A further thought on Snake Handling... and a sermon

In case the previous post was a bit too abstract for you, I thought I'd add this as a concrete example of what "snake handling" in ministry might look like. 

A few weeks ago a sermon at our church dealt with the very sensitive theme of sexual abuse.  My wife (who is part of our preaching team) spoke, and her sermon was very biblical, christocentric, expository, and real.

Her text was 2 Samuel 13, Amnon's rape of Tamar.  Realizing the potential for such an emotionally sensitive topic to "rear up and bite us" (so to speak), the leadership of our church had a number of discussions in the week leading up to the service, about whether or not we were ready "to go there."  No one referrenced Mark 16:18 in so many words, but if Mark's epilogist were to have summed up our conversation, he might have said something like this: "these sign will accompany those who belive:  they will pick up (unharmed) snakes with their hands."

So we went there; and whether or not we were ready, Jesus was. God moved in remarkable ways that Sunday morning, with a real offer of healing and hope. 

But here's the curious thing.  As the scripture lesson was being read, I saw something in 2 Samuel 13 I'd never noticed before.  2 Samuel 13:3 points out quite explicitly that that Jonadab, Tamar's cousin and Amnon's counsellor-- the one who planned the terrible trap that allowed Amnon to sexually abuse Tamar-- Jonadab, it says, was "a very shrewd man."

When I heard it I thought immediately and intuitively of that other place where the Bible tells us about someone else who was "very shrewd."

"Now the Serpent,"  Genesis 3:1 points out, "was more shrewd than any of the creatures the Lord God had made."  Maybe we were handling snakes more literally than we thought that day.

Here's the sermon if you're interested in one of the ways we're living out the promise of Mark 16:18 at the FreeWay:  "2 Samuel 13:1-22.  For Tamar"