Loading...Sermon February 18, 2018
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s, Newport, PA
First Sunday in Lent, Year B
//lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Lent/BLent1_RCL.html
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. Mark 1:12
Please be seated
The first time I ever went tent camping, my parents thought it was so funny. My husband, Fred, just loved the outdoors and tent camping and even backpacking. Fred and I went to Pine Grove. It was fairly primitive. We had a tent, but cooked over a wood fire.
While I love the outdoors, sleeping on the ground was not ever really my favorite thing, although finding the right camping mattress makes a difference. However, tent camping also allows you to go to places where not many people can go and our family camping trip to Colorado was absolutely amazing in that regard.
I never could get into backpacking, though. But for Fred, backpacking was essential to his life balance. After a hectic 4-5 months, he’d know he needed to get out on the trail. I just dropped him off and picked him up, though. That solitude in the wilderness restored him.
In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus’ baptism. Right after the baptism, the Spirit…the Holy Spirit…drives Jesus into the wilderness. All of the synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – say that the Spirit leads Jesus or drives him into the wilderness.
We tend to think of wilderness as a scary place…a place where it is hard for humans to survive. Why in the world would the Spirit drive Jesus into a place like that? What was the purpose?
Many years ago, I read a book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges. Bridges says changes happen in our lives and as a result we must go through a transition. First of all, we must acknowledge that something has ended and work through that whole reality. This involves a lot of grieving.
Once we have accepted that something has ended, we enter a neutral zone. This is the wilderness time. It is a very important time. It is an uncomfortable time, because often we experience it as chaotic. Everything feels upended.
Sometimes, just like the Israelites in the wilderness, we want to go back to the way things were, even though we know that past cannot exist any longer. Sometimes, we busy ourselves or try to find a way to rush through this wilderness time, because we feel so uncomfortable and so unsettled.
Instead, we must accept this wilderness time. We must honor it as necessary and important. Bridges says we should find time to truly be alone and not distracted…go on a retreat. We should journal what we are experiencing and write an autobiography to see where we have been. This is a time to discover what we really want. It is also a time to think about what would be unlived in our lives if they ended today. I think that is a really great question. What would be unlived in our lives if they ended today? Dr. Lappas came to Parlor People the end of January and talked about that with us.
We need to honor the fallow and winter times in our lives…these wilderness times. It is during these wilderness times that we reorient ourselves to a new way of living and we realign ourselves to a new way of living.
It makes sense that once Jesus was baptized, the Spirit drove him to the wilderness. He needed time to let go of what he had been doing and who he was to fully live into what was coming next.
We do hear that Satan tempted or tested Jesus. Yet, Jesus did not fall for any of Satan’s lures. Mark doesn’t speak about these temptations, but Luke does. Then all three accounts mention that angels took care of Jesus or waited on him.
That’s important to remember. When we are in wilderness times in our lives, God is with us. Angels are with us. We can remember how God took care of the Israelites – feeding them, and providing leaders and a way to organize themselves and care for each other.
And we can rest assured that we are being led to a new place…a promised land…and a new way of living.
Amen
Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges (especially Chapter 6)
