christians who claim to believe in Jesus Christ, who live as though they had never known him, especially with regards to how we live in relationship with those who are different from ourselves. I believe this is the "light" vs the "darkness" that Jesus is referring to here.
To live in the love and light of Jesus Christ is to recognize our own frail humanity. To see ourselves as in need of God's saving grace through faith as is mentioned in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. What has come to us, in Jesus, was not something we did by ourselves. It was because of God's unconditional and all-inclusive love, that the Light of Jesus Christ came into the world, to save us from our sins and to lead us to heal those broken relationships that are in the darkest places of our lives.
For those people who insist that the Christian Faith is about fear of hell only, and being sure that we remain a religion that rejects all others, shames women who have abortions and use contraception, LGBT people, and other races and cultures etc, they are already in a darkness. The light of Faith was lit, and then extinguished through the darkness hate speech, encouraging violence through bullying and scare tactics born out of ignorance and stereotyping. All in the name of making Christianity a religion of exclusion and a set of litmus tests, that almost all of us would fail.
The authentic Christianity that Jesus founded, was one that sought out the marginalized and those who lived with injustice and oppression, to find in God the compassionate and merciful Savior. One who would call all of us by name (see Isaiah 43: 1-2) and invite them with generous hospitality and the opportunity for healing and reconciliation. The Christian Faith that Jesus began welcomed diversity of opinions with the opportunity to find peace amidst conflict born out of necessity. The idea of one group of people dominating another, was constantly and consistently rejected and avoided.
As we move forward in the remaining two weeks of Lent, we go towards Jerusalem where we will walk the way of the Cross with Jesus. At the Cross we will be embraced by the loving outstretched arms of Jesus, as God and humankind are united in a holy and self sacrificing bond. The willingness to lay down our lives for the one's we love. Without exception. Even those who often place us on the Cross. Even those who reject us, call us names. Those who won't listen to us try to explain to them, why LGBT people are good Christian people. In spite of all, we are called to love them. And lay down our lives, Even forgive them, for they know not what they do.
All of this requires a certain death to self. A willingness to let go of what was before, embracing the Cross in the here and now, and moving forward with love and light as our new direction. With God's grace we will arrive with Jesus at the empty tomb on Easter Day, having experienced the resurrection.
Amen.
Prayers
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down
from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world:
Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in
him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Fourth Sunday in Lent, Book of Common Prayer, p. 219).
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen. (Collect for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 217).
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on
the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within
the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit
that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those
who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for
the honor of your Name. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 101).
No comments:
Post a Comment