3.10.24, "Snakes & Salvation: Two Sides of the Same Coin!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Numbers 21.4-9; John 3.14-21

America’s Civil War tested the resolve of the nation … shall we remain one nation, or will we be divided … 

The question of enslavement remained unresolved from the beginning of our nation:

Benjamin Franklin abhorred slavery, but if slavery were challenged, Franklin knew the slave-holding states would never sign on to the Constitution … 

Franklin bit his tongue, held his peace, in the hopes that what he and others failed to do in their time would be accomplished by future generations.

The nation evolved … northern states rejected slavery … it didn’t happen all at one, it was piecemeal, but the southern states could see the writing on the wall - the days of enslavement would soon come to end, and gone with the wind, so to speak, southern wealth and influence. 

The Southern States set about to insure the perpetuation of enslavement … 

When Maine petitioned Congress for statehood, Southern politicians took a stand: they would vote for Maine’s statehood only if the new state of Missouri were admitted as a slave state.

On March 15, 1820, Missouri and Maine were both admitted  … one, a slave state, the other, a free state. Known as the Missouri Compromise.

September 18, 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted: in exchange for abolishing slavery in Washington, D.C., and admitting California as a free state. This act required all runaway slaves to be returned to their owners, even if they escaped to a free state. It also put the responsibility on the federal government to track down, capture, and try runaway slaves.

 

May 30, 1854, The Kansas-Nebrask Act became law … the Missouri Compromise was repealed … in its place, two new territories, Nebraska and Kansas … with the question of slavery to be decided by the territorial legislatures. 

Activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote, one way or the other. “Bleeding Kansas” it was called, as violence erupted again and again. 

November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln elected … his inaugural was March 4, 1861. In spite of assurances to the contrary, Southern States perceived Lincoln to be a threat to their way of life.

South Carolina called a state convention and voted to secede … six more states quickly followed: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas … four more states soon joined them: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America.

April 12, 1861, Confederate guns opened fire on Fort Sumter … the next day, the fort surrendered, and the Civil War was underway … it was a terrible war of untold suffering and death …

Between 1861 and 1865, the number of soldiers killed is estimated at 620,000 - approximately equal to the total of American fatalities in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, combined.

Of those numbers: 360,222 Union soldiers and 258,000 Confederates … with another 50,000 or so civilian deaths.

November 19, 1863 - in the throes of the war, Lincoln travels to Gettysburg, for the founding of a national military cemetery for the Union soldiers who fell in battle four months earlier. The Union victory at Gettysburg was a turning point in the war.

April 9, 1865, the war ended.

But not the conflict … to this very day, issues of race remain in our nation … I fear for our country’s wellbeing … I’m concerned about the future of Democracy … in other words, I find myself smack dab in the middle of a story similar to our reading for the day.

Numbers, Chapter 21!

It begins with a bloody military victory … 

After the dead have been counted, and the weapons put away, no real victory at all …  

The people turn against God and Moses … 

Numbers 21 is a back story … when it was written, Israel was divided against itself.

Israel to the North with its capital city, Samaria …  Judah to the south with its capital city, Jerusalem … King Saul of the North, King David of the South … often at war with one another … never the twain shall meet.

Our little story this morning holds huge questions for the people of Israel and the people of Judah:

Can God’s people be united? 

Can we get along? 

Can there be a healing? 

Can we be one nation under God? 

Or are we hopelessly divided?

Centuries later, the conflict shows up in the New Testament!

When Jesus crosses the border into Samaria, the woman at the well is surprised - she says to Jesus, What are doing here? You’re a Jew from Judea; I’m a Samaritan here in the north.

When Jesus tells the parable of the “Good Samaritan,” heads are scratched … there are no “good Samaritans.”

Suspicion and fear all around the town.

Memories have a long shelf life! In ancient times, and here at home.

It seem we’re very good at being our own worst enemy!

In America these days … the rhetoric of secession: Idaho, Texas, northern California … racism, anti-semitism, fascism … the Capital stormed; fake electors … white supremacy, Christian Nationalism … rights denied, democracy threatened …

Victories won on the battlefield have yet to be won in the battlefield of the soul.

We’re very good at being our own worst enemy!

Getting back to the story, one of the strangest of Bible stories: a plague of snakes, sent by God.

The people turn to Moses, We have sinned … pray to the LORD to take away the snakes.

The LORD says to Moses, fashion a snake … and set it on a pole … everyone who’s been bitten … shall look at it … and live.

A story, not about medicine … but a question: can the nation be healed? 

Can we learn from our mistakes? 

Do our mistakes have anything to teach us? 

Can we learn from our snakes?

Moses puts a snake on a pole …

Take a look … don’t turn away … 

Be honest, be truthful, be humble.

Even the snake is a servant of God … 

Jesus says of himself:

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.

The center of our faith: the Cross … and on the Cross, Christ hangs and dies.

Look at the Cross … 

The sadness of our sin … and then blink, and there’s the glory of God’s love. 

Look at the Cross …

That which we have taken and destroyed … and then blink: and see what God has given … 

Look at the Cross …

Things destroyed … and then blink: to see all things made new.

Face-to-face with our snakes … and then blink: to see the goodness of God.

The snakes are eager to teach us important things:

Fear can teach us courage.

Greed can teach us to trust the provisions of God.

Hate and anger can teach us peace and patience.

Loneliness can teach us about friendship and mercy.

Bigotry can teach us all about the other person.

Lies can instruct us in the ways of truth.

Everything that’s wrong can point the way to everything that’s right.

The snakes bite us, even unto death … but they’re eager to invite us - to a better day.

For God so loves the world! and God - so loves - each of you!

Amen and Amen!

7.17.22 "Passion Defines Our Commitment," Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Psalm 52; Luke 10.38-42 

I have a friend!

He grows sunflowers … he’s been doing it for years … and every September 11, early in the morning,

he brings sunflowers to his local fire station, to commemorate the courage of the first-responders … when the planes crashed into the Towers, and the walls came tumbling down … brave women and men ran into the smoke and dust to save the perishing.

 Every year, my friend does this quietly, anonymously … he needs no recognition … the doing of this deed is sufficient … his wife and children know, and I know, too. And most of all, he knows … in his heart of hearts, he knows … this is a good deed!

 He’s a passionate man … passionate about sunflowers, and passionate about gratitude …

 He inspires me … 

 He inspires me to be passionate, about faith, hope, and love … passionate in grace, mercy, and peace … maybe it’s just to read a book … or have lunch with someone I haven’t seen for awhile … or sign up for a course, watch a good movie, take a day trip … pay attention … pay attention to the news, to the world in which I live, pay attention to what’s going on, who’s making the headlines, who’s making the noise, who’s telling the truth, and who isn’t.

To be passionate about the things of life, things that make a difference, things that count … things centered in the earth and its wonder … the people and cultures of our world … a full moon on a clear night, the welfare of the church and the truth of the gospel.

Last week Sunday we focused on the word Justice …

Today, the word is Passion … the second of our three-part series, J.P.L … Justice, Passion, Latitude.

If Justice is what we do.

Passion defines our commitment …

Passion … the deep and abiding energy of care … 

Focused by the love and care of God.

God cares deeply about God’s creation … God is passionate about you and me … the birds and the bees … the lily of the field, Zacchaeus up a tree, the children at the edge of the crowd.  

Commitment … care … concern … passion.

Not all passion is good.

Those who stormed the Capital on Jan. 6 were passionate all right, but their passions are of a world-view very different from mine, a world-view of fear and panic, bitterness and rage, religious domination, racial supremacy, homophobia, guns and scaffolds.

Christ and his passion is the model we follow … that of Jeremiah and Amos, John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul, Mary and Lydia … a thousand examples of compassion, wisdom, courage, and sacrifice … doing the right thing … careful thinking and sound solutions to the ills of the day.

The word passion is often associated with the suffering of Jesus … his trial, his crucifixion, his death … his passion.

Passion involves a deep and profound self-giving … giving ourselves to a cause, a purpose, a need … to those we love.

Love creates a cross … 

To love God with all that we are, to love our neighbor as ourselves … with Christ at the center.

Think of it visually … two vectors … Christ at the center.

The vertical bar - rooted in this earth, stretching toward heaven … the horizontal bar spreading wide around the world … Christ at the center … through Christ, heaven and earth, held together … through Christ, the world of need and hurt, embraced.

To follow Christ is to be with Christ at the center of the cross.

Jesus invites us to carry our own cross!

We turn now to the story of the day … a tale of two sisters.

It’s Martha who welcomes Jesus into her home … 

It’s her sister, Mary, who sits at the feet of Jesus.

Mary is a disciple … in a world restricted to men … Mary breaks convention.

Martha is uncomfortable, to the point of anger.

Martha asks Jesus: Don’t you care? Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself. Don’t. you. care?

Tell my sister to get into the kitchen with me to make lunch; tell her to dust the mantle, sweep the floor, wash the dishes … tell her to get off her duff and do something.

Jesus responds pointedly: Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.

Preachers and theologians have complimented both Martha and Mary … softening the response of Jesus … suggesting that we need both Martha and Mary … we need Martha in the kitchen, and Mary at the feet of Jesus … we need both of them, because both of them are right, in their own way and world.

That’s true, in general - there’s work to be done - material work, hands-on-work, some assembly required … grocery shopping, lunch to be made, dishes to be washed and put away … we go to work, mind our business, pay the bills, do what we can.

Yes, to all of that.

But the point of the story is this: Martha’s mistaken … Mary makes the right decision … in that critical moment.

Nothing wrong with Martha … but in the moment, she missed the boat … she focused her energies in the wrong direction … she fussed with her many tasks when she should have been at the feet of Jesus.

Martha’s passion was misdirected … which is why she’s upset … when our passion is misdirected, it never works.

Nothing more is said in the story … 

I wonder …

Was Martha afraid to get outta the kitchen? … after all, a woman’s place is in the kitchen, isn’t it? If not in the kitchen, then in the laundry room.

Women had their place in life, and it wasn’t as a follower of a rabbi. Women didn’t go to seminary; women didn’t sit at the feet of a teacher.

A problem still present in our world:

Women denied opportunities of learning and work … suffering the loss of dignity … “men only” - the rule of the day in many a culture, and in much of Christianity.

To this day, issues of equal pay are still debated.

In conservative churches, women are denied their place in God’s kingdom … their voices silenced in the face of abuse and discrimination.

Conservative Presbyterians still believe that women ought not to be ordained to ministry - “men only.”

Around the world, women are treated as second-class human beings, or worse. Beaten and maimed, shunned and killed - in too many places, Christianity fails … fails to embody the passion of Christ.

Maybe Martha was afraid to step outta the kitchen. 

Yet, her frustration is evident …

How many women gave up their dreams? 

Because church and culture said “No!”

Women in ministry often had that calling early in their life … but they didn’t see women in the pulpit, so they had no model to follow … if they said something about it, they were likely told, “it’s for men only.”

Barriers have fallen in the last 100 years … women finding their voice … opportunities to explore their gifts.

We have more ground to cover, progress must continue, and still to be wary, wary of those who discredit women and take away their rights. As far as I can tell, the struggle is not about to end.

Today, we are called by Christ to be passionate in our commitment … nothing lukewarm here … nothing lackluster … nothing halfway will do.

We have models to follow!

Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Rosemary Ruether, Dietrich Bonhoeffer … they knew how to work; they weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, but they knew when to sit at the feet of Jesus, and they didn’t take “no” for an answer.

Sunday morning at Westminster - at the feet of Jesus … to learn of God, recalibrate our souls … ask deep questions … think things through … seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit … open ourselves up to the grace of God … pray and ponder … seek and find … in the far corners of our souls.

Here and now, in this place, in this moment, right now: we’re Mary, we sit at the feet of Jesus … tomorrow, we’ll be Martha, with many tasks to do.

Hallelujah and Amen!