Snakes & Spring

New Life comes from shedding old skins and pressing through the darkness toward the light. Spring is the season of new beginnings and of growth. – Karen Kaiser Clark

As most of you know, Spring and Lent mean the same thing. Lent, which finds its root in the Old English word “lencten” (where we get the word “lengthen”) refers to the increasing daylight for which Spring is famous. Well, that and for new growth; but that’s the point, isn’t it? The days are getting longer, the flowers and trees are in bloom, and life is being restored.

That’s the way of things eternal in this, our valley. Life is being restored. We turn our eyes up towards the mountains in the east and we see the winter’s snowpack glimmering in the sun. The Sierras are ready to send that snow back into the valley via rivers and creeks; and the farmers and ranchers are preparing to irrigate their farms and ranches so that the rest of us may enjoy the bounteous fruits of their labors.

This image is such a contrast with the story we see in the Bible’s book of Numbers, where the Israelites are wandering through the wilderness, and in the midst of their wandering, they’re beginning to do what children everywhere do when a trip seems to be taking too long. They start whining and complaining about everything.

Why’s it taking sooooo long? Are we there yeeeeeet? I’m hunnnngry. I’m thirrrsty. I’m hottt. I’m tirrred. I wanna go hoooooome!!!

In the middle of the crankification of the wilderness, we find that God has become the quintessential parent. He sees their grumps, and he raises them. The stakes have become quite serious at this point, and the wanderers discover that they have really overplayed their hand. God’s ire is manifested in the form of fiery serpents, and for the children of Israel, the chips are now officially “really down.”

When the chips are down, what do you do?

If you’re smart, you look to see how you got to where you are, and you figure out what you need to do to overcome the adversity that’s got you down, and if you haven’t got what it takes to prevail, you go where you might find the help you need, and you dig down deep, swallow your pride, confess your need, and pray your prayer for relief will be heard.

And that’s exactly what happens. The people who are being snake-bitten have confessed they have been less than grateful for all God has done. God has relieved them from slavery, delivered them from their oppressors, fed them with miraculous bread (manna) and meat (quail), and slaked their thirst with an abundant supply of water; and their response has been to question Moses’ leadership and God’s intentions.

They come to realize they’ve not had a very good attitude, and they realize their only hope for survival is to make their confession before God, and to place their hope entirely in God’s hands – and more than that, to trust in God’s abundant mercy.

God, of course, had mercy on them. Moses crafted a bronze serpent, mounted it on a pole, and those who gazed upon the bronze serpent found relief and healing for their bodies. That, by the way, is how the image of snakes twined upon a staff came to be a primary symbol for medical practitioners.

God’s desire, of course, is not (and never has been) the death of sinners or the punishment of wrong-doing, but to bless people that people may be a blessing to one another. What stands in the way of God’s desire, though, are the actions and attitudes we bring with us wherever we go. That is because we so often forget who we are and who’s we are: children of God.

Jesus reminds us of God’s desire when he applies the story of Moses and the snakes to his own life and ministry in the Gospel of John. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” he says, “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Our job is quite simple, really. We’re to stop acting like snakes. We’re not to snap unthinkingly at those who come to within striking distance. We are not to be venomous in our dealings and attitudes. Rather, we are to look up to the Creator of the universe and give thanks. We are to gaze upon the One who lived and died for us, the One lifted high upon the cross for us and our salvation, and we are to give thanks.

In hindsight, I suspect we would discover that it is often we who have been the fiery serpents. It is time to shed our skins, lift up our eyes, look, live, and give thanks to God.