Lent 4
Numbers 21:4-9 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21
Sometimes I get impatient. Do any of you ever get impatient?
Impatience can be a gift of God. For example, if God wants a situation to change, God may stir up our impatience so that we will take action and make the change God wants in a particular situation.
More often, our impatience is a sign that we want to be in charge of the universe. We’ve put ourselves in the control center and we are impatient that things are not going the way we want.
In today’s first reading, God had led the people of Israel out of their captivity in Egypt and was guiding them to a new land. But “the people became impatient on the way.” They were impatient because they did not know exactly where they were going or how long it was going to take. They were impatient because they did not have the kind of food and water that they wanted. Their impatience led them to angry criticism of God and their leaders.
We can have some real empathy for the people of Israel because we are living in a wilderness time of global economic melt down. The best experts in the world are not sure how to resolve our crisis. It is too complex, too global, with too many variables. We do not know where we are going or how long we will be in this economic wilderness. We are becoming more and more impatient and critical of leaders at every level.
Since, like Israel, we are traveling through an economic wilderness, who are you looking to for help? Are you looking to the Obama team? To the Congress? To academic and business leaders? To CEO’s of bailed out banks? To the stock market? To the United Nations? To a global economic summit?
All of these sources will need to contribute to finding a helpful way through our economic wilderness, but the truth is, none of these sources know exactly what is needed. We are in an unprecedented situation beyond all our previous economic maps. We’re in over our heads, traveling through a wilderness of uncertainty.
To some extent we have all caught the contagious economic disease of greed, anxiety and fear. Where can we turn for help with our economic disease? Where can we find nourishment in the wilderness of our impatience and anxiety?
The people of Israel recognized that their impatience and criticism of leaders was not helping them. They recognized that they themselves were part of the problem. They had forgotten to trust God and seek God’s guidance. So, in their need, they cried out to God for help. They admitted that they did not know the way and they needed God’s guidance and healing power.
In answer to their prayers, God guided Moses to create a prayer symbol, a bronze serpent put up on a cross-like post. When people looked to that symbol and remembered that only God could heal them of their disease, God sent healing to them.
In the Gospel, Jesus told 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.”
We can also find help in our wilderness times when we look to Jesus and seek his guidance. But often, when we find ourselves in difficult situations, our temptation is to work harder and faster to get control of our situation. Paradoxically, working harder and faster often makes things worse. We become like a drowning person trashing in the water, wasting energy and beginning to sink. By contrast, if we stopped struggling so hard and simply trusted the water, floated on top of the water, we would conserve energy as we waited for help to come.
In Ephesians we were reminded that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our hard work. In our wilderness times, God invites us to stop thrashing around trying to control every thing… and instead to look to Jesus for help and to invite him into the control center of our lives and of our world.
In today’s Gospel, we heard John 3:16, one of the most well known verses in the Bible. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life.”
The verse is familiar, but we need to unpack its meaning. What does it mean to believe in God? It means more than simply believing that God exists. It does not mean just believing correct doctrine or having a perfect intellectual understanding of Jesus. As the Bible says, who of us can know God fully?
Believing in Jesus means living our lives in constant relationship with Jesus, trusting Jesus to guide us every day, through every wilderness of our lives. We never have all the answers about what Jesus wants us to do. Yet we learn that by looking to Jesus, by constantly seeking his help, Jesus will guide us and nourish us in the wilderness. Jesus will be our bread of life.
When Jesus talks about Eternal Life, he is not just referring what happens after we die. Jesus teaches us that Eternal Life begins now. As we learn to live our lives with Jesus as our guiding center, we will experience day by day the beginnings of the same quality of relationship with God that we will experience after we die.
If we learned to let go of our impatient desire to be in control and learned to look to Jesus to guide us through our wilderness…do you think these spiritual practices would actually make a difference in our lives?
I’m sure many of you can tell stories of how Jesus has guided you through wilderness times in your life. Let me share one example of how I’ve seen God at work in this wilderness time.
You all know about the conflicts and divisions the Anglican Communion has experienced over the past few years. Last summer when most Episcopal and Anglican bishops in the world gathered at the Lambeth Conference, many people were impatient for the Archbishop of Canterbury to bring a resolution to our divisions. Instead of trying to provide a quick solution, Rowan Williams called the bishops into a time of retreat during the first three days. He reminded us that he cannot fix the divisions and that none of us had been able to find a way through our wilderness of divisions. He invited us to let go of trying to be in control, to empty ourselves and wait for God’s Spirit to guide us. Only as we humble ourselves, stop trying to control the outcome, and invite God to guide us, will we discover God’s preferred future for us.
It is clear that relationships in the Anglican Communion have changed dramatically since that gathering. Yes, there are still a few people flaming the fires of division. But the vast majority of bishops in the Anglican Communion and in the United States are willing to trust Jesus to guide us through this wilderness time. Our common “trust in Jesus” is what holds us together with mutual love and respect, amid our continuing differences and amid the economic challenges we all are facing.
Looking to Jesus for healing, nourishment and guidance is not just a way to respond in a crisis.God wants this to be our way of living…so that looking to Jesus gets woven into the way we begin each day, live through each day and end each day.
When we begin each day, we need to take time to focus our attention on God, just as Moses and Jesus invited people to do in today’s lessons. If we take 5 or 10 or 20 minutes at the start of each day to be alone with God… it will change the way we handle our day. After thanking God for being with us, we might review our plans for the day and ask Jesus to guide us through every moment and situation we will face. Reading and reflecting briefly on a passage from the Bible may help us to hear a word of guidance from God for our day and connect our lives with the followers of Jesus down through the centuries.
During the flow of the day, we need little reminders to keep us aware of God’s presence with us. My computer password is a verse of Scripture reminding me to trust God. I have little symbols in my office reminding me to turn to God. I often keep the radio off in the car so I can talk with God. I use bathroom breaks and mealtime grace to reconnect with God. What little habits do you have to help you keep reconnecting with God throughout your day?
The way we end our day is also important. It helps me to end the day by taking a few minutes to be still in the warmth of God’s love. Then I invite Jesus to help me replay the past day. What am I most thankful for? In what situations did I experience God’s presence and guidance? Then, I ask Jesus to help me be aware of what I was least thankful for in the past day. I ask God for healing, forgiveness and help with any unresolved frustrations of the day. Then I let the day go into God’s care…and go to sleep, resting in God’s love.
As we live through this wilderness time in our world, is God asking you to let go of being so anxious and impatient? How might God be inviting you to look to Jesus more for help…by changing the way you begin each day, live through each day, and end each day?
Let’s close our eyes and be still for a moment. First be aware that Jesus is here with us…and that he is looking at you with eyes of loving care. Let his love embrace you. What changes do you sense Jesus is inviting you to make in the way you begin each day, live through each day and end each day…so that you live in closer relationship with Jesus and trust him to guide your life?