Creekside Church Web Site -Sermon of May 25, 1997

Years ago, the story goes, a Brethren church called a new pastor. His first Sunday he preached a sermon on baptism by trine immersion. The second week he repeated the theme. "Must be part of a series," they thought. But after six weeks every one was growing weary of the subject. "We're impressed with your breadth of knowledge on baptism, but we would like you to address another topic." They said. Having thought ahead, they suggested a sermon on creation. The next Sunday they were relieved as he read from Genesis I. Nothing about baptism there. "And God called the dry land earth and the waters he called the sea." He read. "We know that three quarters of the earth's surface is water. With such an abundance of water we can therefore conjecture that when the rite of baptism came into being, trine immersion is what the Lord God in his infinite wisdom had in mind."

One of the pitfalls of preaching is to get stuck on pet themes and ignore the breadth of other important matters. And yet there are themes in the faith which are so central and their messages so inexhaustible that we must pay repeated visits. I asked Charles Stouder awhile back if he had but one sermon to preach, what would it be. With no hesitation he said, "The cross. If there's one reality I come back to again and again; if there is one thing without which you cannot understand Christianity, it is the cross." And he's right.

The other religions have such attractive symbols...a six pointed star, a lotus, a crescent moon. But we have a cross. The message is so simple you can tell it with two perpendicular pieces of wood, yet it is so vast that all the volumes ever written about it cannot contain its meaning. The Christian message is about life...the good life, the changed life, the abundant life, the whole and healed life, eternal life...yet the symbol that identifies it is a cross.

We went to a wedding last Saturday. The sanctuary had just been remodeled, and a member of the church was telling us how pleased everyone is with the finished product. "The only problem," she said, "is that we have lost the cross." "Lost it?" "Oh, it's still here, big as ever, but it doesn't stand out the way it should." "Good for them," I thought. At least they know the cross should be visible. Go to the huge Willow Creek Church outside of Chicago, or some of the other "seeker" churches that are springing up across the country, and you will be struck by how unlike churches they look. No pews, no altars, no candles, no crosses. In seeking those who have never been to church or who have been turned off by it, the church doesn't want people to associate church with the traditional symbols...at least not at first.

"When I came to you, I didn't come with slick speech," Paul told the Corinthians. "I decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified." If we know nothing else, let's look at why the cross and Christ who bore it is so important. We'll do this by examining an obscure passage within a familiar one. In John, chapter three, Nicodemus meets Jesus under the cover of night and they talk of spiritual rebirth. In the course of their conversation Jesus speaks the verse known as John 3: 16. Please repeat it with me. Good. Now recite John 3: 14-15. "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."

This is in reference to what happened to the Hebrews after the Exodus from Egypt and during their wandering in the wilderness. From the moment they left they complained constantly to Moses and God about the accommodations. Numbers 21: 4-9 describes what happened.

Do any of you like snakes? Did you get the willies in that scene from the Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones descended into that dark room carpeted with wall to wall snakes? For their complaining, the Hebrews were inflicted with fearsome, slithering, poisonous snakes. It didn't take long for them to change their tune. They cried, "We're sorry! We sinned! We repent!" So Moses prayed for them and God told Moses to make a bronze snake, put it on a pole, and have everyone who was bitten look at it and they would live. "Let's be sure we're hearing this right, Moses. If we're snake-bit, we look at the likeness of the very thing that's killing us and we'll be healed?" Snake on a stick. Strange. But maybe not as strange as it seems.

Do you know what they give to people who are bitten by a poisonous snake? An injection of serum containing snake venom. There are times when the very things which trouble us can play a role in healing us as well. God can take that which would hurt us and use it to restore us. But it takes courage to face what ails you, because what you see may be ugly and painful.

William Willimon tells of a college student who spent a summer working at a state park in Michigan. While there he became friends with another student. In their spare time they did things together, and enjoyed each other's company. The friend invited him home for the weekend. His family lived on a farm...a beautiful setting, well kept buildings, flower beds, a picket fence around the house. The family was warm and friendly. After a prayer they enjoyed a wonderful meal and engaging conversation.

After dinner the friends went outside and the host said, "My family really likes you. I think you see things the way we do. That's why my parents said I could show you something we don't share with everyone. Not everyone can be trusted." He led him to the barn where he moved a tarp covering a large chest. He opened it and pulled out a picture of Adolf Hitler, swastika banners, white supremacist literature, and assault rifles.

In that startling moment the student understood the meaning of chaos. He saw what becomes of people when left to their own devices. He became aware more than ever of the need to look to God lest we die from our own venom. It's not just others who have snakes in their cellars who need to take a long look at what's eating away at them. There is not a person listening to my voice who doesn't have a deep need, which, if left untouched, might be your undoing. There is within us all some hurt, some anger, some wound which afflicts us...you may try to ignore it. You may try to cover it by being a good person, living a Christian life, having the right beliefs, but until you're willing to face whatever hurts and hold you, until you can look at your own snake on a stick, your healing is yet to be fully experienced.

My friend is a recovering alcoholic. For forty years he refused to face his serpent. He calls himself a miracle because he should have been dead...several times. One day he finally found the courage to look at himself. With God's love and power he faced the lie about himself and then saw the truth. Now he tells his story to all who will listen. He tells them he is living proof that they can face what ails them and trust in a God who can heal.

Moses made a snake on a stick. He told the people to look up to it and be healed. "So must the Son of Man be lifted up." Here is where John uses a favorite literary device. Words with double meanings. The Greek for "lifted up" means lifted up in glorification, but also lifted up in crucifixion. Jesus tells Nicodemus that his rebirth is tied to the one who came from heaven...who would soon be lifted up...about three feet off the ground. It wouldn't be a pretty site. Crucifixion was designed to repulse, but drastic needs require drastic measures.

Writing of the servant who was yet to come, Isaiah said, "There was nothing attractive about him. We despised him and rejected him; he endured suffering and pain. No one would even look at him." It's hard to look upon someone whose face bears the marks of pain we have inflicted.

I can think of no pain greater for a marriage to overcome than when there has been infidelity. I remember working with a couple trying to pick up the pieces of their relationship because of an affair. The husband admitted his guilt, but had lots of rationalizations. "Maybe I wouldn't have done it if only you had..." It was hard for him to say he was sorry. Through it all it was clear that his wife was committed to working things out, but he kept his distance. As we talked, I noticed he couldn't look directly into his wife's face. I asked if he was aware of it. He said it was intentional. "Why won't you look at her?" "I'm scared of what I'll see." "What will you see?" "I'm scared of seeing the pain I've caused her." Then she asked him to look. When he did he saw tears streaming down her face. He looked away, but she turned his chin so his face met hers and asked, "What else do you see?" She gave a slight, searching smile, and then he began to cry. "I see a woman who still loves me and forgives me after all I've done." What a remarkable, healing moment that was.

When Jesus was nailed to the cross it was a horrible moment. All of our sin, all our hatred, all the hurt we inflicted and all the hurt inflicted upon us...he took upon himself. The one from heaven came down, and in a way I can't explain, experienced it all. He showed all who had the stomach to watch it the lengths to which God would go for no other reason than God so loved the world. Moses hoisted the bronze snake, and the Hebrews were healed. And Jesus allowed himself to be raised for all to see; became the doctor who treated us by loving us to death and drawing the venom out of us. He was lifted up to draw the hatred from the neo-Nazi family in Michigan, from that struggling marriage, from that secret sin, that menacing memory which you have suffered from long enough.

There is so much that divides us from God, and each other, and even from our best selves. It's not that turning to Him will take away our troubles in an instant, but when we look up to Him, and keep our gaze upon Him who for the sake of love took our sins and griefs to bear, then we can begin to know what it means to be healed and whole.

Now let me relate this story told by Charles Colson about his visit to a very unusual prison in Brazil. It is called Humanita. Twenty years ago it was turned over to a couple of Christians who planned to run it on Christian principles. Humanita has only two full-time staff. The rest are inmates. Each prisoner is accountable for another prisoner, and each prisoner is assigned an outside family to work with him after release. Each prisoner participates in chapel or takes a class on character formation.

When Colson visited the prison, he found the inmates smiling, especially the murderer who held the keys, opened the gates, and let him in. There were clean living areas, and the inmates were working industriously. The walls were decorated with versus from Psalms and Proverbs. In the United States the recidivism rate is seventy-five percent. At Humanita, it is four percent. What is the reason?

Colson saw the answer when the guide escorted him to a notorious punishment cell once used for torture. Today the cell block holds only one inmate. As they reached the end of a long concrete corridor, and the guide put the key into the lock, Colson was asked, "Are you sure you want to go in?" "Of course," Colson replied. "I've been in isolation cells all over the world." The guide slowly swung open the massive door, and he saw the prisoner in the punishment cell; a crucifix carved by the Humanita inmates...the prisoner was Jesus hanging on a cross. Softly the guide said, "He's doing time for the rest of us."

And 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.

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Creekside Church Sermon of May 25, 1997

Creekside Church
Sermon of May 25, 1997