Elements from this morning’s gathering

Collect for Holy Cross Day

Lord Jesus Christ,
you stretched out your arms of love
on the hard wood of the cross,
that the whole world might be drawn within reach of your embrace:
So clothe us in your Spirit that we,
reaching forth our own hands in love,
may take up our cross and follow you,
for the sake of others and the honor of your Name,
Amen.

Lectionary Readings

A Reading from Numbers 21:4-9

Then the people of Israel set out… taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. 

But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. 

“Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. 

Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” 

So Moses prayed for the people.

Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 

So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

—

A Reading from John 3:1-17

There was a man named Nicodemus. He was an important Jewish religious leader. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’… 

“How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.

Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?… As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.