"Into the Wilderness"
A Meditation for Communion by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville UCC, March 1, 2009
Lent 1, Year B, Mark 1:9-15

“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beats; and the angels waited on him.”

On the First Sunday in Lent we read the story of the Temptation of Jesus – sometimes from the Gospel according to Mark (as we did this morning), sometimes from either Matthew or Luke’s gospel.  John’s gospel does not contain a story of the Temptation.

Mark’s gospel is the shortest and leanest of the four gospels.  Compared to either Matthew or Luke, Mark’s account is very brief.  There is no fasting or hunger.  There is no conversation with the Devil and there is nothing about the outcome of the struggle.  The details of Mark’s account are very spare.  What we do have is an account that tells us that immediately after being baptized by John, immediately after the heavens open and Jesus is shown to be the Son of God, the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness where he was in the wilderness 40 days, all the while tempted by Satan.  The text says, “he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. 

Forty days and forty nights, tested and tried by the Devil, his constant companions Satan, the wild beasts – and the angels.

The Christian season of Lent lasts forty days and we use this time to remember Jesus’ time of trial in the wilderness.  We remember that Jesus knew what the wilderness was like.  We remember that he was able to withstand the time of trial.  We remember his sacrifice and his passion and we prepare our hearts to undertake the Lenten journey -- a pilgrimage which, if sincerely traveled, delivers us at the foot of the cross and allows us to experience the power and mystery of Holy Week. 

This time we call Lent is designed to prepare us; to awaken us; to rouse us from our spiritual slumber and disrupt our normal routines so that we cannot help but become more aware of our relationship to God.  That is why some Christians choose to “give up something for Lent” -- by doing so, we disrupt our normal routine, and force ourselves to make intentional choices that require our daily attention. 

We are, indeed, disciples of Jesus Christ.  And, as disciples we follow our Lord into the wilderness out of faithfulness to him.  But, in addition to our keeping faith with Him, there is another purpose to observing the season of Lent.  Lent is also designed to shape us and mold us and teach us how to be in the wilderness and survive it. 

The wilderness, in the biblical tradition, is the place where chaos resides.  While it may be beautiful in places, there is no doubt that it is a place of danger, where inhospitable conditions reign. 

We live in a culture that tells us that if we are in the wilderness, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.  We live in a time that tells us that, if we find ourselves in wilderness places, there’s a pill that we can take that will help us out of it.  Of course, if you listen carefully enough, the advertisement will also tell you all the unpleasant side-effects which are possible from that pill.

In Lent, we intentionally follow Jesus into the wilderness.  We walk the path into the desolation of the desert.  We do it to keep faith with our Lord.  But we do it also because we need to know the way in and the way out of the barren places in our lives.

So many times I find, as a pastor, that when people come to wilderness places in their lives, they are surprised to find themselves there.  We suffer terrible losses.  We lose the ones we love.  We age and our bodies change and we struggle to come to grips with the limitations which are suddenly forced upon us.  Our lives are not what we expected them to be.

Wilderness, in this case, is not the beautiful awe-inspiring view from the mountaintop of transfiguration.  Wilderness is the place where you can die; the place where you might run out of water or nourishment or hope; the place where you are so exposed to the harsh elements of life that you can simply run out of endurance.

We have to know how to walk that road.  We have to know what it’s like to dwell in the wilderness and have our only companions there be – the Tempter, the wild beast, and the angels.

The Church’s calendar teaches us how to live a life saturated with the presence of God.  Last Sunday, in most places in the world, Christians were studying the story of the Transfiguration -- for so it has always been on that last Sunday before Lent.  Remember the story of the Transfiguration – how Jesus and three of his disciples climb a high mountain and there, before the disciples eyes, Jesus is transfigured before them, shining with holy radiant light.

This week, we are studying a very different text – and the spiritual landscape couldn’t be more different.  This Sunday, we have shifted from the bright radiance of Jesus’ Transfiguration, to the stark and foreboding setting of the wilderness.  This week the voice we hear is not that of the Holy One, but of Satan, tempting Jesus with every means at his disposal.  This week the same Holy Spirit who gave Jesus life and descended upon him in the form of a dove has driven him to the Place of Devastation, where he will be tested.  It is a rapid descent from the mountaintop of Transfiguration to the desert of Temptation.  This week it has become the season of Lent and how quickly the spiritual landscape changes.

It’s interesting to me that the Church’s cycle of scripture readings invites Christians throughout the world to hear these stories back to back like this.  In the chronology of Jesus’ life they do not appear in this order.  If read in their proper order, the temptation in the wilderness follows on the heels of Jesus’ baptism, and the Transfiguration forms part of a progression of stories leading up to Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion.  But it is the Church’s wisdom to lead us into the season of Lent with a dramatic change of scenery.  We are led into this season of reflection with the reminder that Jesus did not stay up on the mountain, aglow in a heady holy moment apart from the world and its sufferings.  Instead he descended into the world with all its longing and all its despair, all its joy and all its ambiguity, all its temptations and all its trials.  He descended right into the messy middle of life; the place where we live; the place wherein we must find our way.

“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beats; and the angels waited on him.”

In Lent we are invited to intentionally dwell in the desert places of our lives.  All great religions begin in the wilderness because the wilderness is a great place to get clear about what’s important and what isn’t.

The season of Lent is for remembering Jesus’ time of trial in the wilderness and for undertaking our own.  It’s for remembering his trial and sacrifice, and for getting our own house in order too.  Forty days of self examination.  Forty days to set your priorities aright.  Forty days to repent for wrongdoings and get back on a right path.  Forty days to stay awake and be in daily conversation with the Lord.  Forty days to stare down the demons that plague us.  Forty days to be ministered to by the angels.

When I was younger, I didn’t much appreciate the season of Lent.  It was too dark.  Why would you want to do that to yourself?  Why would you intentionally take yourself on that kind of spiritual journey?

As I get older, and as I see more of the things that people struggle with in their lives, I appreciate the power of the Lenten journey so much more, because the spiritual landscape of our lives does in fact change with frequency and sometimes abruptly.  And we need to know how to deal with that, trusting that the angels of God are present with us all the while – with just as much vigor and tenacity as those wild wilderness beasts.

We know what it means to travel from the bright mountain of Transfiguration hope to the dark valley of wilderness despair in our lives.  We know what it means to have the landscape of our lives change before our very eyes.  And we need to know that when we have journeyed from the mountain to the pit, even then God sends all his angels to wait upon us.

This morning we are invited to the Table of God’s Presence.  Today, we come to the place where we may rightly expect that God’s angels will wait upon us.  This is the place where God’s abundant grace and mercy is most tangible; the place where we feed upon the holy mysteries and are nourished by mercy in abundant.

Forty days and forty nights.  You may come to like it.  It will change you.  Come, all who hunger and thirst for the presence of the Holy One.  Come.