For March 22, 2009

Scriptures
Numbers 21:4-9 (Snakes! And a sign to heal by.)
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 (Some were sick... and God saved them.)
Ephesians 2:1-10 (Created for good.)
John 3:14-21 (For God so Loved the world....)

Sunday Bulletin Series Theme "No Matter What"

Sermon Title: The Way of Healing

We have been looking at the covenant stories of scripture through the lens of the 25th psalm, "teach me your paths, O Lord, make me to know your ways." I invite you to imagine the covenant stories as examples of ways that are paved, and paths cleared, for us to be united with God.
The readings from the Hebrew scriptures, during this season of Lent, have been following God's covenants with Noah and all creation, with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, with Moses and the people God brought out of Egypt. Next Sunday we will read of a new covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah. But this Sunday, we have snakes.
I don't like snakes.
It's nothing personal, I know they are a vital part of the ecosystem, the web of life, and all that. They are just so sneaky. They appear unexpectedly, taking a person by surprise, causing her to shriek and leap away and twist her ankle upon landing.
Anyway, the story goes that God sent the snakes to bite the people because they were whining.
I don't believe that part.
No parent, however frustrated with the whining in the back seat while the family drives down the highway, would ever respond by throwing a snake over the divider between the seats. Well, no good parent anyway.
So that is one view of God that I don't think we should pass on to future generations.
But the truth of the story is in the crying out, and in the healing.
They cried out to God, and just as God heard their cries in Egypt, God heard their cries again, and in the assurance of God's presence, they experienced healing.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress;
he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.
-- Psalm 107

To whom do you cry out, in fever or pain?
How have you experienced healing?
How can the ministry of healing be a pathway to union with God?