Journey with a snake-on-a-stick

March 15, 2015

4 Lent (Year B)

Numbers 21:4-9

“But the people became impatient on the way.”

I love that line from our Old Testament story this morning because it helped me to get past the weirdness of this snake on a stick to see that this story is my story, our story together here at St. Aidan’s, and the Church’s (with a capital C) story.

When we meet the grumbling people in the desert this morning, they have had an incredible history with God.  Their stories are so rich that we have been continuing to tell them ever after.  They have forebears that received incredible promises of God.  They would be God’s people, and God would be their God.  When God heard their voices crying out in slavery, God saved them through miraculous plagues, which passed over them and washed over their captors.  God helped them to escape from Pharaoh’s army by parting the sea.  God made food to fall from the sky for them to eat, and water to gush from rocks for them to drink. 

But by now, the Israelites have been wandering in the wilderness with Moses for many years.  They have grown weary and frustrated and have no idea where they are going.  They have been a people on the move for so long without the comforts of home, and so unsure about their future, that they are looking back with longing to their miserable days in slavery in Egypt.  Going back to the way things used to be, as painful as that was, seems better than the incredible uncertainty they face.  Their common story of God’s saving them is forgotten in the midst of the challenges they face.  They no longer associate the manna falling from the sky with God’s love.

So they grumble (for the umpteenth time in this story, only this time it is directed not just at Moses but at God).  God sends snakes to bite them and they start dying (a sermon for another lectionary cycle).  They realize how badly they’ve behaved and beg forgiveness.  God has Moses create a snake-on-a-stick that will heal people when they look at it.  And they continue their journey in the wilderness.

[And in case you thought that was too easy an ending, you might be interested to learn that later in 2 Kings we hear that good King Hezekiah ended up having to smash this very same snake-on-a-stick into smithereens because the Israelites started worshipping it.  Learning from mistakes is not really a strong point for the people of God.]  

Like us, they are on a journey with a lot of twists and turns, a lot of challenge and a lot of promise.  Like us they are not always sure where they will end up.  Like us, that wilderness of uncertainty sometimes strikes them with fear.  Like us, their journey is not always easy, and so sometimes they look back at the good old days that were simpler than this unknown road that seems mired with potholes.  Like us, they have a tendency to forget, or fail to look for, what holds them together, and what makes them part of the story of God.  Like us, they sometimes have to face their fears before they can overcome them.  Like us, they sometimes forget that the value of tradition isn’t so much the tradition itself as what it ultimately points to.  And like us, sometimes an old way of being needs to be smashed to make way for a new way of being.

This story, and maybe most of the stories from scripture, is about people figuring out how to be God’s people on a journey in which they aren’t fixed in place and neither is God.  

It is a story that I’ve heard over and over this past week and I’m still trying to figure out how to live into.

On Monday, I went to Vienna to hear Brian McLaren, a theologian who in his writing and speaking encourages innovation and creativity in the Church.  He spoke about how the Church at this moment is in a wilderness place.  The Church as we have always known it is in decline.  For centuries the Church’s purpose has been to offer salvation - defined as getting into heaven after you die.  And yet that is no longer the main question for most people.  Instead, the question is less about crossing some finish line and more about growth and spiritual development throughout life.  For centuries the Church has been about guarding truth.  But now it must humbly admit to seeing in a glass dimly.  McLaren suggests that the Church is at a hinge point, a tipping point, in the history of faith, and that we have an incredible opportunity to rethink our message and purpose and re-create the Church as we know it.  But it is scary to step out into this future because it means letting go of what made sense before.  And so on Monday I was left wondering how the people of St. Aidan’s might be part of discerning and inviting others into new ways of being Church.

On Tuesday, I went to Ellicott City for a Vibrant Faith conference that was aimed at rethinking how and why we do things in Christian formation.  We talked about the essential role of relationships in nurturing faith.  In families, of course, but also between generations in our churches.  And so on Tuesday I was left wondering how St. Aidan’s can be a community where intentional relationships are built among generations, relationships that begin to fulfill the kind of promises we make in baptism to support each other in our life in Christ.

On Wednesday, I went to Spotsylvania for a gathering of people invited by Bishop Susan to be a sort of “think tank” to discuss the challenges and possibilities for the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Virginia.  We began by talking in typical church-speak about things like resources, discipleship, evangelism, liturgy and polity.  But then we stepped back to think in groups instead about the work and future of the Church through the lenses of vulnerability, relevance, abundance and transformation.  I was in the “Relevance” group and was part of an wonderfully open conversation about how the Episcopal Church can show itself to be offering something different than what is so often defined as Christianity.  How we can step out of the safe walls of our churches to go into the world as the good news.  And so on Wednesday I was left wondering how we can be more purposeful about being God’s hands and feet in our community.

On Thursday, I came here for the Artist’s Rule group, where we talked about hospitality - how we can lovingly encounter and learn from not just other people but also the pieces of ourselves that we tend to hide from.  My favorite line from our chapter was this:  “The temptation of the spiritual life is to avoid pain, to believe that being ‘spiritual’ means always being full of peace and grace, when in fact the whole teaching of the desert tradition focuses on the need to stay fully present to the often challenging and painful dynamics that happen within us.”  And so on Thursday I was left wondering how we at St. Aidan’s can support each other in that kind of hard work.

On Friday, I took a break from sermon writing to take a walk and listen to a Krista Tippet interview with a physicist who is also a contemplative (a lovely combination!).  He talked about how scientists sometimes come to worship the model they’ve created and forget what it was that led them to discover it in the first place.  And about the courage it takes for scientists to be open to new ways of understanding.  And so on Friday I wondered about the many ways we get attached to the forms and traditions of our religion and forget that they are all there to lead us into relationship with God and help us live more fully into our identities as the beloved children of God.

And then yesterday, I went with our vestry to the seminary for our yearly retreat.  We shared our stories and talked about our evolving understandings of God and our faith.  And we spoke of an understanding and vision of St. Aidan’s as a place where we can bring questions and explore answers, a place that is a home for spiritual growth and reflection, a place that both challenges and supports us, a safe place for telling stories of our life with God.  And so yesterday I was left wondering how we can more deeply live into that vision of our community and more intentionally welcome others to join us in that journey.

        I wonder what challenges or opportunities you might have discovered along your own journey as one of God’s people on the move this week?