Angels in the Wilderness

Every year, at the beginning of Lent, we read one of the gospel accounts of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. The wilderness is recurring theme in Scripture-you may recall we heard about it in Advent when John the Baptist appeared there. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years after their exodus from Egypt, Moses and Elijah spent time in the wilderness and so did David. The wilderness is the place of temptation and struggle, but it is also the place of encounter with God. Ultimately, it is a liminal place, a place of transformation and preparation for whatever God is calling you to do. Israel came out of the wilderness ready to enter into a new life in the promised land. Moses, and Elijah and David came out ready to lead their people. The wilderness tested them but they were strengthened by their time of trial.

It is fitting that we prepare for Holy Week and Easter with a time of encounter with God and transformation. Mainline Protestant churches like this one are not that big on revival meetings, but Holy Week and Easter is our annual revival meeting. We celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ and the difference it has made in our lives every Sunday of the year. But in Holy Week and Easter we relive those events in a particularly intense way and try to take in God's grace and love on a deeper level. Hopefully, we come out of Holy Week and Easter renewed and prepared to take that message of love and forgiveness to the world.

So how do we participate in this time of transformation leading up to Easter? I believe that transformation is not something that we do but rather something that God does within us. But we were created with free will, so God does not transform us without our assent and cooperation. The classic Lenten disciplines, self-examination, prayer, meditating on Scripture, fasting and giving alms, are all ways of saying yes to God and opening ourselves to God's transforming love. As Woody Allen once said, 90% of life is showing up. The Lenten disciplines are ways we can show up for God. They are not the only ways-you should feel free to experiment with other ways that help you to feel closer to God. I have one friend who is a workaholic and his Lenten discipline will be to have fun because he needs to be reminded of the joy of life.

But change, even good change, can be hard. Most of us shy away from change-we're afraid of the unknown. The familiar is often preferable to us even when it's bad.

Notice that in Mark's gospel, the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness. In Matthew and Luke, which were written later than Mark, the language is softened-the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness, rather than driving him. The Greek word used in Mark is ekballei, which literally means threw out. The Spirit threw Jesus out into the wilderness. I picture Jesus, his clothes still wet from the Jordan being blown along by a powerful desert wind. He stumbles along, bracing himself so the wind won't knock him over, with his headscarf over his face to protect him from the sand whipping around.

Sometimes we have to up against a wall before we are willing to be transformed. We have to be driven to it. We have to see clearly that one way of life is not working before we give it up.

I believe that our whole nation is now in the wilderness of change, and I think we have been driven to it by our dire economic situation. The way we were living is no longer viable-we consume too many of the world's resources and have too devastating an impact on the environment. And the divide between rich and poor has widened-currently, in the US, 1% of the people control 34% of the wealth, and the bottom 40% control less than 1%.

The only thing we know right now is that something has to change. But we don't really know what the future will look like. When a job ends, what will be next? We are in the wilderness. And there are many temptations out there-we might be tempted to deny the problems, or look for a quick fix, to point the finger at others rather than taking our share of the responsibility. It may be tempting to turn inward and ignore other people's needs, especially those who are the least among us.

We are collectively in the wilderness, and perhaps some of you are there personally as well. Perhaps you are out of work, or your investments have shrunk. Maybe you are facing health problems or struggling to be a caregiver for others. Or maybe you are just feeling burned out and wondering where you should go from here. The same temptations are present in all those circumstances: we can give in to despair, give up, live in denial, blame others etc.

But there is another way. Jesus trusted God, and allowed the Spirit to drive him into the wilderness. And while he was out there, as Mark tells us, the angels waited on him and the wild beasts were with him. Even while being tempted by Satan in the wild desert wasteland, Jesus encountered God, and God cared for him. Commentators argue over what the wild beasts symbolize-were they hostile or friendly? Were they demons or a sign of a new creation, where human beings and animals live together in peace? I think they were a sign of the new creation, because the text says they were "with" Jesus, and also because they are mentioned in the same breath as the angels. But the angels waiting on Jesus make it clear that Jesus encountered the divine and it sustained him. And he was strengthened by his time of testing-he came out of it willing to serve God with his life.

If we follow Jesus and trust God, I believe we too will encounter the divine. If we resist temptation and live in the tension of not knowing what will be next, we will be amazed at what God can do. In the midst of trial and temptation, the angels will wait on us, and we may even be angels for others or at least friendly wild beasts. And we will emerge from the wilderness renewed and prepared to help God bring about a new creation.