September 9, 2018 “Snakes” – Acts 28:1-10

Acts 28:1-10
“Snakes”
September 9, 2018 – Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

[The audio for this sermon will also have a Spanish translation by Charo Schaeffer.]

I knelt down and connected a hose to the faucet. Then I heard a loud “buzzzzz.” I realized I was nose to nose with a coiled rattlesnake. I yelled and jumped back. Our daughter ran around our cabin in Arizona to see what I was yelling about. The snake relaxed and stayed there, wrapped around the pipe.

My project with the hose was over, but there was an urgent issue. We were leaving the next morning. The water needed to be turned off for the winter. The rattler blocked my access to that valve. I tossed rocks at the snake, but it didn’t budge.

Paul came through riots, prison, and a shipwreck, but a snake blocked him too. As the last chapter of Acts opens, the kindly natives of Malta start a fire on the shore and welcome the cold, wet castaways to warm themselves. Paul helped gather wood.

In the gloom and mist, Paul did not see the snake camouflaged as a small branch in the brush he picked up. The snake was dormant from the cold. But when he laid the bundle on the fire, it warmed up immediately, slithered out, and attached itself to Paul’s hand.

Luke says in verse 3 that it was a viper. There are no vipers or other poisonous snakes at all on Malta today, but there were then. Physicians in the ancient world, like Luke the writer of Acts, had good knowledge of snakes. The locals immediately recognized it as venomous. Verse 6 tells us “They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead.”

The Maltese also thought Paul must have been a murderer. “Justice” was bringing him his due. He escaped the storm, but the goddess Justice, holding her scales, would balance things out. Instead of drowning, he would die by snake bite.

They didn’t know God had other plans for Paul. If the deity that looked after him was not going to let angry mobs, cruel soldiers, prison chains or northern winds keep Paul from going to Rome, a little snake was not a problem. The Lord miraculously kept Paul from feeling the effects of the venom and he shook the viper off his hand back into the fire.

The islanders jumped then to the opposite conclusion. Paul was not being punished by a god. He was a god. So the red carpet rolls out in verse 7 as Publius, the chief official, welcomed Paul’s party into his home for three days.

We may draw the same lesson as we did from the shipwreck last week. Whatever God’s plans are for us, they are not going to be frustrated or ruined when we run into obstacles along the way. When the snakes of this world jump out and bite us, the grace of Jesus Christ still watches out for us and will see us through. Whatever God wants for you will not fail. He will not fail. Even when there’s a snake in the way.

That doesn’t mean you should play with snakes, literally or otherwise. The Gospel of Mark, from which we read about Jesus doing healing miracles, has an extra ending someone wrote after Mark finished. It’s verses 9-20 of Mark 16 in some Bibles, but not in recent versions. Mostly it’s all OK and offers a nice tidy ending to Mark, but it’s not genuine. One really troublesome bit is verses 17 and 18 of Mark 16.

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

The idea is that miraculous signs happen for those who believe in Jesus. That’s true. But it doesn’t mean you should deliberately handle snakes or drink poison. That’s foolish. Just last month a pastor in Kentucky nearly died when a timber rattlesnake he was handling in church bit him. He nearly died and it was hospital life support that saved him, not a miracle. God will help us, but He gave us brains so we wouldn’t go looking for trouble. The Old Testament tells us, and Jesus repeated it, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Paul did not go looking for a snake. He just gathered firewood, just tried to serve others and stay alive to do God’s work. God didn’t save him from the snake to make a spectacle. God kept Paul alive through one more trial because He had plans for him. Jesus was bringing Paul to share the Gospel with people who needed to hear it.

God has plans for you. Your story may not be as exciting as Paul’s prison and shipwreck and snake, but you have your own trials. And God will bring you through them so that you can share the Gospel with people in your life, your friends and neighbors and maybe even some strangers like Paul did.

Look at verse 2. My translation calls the people on Malta “natives.” But Luke literally called them “barbarians.” It was a derogatory term for anyone who didn’t speak Greek. To Greeks and Romans, other languages sounded like “bar, bar, bar,” just babbling. The Maltese language derived from Phoenician, a tongue related to Hebrew. Modern Maltese language still has Phoenician words and the current residents have Phoenician DNA.

Yet these “barbarians” were “unusually kind” and hospitable to Paul and his company. Their chief opened his home to them. When the travelers were ready to sail on, Luke says in verse 10, “they put on board all the provisions we needed.”

Luke doesn’t mention preaching the Gospel on Malta, but it’s plain that God had a purpose for stranding Paul there. The chief’s father was sick with a form of fever and dysentery unique to Malta, transmitted by germs in goat’s milk. Paul prayed and healed the man. Then he healed everyone else who was sick on the island. God didn’t just take care of Paul. His took care of those around Paul, like the sailors saved in the shipwreck. God’s purpose included those strange-speaking people on a little island.

God’s purpose includes you and me. To respond to that promise and hope, we can learn from the Maltese. Before they had even heard of Christ, they did the Christian thing. They were kind to strangers. And when they received from Jesus through Paul the gift of healing, they were grateful. They responded by giving back what they could, supplying the needs of Paul and his companions for the rest of their journey. Kindness to strangers is a lesson you all know we really need today in this country.

Give and then give back, even to strangers. That’s the Gospel. Jesus Christ gave Himself on the Cross for you and me. Our whole lives are to be given back to Him in thankful response to His gift, by giving to others. And as we receive grace and forgiveness from Jesus, we must admit that we don’t deserve it. In His eyes, in our constant sin and failure, we are all “barbarians.” Without Jesus, we are spiritually uncivilized, enemies of God. Yet Christ loves us and comes to us and gives us His gifts.

You may be wondering how my snake story turned out. Well I was dismayed. It was late Friday morning and we need to leave at 8 a.m. the next day. How do I get rid of the snake? I made phone calls. National forest service: “Call animal control.” Animal control: “Sorry, we don’t go outside the city limits and we don’t do snakes.” Private pest control companies: “Only bugs and mice. No snakes.” Finally Arizona Fish and Game: “Call one of these two people. They can help, but there will be a charge.”

I called the first name, “Anthony.” A child answers. I ask for Anthony. “Daaad, phone!” Anthony came to the phone and I explained my problem.

“O.K., tell me how to get there,” he said.

“Just a moment,” I replied, “I have a couple questions. First, does this mean you are coming right away? Second, how much will it cost?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’ll be there in ten minutes and it’s not going to cost you anything.”

Anthony’s Ford Ranger came down the driveway in ten minutes on the dot. Within another five minutes, deftly using a hook and long tongs, he had the snake in a canvas bag. Then he turned to Joanna and me and said, “Now, I need to a place to let her go.”

I was expecting him to put his tools and the bagged snake in the Ranger and drive away with our problem. But Anthony wasn’t going to kill this creature. In fact, he kept remarking on the colors of its stripes and talking about how “beautiful” she was. He wanted to protect that snake, get it out of harm’s way, not destroy it!

So we took a hike down by the creek, a good distance from our cabin and the other homes around us. Anthony carefully upended the sack as my daughter and I stood back and took a picture to show my wife when we got home.

As we walked back up the hill, I learned that Anthony does this sort of thing all the time, just because he likes snakes. He has a regular job as a commercial pilot for FedEx, but he finds beauty and fascination in animals that make most of us shudder and want to run. Anthony loves them.

If you and I are honest, we will admit there is plenty of bad in us, even if we look pretty good on the outside. If others knew they might shudder and run. We’re not just barbarians, we are snakes. In our pride and anger, with our jealousy and greed and lust, we are, as Jesus said to some Pharisees, children of our father the devil, the old serpent who first deceived us and made us wretched.

Yet Jesus loves us. He finds beauty in us. Like Anthony finds in his snakes. Like Paul and Luke found in those Maltese barbarians. Jesus Christ finds you and me fascinating and lovely and worth His time. You are worth enough that Jesus gave His live for you.

As Anthony got in his truck, I asked, “Do you really do this for free? Can’t I give you something?” He said, “No, I do this just because I enjoy it. Payment is not necessary. But if you want to donate something to my son’s little league team, I’ll take that.” I was so relieved, so totally grateful, that I reached for my wallet, pulled out some cash, and handed it to him. It was a small token of my gratitude for a huge relief to my mind. If it bought a bat or a Little League uniform for some kid, that would be great.

Jesus died and rose again for you and me. He did it for free. He did it just because He wanted to. He didn’t expect to be compensated for His sacrifice. We’re barbarians and snakes, after all. We could not possibly afford our salvation. So it’s free. It’s grace.

But we want to be grateful. We want to honor Jesus with real gratitude. So we bring Him gifts by bringing gifts to others. We give to Him through our churches so that anyone can walk in those doors and hear in either Spanish or English that Jesus loves him, that Jesus gave His life for her.

We also give to people that maybe only Jesus finds lovely. The poor. The uneducated. The criminal. People who speak languages stranger than English or Spanish. People on the edges of our civilization. People we might think don’t deserve it, the barbarians of our world. They may stay in an RV in our parking lot, or sleep under a bridge, or live on the other side of the world in a hut. But just like Jesus loves us, He loves them. We can show our gratitude to Jesus by loving them too.

So show “unusual kindness” to someone. Ask where can you find “barbarians” or “snakes” who need Jesus’ love? People like the Maltese who need to be healed, or people like Paul and the castaways, who needed to be warmed and fed. Who are they? Let God show them to you and then show them His love. They are all lovely in Jesus’ eyes. He wants everyone to be saved.

Amen.