(First thoughts on Numbers 21; John 3; Ephesians 2)

I'm preaching this weekend for an odd worship service - the sorority that I am an advisor for is getting installed as a chapter this weekend and the women asked me if we could have a worship service on campus Sunday to culminate a week's worth of activities. Sure, I said, not thinking of how strange this would be.

Strange because I'm preaching to a group of families who have come through a weekend of banquets and dances and rituals, who are connected through nothing other than their love for their daughters. I have no idea where - or if - they have any faith in God. Only that they will be here this weekend staying at the Holiday Inn and other places supporting their daughters in what they probably don't even understand.

So, they'll be in worship on Sunday. I have no idea how many, what their backgrounds.

The texts are Numbers 21; John 3; Ephesians 2.

The weary travelers grumbled against Moses - even against God. "We were better off as slaves!" Every time any little thing happened, Moses heard this familiar cry. If I were him, I would have been so tired of it!

They were in the wildnerness and something about snakes biting them - I have to admit I'd probably bitch a bit if I were having to dodge a serpents sting. Ok, I'd bitch a lot.

But God says to make a golden serpent, that if they get bit they can look at the serpent lifted up and live. Does it neutralize the poison? Or was the snake bite not so deadly in and of itself, just the anxiety that it produced that was like poison among the brood? Was this hope that they found when they looked up? Was it a reminder that God does hear - God does save - God does provide even in the midst of snakes and fear and weariness?

(John 3) Jesus will be lifted up, and all who see, all who believe will have eternal life. But then there is this other verse about the fact that we sometimes love darkness more than we love light, even those who love Jesus I think - maybe especially those of us who love Jesus.

We are like those weary travelers in life that keep getting threatened by those damn snakes - "It was better before!" But even in the midst of our bitching, our fear, our very lives LIGHT breaks in, GOD breaks in and says, "I hear you - I have come to you - I will save you." The light of eternity and love and hope and peace break in and we are transformed.

Except when we are not...when we love the darkness. Ok, so maybe love is not the right word - maybe choose is.

Can faith and fear dwell in the same soul together? Can nostalgia for what we think we had and hope for a better way of life? Can worry and belief?

Yes.
And no.

Ignatius, in the Examen, would follow the thread of the darkness that clung to him so he could find the source of what was leaking the life out of him. If we even know how to name it, I'm not sure we often follow the thread in order to get rid of it. In it's own way, it is comforting, that dark shadowy place that is so familiar to us. Kind of like slavery was to that weary band of travelers.

What do we have to do to choose life? To choose hope? To choose light? And not only to choose light and life by the grace of God (Ephesians 2), but so be consumed by it that we live it out in the works we do?

I'm not sure there are any easy answers, but I do know it's more difficult than looking up at a golden serpent. But I do think that it has something to do with looking up. And it has everything to do with how God breaks into our lives with Light that shines even amidst the darkness. With a love that shatters the hold fear and sin have on our lives so that we may allow the light to come in, and eternity can begin now.