Numbers 21:4-9
"Holy" Cross - Years A, B, C
Imagine that—people become impatient on the way. It happens at every transition we make. Individuals and communities alike get edgy as they approach a boundary between leaving behind and moving on. We know we won’t be able to go back again and yet we want to take enough of our old way along to comfort us.
We don’t do transition well. Resistance to potential loss of what little power we may have comes in a variety of ways. Legislation sometimes contains a “poison pill” to lessen its chance of passage. Through this gruesome story we see the poison of resistance to new realities as we drag old habits, rituals, and entitlements along to vaccinate us from having to change.
In this scene, though, poison doesn’t keep us stuck with what is but encourages us to break out of old ways. To stay with yesteryear is to poison one’s self—Moses just reveals a poison already present.
Impatience can be said to be an outward and visible sign of past responses not knowing what to do in a new setting where they cannot be relied upon to be effective. Impatience needs to be seen for what it is—a panic-attack dependence upon a past way—before we can breathe deeply enough to welcome a new path.
Curiosity is a helpful tool to help us not be consumed with impatience. A non-attached wonder does wonders for attending to figuring out what is next. It is helpful to consider what you, or a group you are part of, have as a ratio between impatience and wonder. It will give a clue about your relationship with larger movements within and about.
Try imaging impatience being crucified. Might it set wonder free?
We don’t do transition well. Resistance to potential loss of what little power we may have comes in a variety of ways. Legislation sometimes contains a “poison pill” to lessen its chance of passage. Through this gruesome story we see the poison of resistance to new realities as we drag old habits, rituals, and entitlements along to vaccinate us from having to change.
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience