We spoke of "death" last week. It's time to talk about darkness.
When you were a child, were you ever afraid of the dark? Did you imagine all sorts of scary things living in the dark of your closet or under your bed?
When I was a youth, my bedroom was in the basement and the laundry room next door had a dark, dank space behind the water heater and under the stairs. I was convinced that the Boogie Man lived there. I did have a night-light and that gave me a bit of reassurance. But I also knew that if the Boogie Man did come after me, I wouldn't be able to get past him and up those stairs.
Then, at some point, I outgrew my fear of the dark--well, at least to that degree anyway.
Parents have probably had the experience of a child calling you out of a deep sleep because there’s a "monster" lurking in the shadows. Anyone relate to that?
Most adults no longer fear the dark. But listening to our readings from Numbers and John today, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to put that fear of the dark behind us. Certainly, we no longer imagine monsters hiding under the stairs, but as adults, maybe we ought to look at darkness in an adult way.
In our first reading, the Israelites in the desert actually did have a sort of real-life monster to contend with: poisonous snakes! These people were suddenly set upon by snakes that bit them, and in fact, many of them died. We hear that this happened because the Israelites were grumbling against not just Moses, but God. Big mistake!
Do you remember the TV commercial--"It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"? Well, you also don't insult God.
But we can’t really blame them – they were wandering in the desert, hungry, hot, thirsty. They may have been desperate. They may have feared a death of another kind before the snakes came upon them. Of course, we know that God heard their cry – like a child waking a parent out of fear – and God had Moses set up the bronze serpent on a pole and those who would look on it would live.
Our passage from Numbers talks about a real fear of bodily harm – a fear of death in a natural way. Yet, underneath that natural fear was the darkness brought on them by cursing God. It was their sin of not believing that God would keep the promise of bringing them to a land of milk and honey.
This is such a typical Old Testament story. Offend God, God gets angry; God forgives; people learn a lesson.
Why is it that we grow to adulthood and suddenly begin ignoring the true darkness of sin? This is what Jesus is talking about in the gospel of John.
In the story of the bronze snakes on a pole, did you recognize that that is the symbol for doctors? That symbol is called a caduceus (a great Scrabble word--caduceus).
Then in the New Testament gospel story, Jesus tells us that what was a symbol of saving then, is now himself. He is lifted up (on a cross) and will bring eternal life to anyone who looks at him and believes.
It's our God of contradictions again. God did not send Jesus into the world like the snakes to kill the people. God sent Jesus into the world to show how much God loves us.
Snakes on a pole--not a symbol of more death, but of life.
Jesus on a cross--not a symbol of more death, but of life!
Jesus then goes on to bring out the importance of understanding light and dark as adults.
There is something very frightening about living in the dark, especially if it is an interior darkness – living with despair or hate. Jesus says that evil hates the light. I'd have to say that I might be inclined to sit back and smugly say that, "I'm not evil. I don't hate the light." Just because we, ourselves, might not live in darkness, we can’t just ignore that darkness.
We are all sinners. We all have a place where our darkness hides so others might not see it.
It comes in many forms. I'll just mention three. It might take the form of discrimination. Just this past week, it pained my heart to hear some parishioners use two of the most dreadful words in the English language: "those people."
Or, we might have family members that we no longer bother with. It might be their fault(!), but have we given reconciliation one more try?
How do we feel about ourselves? It seems to me that the greatest source of darkness in our lives is self-manufactured. Darkness could be our self-loathing for whatever reason.
Our scripture readings tell us that God does not want that of us! Each of us is a child of God and in God’s sight, you are glorious!!
For most of my teen and early adult years, I suffered from a terrible lack of self-esteem. I somehow believed that if anything good happened to me, that it was a fluke; maybe God wasn't paying attention.
Then I came across a Bible-based book titled "Who Told You were Naked?" and in that I finally heard that God intends for us to be happy! And, in fact, if we are not allowing ourselves to let God show us that, we are both insulting God's creation and...cheating ourselves.
And yet, we are capable of throwing God's optimism back in God's face. God tells us that we are children of God and that we should walk in the Light.Yes, indeed, that is what God expects of us, and if we throw that back in God’s face, couldn’t that be a type of darkness – a type of sin?
Remember, the second great commandment is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves, we are giving our neighbors less than they deserve.
To do this, we must live in the light. John’s gospel is full of images of light and dark. If we go right back to the beginning of the Gospel of John, we hear those wonderful words: “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” Hear those words: “to everyone.” That means us.
We are fools if we choose to live in the darkness, especially if it’s a darkness of our making.
Unfortunately, we know that we adults do choose to live in the darkness. One of the most tragic verses in John’s gospel, maybe in all of scripture, follows that verse: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” That means us, too.
Here’s the crux of the matter. Jesus came to us. God took on the flesh of a human so that God could live among us and show us firsthand how much we are loved – and yet we choose not to recognize him by not fully embracing the goodness with which we were made. That is darkness of a tragic type.
Lent is our time to consider our darkness – one reason why you hear the statement at the beginning of the liturgy in Lent..."If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves."Sometimes we construct elaborate ways to either ignore our sins--or--to wallow in them unnecessarily. Either way, we sit in darkness.
God so loved the world, God so loved you and me, that he came into the world, died for our sins, and rose again..so that the light of that Resurrection will be the light that transforms us.
Are there any snakes biting at your heels today? Any darkness biting at your heels?
Look upon the cross and receive the light that God is waiting to ignite in you!!
Amen.
Scriptural Texts: Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:;1-10; John 3:14-21
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