“Impatience and Eternity” A Lenten Sermon Preached by
Reverend W. Dale Osborne on March 22, 2009
Lectionary Texts: Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-21
This is the fourth Sunday in the Christian season called Lent. Around the world people like
you and me are living out their Lenten promises as a way of connecting more fully to the life
Jesus encouraged us to live. From Bangkok to Barcelona, our friends in Christ are patiently
and sometimes impatiently waiting for the promises of Easter. . . . There are millions of people who count Jesus as their redeemer and teacher who are
consciously and unconsciously seeking God’s abiding presence as they make their way on
the journey we call life. The lectionary readings from scripture on this fourth Sunday of Lent
can encourage the faithful to be focused on facing our fears, stretching our patience and
receiving the gift of eternity in Christ.
Our Old Testament reading is from the book of Numbers which is the fourth book of the
Hebrew Torah. The Torah which means teaching or instruction is composed of the first five
books of what we Christians call the Old Testament. Do any of our young people know why
this fourth book of the Torah is called Numbers? How did it earn this name? Most scholars
believe it is called Numbers because of how it begins. The book of Numbers begins with the
first census of Israel. A census is something we do at least every ten years here in the United
States. The book of Numbers details how the first census was taken for Israel. A census is
just a proper way of saying “Let’s count everyone who is part of our tribe or state or country.
Let’s find out what our total number of people is.” If the book of Numbers was just a census
it would have been quite boring. Thankfully it contains more than just numbers. Following
the census chapters there are several chapters containing laws. Laws are boring for some
people too. In order to keep Numbers more readable for people like me, the story-telling or
narrative section begins in Chapter 9. It follows the people of Israel from near the southern
tip of the Sinai Peninsula to Moab, which is east of Palestine, over a period of 38 years.
Numbers is less a history book and more of a recollection of how God and the people of
Israel interacted during their journey away from slavery in Egypt and toward their promised
land. Today’s lesson from Chapter 21 focuses on a critical time of heated, strained and
reconnected relationships between the Israelite people, their earthly leader Moses and
Yahweh, their God.
. . . .Our story finds the Israelite people due southwest of the Dead Sea. Their leader and main
connection to Yahweh is Moses. Moses who had worked so hard to convince Pharaoh to let
the Hebrew people go now had a bit of an angry mob on his hands. According to the New
Interpreters Bible Commentary, during their journey from Egypt to Palestine, the Bible tells
us of eight rebellions: six of the people against their leaders and God, and two of their leaders
against God. In today's reading, the people rebel against Moses and God. The people are
“impatient” or short-tempered because Moses has refused to engage Edom in battle and,
therefore their journey to Palestine is made longer. They are also impatient and angry
because of “this miserable food”. The miserable food was the “manna” which God had sent
to them when they were hungry in the wilderness. The people are resenting what God gives
them freely. In response to their anger and impatience, God sends “poisonous serpents”
whose bites become inflamed on the people who are bitten shortly before they die. The
people don’t like this course of events at all. The biting and the pain and the death made
them rethink their impatience and anger. Eventually, they repent, and ask Moses to intercede
for them. “Pray to the LORD” they beseech Moses in verse 7. God replies that the people
will be healed through a symbol, a bronze or copper snake on a pole. Those who are bitten by
the poisonous snakes are asked to look at the bronze snake on the pole in order to be saved
and healed from their poisonous plight.
This story of impatience and anger towards leaders and towards God rings true on many
levels today. I think of the great anger and impatience that people in the United States and
around the world are feeling due to the collapse of our financial systems. People are being
bitten by mortgage debts as they see their homes foreclosed. Unscrupulous lenders and
merchants of Wall St seem to be poisoned by greed. We cry out to our leaders to take away
our pain. Send the swindlers to jail where they belong we say! What then shall we look at in
order to ease our pain? What can be raised up on a pole for us to gaze upon and find healing?
. . . .The disciples who followed Jesus during his three years of recorded ministry on earth in and
around Galilee had reason to be impatient. They longed for a kingdom that might give them
power and security. The new disciples of Jesus who composed the early church after his
death were also impatient. They had access to John’s record of the Gospel which could have
prompted either anxiety or serenity depending on how it was interpreted for them. Many of
them hoped that Jesus would be returning soon. How long would they have to wait patiently
for an age of grace and hope to be realized? What could be raised up for them to heal the ills
of the impatience, anxiety and anger early Christians experienced in the face of oppression by
the ruling authorities?
John offered to them what he could based on his interpretation of God’s actions at work in
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God did not raise up a bronze serpent on a pole as
Moses had been instructed to do hundreds of years in their past. God moved in a new
direction to quell the fears of an impatient people. The words of the Gospel are just as
compelling to me and millions of Christians today as they were nearly two thousand years
ago. They are words of solace and of hope in the midst of turbulent times. They are words
of eternity in the face of impatience. In John 3: 14-17 we read, “And 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 God gave the 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.”
I have always found it boldest and best to deal with impatience and anger through the eyes,
ears and heart of eternity. In Christ, through Christ and with Christ there is eternal hope,
eternal love and eternal life. For this I am eternally grateful. Thanks be to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment