A Reflection and Poem for 4th Sunday In Lent Church of the Holy Trinity, Hertford, NC
March 10, 2024 Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant/Preacher
Snakes And Crosses: Symbols To Remember
In today's lessons we have symbols all over the place. In the Collect for today, there is the symbol of bread. Bread is a natural part of having the strength to live a daily life, but it is seen as a symbol. We are not interested if the bread is white, or rye, or whole wheat, or a taco shell, or a bagel. We are not interested in its physical description but in its symbolic meaning of having what you need each day.
The Hebrew Testament and Gospel refer to a snake and we are not interested if it is a Cobra, Garter or Rattler, but in its symbolic meaning. The Gospel speaks of a Cross and we are not interested in if it is wood, or metal or plastic but in its symbolic meaning.
Carl G. Jung in his book “Man And His Symbols” writes”:
Every concept in our conscious mind, in short, has its own psychic associations. While such associations may vary in intensity . . . , they are capable of changing the "normal" character of that concept. It may even become something quite different as it drifts below the level of consciousness."
The snakes in the Hebrew Testament reading are physical threats capable of killing people so they are sighs of danger; but they are symbolic figures in that they can shed their skin and leave the past behind The snake is put on a pole to remind people they can leave the past behind if you face up to it; have the courage to repent and begin a new life.
The cross in the Gospel is a sign of leaving the past behind , but also the cross consists of two things that have nothing to do with each other, the vertical and horizontal, and they are locked together. In the same way Jesus is both Divine and human, a reconciliation of the opposites. There is death and life and as the Gospels and Epistles tell us, there is a reconciliation of these opposites. The Cross as symbol tells each one of us that there is no end to God's love in every moment of every day, redeeming all things in heaven and earth.
On the other side, the Cross is also a symbol of “business as usual “ by governmental and religious institutions. Jesus was a trouble maker who challenged the ruling authorities. These institution wanted “Peace, Law and Order”. Heck, we all want peace, law and order! Their and our jails are filled with people who disturbed the peace and defied the order imposed from the ruling authorities.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote: “Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion – which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God’s will – from their own.”
On July 23, 1846, Henry David Thoreau left his Walden Pond cabin to visit some friends. The local constable arrested him for not paying his poll tax. Thoreau said that he refused to pay into a system that allowed slavery of human beings. Spending the night in jail, his friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson stopped by to visit him. “What are you doing in there Henry?” asked Emerson. Thoreau relied; “What are you doing out there Waldo?”
Thoreau spent one night in jail, and an unknown person paid his fine. Thoreau responded with writing a book about the need for Civil Disobedience when a government chose to go along instead of standing for the dignity of every human being.
The Episcopal Church struggled with slavery. It did not split like the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Unitarian, Baptists over slavery per se. They used the excuse that since the South had split from the North there were now 2 nations. That way they could avoid the fact that Religious institutions are places to put one's trust, to face deeper reality. As one report from the National Church, published four years ago noted:
At the time, (1856) an intense national debate raged over whether to admit Kansas as a free or slave state, with pro- and anti-slavery militias engaging in violence and massacres. When it met that year, the General Convention refused to comment on the violence in Kansas, stating that the church should have “nothing to do [with] party politics, with sectional disputes, with earthly distinctions, with the wealth, the splendor, and the ambition of the world.” In 1861, as the nation was moving toward Civil War, Presiding Bishop John Henry Hopkins, who was bishop of Vermont (one of the first states to put in place provisions to end slavery), published an extended defense of slavery. While one might be morally opposed to it, Hopkins argued, slavery was nonetheless present in Scripture and was legal.
I have worked for institutions; governmental, religious and educational, ever since I graduated from college in 1968. I have taken their pay but I have learned not to put my trust in them. I put my trust in this symbol which lives deep in my heart; this person we call Jesus.
I meet him when I go deep inside myself. I have to go deeper than the surface figure in the Bible. I go deeper than the manufactured prayers. I have to go deeper than the Creeds. I have to enter into the silence and listen to the to my heart in conversation with the Holy. It does not produces crystal answers, but it is the space where deep love lives. As Jung suggests, drifting just under the lever of consciousness. It is the space where we are called to be still with the Divine.
There are times when I get no answers, in which case, I have to trust being powerless in the presence of the power greater than myself. There will be times when I will make wrong decisions, but I know that forgiveness is abundant. Maybe not forgiveness by people, but it is the quiet trusting love in the deep dark.
My wife died at the end of June last year and I miss her desperately, to talk to, to hold, to laugh with, to cry with, but there are moments in the deep dark that I know she is with me. There are no fluffy clouds, no angels with Harps, no big book or angel choirs; just the awareness that nothing ever separates us from love.
Snakes And Crosses: Symbols To Remember
Then, as I woke up, I realized I was alone,
and would be alone now and from now on,
for there was no magic cure to rely upon;
as when into this new world I was thrown.
Or would I be like the serpent shedding,
giving up, that latest covering of skin,
which clothed me, so many years of spin
on this earth which I'm afraid of forgetting?
I wanted something to hold on to remember,.
Like the smiling picture over the obituary,
Placed in the paper to recall her so merry,
To call us to mind, so we'd never forget her.
The wilderness folk put the snake on a pole,
as Jesus folk hold a cross, to comfort a soul.
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