It was midafternoon, April 6, 1862, when a young officer spotted Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston wobbling in the saddle after leading a bloody charge at Shiloh. "Are you hurt?" the officer asked.

"Yes," replied Johnston. "And, I feel, seriously."

Soon he had bled to death from what was a readily treatable leg wound. He ignored it, and paid the price. Even worse, Johnston had a tourniquet in his pocket, but didn't think it was worthwhile.

Is this ancient history? Hardly. Nearly 140 years later, blood loss still causes 50 percent of battlefield deaths in the U.S. armed forces, and the methods for coping with it are still quite low-tech: Slap on a battle dressing, press down and wait for evacuation. (Guy Gugliotta, "Ocean Algae Bring Sea Change in Battle Dressings," The Washington Post, May 7, 2001, A7).

Such carnage is not limited to the battlefield. Car accidents, gun shots, surgery, and work-related mishaps all cause bleeding. Massive bleeding.

In fact, whether it's on the battlefield, the operating room table, or the Interstate highway, tens of thousands of people die from blood loss every year -- 50,000 in the United States alone.

What can be done to stop it?

For thousands of years, people have been attempting to control bleeding by applying pressure and covering wounds with gauze-like materials. While this works for light to moderate bleeding, it cannot stop massive bleeds. And the problem with gauze is that it must eventually be removed, leading to the tearing away of blood clots.

Ouch. It hurts just to hear about it. Such an image is not for the faint of heart.

So, what's the cure? A new product called RDH -- Rapid Deployment Hemostat -- is a bandage that promises to stop bleeding in seconds. The RDH is supercharged with a polysaccharide produced by unicellular algae, cultured in sealed bioreactors.

With RDH, bleed time is cut by two-thirds. "Band-Aids are for boo-boos," says Sergio Finkielsztein, the president of Marine Polymer Technologies, which is developing this bandage. "The RDH is all about trauma."

Right now, only hemophiliacs, cardiac patients, and kidney dialysis patients use the algal bandages, but Finkielsztein sees potential uses on battlefields and mountain bike trails, where injuries are common and help is far away. He is working with the Feds to develop a soldier-friendly field kit, and with sports enthusiasts to develop a patch for athletic endeavors. The cost: About 30 bucks a pop. (Charles Graeber, "Algae-Aid," Wired, August 2001, 48)

In today's classic text from the Gospel of John, Jesus reaches into the Old Testament for the story of how Moses tried to "stop the bleeding" -- stop the literal bleeding of his people from snakebites, as well as their spiritual hemorrhaging from sin. Wandering through the wilderness, the people of Israel had once again fallen into the predictable pattern of impatient whining and bitter grumbling against God and Moses. So the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, killing many. Panic-stricken, the people came to Moses and confessed, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us."

Hearing this confession and feeling compassion for his people, God came up with an innovative healing device. Not the tourniquets, pressure dressings, spider webs or hot irons so popular in the 1860s, but something every bit as odd and unexpected. "Make a poisonous serpent," the LORD said to Moses, "and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole, and sure enough: Whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live (Numbers 21:4-9).

Algal bandages and bronze serpents. Two equally surprising devices that are equally effective at cutting bleed time.

But serpents on poles are just a prototype, just a first step on the path toward developing a truly divine treatment for sin and death. God's greatest innovation came many years later with the raising up of Jesus Christ on the cross. As Jesus explains to Nicodemus in this morning's lesson, "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" (John 3:14-15).

What a shocking treatment for sin. It's as unexpected as a snake on a stick. In both cases, we are asked to look with faith at something that is lifted up and exalted, whether it is a serpent or a savior. In both cases, we are challenged to lift our heads and believe that God is at work in a new place and a new way, to heal us and to save us.

No doubt this was tough for the Israelites. After all, common sense called for them to look down to the ground and desperately try to dodge the deadly serpents. But Moses said, "Look up ... and believe!" And when they did, they were saved.

The very same is true for us. The sharp-toothed dangers of this world suggest that we should always be looking down and around and over our shoulders, in an ever-vigilant attempt to protect ourselves and our families and our possessions and our precious lifestyles. But God says, "Look up ... and believe! Look at my Son, who died so that you might live. Everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life" (3:16).

And when we do, we are saved.

Sure, it's tough to look up, but what a difference it makes. Jesus' offer of his life on the cross is what makes eternal life possible for those who believe. This is not just a life that kicks in when our days on earth finally drag to an end -- no, it begins NOW, and it lasts forever. To have eternal life is to live a life defined by the Lord, not by anything human. To have eternal life is to be given a new life as a child of God. To have eternal life is to experience a change in human existence, one marked by forgiveness and joy and peace and hope. According to scholar Gail O'Day, the "eternal" in eternal life does not mean mere endless duration of human existence -- what a drag THAT would be. Instead, it is a way of describing life as lived in the unending presence of God. (Gail O'Day, "The Gospel of John," The New Interpreter's Bible [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995], 552)

Jesus is lifted up on the cross to cut our bleed time and bring us healing. He stops the hemorrhaging and heals the wound of sin, and he does it in a totally innovative way: By some bleeding and suffering of his own. Jesus achieves our salvation through the cross, a bloody symbol of his love for us.

What a gift this is. What a divine innovation. It's a gospel truth far too good to keep to ourselves.

Which is exactly what God intends.

As Christians we are challenged to be "hemostatic," a marvelous and memorable word which means "acting to stop the flow of blood." Hemostatic. The algal bandage, you recall, was a hemostat -- a "Rapid Deployment Hemostat" -- and it's not much of a stretch to think of Jesus as a "hemostatic savior." After all, he stopped our bleeding as sinners, and patched us up so that we might go on to enjoy eternal life with God.

So, what is our role as hemostatic Christians? Nothing less than applying the healing power of the gospel to a hemorrhaging world. Turn on the tube, and you can see that we live in a time when violence has become the norm on the nightly news. Journalists quip, "If it bleeds, it leads." Natural disasters abound. Terrorists attack. Reporters are murdered. Children kill children. Bombs destroy villages. Ethnic cleansing erupts. Whole nations war, human rights crumble, and people bleed to death, physically and spiritually.

The world needs the gospel desperately.

As people patched up by Jesus, we can go out and patch others up with the good news of God's love. According to evangelism expert Rosalie Potter, this means moving from a ministry of maintenance to a ministry of mission, determined always to demonstrate the redemptive love of God in Jesus Christ. It means living out a ministry of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8). It means recognizing that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was an awesome happening -- one that has changed our lives forever. It means finding ways to tell other people of this incredible gift that has come to be. (Rosalie Potter, Living the Vision: Preparing Members for Evangelism [Louisville: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2000], 2)

We can do this hemostatic work by offering services of prayer and praise and thanksgiving that are focused on the grace and love and forgiveness of our Lord. We can spread the amazing good news of what God has done by inviting a lonely friend to a church event, by mentoring a neglected child, by supporting a shelter for battered women, by throwing a party at a nursing home, by tutoring an inmate at the county jail, or by writing an elected representative about a distant persecution.

All of this is healing work, because it cuts bleed time - cuts the bleed time of a hemorrhaging world.

Band-Aids may be good for boo-boos, but the gospel is God's one and only cure for sin and death. Amen.