our uncontrollable god turns sin into healing: 4th of lent

the first reading is from numbers 21:4-9

the second reading is from ephesians 2:1-10

the holy gospel according to john (3:14-21)

Jesus said,

       “¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

              so must the Son-of-Man be lifted up,

                     ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

       ¹⁶“For God loved the world in this way,

              that God gave the Son,

                     the only begotten one,

                            so that everyone who believes in him may not perish

                                   but may have eternal life.

       ¹⁷“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.

              ¹⁸Those 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.

                     ¹⁹And this is the judgment,

                            that the light has come into the world,

                            and people loved darkness rather than light

                                   because their deeds were evil.

                                   ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light

                                          and do not come to the light,

                                                 so that their deeds may not be exposed.

                                   ²¹But 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.”

the gospel of the lord.

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many times when we think about god, we tend to think of god as a pretty consistent, dependable, even comfortable deity.  god is that.  god is dependable and a consistent source of love and forgiveness, but god is much more complex than that.  god can do more than any of us could imagine and yet we frequently try to box god in. 

we try to make god in our image instead of realizing that together all of humanity is made in the image of god.  it is our way of trying to find some control in a world that feels uncontrollable.  we make everything simple, so that there are black and white answers to god and to our world, even when the world is not only made up of shades of gray, but of rainbows of hues and tones!  and as much as i would occasionally really like to control god, to box god in, i cannot.

in the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, by c. s. lewis, lucy, susan, and mr. beaver are talking about aslan, the lion and christ-figure in the story, before the children meet him.  upon finding out that he’s a lion, lucy asks if he’s safe.  mr. beaver responds, “safe? …who said anything about safe?  ‘course he isn’t safe.  but he’s good.  he’s the king, i tell you.”

that’s god.  god is good.  but god is not safe.  god is more complex than i could imagine.  martin luther talked about the left hand of god, or the hiddenness of god.  there is a certain amount that we can know about god from scripture, from our experiences, and from the right hand of god, god incarnate: jesus.  there is much, however, that we can’t know about god, because it’s too much or too foreign to us.  that’s the left hand. 

god is just too complex for us to fully understand, which also means that god can hold the full complexity of me.  god can handle all of my emotions, from ridiculous joy and excitement to my whining and complaining with the israelites of the unfamiliar freedom that god brings.

this complex god is also, as mr. beaver points out, not safe.  good?  yes.  but not safe.  the story of the exodus which we talked about a bit last week is a story of an unsafe god who displays power and might with walking sticks that become serpents, plagues that terrorize all of the inhabitants of egypt—israelites included—massive clouds and fire by day and night.  and now: snakes. 

god is not controllable.  god is caring and puts up with our whining and complaining and even our anger, yet when the israelites grumble about god’s gift of manna—sustenance in their wilderness journey, god has had enough and lets the poisonous serpents roam free.              this is a god i am uncomfortable with.  god who sends poisonous serpents among the people.  poisonous serpents that cause death.

but perhaps the poison was there all along.  the self-centeredness and doubt that curve us in on ourselves to choose sin, death, captivity in a world that doesn’t value us, because at least that’s something we know and are familiar with.  we begin to see only our country, only our community, then that is still so uncontrollable that we focus on our own family or our own selves, ignoring the rest of the world, ignoring the future that we share.  the poison seeps into our lives, slowly increasing until before we know it, that’s all we eat, drink, and breathe.

and then, with a start, we realize that there are poisonous serpents all around us and people are dying—of homelessness and hunger, of ignorance and hate, of violence and spite, of depression and anxiety.  and so we pray.  we pray to an uncontrollable god to take the poison away, but that’s not how god works.  the poison is a consequence of sin and evil—of the brokenness of our world.

instead, god takes the poisonous serpent, the result of our sin, and transforms it into the source of our healing.  not only that, but lifting it up brings our curved in selves and our eyes up to see god, to see the gift of the world as god creates it to be: full of healing, life, and love.

“even when we were dead through our trespasses, [god] made us alive together with christ—by grace you have been saved.”  even in the deepest depths of our sin, god has the power and transforms our sin into salvation.  god brings healing and wholeness even when we only see death.

when we are able to honestly face our sin and brokenness, then we can begin to heal.  god knows this and makes it possible.  god gives the israelites a bronze serpent, a source of separation since the beginning in genesis with the garden of eden, and a symbol of sin and brokenness as the israelites grumble about the gift of food.  and this becomes the source of healing for the israelites and us even until today.  our medical symbols are snakes on a pole for a reason.

so too does facing our sins and brokenness on the cross, bring healing.  when we face the facts of our imperfections, then we can stop trying to be perfect and rest in the comfort that “we are what god has made us, created in christ jesus for good works, which god prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”  

perhaps the scariest thing for me about god is that god creates us to be ourselves, not to be perfect.  when we stop thinking that everything and everyone depends on us, when we stop trying to control the uncontrollable world, then jesus reveals himself as the true savior, lifted up on the cross, for the healing of the whole world.

we still do not have a docile, tame god.  just last week we heard of jesus flipping tables and chasing everyone out of the temple with a whip.  our god is fierce and uncontrollable.  i can’t contain god, god is not safe. there will always be poisonous serpents in our midst.  god won’t keep us from all harm…but god does keep us in all harm.  god is fiercest against evil and god fights with us.  god comes to be with us and to be lifted up, crucified and glorified on the cross.

there are many small ways that we get caught up in sin and brokenness each day, getting bit and biting others, and god is always there, raising sin into the light so we can see it for what it is.  as we lift our eyes to jesus on the cross, we recognize the brokenness and name it as sin and evil, and receive healing as god makes “us alive [again] together with christ—by grace you have been saved.”

thanks be to god.