The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
March 14, 2021
Year B: The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
God is All About Transforming Death into New Life
We were all horribly shocked and deeply saddened when we received the terrible news that our much-loved brother Alton Avaloy died suddenly and unexpectedly this past week.
Alton was a big, solid guy – a gentle giant – a loving father, a devoted son and brother, and a loyal friend.
He was a quiet but steady presence, always willing to help out around here, especially if that meant flipping pancakes on Shrove Tuesday or grilling burgers at our Pentecost picnic.
Especially after a year of so much loss, his death is a cruel blow for us and for the many people who loved him.
But, as Christians, even as we mourn the distance that now exists between Alton and us, even through our tears, we still do not give up hope.
At his funeral service on Thursday, we will even pause our Lenten fast, and we will say the “A” word, that ancient and beautiful expression of praise and joy.
Even in our grief we are still going to celebrate because we know God – and, for God, death is never the end.
No, God is all about transforming death into new life.
Today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent, often called “Laetare Sunday,” from a Latin word meaning, “rejoice.”
Even in our sadness, we Christians rejoice.
Today we pull out the rose (not pink!) vestments as a way to signal that our Lenten fast is drawing to a close.
Even in our sadness, we know that soon it will be Easter.
Soon, in the garden, at the empty tomb, God will transform death into new life, once and for all.
And the new life that God gave to Jesus is always offered to us, too
As the author of the Letter to the Ephesians writes,
“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…”
God is all about transforming death into new life.
Today’s Old Testament lesson from the Book of Numbers is a strange and disturbing tale.
For starters, it’s a story about snakes – creatures that frighten many of us – not me, of course, but lots of other people.
And, as you know, snakes don’t have a great reputation in the Bible. It’s not for nothing that it’s a serpent in the garden that tempts the first humans to do the wrong thing.
But, snakes are also amazing animals, able to shed their skin, to regenerate body parts – leading many ancient cultures to see them as symbols of fertility and resurrection.
Anyway, some of the ancient rabbis who studied the biblical texts so closely were embarrassed by this story – not so much because God got so fed up with the complaining of the Israelites that God sent poisonous snakes to kill them. I think all of us who have had to deal with chronic complainers can relate to that!
No, what bothered the rabbis was the pole that Moses made with the bronze serpent – and the idea that, if any Israelite was bitten by a poisonous snake, all he or she had to do was look at that bronze serpent and live.
That sounds like magic and it made some of the ancient rabbis uncomfortable, and maybe it makes us uneasy, too.
But, it seems to me that the point is not that Moses was able to create a magic bronze serpent, but that God is able to transform the snake a symbol of suffering and death into a sign of hope and new life – just as real-life snakes are to able to shed their skin and live anew.
God is all about transforming death into new life.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus looks back to that old snake story, drawing a connection between the snake pole and the cross.
With the cross, once again God takes a tool – an instrument – of suffering and death and transforms it into a sign of hope and new life.
And then Jesus continues into some of the best-known verses of the Bible, John 3:16:
“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.”
Many people have committed those beautiful words to memory. Some even hold up “John 3:16” signs at football games. But we shouldn’t ignore what comes next. Jesus says:
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
God is all about transforming death into new life.
And, we can believe that not just because of an old snake story, and not even just because of the words of Jesus in the gospels.
We can believe that because we see God transforming death into new life all around us.
God’s transforming work is built right into creation.
Last fall the leaves turned orange and brown and fell from the trees to the earth.
And, during our long, cold winter much of the ground looked utterly barren, devoid of life, dead.
Even just a little more than a week ago, there was still old and dirty snow piled on corners and by the side of the road. It felt like we would never be rid of it. It felt like it would never be spring.
It felt like that, but we knew better, of course.
And sure enough, about a week ago the last of the snow finally melted and right here in our church garden, out of that seemingly barren soil, the first signs of new life arose, some small but colorful flowers – the first sign of Easter joy.
God is all about transforming death into new life.
Finally, I don’t know if you followed this on the news, but I was so moved by the recent visit of Pope Francis to Iraq.
Besides Afghanistan, it’s hard to think of another land that has suffered more than Iraq during recent decades, during a brutal dictatorship, during wars with neighbors and the U.S., and during the chaos that has followed our invasion and occupation.
Although it’s long been a predominately Muslim land, Christians have lived in Iraq since nearly the birth of our faith, and the faith roots are even deeper than that, since Iraq is the homeland of Abraham and Sarah, the patriarch and matriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
In recent years, the Iraqi Christians have suffered terribly at the hands of ISIS, their churches bombed, their homes destroyed – forcing them to flee to relatively safer places in the country or, if they’re fortunate, to escape Iraq entirely.
So, it’s hard to imagine a less hopeful place.
Yet, fulfilling a longstanding desire, that’s where Pope Francis went, at significant risk to his own safety, offering a message of reassurance to the Iraqi Christians who remain, and also extending the hand of friendship and solidarity to the Muslim community.
At Abraham and Sarah’s hometown, the Pope said:
“From this place, where faith was born…let us affirm that God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters.”
One of the most vivid images from the trip was the Pope’s visit to the simple home of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leader of Iraq’s Shiite Muslims.
Did you see the picture of these two old men sitting together, talking quietly, bridging centuries of so much bad history, reaching out and holding each other’s hands?
That was a miracle at least as unlikely, and at least as life-giving, as Moses’ snake pole!
So, today, as we mourn our brother Alton and all of our other many losses during this year of pandemic, and as we look ahead to a future that is always uncertain and often frightening, please remember that the God who offered healing in the wilderness long ago - the God who raised Jesus from the dead - our God - is still all about transforming death into new life.
And, for that, we rejoice.
Amen.
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