Sunday Stretch: Vol. 72

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

Happy Spring Ahead Sunday! Today is a big day for me and my ongoing and evolving calling as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I appreciate all of your prayers and will be glad to share more news soon.

As decidedly not a morning person, this Sunday is usually a challenge for me, but I’m looking forward to the spring and leaves on the trees once again (even though this was a very weird and mostly snow-less winter here in Minnesota). What about you? Did you remember to set your clocks ahead? Fellow pastors and church leaders, is this just yet another way that modern-day American society conspires against regular church attendance? (haha).

This Sunday also marks the midway point in the season of Lent. I’ve been enjoying reading

Diana Butler Bass

’s Lenten reflections on the Cross this season, and this past week she said this week marked a “no turning back” point of the season. I like that. I’m reminded that sometimes Lent just feels like another box to to check. I’m reminded of Lenten Wednesdays in recent past years, when I would make the 1-hour drive to rural Southwestern Minnesota to share in Confirmation, dinner, service, and sometimes a Council meeting. I remember speeding (sorry!) up Highway 15 to the nearby town of Hutchinson, where I’d sometimes try and grab a Caribou Coffee drink for a caffeine boost before the evening meetings.

I’m also reminded of the way I felt as the Lenten service began, and I got to sit in the pew and listen while the musicians began Holden Evening Prayer. In those moments I felt Lenten peace, reminding me of the theology of the cross, that God draws near in moments that can feel chaotic or out of control. Our world has often seemed that way to me in recent months, with ongoing war and suffering in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Myanmar, Yemen, Haiti - so many places around the world on a macro-level and on a micro level, in our own families and communities and neighborhoods.

May this season give to you what it has always given to me, in stolen moments of peace, the reminder of God’s promise of hope and endurance.

Let’s get to the texts …

Bible Stories

Numbers 21:4-9

um. 21:4   From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea,^a to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” ⁶ Then the LORD sent poisonous^a serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous^a serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

There are many different approaches to take when interpreting this text from the Hebrew Bible, so be forewarned that my interpretation is coming from a particular perspective, namely one of a Christian - Lutheran - pastor looking through a Christological lens. Jewish interpreters would likely interpret this Hebrew Bible text very differently.

For our purposes in the season of Lent, I cannot help but think of the image of the serpent on