"A Free Promise" Sermon for Lent 4 2015 - John 3:16

Sermon:

Text: Numbers 21:4-9, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gives the gift of salvation

            We’ve been looking at promises this Lent, and this week we find ourselves not just with one, or even two, but three different promises in our texts.

            The first comes from our reading from Numbers, it finds the Israelites just out of Egypt in the Exodus and into the Wilderness at the start of what becomes 40 years there.

            I was reminded of a story I read this week in connection to this text about whether we are raising a generation of narcissists by giving constant praise to children as they grow up. The question the article raised was Does that create adults who then expect everything to go their way all the time, and don’t know or understand how to deal with things that don’t go their way. Are they expecting everyone and everything to bend to their will and do what they want?

            What reminded me of this story is just the reaction of the Israelites in this text, it's just after they have been rescued from Egypt. They have started to receive the Manna that will nourish them throughout their time in the desert, so they certainly aren’t at that great of risk, but here they begin what turns out to be a cycle of complaint that lasts a multitude of generations. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” And to this God sends out serpents that bite them and kill them. I have some problems with this, mainly because I don’t really like the image of God as a God who purposely kills people, but I also see that there are also ramifications for what we do, to each other and to God.

            But, something happens as a result of the serpents coming into their camp. The Israelites see that they did indeed error in their ways by blaming the God who saved them, and assuming that God would just let them die here. So they cry to Moses, “We have sinned! Ask God to take these serpents from us!” So, Moses prays, and God says, “Make a serpent of bronze, and put it on a pole, if they are bitten they should look to the serpent of bronze and they will live.”

            I really like this response by God, because it solves their problem, but it also teaches them something. God doesn’t just get rid of the serpents, God doesn’t just do whatever they like. But, God also doesn’t abandon them. Now the serpents are still there, and the people are still going to be bitten, but they will not die. They and we can learn the promise here. There will be other times when serpents invade our lives, maybe we caused it, maybe it was out of our control, but God will not let us die from that. For the Israelites, they know that their God will watch out for them throughout their time in the Wilderness. And for us, we can move on to our second promise this week.

            From John, a text that we all know. “14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16For 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. 17Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

For the Israelites, looking to the serpent results in their saving that one time from that one thing. The rest of the promise is just implied that God will watch over them. But, here? It’s not just serpents that we are saved from. It’s not the serpent of bronze lifted up, but Jesus Christ himself, the Messiah, the Son of God, goes to the cross for us, in love so that we may have eternal life. That’s a mighty fine promise. If we believe in him, we have eternal life.

            And why does God do this for us, why does God love us so much to go to the cross for us? Is it because we are so great and do so many good things? Is it because of all the good works that we have done?

            No. And we find our third promise from Ephesians, in a text much beloved by Martin Luther. “8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” All of this, saving us from death by sending Jesus to us is done through love as a gift. We do not have to do anything to receive it.

            This leads us back to our conversation about narcissism. A narcissist would say that because they have done good works, they deserve Christ to die for them, that they deserve the salvation given through Christ’s death. But, we know that we don’t deserve it. Paul writes in our text, “even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved”

            It is the ultimate gift, one we do not deserve and one we cannot repay. But, we still continue on with doing good works because we understand that we do not deserve this gift, this grace, and so out of shear gratitude we go out to be God’s hands in the world, God’s feet walking with people, God’s voice telling others of these great promises, that God will not abandon them, that God loves them enough to die for them, and that this is done completely free and out of love.

            This is what Lent prepares us for, not only to get ready to deal with Christ’s death, but to prepare us to be ready for the gift of salvation that we have received, because it is so great, so amazing, so wonderful, that if we didn’t take 40 days to prepare, we wouldn’t know what to do.

            So, get ready, because salvation is upon us, go out and tell others that the grace of God is here

Amen.