Fourth Sunday in Lent
Year B, RCL
March 14, 2021
North Fork Ministries
Gospel:
John 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Just 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.
"For 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.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “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.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
“The Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘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.’"
The miserable food about which the Israelites were complaining was manna, the foodstuff that nourished the wandering Israelites, “arriving with the dew in the night.” This was only the latest in a tiresome series of complaints from God’s people. They complained that they were thirsty, so Moses struck a rock with his staff and water gushed out. They complained about the bitter water of Marah, so God sweetened it. They asked for meat and God gave them quails. And they balked at God’s command that they enter Canaan. Over and over again there were grumblings among them, “murmurings” as they are called in the King James Bible. And why not? It’s not so hard to understand – having wandered in the desert for so many years. They must have begun to doubt themselves and Moses and God. When would they enter the Promised Land? Some even began to think that they had been better off as slaves in Egypt. Fulfillment of the promise seemed so distant. It took the Israelites 40 years to reach the promised land, a journey that, had they taken a direct route, would have taken about 11 days. So why did it take so long? Was the circuitous path that the Israelites took, from Sinai to Elim, from the Reed Sea to the Moab Plains, simply the long way around, or an essential element of their formation?
I assure you that every step of the way, the Israelites were being formed as a people of God. And so, my good friends, apparently, are we.
Two days ago I journeyed to the island of Manhattan in order to receive the second dose of the Covid 19 Moderna vaccine. Four weeks ago, in my effort to schedule the first dose of the vaccine at the Mattituck Walgreens, I found that I was unable to schedule that first dose, unless I could, at the same time, schedule a second dose. An appointment for the second dose wasn’t available at the Mattituck Walgreens, nor at any Walgreens within 20 miles. So, with the aid of Google Maps, like a virtual pilgrim wandering in the desert of Long Island, I steadily made my way up the Isle of Long, searching for a second dose of the Moderna vaccine, in 20 mile increments, through the Walgreen wilderness of Riverhead, Manorville, Yaphank, Medford, Farmington, Ronkonkoma, Commack, Huntington, Roslyn, over Throgsneck Bridge, beneath the River Hudson, until, with the Promised Land almost in sight, I imagined myself at the Walgreens on the corner of 50th Street and the Avenue of the Americas. There, thinking I was nearing the end of my on-line journey, I made an appointment to receive the second dose of the Moderna vaccine, on March 12, the day before yesterday, at 2:15 in the afternoon.
It was as if God had sweetened the water and manna had fallen from heaven.
And as it came to pass, on February 11th, I received the first dose of the vaccine at our North Fork Walgreens. And this past week, I made the actual pilgrimage in my Honda to Manhattan and walked the 47 blocks from my hotel in the Bowery.
Passing by the Macy’s at Herald Square, hurrying past other pedestrians, fearing that I would be late, I absent-mindedly bumped into a young woman who responded, with the F-word and threated to take me out of my misery. I arrived at the elusive Walgreens, tired and thirsty, with sore feet, and, like the Israelites in the desert, murmuring.
Finding no drug store was in sight. Fearing that I might miss my long-scheduled appointment, I desperately asked a parking attendant where I would find the Walgreens. He directed me to the bowels of the earth, down a long, dark, staircase leading to a subterranean Walgreens. I waited impatiently in line, filled out yet another stack of paperwork, until it was my turn to present my credentials to the young gate keeper behind the pharmacist’s counter. He inspected my papers, consulted his computer, looked over my papers again,
and then, as if the Lord had sent a poisonous serpent to torment me, the young pharmacist turned to me and said, “We don’t have the Moderna vaccine here, just the Pfiser.”
At that moment I loved darkness more than light… And I began to doubt myself, and Moses, and God and Dr. Fauci. Fulfillment of the promise seemed so distant. And I cried out to God, “Why have you brought me out of the North Fork to die in this miserable wilderness of Manhattan.”
Thankfully, I wasn’t wearing my clerical collar, so no one knew that the outraged customer standing at the pharmacist’s counter in the subterranean Walgreens, was an Episcopal priest. Nor would they have guessed it from my indignant posture, nor the undeserved verbal abuse I heaped on the innocent Walgreens’ clerk. Despite my outrage, the staff treated me kindly, apologized for the error, and coming to my aid, located another Walgreens with the Moderna vaccine.
As I made my way on the final leg of my pilgrimage, to a Walgreens in Chelsea, I struggled to regain my composure. Why had the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert, when the journey should have taken them 11 days?
And why was I still losing my cool, after far more than 40 years, of prayer, meditation, regular worship, retreats, pilgrimages, yoga, and spiritual practice of all kinds? Because, my friend, I am still being formed.
You’ve heard me quote this Rumi poem before:A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot where it’s being boiled.‘Why are you doing this to me?’
The cook knocks him down with the ladle.
‘Don’t you try to jump out. You think I’m torturing you. I’m giving you flavor, so you can mix with spices and rice and be the lovely vitality of a human being. Remember when you drank rain in the garden. That was for this.’
Grace first. Sexual pleasure, then a boiling new life begins, and the Friend has something good to eat.Eventually the chickpea will say to the cook,
‘Boil me some more. Hit me with the skimming spoon. I can’t do this by myself.
Many of us have spent this past year, longing to return to in-person worship, aching for the hugs of our grandchildren, missing the shared energy of a crowded restaurant, our favorite bar, or a packed sports stadium. This waiting is about more than anticipating the development and distribution of a vaccine, achieving herd immunity, or looking out the window for our next Amazon delivery.We were, and still are, being formed as a people of God.We are called to a higher level of consciousness.We have a divine calling awaiting us.We have had an opportunity this past year, in our solitude, in our relatively unhurried existence, in this break from the hustle and bustle of modern life, to breathe in the breath of God, and become who we are intended to be. Let’s not squander the gift we have been given.We are still chickpeas, cooking in God’s pot