Fourth Sunday of Lent - PIE Day - March 14, 2021
Deborah Laforet Numbers 21:4-9 & John 3:14-21
Shame and Beauty
I read two books while on vacation. Well, more than two books, but two academic books, and they were both around body positivity. One was a secular book, called, “The Body is Not an Apology” by Sonya Renee Taylor. It was written by a black woman who believes we can save the world through radical self-love. The other was a theological book called, “Transforming,” by Austen Hartke. This book was recommended by a past guest speaker, June Joplin. Hartke is a trans man who talks about being trans and shares the stories of other trans folks through the lens of faith and church. They are very different books but they are also both about this radical love of self and others, without judgement and with compassion and justice.
They were great books and I could probably create multiple sermons or possibly future book studies, but today I want to look at them through the lens of our two scripture readings and this season of Lent.
Fred read two readings for us, biblical passages full of symbolism and big ideas: snakes, healing poles, prayer and repentance, sin and salvation, light and dark. You may have recognized in the first reading the bronze snake on a pole as a common medical symbol. It’s called the Rod of Asclepius, not to be confused with another common symbol, the Caduceus, which has two snakes around pole with wings, which has more to with commerce. Asclepius refers to a healing god in Greek mythology, and there is some dispute as to whether this symbol originated with the greeks and their gods, or with this story of Moses in the Hebrew Bible, or if both appropriated it from another culture.
In this story, we have snakes biting at the heels of the Israelites as punishment for their grumbling and complaining against God, but what many have pointed out is this dichotomy in the story between a serpent that kills and a serpent that saves. Most of us when we think of serpents and snakes do not have good thoughts about them. We see them as scary, creepy, and deadly, and yet, God instructs the Israelites to create a bronze serpent and wrap it around a pole, and when they are bitten, gaze upon this bronze snake and be healed. So we have serpents that kill and serpents that heal. Look up the mythology around snakes. You’ll find a lot around transformation and healing and new life. The Rod of Asclepius is used today by the World Health Organization and other medical and healing practices to represent healing. The snake around the pole is seen as the opposite of scary and deadly, but as healing and life-giving.
In our second story, we have Jesus referencing this old story and symbol. In the middle of the night, Jesus is talking with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, one of the faith leaders in Jerusalem, a group that mostly disapproved of Jesus and his teachings. Nicodemus though was one of the curious ones who wanted to learn more, but felt he has do so in secret. To Nicodemus Jesus says, “As Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Chosen One must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in the Chosen One might have eternal life.” Some believe this phrase was in reference to the future crucifixion of Jesus, nailed to a cross and lifted up. Does Jesus imply that this is to happen so that he too can be a symbol of healing and life? Again, we have this symbol of fear and death, this cross used to torture those who defied Rome, which is now used as a symbol of faith, a symbol of new life and even love.
Now this dichotomy between an object we see negatively and harshly and it’s actual wonder and beauty is where I want to go today. In “The Body is Not an Apology,” Sonya Renee Taylor talks about how we tend to use our bodies without truly appreciating them. Like a car, we tend to see them as modes of transportation or vehicles to get us from one task to the next. In fact, we don’t really acknowledge our bodies until they break down, when they keep us from doing what we need to do, and then they are seen as scary and deadly. We tend to view our bodies with shame and disgust, always wishing they were different. The church for a long time emphasized the sinfulness of the body and encouraged a focus on the spirit or the soul, but the fact is, our bodies are a part of who we are. Our bodies and our souls are one complete whole.
What if we saw our bodies as life-givers, which they are, as healers, which they are, as sources of joy and beauty, which they are. How can our human bodies, which we see as scary and deadly, and which, don’t get me wrong, can be scary and deadly, how can we also see them as symbols of life and love, joy and beauty?
In Transforming, Austen Hartke talks about this question posed to people who identify as trans and he shares with us a story of Asher. Asher grew up in a church where he learned to fear God, a god of judgement, torment and hell. He grew up afraid to confront his identity and ashamed and afraid of his own body and this was reinforced by his church and even his therapist, who suggested he snap his wrist with a rubber band whenever he was having ‘gay’ thoughts, which is a form of conversion therapy that is being banned all over this country. As an adult, Asher eventually found a church that affirmed him for who he was, and that was where he felt safe to come out as transgender.
I’m going to read to you an excerpt from this book:
Once transgender Christians have gotten to the point where they understand their bodies as both whole and holy, the next question is often, “Is it all right to change my body?” Answers to this question usually dovetail into conversations about whether or not God made a mistake during someone’s creation and conception…Even though we’re made in a certain way before we’re born, we don’t stay exactly as we were originally made. “I think that God knit us together in our mother’s wombs, but I also think that God is active in our lives, knitting us together in every moment,” Asher said. “God’s been knitting me together every day since. I don’t think as soon as we were born God was like, OK, all done! I think that creation continues.”
We all need to hear these words of Asher’s, because I think we all feel shame around our body and many of us believe that no one could love our bodies, but I love this idea that God doesn’t just create us at conception or at birth and is done, but that we are being continually knit together and that creation continues right up the day of our death, which means even our aging is a part of God’s design and beautiful creation.
At the end of our second reading, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Indeed, people who do wrong hate the light and avoid it, for fear their actions will be exposed; but people who live by the truth come out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what they do is done in God.”
Friends, we like to hide in the dark. We hide our bodies because of shame and embarrassment. People who are gay, lesbian, trans, bisexual, non-binary, queer, questioning, asexual, intersex, Two Spirit, or anything that isn’t straight and part of a perceived normal, are told to hide who they are and what they do, which only intensifies these feelings of shame and self-hatred. People avoid the light because they have been taught that they are sinful, and they are afraid people will judge and condemn them and even physically harm them. More than anything, I think we all want to be in the light. We all want to live by our truth and be plainly seen. We all want to be seen as wondrous and beautiful and we want to be loved and to be able to share our love.
For too long, we have treated the natural world as a tool, as an object to be used for our benefit, and I think this includes our bodies. God’s creation is wondrous and it is beautiful and can teach us so much, even the snakes, even our bodies, all beautifully knit, all continuing to be knit by a loving Spirit, that surrounds us and fills us, everywhere and always. We profess that we are all created in the image of God; what could more beautiful than that. Thanks be to God. Amen.