RCL
Lent 1B
22
February 2015
Saint
Faith's Anglican Church
Vancouver
BC
Focus
text: Mark 1.9-15
I grew up where the
mountains of the Front Range of the Rockies meet the expanse of the Great
Plains. Ours was, and still is, a dry
land, a wilderness that did not, and does not, reward carelessness with
gentleness. One thoughtless toss of a
match can ignite a fire which can destroy hundreds if not thousands of hectares
of land as well as kill people and animals.
Failing to pay attention to the clouds building in the west and in the
south can lead to drowning in a dry gulch when the rains cause a flash flood
that comes upon you in seconds.
In those days both city
kids and country kids learned how to live in this wilderness. We learned how to seek plants that harboured
water in their stems and to discern the signs of water below the surface of the
soil. We learned how to build shelters
to keep us warm and dry and to build fires that would stay within the limits of
the pits we dug. We learned how to
conserve food and water. Our land might
be dry, might be dangerous, but it was ours and we belonged to this land.
For most twenty-first
century North Americans 'wilderness' conjures up images on postcards and
foreign places beyond the reach of urban civilization. The wilderness is a place few of us go to,
whether willingly or unwillingly. Some
of us may even think of the wilderness as a dangerous and life-denying place
where human beings do not belong and where we ought not to go. This widespread ignorance and fear of the wilderness prevents us from understanding
Jesus' own wilderness experience and from understanding the potential that the
wilderness of Lent offers us.
In the Hebrew scriptures
'wilderness' is a symbol for a dependence upon God that has the potential to
transform those who will brave the journey.
The wilderness of Sinai was the furnace that transformed the ore we know
as the Hebrews into the metal we call the people of Israel. In the wilderness the Hebrews received the
Torah which guided them through the years of glory and the years of exile. In the wilderness a confederation of tribes
claiming common descent from Abraham were hammered by Moses into the people of
the covenant with the Holy One. In the
wilderness the people learned the benefits and the costs of being chosen by the
God whose name is not a noun but a verb, a God of action, a God who is not
tamed by temples or sacrifices or formal religious structures.
When Jesus was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness west of the Jordan and east of Jerusalem, he entered
a place where hunger and thirst were ever present, a place where lawless people
preyed on unsuspecting travellers, but most importantly a place where God
shaped Jesus into the agent God needed.
In the wilderness Jesus listened for the voice of God and pondered what
shape the future was to take. In the
wilderness Jesus came to know the truth that sets us free: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (Mark 1.15)
God's future is also our
present. The reign of God is both a
future promise and a present reality. If
we look for the signs of that reign, then our lives will be transformed. This is the good news Jesus proclaimed to our
ancestors in the faith. This is the good
news we share with our families, friends and neighbours. But this is a message that we learn in the
wilderness.
You and I now stand on
the border of a wilderness called Lent.
We've been here many times before.
Sometimes we have skirted its edges, reluctant to step into a land that
challenges our assumptions about what it means to be a human being living in an
affluent and comfortable city on Canada's Pacific coast. Sometimes we have looked at this wilderness
as if it were a picture postcard made up of images from popular
stereotypes: children cheerfully giving
up broccoli and brussels sprouts in anticipation of chocolate Easter eggs and
adults making futile promises to lose weight or to quit smoking. Perhaps we understand how dangerous a time
Lent can be. What would our lives be
like if we truly believed that the time is fulfilled and that the kingdom of
God is all around us, not just a future hope but a present reality? What would our lives be like if we truly
repented, in other words, if we looked at the world through God's eyes, and
believed that the life of justice, mercy and humility Jesus proclaims can
actually be lived in the here and now?
But there is only one way
to find out how our lives could be different and that is to follow Jesus into
the wilderness to hear the voice of God and to discern the shape of the future.
As I look back on my life
as a boy and a teenager growing up in a wilderness of plains and mountains, I
remember that a series of words that guided all of us who wanted to live with
the land: Wait. Watch.
Ponder. Breathe. Then act.
Wait. The forty days of Lent are a time to set
aside rushing about and getting caught up in the busy-ness of life in the
city. Make an appointment for yourself
each day.
Watch. When you keep your appointment with yourself,
use the time to watch your life. Look
for rhythms in your day and in your week that give you life and those rhythms
that drain life from you.
Ponder. This is a time to ponder how you can strengthen
the rhythms that give you life and to ponder how you can set aside the rhythms
that drain that life from you.
Breathe. Waiting, watching and pondering is work. Make sure that the time you set aside for
yourself does not bleed immediately into more activity. Breathe and give thanks for the waiting. Breath and give thanks for the watching. Breathe and give thanks for the pondering.
Then act. Choose one thing that you learned in this
time. Put it into action. Perhaps you've chosen to read the Bible
more. Begin with reading the lessons for
the coming Sunday; they're printed in today's bulletin. As you read them, identify what words or
phrases speak to you and why you think these words or phrases have caught your
attention. Whatever you choose, be
content with small steps, realistic steps, life-giving steps.
And one more thing. I know for certain that wilderness journeys
are best undertaken in the company of others.
Whether we find a partner to read the Scriptures with or a guide who can
help us pray or colleagues who can help us reflect on a shared ministry, the
wilderness is not a place to be alone.
Even Jesus had the wild beasts and the angels to accompany him in his
sojourn into the desert of Judea.
So don't be afraid to
enter the wilderness of Lent. In the
wilderness of Lent we discover who and whose we are. In the wilderness of Lent city slickers are
transformed into savvy nomads who look for the signs of God's life in the most
unexpected places and find what they are looking for. Amen.
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