Sermon for November 15th, 2015

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Numbers 21:4-9

4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5The 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.” 6Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7The 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. 8And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9So 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.

John 3:11-15

11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The Year In Glass, Part I

On the surface, this must seem like a couple of really odd scripture readings this morning. The Israelites complain about miserable food; God sends snakes to bite them; they quickly apologize; God tells Moses to lift up a snake on a pole, and everyone who looks at it will be saved. Then a few thousand years later, Jesus says to his followers, "Yeah, I'm kind of like that snake Moses lifted up in the desert."

Strange.

Stranger still, if we fast forward another couple of thousand years (to the 1960s) the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in El Paso--the Reverend Geroge W. Burroughs--writes a book about the church's stained glass windows. He calls the book "So must the Son of Man be lifted up." This comes from today's gospel reading: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

So what's the connection? What do snakes, poles, and the Son of Man have to do with our stained glass windows? Well, that's what this week's sermon, and next week's sermon, are all about. In a few moments, I'm going to ask that the lights in the church be dimmed, so we can actually see the stained glass windows in all their splendor, illuminated by the light of the world.

In the forward to Rev. Burroughs book, which was written after his death by his successor, the Rev. James Oliver, three things are mentioned as the driving forces behind this sanctuary: A people's spirit, a pastor's direction, and an artist's know-how. The people, of course, were the people of First Presbyterian Church, who through their generosity and determination, built this building in 1961. The pastor was Bill Burroughs, and the artist was his next-door neighbor, steadfast friend, and local legend, Tom Lea.

The windows themselves were crafted and put in place by Cecil Casebier from Orco Studios in San Antonio, but the underlying artisitic influence is undeniably Tom Lea's, and the theological influence is Burrough's. In a time when most stained glass windows featured pictures of saints or biblical figures, these windows feature none. They are abstract symbols, so that we might instead see ourselves reflected in the story they tell.

The windows on the East wall feature scenes and symbols from the Hebrew scriptures, or the Old Testament. The Hebrew langauge is read from right to left, and that's the order in which the windows are meant to be read. The windows on the West wall feature scenes and symbols from the New Testament, written in Greek, which like English is read from left to right. So too with the windows. The story told in both sets of windows progresses from back to front--from the entrance of the church, to the foot of the cross, just like our own journeys of faith.

Today we're going to look specifically at the East side, the Hebrew side, the Old Testament. Why? Because our church windows, like our universe and our scriptures, start with the simple and elegant message that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." The first window is Creation. The heavens are represented by a star. (It is a six pointed star of David...notice that it also has a a cross inside!). The earth is represented by a tree, which is also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which reminds us of the story of the Garden of Eden. The third symbol is a flaming sword which guards the way to the tree, and reminds us of our separation from the Garden...our decision to separate ourselves from God, and strike out on our own in the wide world. So the journey begins.

In the next window we find a rainbow, a dove, and an olive branch. We remember the story of Noah, who with his family and the guidance of God, survived the great flood. When no land, no hope was in sight, Noah sent out a dove, who returned with an olive branch, promising that land was nearby. The rainbow is God's promise, God's covenant with Noah; the olive branch also symolizes peace; and the dove (one of three in our windows) represents God's ever-present spirit. This rainbow must also have been a joy to the members of First Presbyterian Church who built this sanctuary, who witnessed a rainbow appear in the sky as the cornerstone for the building was lain, and who for many years called themselves the "church of the rainbow." Today in our culture, the rainbow has once again become a symbol of welcome and inclusion for all people, even though many forget the one who first sent that message. We are still, more than ever before, the church of the rainbow!