Snake Story

A sermon based upon Numbers 21: 4-9

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

4^th Sunday in Lent, March 18, 2012

Not long ago, I rescued a dog.  It was only a couple of weeks later that the dog rescued me.

Most of us don’t like snakes, but we love snake stories.  My snake story involves this young, 10 month old, high-energy, hyperactive, boxer-mixed dog named Zari.  One morning last summer I went out to feed her and her head was swollen up like a balloon.  Immediately I knew it had to be a snake bite and saw the marks just above her left eye.  Upon finding her in this condition, I went to the Internet to find what was recommended for treatment.  I ended up giving her the proper dosage of Aspirin and the swelling started to decrease and was gone in just a few days. 

I helped to save the dog from suffering, but consider how the also dog saved me.   The dog was acting suspicious near the steps of our back porch, right where I traveled daily to the garden.   But instead of me discovering the snake and perhaps stepping on it, Zari found the snake.   As a result of her discovery, I kept my eyes open.  A couple of weeks later, when I picked up the cat’s water bowl, I found a young copperhead  hiding under the bowl.   That was the end of the snake, but not the story.

SNAKES IN THE WILDERNESS

Snake stories are interesting because they often involve drama.  Today’s Bible text focuses upon a very dramatic snake story from Israel’s journey through the Sinai wilderness.  This is a very strange story and it gets ugly.   When people find themselves in a wilderness, be it physical or spiritual, tragic things can happen.

Do you know the story of Christopher McCandless?  His story is told in a 1996 non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer entitled Into the Wild, which was made into a 2007 movie starring Sean Penn.  Chris McCandless grew up in suburban Annandale, Virginia, located on the Washington Beltway.   Chris graduated from Emory University in 1990 with high grades, but he stopped communicating with his family, he gave away the remainder of his college fund to an anti-poverty organization, and then, after abandoning his car, he began traveling the country on foot.  His journey sounds romantic, adventurous, perhaps even spiritual, but it turns tragic.  In 1992, McCandless hitchhiked to the Stampede Trail in Alaska.  There, he headed down this snow-covered wilderness trail to begin an odyssey with only 10 pounds of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, several boxes of rifle rounds, a camera, and some reading material, including a field guide to the region’s edible plants.   

Later, Chris McCandless’ backpack was found containing his wallet, multiple forms of identification, his social security card, $300 dollars cash, and library cards.  A map of the wilderness area was also found in his backpack.  A journal of his final days tells how he declined someone’s offer to buy him warmer clothing and better supplies.  When he tried to cross the river to get back to civilization, due to snow melt, the rushing river was too high.  He did not realize that a tram for crossing the river was just a short distance upstream.   Some say McCandless’ weakening and starving was due to a mold growing on the plants and seeds he was eating.  After surviving more about 119 days, his body and journal were found in his abandoned-bus shelter.  His final entry: “EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT. SEED…  Christopher McCandless died tragically, sometime around August 18, 1992, as a result of his desire to live in a self-imposed wilderness.   

After their rescue from Egyptian slavery, the people of Israel also find themselves wandering in the wilderness.   We are told in Scripture that theirs is also a self-imposed wilderness journey.  Instead of traveling directly to the Promised Land, we are told that because of their stubbornness, their lack of will to march ahead, their focus upon their past in Egypt, and most of all, because of their constant blaming and complaining about Moses’ leadership, God caused them the to wander in the wilderness for over forty years (Numbers 14).   

As we come to today’s text it seems like déjà vu all over again.  Israel has forgotten what got their parents in trouble many years before.  This new generation is still in the same wilderness.  They are doing the same things their parents did.  They are still blaming and complaining.  They are unable to move forward.  They are attacking their leader and blaming him for the wilderness wanderings they have brought upon themselves.  They complain to 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." (Num 21:5 NRS).   They are so full of complaints that they could care less for God’s supply of manna he’s been sending them every day.  Instead of sharing the responsibility for their future and instead of doing the things that can prepare them to move ahead, they blame their leader who can only lead them where they “want” to go.  It’s always easier to place blame on someone else and to find a scape-goat, than it is to do the hard work of “working out our own salvation in fear and trembling”.

Working out our salvation is not easy.  Being in the wilderness waiting on God is not fun.   Finding constructive ways to deal with the frustrations of our spiritual journey is more difficult than complaining and becoming negative.   It takes much more effort and energy to do something constructive.  I once heard someone say it takes at least 10 positive words to counter the impact of only one negative word.  Fredrick Buchener hits the mark when he writes, “Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun.  To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself.  The skeleton at the feast is you.” (From The ABC’s of Faith).

Being angry and negative can be energizing, but it can also come back to bite us.  This is where the snakes come in.   The Israelites were taking a deadly path they been taking for an entire generation.   They were constantly repeating bad habits.  Somehow, the lesson from their parents was not passed down.  No one was learning from past failures and when you don’t learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it.  

What happened to Israel can also happen to us.  We too can decide to wander in a spiritual wilderness.  It is always easier, in a fallen world, to choose to be negative with each other rather than positive; to be destructive, rather than constructive.  It is easy for us to forget what always gets us into trouble; the selfishness, the impatience, the backbiting, the positioning for power, the negative attitudes, and most of all, the unwillingness to do what God requires of us; to love, even when we feel the need to complain.   

THE VERY “STRANGE” CURE OF GOD

What I like about this Bible text is that focuses more on the on the cure that God sends, rather than the snakes.  That’s what I want us to focus on too.   And what is perhaps most peculiar and strange about this part of the story is that the same God who sent the “poisonous snakes” for these stiff necked, hard-hearted and hard-headed people, also offers a cure to heal them.   Why did God do that?  Why did the same God who sent the snakes, also give the anti-venom?

Recently, in the nearby Brushy Mountains, a camp director was leading a group of children from Charlotte on a hiking experience.  As they walk together in the wilderness area, they come upon a rattlesnake who was lying on the trail.   Without thinking, perhaps with adrenaline rushing through his veins because of all the children in his care, the camp director reached down and picked up the rattlesnake to simply pitch it out of the way.   Whatever caused his lack of reason, you and I know that you don’t just simply pick up a rattlesnake and pitch it out of the way.  As a result of this lack of judgment, the rattlesnake bit him and he nearly died. 

Any of us can forget that snakes will bite.   I don’t know why the people of Israel are still in the wilderness.  I don’t know why they keep on making the choices to remain there.  We see that Moses was a great and good leader.  He led the people away from Pharaoh; out of Egypt, through the saving Exodus, but for some reason God did not allow him to lead them immediately out of their wilderness wanderings.   Maybe it was exactly for that reason: IT WAS ‘THEIR’ OWN SELF IMPOSED WILDERNESS.  And of course, the people did not like it in the wilderness.  Moses didn’t either.  He even got angry once and struck the rock.   We all know that Moses is never allowed to lead them out of the wilderness.  The people will keep complaining, but Moses cannot lead until God is ready.  It is not until the right leaders rise up among the people and they are spiritually prepared to stop complaining and start challenging and conquering the giants around them that Israel was able to emerge and move forward into the land of promise.  

What I find it most interesting is that even in this story, while God does send the snakes he does not make the snakes bite the people.  Snakes don’t normally bite you unless you get into their territory.  Snakes are not normally aggressive, but they are defensive.  Don’t blame the snakes, a herpetologist might tell us.  We all know that we humans play a very important part in why the snakes bite us.   All these snakes crawling around in the in the wilderness reflect what first happened in the Garden of Eden.  If you remember, there was a “talking snake” there.  His talk was big and he had no bite until Adam and Eve gave into the temptation to challenge the work and will of God.  When people willfully challenge and go contrary to God’s will--this is when the snakes start to bite.  

But since God creates a world where people can be bitten, whether it is due to freedom, due to ignorance and stupidity (like “Fear Factor”) or due to sin and stubbornness (as we learn the hard way).  Whatever the exact reason, in a world where God holds us accountable, it should not be as surprising to read that this same God who loves us also provides the cure to save.   Even God’s judgment falls under his jealous love and his desire for our salvation.  God will provide the cure for the bite of sin and for the hurts of life.  This is good side of this story, but there is still a catch.  There is no catch to God’s goodness and grace, but there is a catch for us to claim this cure for ourselves.

What is the catch in cure?   It’s two fold: The first catch is that cure for the bite of the snake looks a lot like the snake itself.   There is great spiritual wisdom in the fact that the cure of snake bite is another type of snake, namely a very different snake on a pole.  When the people are being bitten, God instructs Moses their leader, to prepare another bronze, healing snake, to put on a pole and lift it up among the people.  In the same way, in the New Testament, we are told that Jesus referred to himself as a “snake on a pole” who can heal, save, and cure the world of its sin:  “Just as Moses lifted of the snake in the wilderness,’ Jesus says, ‘If I, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to me.” 

The point here is that the cure Jesus offers us also has a bite to it.  But it is a “bite” that heals.  It is a painful bite to admit our wrongs to each other, to humble ourselves, to face our mistakes, our sins, our weaknesses, and to share in the burden and responsibility and the pain of sin.  Before the healing from the snake bite can come, there has to be a mutual submission to the pain of honesty, to the hurt of humility, to the cry of confession, and to the resistance of repentance.  Before we can experience the way of hope and trust in God’s healing and saving power, we have to let God’s healing snake crawl into our hearts.   Again, the snake that heals also has a bite, it could be called the “bite” of repentance.  It stings too, but will also be healing, if we share the pain and sting of sin together. 

CHOOSING THE CURE GOD OFFERS

The second “catch” in the cure is the greatest message of all in this text.  When Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the story, he called upon the people “to look up and live”.   It is only the hopeful, upward look that can bring healing.  If the people persist on looking down, on being destructive, on ending things instead of mending things, and if we fail to trust God for our help and healing, then even God’s people can die in a tragic, God forsaken wilderness. 

Can we determine to “look up and live” even in our desperate situation?  It’s not easy for any of us.  But this is what Moses called the people to do.  They were bitten, but this can also lead to healing.  Sometimes we might even NEED snakes to teach make us do what we are supposed to be doing all along.  There is a story of three men who live on a ranch out West, the father John, the sons, Jake and Joe. They never had any use for the church until one day Jake is bitten by a rattlesnake. The doctor is summoned, but the prognosis is not good. Jake is going to die. The younger son is sent to bring the preacher. When he arrives, the parson is asked to offer a prayer for Jake: "O Father God, we give you thanks that you have sent this snake to bite Jake. It has brought him to seek you. We ask, Lord, that you would send another snake to bite Joe and a really big one to bite the old man, so that they, too, might come to seek you. We thank you for your providence and ask that you send among us bigger and better rattlesnakes. Amen."

Some years ago, an insightful watcher of the church by the name of Mike Yaconelli, wrote an article called "The Tyranny of Trivia." Some of his observations remind me of our ancient desert wanderers as well as our own situation. Listen to Mike’s words which have come to me through David Lenninger:

“There is something wrong with the organized church. You know it. I know it. We all see that something is wrong -- drastically wrong. Just one semi-close look at the organized church - with its waning influence, its corruption, and its cultural impotence -- tells us that something has gone awry. But, the question is, what has gone awry? What IS wrong? I think I know.  

The problem with the church is not corruption. It is not institutionalism. No, the problem is far more serious than something like the minister running away with the organist. The problem is pettiness. Blatant pettiness.

Visit any local church board meeting, and you will be immediately shocked by the sheer abundance of pettiness. The flower committee chairman has decided to quit because someone didn't check with her before they put flowers on the altar last Sunday. The Chairman of the Board is angry because a meeting was held without his knowledge. One of the elders is upset with the youth director because the youth director wants to take the church youth group to a secular Rock concert. The Women's Kitchen committee is up in arms because, at the last youth group meeting (which has mushroomed from 15 kids to 90 kids in six months), the kids took some sugar from the kitchen. The janitor is threatening to quit because the youth group played a game on the grass over the weekend, and now the lawn needs extra work.

I can understand each and every one of the gripes mentioned above. I also understand that the same general argument is always made for each one of these gripes: "If you don't have order, you have chaos. It sounds like a little thing, but if everyone was allowed to do such and such and so in so'...,' think what that would mean."

Ah, yes, think what it would mean. What WOULD it mean? Probably nothing.  And yet, in every church in this country, boards, ministers, and church members -- in the name of "what would this mean?" -- are running around trying to answer that very question.  In other words, churches are so preoccupied with the petty, they can't spend the time required to do what does matter.

So, I would like to say what people in church leadership are apparently having a difficult time saying today: there is no excuse for pettiness in the church.  Pettiness should have no place at all in any church for any reason.  Petty people have lost their vision. They are people who have turned their eyes away from what matters and focused, instead, on what doesn't matter...

Isn’t it time for the church to get the focus back. “To Look and Live.” And to remember how contagious that sort of thing is: look up, and everyone else wants to look up with you.  What a witness! "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

Do you know what is the main thing?  Do you know what it means to look up and live?  It’s not as complicated as many would like to make it.  Consider this story:

A wealthy entrepreneur was consternated to find a fisherman sitting lazily beside his boat. "Why aren't you out there fishing?" he asked.

"Because I've caught enough fish for today," said the fisherman.

"Why not catch more than you need?" the rich man asked.

"What would I do with them?"

"You could earn more money," came the impatient reply, "and buy a bigger boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you'd have a fleet of boats and be rich like me."

"Then what would I do?" the fisherman asked.

"You could sit down and enjoy life," said the tycoon.

"What do you think I'm doing right now?" the fisherman replied as he looked contentedly at the sea.

What got the children of Israel in trouble is that they became impatient with Moses and with God.  They lost an important direction in their lives.  They were always looking ahead.  They were still looking back and they knew how to look down, but they forgot how to look around.  Like the wealthy entrepreneur, they couldn’t look around and see what they had right now, and find joy in it.  Perhaps they couldn’t find joy because they hadn’t found the main thing.

And what is the main thing?  Not only did Jesus tell you, but every preacher and Sunday School teacher and Youth leader you ever knew told you: in the language of the beautiful King James Bible that we all memorized, "For God so loved the world..." - say it with me - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in his wonderful face;

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of his glory and grace.

Amen!