Reflections March 18, 2012

Reflections on the Season                                       Lent 4  March 18, 2012

Today’s readings are

Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107, Ephesians 2:1-10, and John 3:14-21

Today’s readings are all about healing and grace, but also raise some deep questions. There are many aspects to these readings that could be studied, like the historical roots of the bronze snake having antidotal power against the real snake’s poison (Numbers).  We could also discuss the notion where the notion of hell came from, and especially how those ideas of hell contrast with the Gospel and life of Jesus Christ.  Those discussions certainly have their time and place, and I’m sure could bear good fruit.  But this morning I want to respond to the Gospel on a very personal level.  I am asking God to help me put those great intellectual questions to the side for a few moments, and quiet my thoughts. You’re invited too. I am picturing a day like yesterday, when I sat outside with friends and we laughed as the incredibly warm sunlight bathed us and made us giddy.  I can almost feel the heat of the sun on my back now.  Like being immersed in that warm light and feeling it to the core, I want to sense with all of my being God’s grace.  That God knows, accepts and loves me, just as I am, without my needing to work for that love, or think the right thoughts for it, or say the right words.  Grace.  To be bathed in that awesome love so that I know that love to my very core. And to know that God’s desire, like the sunlight, is not just for me, but for all, the whole world.

And that is all.

John+