Numbers 21: 4-9 (NRSV)
From Mount Hor they 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.
Psalm 98 (BCP., p. 727)
Galatians 6: 14-18 (NRSV)
May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule-- peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
John 12: 31-36a (NRSV)
Jesus said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" Jesus said to them, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light."
Blog Reflection
My former Spiritual Director, Abbot Anselm of Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland once told me:
"The best way to beat the devil at his game, is to take something meant for evil and grow in grace because of it."
In today's Brother, Give Us A Word, Brother Kevin Hackett of the Society of St. John the Evangelist wrote:
"By focusing on the cross and its place in our lives (rather than its place in Jesus’ life), we are reminded in stark relief that an integral part of the life to which Jesus calls us includes disappointment and defeat and suffering and death. This does not immediately sound like good news, I’ll admit, but it is the truth."
The quotes from Fr. Abbot Anselm and Br. Kevin are the reason I chose to the reading from Numbers used in today's Morning Prayer as opposed to the chosen reading from the Lectionary to be used for the Eucharist.
The reading from Numbers seems so odd for us. The idea of God sending snakes to bite and kill people, just doesn't sound very good. It sounds a lot like those who suggest that Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans, Louisiana a couple weeks ago because of Southern Decadence. However, we need to read this from the view point of the people and the times in which they lived. Numbers was not written at the time in which these stories would have taken place. The book itself suggests that it came from about the period of 400 B.C.E. However, it is most likely that it would have been written between 1500-1200 B.C.E. well after the Babylonian Exile. Having said that, these events would have been shared by way of an oral tradition, long before it would have been written down. Therefore, we need to be very careful about interpreting these as if God must send bad things, because of things we do. I do not believe that is the point of this reading.
There is something important to look at from the point of Moses holding up a golden image by which people are now healed. Didn't God punish Israel severely for worshiping the golden calf in Exodus 32? Here a snake of gold placed upon the staff of Moses is used to heal people. What might we take away from this?
One answer might be that the things that happen in our lives that are so dreadfully evil, can also become very beneficial if we put God at the center of our lives instead of the circumstances of what is going on. We become so focused on why something happened or the potential end, whether it is actual or imagined, and it becomes our idol. It robs us of our center and we become slaves to something that has no business owning us. This is very much what happens with addictions. We become so obsessed with how the alcohol makes us feel, how talking meanly to our spouse or children, or someone different from ourselves, that we can no longer hear God calling us to holiness. We must at some point refocus our hearts and minds on who we are to serve, rather than what we are giving all of our life's energy to.
As we celebrate today the Holy Cross on which Christ died, I think what Br. Kevin wrote is very true. We can become so focused on Christ dying on the Cross for our sins (for which we should indeed be very thankful), and forget that we too have our own dying to do. Not just physical death, which will happen to us all, but also the death of our immaturity so that we may grow more into the likeness of the Divine Savior who is Jesus the Christ.
Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel that he was lifted up so to draw others to himself. Yet, he reminds us, as does St. Benedict in his Rule: "Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness will not overtake you" (John 12: 35, Rule of Benedict substitutes the word: "Walk" for "Run" RB 1980, Prologue, vs. 13, p. 159). All we have is what is before us, right here, right now. What we have is what we have. As Sally Field's character Momma in the movie Forrest Gump said on her death bed: "You do the best you can with what God gave you."
As lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, we have been given our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression by God's creative grace.
Patrick S. Cheng writes extensively about a particular sin and grace with regards to LGBT people in his book From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ, in Chapter 9, Model Five: The Self-Loving Christ. I understand Fr. Cheng to suggest that we must seek God's continual graces so that instead of living in shame as many Christianists would have us do, we will be able to live with a sense of pride. By pride, we do not mean the kind that says we are any better than anyone else. However, the shame that is a sin in and/of itself that says we are worse than everyone else, is nothing but a bold face lie that comes from the immaturity of the discrimination and oppression of those who cannot see the effects of their attitudes and behaviors beyond themselves. What looks like a lifestyle of sin and shame to them, must become the source of grace and healing for us. As they attempt to push us further and further away from what is true, we must embrace the Cross and so die to what they say we are, and become true about who we are. Rather than give in to unhealthy relationships and behaviors such as alcoholism and sexual abuses that give their claim of our shame lots of power, however, inappropriate it is, we must seek healthy, wholesome and life-giving relationships that speak of the radical dying to self that the Cross demands of us. This is the kind of pride that comes by way of the grace of God. It is not earned, nor is it something that can just be assumed or taken for granted. It comes to us as a gift of God, through the redemption of Christ and the Cross.
On this Holy Cross Day, we are being asked to see opportunities for growth as the way we can carry our own crosses. This upcoming Sunday, we will read about how Jesus calls us to discipleship by carrying our cross and following him. For many of us who are among the marginalized of the Church and society, that will mean that we do not live or think according to those negative attitudes and rhetoric around us, but rather by that truth that sets us free, when we accept and embrace ourselves and others around us. Such as accepting the commandment to love one another as we have been loved. Even if we are hated for all the wrong reasons. It may come by way of being totally disgusted and speaking up about the evils perpetrated upon the Muslim people in Libya and elsewhere, and politicians here in the US making remarks about them for their own political advantage.
We are challenged today to live out our own crosses by looking at the difficulties and disappointments we face, and growing in grace from and because of them. Even if that means we lose some prestige or popularity. Even if it means that by death, we will have new life.
Amen.
Prayers
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted
high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to
himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery
of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and
follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Collect for Holy Cross Day, Book of Common Prayer, p. 243).
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always
those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without
you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 14, Book of Common Prayer, p. 232).
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he
was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way
of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and
peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (A Collect for Fridays, Book of Common Prayer, p.99).
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