.

So Moses fashioned a bronze serpent
which he put on a standard,
and if anyone was bitten by a serpent,
they looked at the bronze serpent
and lived.
Num 21

The people journeying with Moses through the desert to the land of promise would have been familiar with the account of creation from the opening chapters of Genesis: Eden, Adam, Eve, snake and apple.

Most people have at least a bit of a fear of snakes. I’m rather pleased to live in Aotearoa where we are free of them and the risk of their often serious and even fatal bites.

But the opening chapters of the Bible and the Numbers’ verses above are not really about serpents. Instead the people were being invited to face their fears whatever those fears might be.

Those people way back then certainly had a lot to fear as they complained to Moses:

“Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is neither bread nor water here; we are sick of this unsatisfying food.’”

The fear of death.

The greatest human fear.

And all the other daily fears we might have are pretty easily connected to this universal fear of death.

Thanks to AI it’s easy to come up with a comprehensive list of common phobias.

But perhaps our greatest fears are a bit more subtle: fear of loss of health, reputation, security, relationship… you can add others.

And then there is the fear of the hurts from the past, fear of the wounds we try to forget but which so often drive us or incapacitate us, fears of our enemies and the hurt they have caused us and those we love. A

gain, you can add to this list.

All these fears reduce our ability to live fully.

I’m thinking of Jesus’s call to Lazarus last Sunday: “Lazarus, Come Out!” then Jesus to the people: “Unbind him, Let him go free.”

Too often, especially perhaps in recent centuries, and maybe most often in the Church, people felt a need to hide and even repress parts of themselves and bury elements of their present and past, their hurts, their attractions and resistances, their shame and guilt.

The problem with such repressions is that we then downplay the love we sense from others thinking – yes, they seem to love me, but if they really knew me then…

If we are healthy then whenever we take time for stillness and silence these fears and hurts, shame and guilt, will come into and even flood our consciousness.

This is not a problem, and certainly not a distraction in prayer.

Instead Jesus is allowing us to see that our greatest hurts and shame can become our treasured place of encounter with him, an operating theatre of healing and an opportunity for the sufferings of our hearts to become a privileged place of experiencing divine love.

All of this when – with Jesus – we face our fears.

+++

Send your date and time to add to the list, and just turn up at at one of the advertised gatherings, just one hour, focussing on where we are encountering Christ.

Thursday 28 March 10.00am
Stumble Inn , 200 Mangorei Road , New Plymouth 
Joan