The Power of Trust by Rick Wilson

The Power of Trust
by Rick Wilson

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.”

So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Numbers 21:4-9

“Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Listening to the story of the Hebrews as they left being slaves in Egypt and moved into freedom with the promise of their own land, we encounter them murmuring. In the book of Numbers, this is the last time they complained in the desert about their leaders. In the other four stories, the complaints were against Moses; in this complaint, it is also against God; the last of the desert complaints!

The story speaks of poisonous snakes being sent to the complainers. I don’t know. It reads like a story written by a Hollywood horror screenwriter like Stephen King, Wes Craven, or John Carpenter. What kind of God would send snakes to punish a people? The story illustrates what happens when one loses trust in God -danger. Does that mean that God sends poisonous snakes whenever someone or some people lose trust in God? If that were the case, our planet would be overrun with poisonous snakes! Makes me shudder!

What is trust in God, anyway? In Scripture, faith in God is understood as trust in God. So if we applied that to our creeds, we would be saying, “We trust in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, all that is, seen and unseen.” Sometime in your own mind, substitute the word “trust” for “believe” as you profess this ancient statement of trust.

Some of the loudest complaining voices of the Hebrew people on journey called to a return to Egypt, the former place of their enslavement. “The food was better there! This food stinks! And where is the water?” Had they forgotten about their treatment as slaves?

According to the Scriptural story of the Hebrew people, the Hebrew people came to Egypt when their ancestor Joseph, who was in a prominent leadership position in Egypt, brought his father and the rest of the children of Israel to Egypt during a time of famine. They made their home in the land of Goshen in Egypt. After Joseph’s death, the Scripture reports the Pharaoh in power “did not know Joseph.” This implies Pharaoh chose not to acknowledge the Hebrew people’s contribution to Egypt.

He and his advisors set out to destroy the Hebrew people, who were flourishing in Goshen, protesting they were growing far too numerous. Pharaoh took the matter into his own hands and declared, “Cast every boy that is born into the Nile but keep every girl alive.”

The Pharaoh called for a “national unity program” in which everyone was to volunteer to help build the new store cities of Pithom and Ramses. At the beginning, everyone came. Later, only the Hebrew people came, perhaps to demonstrate their loyalty to Pharaoh. Over time, they became forced laborers, and Pharaoh demanded of them the same yield that they had produced previously. They were enslaved. Is this what they wanted to return to?

But those snakes in the desert! Perhaps the snakes can be understood as the destruction that comes from choosing to live apart from their identity as a people in relationship with God. Those bitten were healed as they found again their trust in God. Their joy would be continuing as a people in God with their trust in God.

“Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” For God so loved the world that whoever trusts in what Jesus reveals may not perish but may have eternal life. God’s extravagant love for the cosmos, the world, is intense. I think that is understandable. Why would God bring into being a universe if God did not care for it? Out of love, God brings all things into being.

Writing to his community which may have been founded by the Apostle John, the evangelist John shares with them and with us an understanding of Jesus being an offering from God as a light. The light of Jesus reveals God’s desire to heal humankind in our brokenness, to save us from that which defiles us, and to challenge us to grow more fully into the likeness of God – of which Jesus is the fullness. He shows us how to live as a people of God both individually and corporately. In doing so, he also reveals what violates who we are as children of God. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world through him might be saved through him.” Is now, or at another time in your life, when you knew darkness?

If I were to look back in my own life at a time of darkness, I would have to say it was being a part of a Christian tradition that emphasized humankind’s sinfulness to the extent that I cannot remember anything good said about humankind – no mention that we are made in the image and likeness of God, no mention that “God saw everything God had made, and indeed, it was very good.” The original blessing of being brought into being by God was never mentioned, only original sin. While we prayed Jesus’ prayer, we did not understand it as God the Father of all humankind, only believers and generally only believers like ourselves. And as a teen whose sexual orientation was same-gendered, I had to live with such denunciations as reprobate and demon- possessed. Of course, I kept who I was a secret. I mean who wants to be called names?

It was not in that tradition that I meet Jesus as the light of the world. There I met, “Accept Jesus as I tell you to or go to hell!” As I did meet Jesus as the light of the world, I encountered one that called me brother, one that encouraged me to see the blessing of who I was and also all others, and one who introduced me to a God who did not send Jesus out of anger for a blood sacrifice to make humankind acceptable but out of love to show us the way to live and grow as a people to be compassionate, just, forgiving, serving one another – a people of faith, hope, and love. I cannot tell you how much joy I received from meeting Jesus the light of the world.

“Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

We live in a troubling time. A few years ago, one of our parishioners who was near death told me that she was ready to leave this life because the world was becoming so cruel. There has always been cruelty within the world. The light of Jesus exposes this cruelty as it is a darkness. Yet Jesus continues to invite us as his followers to help spread the light of God’s desire that we be compassionate, just, forgiving, serving one another, valuing ourselves and one another as loved ones of God. We may weep in this darkness of this time but there is a joy for us as we know God remains present to us, calling us to be agents of Jesus’ presence – lights in a time of darkness.

Let us rejoice in a God who loves us, who gave and gives us Jesus, and calls us to love ourselves and one another as ourselves. Amen.

Rev. Rick Wilson, Rector, Episcopal Church of St. Matthew, Tucson AZ.

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