Readings for Sunday March 26, 2006: 4th Sunday in Lent (sometimes called Mothering Sunday, or Refreshment Sunday) Numbers 21:4-9,Psalm 107:17-22,Eph 2:1-10,John 3:14-21
The trip back to the country town where my father was buried
to bury the body of my mother (who died many years later)
Was quite demanding...but it had to be done!
And reflecting on it, it was good to do it.
Standing in the cemetery there was an eeriness
in which the ghosts of the past seemed tangible.
They were not the wandering ghosts of my parents
but rather the mixed feelings about what life had been like there
Some of it was rather pedestrian,
you know the missed opportunities of my youth and so on,
rather more of it was recognising
some of the pain associated with that place,
and a key part embracing some of those who remained
and remembering how much they had meant to me, my parents and my wider family.
All this is the legendary stuff of funerals.
And why they present to us such a rich tapestry
of opportunity and experience.
At funerals we can go forward, inward
and emerge enlightened.
But of course, we can only do this if we permit ourselves
to enter into the experience,
and allow the encounter with that which threatens to destroy us to take place.
Snakes in the desert
In the curious story from Numbers 21
we read about an anthropologiocal phenomenon-sympathetic medicine-
which is rather foreign to us, and yet strangely familiar
(we need to make the translation necessary for our post-modern times)
Plagued by poisonous snakes the people of Israel look set to be destroyed,
indeed some fo them die,
Moses makes a snake image an gets them to look at it.
they are invited to embrace that which would destroy them.
What ever we make of this there is a truth being proclaimed here
Though we often are tempted to flee those things that would destroy us
that is not usually the way to deal with it.
The experiences we have of death and funerals
remind us of this
These things don't just go away if you ignore them.
They come back to bite us!!
When I am lifted up.
So Jesus identifies for us that this is more than just "sympathetic medicine"
it is in fact fundamental reality.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
is the focus example for all Christian people
of how we might live our life.
We deal with all that is evil
not by running away
--that only delays the inevitable--
but rather by confronting it head on.
We do not like this
because it is difficult stuff.
The Cross is an invtation for us
to embrace suffering
and not run.
It proclaims God's ability to take
what looks like death
and give it eternal meaning
What does this mean for me?
We all know, basically, the truth of this in our lives
we are set free as we embrace this truth.
Jesus himself says "The truth will set you free"
There is more here than just a requirement to tell the truth
By embracing our suffering and those things
that threaten to destroy us
we find that the richness of God's mercy
acts for our good and salvation
even when we were dead through our trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
and raised us up with him
and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Does this give us courage to confront our own addictions?
Does it help us to venture into the arena of the hurt in broken relationships?
Can we embrace the sadnesses and disappointments that we just wish would go away?
Jesus says to us from the Cross
When I am lifted up I will take you to myself
and convert there
your deathliness
to life.
So we need not fear.
A timely warning
We do not need to be crucified every moment of every day
this would be to misunderstand what is going on here:
Jesus picks his time
and prepares himself
but he does not neglect to act
he does not come back to be crucified next year...
and in a real sense
we cannot and do not achieve anything by our own suffering
we are rather entering into the mystery of what Christ does for us.
What looks like death
is in fact the gate to eternal life?
Will we run
or will we look up to our healing on the cross?
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