St. John’s United Church

“SNAKES”

When I was young, our annual family vacation was to go to my Grandparents’ cottage on Lake Moira, just south of Madoc, Ontario. I loved it there – the trees, the lake, the fact that the kids had their own cabin – everything! Well, everything except the snakes!! One year, we arrived to find a whole den of snakes living under the front steps. My father knew what they were, and that they were harmless. He would pick one up and try to get me to hold it. He would even try to show me how pretty the pattern was on the snake’s skin. It didn’t work. He could talk until he was blue in the face if he wanted to - but I knew that snakes were scary. And I was pretty sure that everyone in the world except my father thought so, too.

Of course, that isn’t quite true. Snakes have their admirers. There is something fascinating in how silently they move. Their ability to shed their skin made them a symbol of rebirth and regeneration throughout the ancient world. We still use their image as a sign of healing - entwined on a pole as the symbol of medicine. (Laurie’s partner Johnny knows my fear of snakes and uses them to get my attention – hide & seek. Got him good last week in Simcoe – ask me about it later.)

If you asked people about snakes in the Bible, most would think of the story of Adam and Eve, or maybe of Moses (looking suspiciously like Charlton Heston) throwing down his staff and having it turn into a snake. I suspect that very few people would think of the rather odd story that we heard this morning from the Book of Numbers. It certainly wasn’t in any Sunday School lesson that I heard growing up. But there it is. Right there in the story of the Hebrew people making their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. “God sent serpents among the people in the desert, and they bit the people, and many died.” And just in case you don’t bother to read the Book of Numbers very often, it pops up again in the Gospel according to John. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him might have eternal life.”

What are we supposed to make of this story? One way of understanding it is to decide that we had better keep God happy - because when God gets mad, look out! That’s how many people understand God. But what had the people done? The text says that “they became impatient on the way”. If being bitten by poisonous snakes is the appropriate punishment for impatience, I am convinced that we are all in big trouble! The good news is that the Bible tells us repeatedly that we don’t need to worry about the “appropriate” punishment for our sinful behaviour. That’s the message in all of Paul’s letters. It was the message in the piece we read this morning. I like how Eugene Peterson puts it in his recent translation of this letter: “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, God embraced us. God took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ.” That doesn’t sound like a snake-bite God to me. It sounds like a loving God. And that’s what John confirms for us in his gospel: “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.”

So I have to ask again, what are we to make of this snake story? Does it have truth for our lives?
I am absolutely confident that God isn’t going to send serpents to bite us - but I am equally confident that we aren’t going to make it through life without getting bitten by a few snakes. Some of us will be hurt physically. Our bodies may get damaged in ways that will never heal. Sickness may ravage us - or accidents maim us. Life does that. Some of us will be hurt in ways that are harder for others to detect. We will be betrayed by someone we thought loved us. We will struggle with addictions that are invisible to the outside world. Our minds will misfire and isolate us from the world around us. However it happens - the bottom line is that all of us will be bitten by snakes at some time in our lives. And that is the moment when this odd Bible story will speak to our lives. Because the question is not, “Will it happen to us?” but rather, “How will we respond when it does?”

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. The very thing they feared - snakes- was made into this image and they had to look up at it! They had to face their fears. I would suggest to you that it’s the same with us. We cannot begin to have healing in our lives until we stop running from the snakes that terrorize us, turn and face them eye-to-eye. When we do, the healing starts, for they begin to lose some of their bite, some of their power over us.

But what’s most interesting to me is that the serpent, the very thing that was tormenting them, a symbol of suffering and death is turned into a symbol of life! Of healing! Of wholeness! Snakes and healing? Sounds like a contradiction in terms. But think about it. To most of us, snakes are to be feared and killed on sight. The only good snake is a what? A dead snake! But that’s not how many people have seen snakes throughout history.

The ancient Greeks used the symbol of the snake for medicine and healing! Does anyone know the symbol used by the American Medical Association (AMA)? That’s right. A staff or pole with two snakes (this goes back to the ancient Greeks and perhaps even this story from Numbers influenced it some). Perhaps this connection between snakes and healing isn’t so far-fetched after all. I shared this idea with a friend who said that he knew just what I was talking about. That, in fact, a snake had cured his arthritis. Seems that he woke up one morning and the arthritis was so bad that he could barely walk. He crept his way out to the road to pick up the morning, and there, curled up beside it, he said, was a five-foot long two and a half diameter diamondback. He forgot about his arthritis!

I saw a show on television some time ago about a man who caught snakes and turned them over to a medical lab to be “milked.” You know why? To make antitoxin, or anti-venom, which will help save the life of someone who has been bitten. The venom of the snake itself is used to help bring healing! I don’t know how or why that work’s, anymore than a vaccination made up of diseases can help us keep from getting them! All I know is that they work! The very “snakes” that we fear and would harm us, can be used to cure and protect us - to save us. When I saw this, I began to understand what Jesus was saying in the Gospel lesson today: “As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up…” (John 3:14 TEV).

Jesus is talking about his coming death on a cross. You see, the cross, like that snake in the wilderness, was a symbol of unimaginable suffering, something to hate, to fear…it was death! Yet, just like that bronze snake in the wilderness so long ago, the cross, a means of death, is turned into the means of unimaginable love, healing and life - not just for a few snake-bitten people in the wilderness but for the whole world!

With the snake curled about it, it’s this very image that Jesus takes for himself from the Numbers story - combining them - a snake, a cross, symbols of suffering and death, now changed into symbols of healing and life in Christ. It represents the new life God gives to the whole world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. I do not understand how this works anymore than the venom from a snake can be used to heal and save lives. All I know, like millions of others, is that I have found healing and life when I look up to the One who is lifted up.
One problem with this story of the bronze serpent is that it has an “Indiana Jones” quality to it. As though there is something magical about the serpent on the pole. See the serpent - live. Don’t see the serpent - die. There is something very attractive in that magical simplicity. But God isn’t magic. Faith isn’t magic. And so, in truth, the story should not be read as formula for a quick fix, but as an invitation to a new life. The story presents us with a choice - and an invitation to choose life. We can be sure that life will deal us our share of problems. But we will be able to make choices. What choices will we make after the snakes have bitten us? Are we going to look down at the snake? Are we going to become consumed by the mess? Are we going to be angry - or, worse yet - are we going to believe that God is punishing us by making us suffer in this way? Or, are we going to look up? Are we going to see the love that God has for us in the form of Jesus Christ - and know that, in spite of our suffering, we are yet alive, because we are alive in Christ? Will we allow ourselves, even in our distress, to be enfolded in that love?
It reminds me of a story by Max Lucado in his book, A Gentle Thunder. A friend of Lucado’s named Kenny had just returned with his family from Disney World. “I saw a sight I’ll never forget,” Kenny said. He and his family were inside Cinderella’s castle. It was packed with kids and parents. Suddenly all the children rushed to one side. Had it been a boat, the castle would have tipped over. Cinderella had entered. Cinderella. The pristine princess. A gorgeous young girl with each hair in place, flawless skin, and a beaming smile. She stood waist-deep in a garden of kids, each wanting to touch and be touched. For some reason Kenny turned and looked toward the other side of the castle. It was now vacant except for a boy maybe seven or eight years old. His age was hard to determine because of the disfigurement of his body. He stood watching quietly and wistfully, holding the hand of an older brother. Cinderella noticed the little boy. Politely but firmly inching through the crowd of children, she finally broke free. She walked quickly across the floor, knelt at eye level with the stunned little boy, and placed a kiss on his face.

Sooner or later in life, we will each be that little boy. Something will hurt us. That is how life is. But even in those times - or maybe particularly in those times - God’s love will come to us. God’s comfort will be there for us to claim. God invites us to look up. To see Jesus lifted up, knowing our pain, yet perfect in his love for us. God’s love is not magic. It won’t keep the snakes from biting us. But it has the power to transform our lives, and to make us whole. It’s time, my friends, to stop running scared. Time to face the snakes in your wilderness. Time to turn around and look up to the One who lifts us up. Time to start healing.

As you confront the snakes that are biting you… whatever they may be…, look up and realize that you aren’t alone. God is with you. Not just here in church, or when you are doing good holy works. God is with you all the time. When you’re out for a walk. When the baby is crying. When you’re doing your taxes. When you are exhausted and can barely turn the channels on the TV. When you’re fighting city hall. When you are trying to teach your children. When you are trying to understand your parents. When you are joyous. When you are frustrated…. “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.” And for that we can say, “Thanks be to God!” Amen.

Acknowledgements: Bass Mitchell, Norm Seli, Sue Moore

A meditation preached by the Rev. Myra Garvin at St. John’s United Church, Brockville
Sunday March 26, 2006 – Lent 4B