Proverbs 22; Mark 7:24-37

Don’t we tend to see life falling along two lines: getting ready for action and then doing the action – cleaning the counter, then making the cake; clearing the runway, then flying the plane? Scripture is no different. Part of it shows how to clear the way to spiritual growth, and part of it shows that growth in action. Take the reading from Proverbs. Today’s passage selects out a particular obstacle to spiritual growth and warns us against it: “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity.” We are so used to this we take it for granted: the Bible helps us see where certain things we do work against us.

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Preparing for today’s sermon, I made an exciting discovery: there is such a thing as evolution. What is more, it is happening within the church. Rather than telling you what is evolving, though; let me share with you my process of discovery. Then let’s see if some of us don’t leave here this morning, powdered all over with a new pollen of hope.

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

The readings from Joshua and John share a common setting. In both, people are being tested. Whom will they follow? Joshua puts the choice to the people of Israel bluntly, saying, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Jesus does not demand a choice in so many words, but his teaching has reached a point where his disciples can no longer follow with their rational minds. What should they do? Go ahead with Jesus on faith, or leave him and turn back to familiar ground? This morning I want to focus on the issue of testing, because I want to clear up a common misunderstanding in the Lord’s Prayer; that is, the final supplication which says, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Proverbs 9:1-6; John 6:51-58

In a college psychology class our professor once quipped, “We all know the mind and the body are one. The question is, which one?” I’m recalling this humorous quip now, because it leads into the topic of today’s sermon. That is, “How does the Bible work?” And, “How can I make it work for me?”

Genesis 22:1-18 Good Friday

For today’s reading go to http://Bible. Oremus.org

What shall we make of the story of the command to sacrifice Isaac?  Perhaps no other story in the Bible arouses such horror in us, or such pathos.  We try not to ask what kind of God would set up such a test, because we do not want to hear the answer.  We try not to put ourselves in Isaac’s place, because we so need to trust our father, and yet, seen through Isaac’s eyes, doesn’t he turn out to lie to us and to betray us monstrously?  We try not to put ourselves in Abraham’s place, because he is setting out to put an end to everything in life that he holds dear – his son and his progeny.  What is this story of horrors doing in the Bible?

Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-21

For today’s reading go to: http://bible.oremus.org

Supposing you have a greasy glass jar and you want to clean it out. Two possibilities spring to mind. You could try wiping it clean with a cloth, or you could float the grease out by pouring in warm, soapy water.  We might think about sin this way. We can try to clean ourselves up by struggling to be good; or we can simply let God into our lives. Most people, especially religious people, subscribe to the first method, the self-cleaning method. The results, though, leave something to be desired. For one thing, a greasy film remains. For another, it leads to unpleasant consequences, particularly a tendency to compare ourselves to others; as in, who is the greater wash-day miracle? This morning I want to explore the second method of dealing with sin; that is, simply letting God into our lives.

Let’s start with the reading from the Hebrew Bible. It helps to remind ourselves that, while the story is set in the time of the Exodus, the story was actually written many centuries later. Not only that, but those who composed the narrative possessed spiritual insight as least as sophisticated as ours, and in many cases greater. I say this, because too often in our day we take these stories literally; whereas they were written as metaphors for truths which the authors knew could not be expressed directly. Here is a simple example. Let me ask you to define love. You might start out seeking a direct definition; and then in frustration give up, and tell me the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. “That,” you would say, “is love!” What about today’s story, then? What kind of metaphor is that? “That,” we will say, “is sin!”

As with all biblical texts, we have to ask: what situation in life does this story of the snakes address? Whatever it is, it will be universal. Is it perhaps what we experience when we know we have done wrong; when we live in the grip of guilt, and we do not know how to break free? That sequence will feel familiar to all of us. We may not realize when we sin; or we may think it does not matter. The poisonous snakes, standing for sin, make it abundantly clear that sin is sin, and it does matter, because it brings death – spiritual death. Like snakes, sin moves with subtle malice; so that we may not realize we have been bitten.  My busy outward life can hide from me how near my spiritual life lies to death. The sickness is there, all the same, and sooner or later I will know it. We might say, then, that this story addresses that situation in life where sin leads to spiritual death.

Now comes a curious detail. God tells Moses to make a bronze replica of a poisonous snake and to put it on a pole, so that people have only to raise their eyes to see it. Note that it does not say they will not be bitten, only that they will live – not just exist, but come fully alive. This is an amazing claim. It acknowledges that we will sin and continue to sin; but the consequences will not be death. How can this be?

The bronze serpent did not work like magic. A person had to gaze hard at it; a quick glance would not do. They had to stare at it, which meant to turn their gaze inward and examine their sin. They had to recognize and acknowledge the harm it had done – to themselves, to others, and to the whole of society. We call it confession. Notice that nothing else was required – no amendment of life, no penance. If they simply gazed at the bronze serpent as if their life depended on it – which it did – then repentance would follow inevitably from their awareness of sin’s poisonous consequences.

This episode with the bronze serpent amounts to an exercise in awareness; and in time awareness supplants sin the way warm, soapy water floats away grease. No self-improvement strategies were called for, no battle of wills within ourselves to become a better person. Simply honesty before the face of God is all that God asks of us – the soap in the soapy water, so to speak.

The soapy water strategy differs radically from the usual religious approach. We who are identified as religious get a lot of bad press, precisely because we eschew the warm soapy water and reach instead for the greasy rag of self-improvement. It never works, but it does repel non-believers. Let me give you an example from a person I knew in California who belongs to one of the fundamentalist churches. Sam had been a drug addict and alcoholic for years, and he became clean thanks to this church. As the years went by, he rose in the ranks of leadership. Finally, he and another man were selected to go out and start another church. Sam, meanwhile, had begun to drink again and perhaps do drugs as well. He took a lot of trouble not to get caught by any of the people from church, sometimes driving over 100 miles just to go out for dinner. One day, in spite of all the mentholated cough drops he sucked and garlic he ate, one of the junior pastors in his new church smelled alcohol on Sam’s breath, and outed him. Rather than gaze at the bronze serpent, Sam fired the junior pastor.

You can feel Sam’s spiritual death here. I suspect it cannot be avoided with the self-improvement approach. Note how Sam had become divided within himself. One part of him was condemning the other part. The other part was cringing under the lash of guilt. It is what we mean when we say Sam lost his integrity, meaning his wholeness. Note, too, how he lived in constant fear of discovery. Finally, note how Sam, feeling judged, judged others – the junior pastor in particular. His spiritual journey stood on hold. This was not Sam’s unique problem. A culture of mutual judgment, or the threat of it, underpinned the whole church. Perhaps they told themselves they were just helping each other to live purer lives. In reality, they were wasting their energy on self-improvement, when that same energy could have gone into feeding the hungry and worshiping God in the beauty of honesty. When we try to self-clean hypocrisy follows.

I hope this helps us understand what Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus, the serpent on the cross, shows us the power of sin to harm. We gaze at him, at his torment, at his suffering and if we are honest we say to ourselves, “My sin put him there.” Yes, Jesus died for the sin of the whole world; yet if I alone sinned and no one else, he would have died just that way, just for me. Jesus’ death on the cross goes far beyond the bronze serpent, however. Like the bronze serpent, Jesus crucified allows us to gaze, until we realize and acknowledge our sins. He enables confession.

But more than that, Jesus returned. In a manner beyond our telling, he rose from the dead; and in some incontrovertible way he let his friends know that they were forgiven; their betrayal was forgiven. They testified to Jesus’ resurrection, not only because of what they had seen, but even more because of how they felt. They should have felt shame and guilt; they should have felt diminished in their own eyes and the eyes of others. No such thing! Instead, they experienced transformation. New life and power poured into them. Intimidated hicks from the hinterlands suddenly became bold and effective evangelists at the center of power. They in turn spread the good news. What good news? Not just that Jesus had been raised from the dead, but what it meant: we, too, can experience that living encounter which frees us from all the self-diminishment of sin, all sin’s poison.

St. Augustine wrote, “Love God and do as you please.” I would interpret that this way. First, establish a love of God; root yourself in an intimate relationship with Christ. Then for God’s sake do not go out and live a pinched, hesitant, fear-ridden life, perpetually on guard against sin. Live boldly. Live joyfully. Live with abandon. Feast, sing and dance! Pour yourself out in self-giving. The shadow of judgment is behind you. You have come into the light of wholeness. You live in the freedom of honesty; for you make daily use of the serpent on the cross – the figure that signifies: sin is not the end; no matter how grievous, sin need never be the end. “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.”

Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Matthew 22:34-46

For today’s readings please visit http://bible.oremus.org

Today marks the last of the Moses stories. For weeks we have been following Moses and the people of Israel in their pilgrimage, and exploring Moses’s immense stature as a spiritual leader. We have also seen similarities between him and Jesus. Today I want to call attention to one, last similarity. We read, “Then Moses, servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab…. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab… but no one knows his burial place to this day.” How amazing! A man of such stature and no one knows where he is buried! Neither does anyone know Jesus’ burial place. If you have been to Jerusalem you were probably taken to visit two places, each having a plausible claim to be Jesus’ tomb. But even supposing the true place could be identified, his was an empty tomb. The point in common is this: no one can worship a tomb they cannot find; nor can they worship an empty tomb. Tomb worship is out, either for Moses or Jesus.

Exodus 33:12-23, Matthew 22:15-22

For today’s Scripture readings go to http://bible.oremus.org

When we lived in northern California Stuart and I used to visit the mineral baths at Wilbur Hot Springs. The water was piped into a series of large, concrete pools about four feet deep. They were arranged from tepid to scalding. On our first visit, being neophytes, we slid into the middle pool first thing. What a mistake! We shot out and waited for the pain to subside; then we entered the tepid pool. After ten minutes or so, it felt cool, so we got out and entered the next warmest pool. And so we continued right on into the pool we had tried first. No pain! After growing accustomed to that temperature, we moved on to a hotter pool and another even hotter. I am telling you this, because it helps to understand the reading from Exodus.

Exodus 32:1-14, Matthew 22:1-14

For today’s readings go to http://bible.oremus.org

What is the true nature of God? Compassionate and forgiving? Severe and punishing? No question matters more, because we are asking about the basic character of reality. What is the ultimate context in which we live out our lives? How can we know? A good bet is to turn to the Bible, and yet even here the testimony does not speak with one voice. Today, for instance: suppose we had to live with the God portrayed in this reading from Exodus or from the Gospel. They present a wintery spiritual landscape. In the one, God says, “Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” And Moses replies, “Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.” In the other reading, Jesus’s parable, God says, “Bind [the wedding guest] hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If these were our only intimation of God’s nature life would be bleak indeed.

Exodus 20:1-20, Matthew 21:33-46

For today’s readings go to http://bible.oremus.org

Often the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Take the Ten Commandments. We cannot dispense with any one of them, yet if we step back and consider their entire structure, as such, we get a broader view of the mind of God. That is what I propose to do this morning, with two questions in view – two of humanity’s deepest questions. Who am I? What am I here for?