Fiery Serpents In The Wilderness, Oh, My!
Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107:1-3; 17-22, Ephesians 2:8-10, John 3:14-21
March 26, 2006
Rev. Marcia J. Hauer


I recently read a piece in The New Yorker magazine on happiness. It began with a story about 2 hunter-gatherers from around 100,000 years ago. As they went about their business, they came upon bushes that were full of ripe, red berries. The first took a handful and began to eat. The second took a handful and put them in a pouch. Later, they came across a cave. The first hunter-gatherer eagerly went inside to explore while the second stayed outside, afraid to enter. The first person came out without having found anything of particular interest. Then they heard rustleing in the grass and the first person went into the tall grass to find out what caused it and the second stayed behind. Curiosity seemed to mark the first person’s life while fear was the watchword for the second. The writer, John Lanchester, says that the first hunter-gatherer in the story was much more fun to be around than the second; however, he probably didn’t live very long and, likely, didn’t send his genes into another generation. You see, the berries could have been poisonous; a bear could have been at home in the cave and a snake or animal who was stalking the two people could have been in the grass. If any one of those things had been the case, the first person would have died. The author goes on to say that we are the descendants of the second, fearful hunter-gatherer. For most of the time that humans have been on the planet, it’s made good sense to be cautious. Many common things, a scratch, a sniffle, a bad piece of meat could be lethal in a world without antibiotics, surgery and good medical care. In such a world, there wasn’t much reason to expend energy on happiness, so says Mr. Lanchester in his review of two books on the subject.

As I thought about it, though, I wondered. Did the more adventurous hunter-gatherer not achieve some measure of happiness when the berries were sweet and tasty? Or when he discovered what was in the cave wasn’t dangerous and when he discovered that there wasn’t anything in the tall grass to be afraid of? Admittedly, I’m putting my own sensibilities, drawn from living in our time and culture on top of a time and culture I don’t know much about. It’s hard to know what level of happiness, if any these two people enjoyed. Perhaps it was enough to have survived another day. However, it seems to me, that people, regardless of time or circumstances are wired for a variety of emotions and those people who limit theirs—especially when fear and/or anxiety are the primary ones—are not happy people.

I spent some time this week reading the book of Numbers. I found that the beginning of the book was about establishing a nation, a theocracy, of the Israelite people. All the men of the twelve tribes were enrolled so that there could be an army if one was needed. There were instructions for the maintenance of the Levites, who were not counted among those who would be called upon to fight. Their task was in serving God in the Tent of Meeting. There were instructions for maintaining the Arc of the Covenant and the various holy objects, particularly as they were being moved from one place to another. There were stories of spies who went into the land of Canaan to see if it would be possible to settle there, or whether there would be a lot of fighting to make that happen. And, over and over again, there were stories of the people being unhappy because there wasn’t food that they liked or water to drink and if there was, it was bitter. The people went so far as to appoint captains to take them back into Egypt. They had forgotten, some 2 years after escaping from Egypt, about the terrible conditions there. They had forgotten that they were slaves, that they were beaten and starved. They complained about their food which was delivered with the dew each morning and they longed for the fish that they had to catch. These people were fearful, and ungrateful. Moses was almost at the end of his patience and God was beyond impatient, and, according to the story, sent snakes to harass and bite the people who quickly learned their lesson and repented—not for the first or the last time in this story of their wanderings in the wilderness.

It’s a tightly woven little story—the people kvetch, speak with ungrateful voices and God punishes them. Simple. And yet….It is really so simple? The stories of our faith are simple enough for a child to understand and at the same time complex enough to offer a lifetime of challenge.

This story is worth repeating because, among other things, it points out the difficulty of change, the difficulty of going into a new situation, the comfort of sameness even when life is bad, and how we look at the past with rose colored glasses. The Israelites weren’t happy. They were anxious and afraid.

What is it that you are afraid of? What is it that you are anxious about? What is it, that if you told someone, they might think less of you? What is it that keeps you from trying new things? From being a person who isn’t afraid of doing the work of justice and mercy that God calls each of us to do?

The writer of Ephesians says in chapter 2, verses 8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works so that no one may boast. For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.� We are saved by God’s great love—grace and we are created for good works which are to be our way of life. Good works could be simple or more complex. Some simple ones could be:
• Bringing food for the pantry
• Giving someone a ride
• Spending time with someone who is sick or homebound
• Rescuing an abused animal
• Listening to someone who needs to talk to someone
Good works could be much more difficult and could bring the wrath of people around you, such as:
• Sending a statement to be included in the voters’ pamphlet on some controversial topic
• Protesting something in the neighborhood that has support of powerful folks but that will do little good for the poor who live there
• Fasting for 5 days at General Conference and taking the verbal abuse that went with it
• Standing up for the unpopular kids at school
It could be any number of things that are difficult because they are unpopular, risky because they raise issues for some people. Most of the time good works are a combination.

If, indeed, we are saved by God’s great love and if Jesus came into the world not to condemn it but to enliven those who live in it, what do we have to fear? We have each other and we have God who loves us just as we are but wants us to be so much more than we are, who desires growth and change for us. God created us to live in the Realm of God and to bring it closer to its fullness each day. Do something good that is out of your comfort zone. Do it today and do something further out of your comfort zone tomorrow and every day you are on this planet. God expects no less and it’s really the only way to be happy.

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