The Journey to God Lies Through The Wilderness Of Our Humanity

Welcome to the wilderness. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, we read the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. In Jesus' time, it was not unusual for people who were seeking God to spend time in the wilderness. In the Bible, the wilderness is the place of encounter with God. Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness on the way to the promised land, and encountered God at many points along the way. Moses was in the wilderness when he encountered God in the burning bush. John the Baptist went out to the wilderness to preach and baptize. So it was natural for Jesus to head out to the wilderness after his baptism, to spend time with God.

The wilderness is a good place to seek God because it has so few distractions. It is quiet out there-you can hear yourself think. It is far from the crowds and the hectic pace of the city. Even today, people seek out the wilderness to find themselves and to find God.

But the wilderness is also a lonely place. It can be dangerous out there. In the Judean desert, for example, there are extremes of heat and cold; there is very little water, and there are wild animals and scorpions. It's easy to get lost.

We are simultaneously drawn to the wilderness and repelled by it. It is a potent symbol of the spiritual life, which also draws us and scares us at the same time. The spiritual journey can lead us through lonely and unfamiliar territory.

Lent is an invitation to enter the wilderness with Jesus. It is our yearly opportunity to try to shut out distractions, and go deep within ourselves to find out what is there. The promise of this Lenten journey is that we will encounter God. But it can be a hard journey, because it is not always comfortable to examine our souls.

We may for example come face to face with the deep loneliness that is part of the human condition. Or we may become more aware of our own helplessness in the face of chaos and suffering. We may find fear or unhealed wounds or a sense that we have fallen short.

These are hard feelings and most of us would rather avoid them if possible. Most of the time, we are too distracted to do this kind of deep searching. There are many kinds of distractions, some more socially acceptable than others. There is work, family, shopping, food, exercise, alcohol, relationships, volunteering, helping others etc. Many of these things are good in themselves, but if we use them to avoid being alone with ourselves, then they will also keep us from intimacy with God. The journey to God lies through the wilderness of our humanity.

Sooner or later, we stumble into that wilderness whether we want to or not. Despite our best efforts to live happy well-ordered useful lives, chaos breaks in, and before we know it, we're in wild and unfamiliar territory. But we can also choose to enter the wilderness, to encounter our own humanity, trusting that God will go with us.

Jesus chose the wilderness. He could have stayed home, worked hard as a carpenter, taken care of his mother and siblings. The things that might have distracted Jesus from his soul's journey were all respectable and good things in themselves. But they would have kept him from God. So Jesus willingly chose to face his humanity, including his loneliness and fear and vulnerability. Even more than the rest of us, Jesus could have avoided the wilderness. He is the Son of God. The kingdom and the power and the glory are his, and he could have remained at the right hand of the Father forever. We're going to find ourselves in the wilderness at some point, whether we embrace it or not. But Jesus chose to go there, so that he would truly be one of us and know from the inside what it's like to be human.

But it wasn't enough just to leave distractions behind. Once he was out there, Jesus was tempted to escape into illusion, just as we all are. The devil offered him several attractive options for escaping loneliness, chaos and fear. The devil even quoted Scripture to lend weight to his offer. Jesus, if you just reach for economic or political or spiritual power, you can avoid the hard part of being human.

We have our own versions of these tempting illusions. If I am a good person and do the right thing, I can avoid suffering. If I fall in love with the right person or have children, I will never feel lonely again. If I have enough money or power or control over my life, I can keep chaos at bay.

But the truth is that loneliness, fear, pain and falling short are part of being human. It is an illusion to think we can avoid them. It is only when we embrace our humanity, both the good parts and the not so good parts, that we encounter God.

Jesus embraced being human. He renounced power in favor of relying on God alone. He was willing to be a mere human being, vulnerable and not in control, dependent on God for everything. Because he trusted God, Jesus had everything he needed. He was set free from fear and illusion. He called upon God and was able to silence the devil and resist his attractive illusions. He relied on God and was able to endure loneliness, suffering and even death. His trust led him through death to new life. He experienced for himself God's extraordinary grace.

When we accept our humanity, and our dependence on God, we too are set free. We don't have to be afraid, we don't have to escape into an illusion. All we have to do be who we are and put our trust in God. When we have the courage to rely on God alone, we experience for ourselves that God's love will not only sustain us but will also transform us. We are only humans, but when we are humans who trust God, God can do wonders in us and through us.

In the Epistle for today, St. Paul says, that "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." When Israel called on God in their affliction and oppression in Egypt, God heard their cries and set them free. When Jesus called on God in the wilderness, God gave him strength to be authentically human and not give in to illusion.

Our Lenten discipline is to close our minds to distractions, and risk entering the wilderness of our souls. On the wall at the Linwood Retreat Center across the river there is a sign that says, "bring to him what is in you, not what ought to be in you." Lent is a time to seek God's help to renounce illusions and live in the truth. It is a time to open your heart to God and let God work through all the different parts of your life to bring about transformation and healing.

Can you embrace the humanity that God has entrusted to you? Can you follow Jesus through suffering and loneliness, through temptation and struggle to resurrection? Can you come to God with the trust of a child and ask for whatever grace you need?

It is Lent, and the wilderness beckons. May you walk through the desert this Lent and find it a place of springs. May you arrive at Easter with a renewed heart and a transformed mind.