Number 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
Sermon
We live two separate lives. One is our public life… It is the life we want others to see. It is best described in our family and out working lives. As families we want other people to see the best side of our family…to see us in the best possible light. We want them to see… that we are a normal happy family…who lives in harmony and always agrees with each other. In public we insist that the children treat their brothers and sisters well and that they look out for each other. We want the public to see us as a model family…that they could wish for and aspire to.
Similarly in our working lives we also want our employers to think the best of us. We write resumes which emphasize our best qualities. We have done research on how we should look, what to wear, and how we can make a good impression on employers at the interview. As employees we like to make a positive impression on our employer. We appear to agree with them even when we disagree.
Our private lives are very different from our public lives. We have many secrets that we don’t want the public to know about. We don’t want them to see the darker sides of our family. We don’t want them to see family disagreement or arguments. We don’t want them to know…too much about the black sheep… who might cause embarrassment for our family. We try hard to keep our family secrets out of sight in dark closets where the public can’t see them.
We try keeping dark secrets from our employers… We take the wages they pay… while we grumble to some one else…about the things we have to do to earn them. While it appears that we agree with the boss…privately we voice our disagreements… We hide in dark corners hoping they will not find out…about what we really are like.
Our two separate lives are not limited…we lead two lives wherever we are. We even try it with our God. Where we imagine that God is more present…we try being more holy. In this place God is more present… Here we talk and act differently than we do in other places… In this place we pray for God’s love…we sing about it and…we talk about the greatness of God’s love. In this place we learn that God is all knowing and always present…no matter where we are… or what we are doing. But when we are not in this place we soon forget what we say here. We assume that God is too busy doing the big things…like healing the sick or saving the world…to watch us when we are out and away from this place. We assume that we are able to live two separate lives before God like we can with people.
But while we live these two lives…we are not truly happy and content doing it. Guilt begins to invade our secret lives. We worry about our secrets being discovered. What if people see me as I really am? What if people discover that my family isn’t the ideal? What if our employer discovers my true thoughts? Worst of all… what if God really knows our dark secrets. What will happen to us…once God gets involved?
Even though we hope that God is too busy to worry about our secret lives… we worry that God knows it all. Deep down we worry that God sees the secrets we hide from people…we worry that God can read our thoughts. We worry that one of these days we will cross the line… and God will finally run out of patience with us… Deep down we worry because God… sees everything even our very thoughts. Deep down we worry…that God’s eyes will see and count our every sin down to the very smallest one… Deep in our hearts we worry that God will lose patience with us…and God will punish us…for every sin regardless how small…
Sometime we are confused about what our God is really like. We know that our God is love…but we know that our God sees and knows everything. We know that sometimes God punishes but we also know that our God forgives. We just are not sure about our God. The lessons we have heard today don’t completely dispel our confusion either. Out in the wilderness the God’s people speak against God and Moses complaining because they are hungry and thirsty…and because they detest the miserable food God does provide. For their anger and complaints…the people are punished. It seems that God certainly punishes.
On the other hand in his conversation with Nicodemus …Jesus tells him that God loves the world… He says God’s love is greater than just for God’s people…greater than for all people…God’s love extends to the whole of God’s creation…to the total extent of the universe. He says that God’s love is so great that he sends the Son as a sign of just how greatly God loves the world.
God’s love for the world has never been a new thing…during the time in the wilderness God loved. God loves even during the time God needs to discipline… Let us return for a moment to the wilderness when the people spoke out against the LORD and against Moses complaining about the detestable food… and during the time they are being punished. When they come to Moses and confess that they have sinned against the Lord and Moses… immediately God forgives them and relents from punishing. The LORD even instructs Moses to make a symbol…which reminds them about how quickly God’s mind is changed…to remind them about God’s desire to forgive and to save.
Sometimes it is just too much for us to believe just how much God loves. We keep thinking that God’s love is a response for our loving. But that is the farthest from the truth…in fact God loves us because we are… God loves everything that is…everything God has made. Even more God loves when we are far from being loveable… when we are dead through our trespasses and sin. And when our trespasses and sin are such that we only deserve God’s condemnation…God’s Son comes not to condemn but to save.
Our God knows us very well… and even though we try to hide secrets our God knows every secret big and small… Regardless of whether our secrets are sordid or relatively insignificant… our God loves us anyway. There are many ways to describe our God’s love…but one of the best descriptions is found in the words of the Psalm; God’s steadfast love endures forever.
Our God’s steadfast love for us endures…from the moment we are born until we die… It endures when we are good and when we are not so good… It endures when we wander off where demons dwell…and don’t want anything to do with God… It endures when we are dead in trespasses and sin. Our God’s steadfast enduring love is even more than these words are able to describe…
Our God loves us first and calls us to enter into a mutual and loving relationship. We are called out of the dark shadows of our secret world…into the light which reveals the truth of God’s love. We are called to return our God’s love…with thankful hearts. We are called the loved what God loves with a similar steadfast love. Finally we are called to proclaim the good news of our God’s steadfast and enduring love…wherever we are at home or in the world. Let us love as God loves. Thanks be to God. Amen
Out of the Wilderness 