March 26th

Lookin' For Love In All The Wrong Places

Numbers 21:4-9
John 3:14-21



How many people here remember the movie, “Urban Cowboy” with John Travolta? Personally, I think it was the Village People and this particular movie that put “cowboy drag” on the map.

There is a song in Urban Cowboy by Johnny Lee entitled, “Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places.” “Looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces…looking for a friend and a lover, thank God for the day I found you, looking for love.” And how many of us danced to that song weekend after weekend in 1980? And some of us we were dancing with a different person each weekend! You would think we would have paid closer attention to the lyrics of the song.

But it isn’t just love we are looking for, either, is it? The song also mentions looking for “a friend.” We always seem to be looking for something—love, friendship, acceptance, healing—you name it, and we are looking for it. And the clubs aren’t the only places some of us go looking for these things, either. We head to the gym, the local coffee shop and bookstore, and chat rooms on the Internet. We may even shop at the local home improvement store--although we may not know the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver. Oh, yeah! We’re shopping alright; just not for home improvement accessories.

All this searching points to the fact that we humans tend to be a restless, easily bored bunch. And when this boredom reaches a certain level—and we still haven’t found what we think we’re looking for—we normally begin complaining to anyone who will listen to us.

This tendency is just one of the many characteristics we share with the children of Israel. I love speaking about the children of Israel because we are sooooo much like them in sooooo many ways! Take today’s passage in Numbers, for example.

The children of Israel are headed to the Promised Land. God has already delivered them from bondage in Egypt, parted the Red Sea so they could escape from Pharaoh’s army, and provided fresh water and manna for their journey. Now we would think that by this point they would be sufficiently impressed with God to move forward with confidence, trusting in God’s mighty power to lead, guide, direct, and protect them.

Oh, but no! The Israelites have been pretty much complaining all along about the lack of meat, water, leadership—you name it, they probably whined about it. But in each case, Moses interceded for the people, and God graciously provided for their needs.

Today’s story is a little different, though. We read that the children of Israel are taking the long way around a place called Edom to the Promised Land. Why? They are taking the long way because they did not want to fight the people of Edom. OK, let’s review for a moment. The children of Israel have a destination, a goal—the Promised Land. God has provided for them all along the journey so far. They face a serious challenge, and… they decide to avoid it. When the Israelites finally figure out that this was probably not the best idea after all, they become impatient and started whining.

And what were the Israelites whining about this time? “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this wretched manna!” Now if you will notice, God had not stopped providing for the Israelites at all; they were just bored with the menu. The Israelites had made a wrong decision by not facing the challenge of the Edomites. But rather than remembering God’s past and continuing provision for them, acknowledging their mistake, and getting back on track, they not only complained against Moses, this time they also complained against God. Not a good move, as it turns out.

We all have destinations—goals, if you will—in our lives, as well. And if we think about it, God has provided for us all along our journeys, too. And what happens sometimes when we face serious challenges along our journeys? We do our best to go around them! Rather than attempt the sometimes-difficult work of facing our challenges through prayer, medical treatment, dialogue, education, support networks, and therapy, we may choose the longer and potentially far more dangerous route of the desert of avoidance and denial.

God allows us to make these choices, too. Then, like the children of Israel, when our choices result in discomfort, we become impatient. We tend to play the “Blame Game.” We blame the government. We blame our bosses at work. We blame family members and friends. We blame the church. We accuse everyone of abandoning us. We point fingers at anyone and everyone.

Everyone that is, but ourselves.

Like the children of Israel, we forget about God’s past and continuing provision. God provides us with manna in the form of positive and healthy people who love with us no matter what we may say and do. God provides us with manna in the form of open and affirming communities of faith that offer healing and hope during the wilderness times of our lives and beyond.

But, for whatever reason, when we are bored and unhappy with our lives, we tend to forget all the good people and spiritual nourishment that God provides. Or, maybe even worse, we may begin to unfairly criticize and actually detest God’s provision for us through these people, communities or faith, and other forms of modern day manna. In other words, we get bored with the menu.
And like in the case of the children of Israel, I think God eventually gets tired of all the whining and self-pity.

You know, I have heard it said that occasionally it is OK to sit on our pity pots—as long as we remember to flush when we are done. The problem is, we sometimes sit for far too long and don’t flush. Eventually, the system backs up, everything starts stinking, and the stench eventually reaches the nostrils of God. Then, God basically says, “OK. You don’t like the way I have provided for you; fine! Go ahead without my guidance and protection.”

And what happens? We get bitten! The fiery serpent of haughty pride and arrogance bites us. The fiery serpent of self-sufficiency bites us! The fiery serpent of unreasonable fear and doubt bites us! And without treatment, the poison from these serpents will cause us to die long, slow, agonizing spiritual deaths.

The point here is simply this: our actions have consequences. Does that mean God doesn’t love us? Not at all! God will always love us! Scripture tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But that does not mean God will always spare us the consequences of our actions. Please hear me: there is absolutely no limit to God’s love; but there is a limit to God’s tolerance.

The good news is that there is a cure for this particular case of snakebite.
First, there is confession. The people came to Moses and confessed their sin. For the power of God’s redemption to work in our lives, we have to admit we are infected with the poison of sin in our lives. Until we confess our wrongful actions to God, we will continue to die slow, painful spiritual deaths.

Second, there is obedience. To be healed, the people also had to obey the command of God through Moses to look upon the bronze serpent on a pole that Moses had lifted up. Symbolically speaking, they had to face what was killing them. It wasn’t the bronze serpent that healed them, however. It was the belief that God could heal them. So, the healing of the children of Israel required confession, obedience, and faith.

To avoid spiritual death, we too, must not only confess our sins, we have to face what is killing us spiritually, and believe that somehow through it all, God both can and will heal us from the poisonous bite of sin in our lives.

But where do we look?

Well, how about the cross? After all, when Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross, he took on all the sins of the world—including yours’ and mine.
Is it really that easy, though? Does the cross take away all the potential danger and death that sin poses for our lives? Does the cross heal us? Well, no and yes. In our Old Testament passage today, you will notice that God did not take the serpents away. In other words, the danger was still there, but God provided a way for healing to take place.

So it is for us today. The cross of Jesus Christ does not take away the dangers that sin poses to our world today. Unfortunately, the effects and scars of sin remain in our world. However, God has provided a way for healing to take place. In fact, God has provided “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

For God so loved the world, that God sent Jesus, that whosoever believes in him may not perish, but may have everlasting life. It is when we look upon the cross of Jesus Christ and acknowledge that there is no hope for healing and life except in God’s saving power through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we truly begin to heal. It is when we look upon the cross of Jesus Christ that we truly begin live.

Looking for love? Look at the cross of Jesus Christ. Look at the cross of Jesus Christ and believe in the redemptive power of Almighty God. Look at the cross of Jesus Christ, believe, and be made whole.

God bless you and amen.