Desert Wonderings. <Read Mark 1:9-15>

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1 Rev. Joan Pell Byron United Methodist Church Sermon: 02/22/15 Series: Faithful Imagination: A Journey through Lent Scripture: Mark 1:9-15 <Read Mark 1:9-15> Desert Wonderings Mark is pretty brief in his descriptions. We don t get all the detail that the other gospels give us. So here today in 7 short verses, we have Jesus baptism, his wilderness experience, and the start of Jesus ministry. 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. 12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. Lent is a time of journeying, where we follow Jesus from his baptism to the cross, and at the same time pause and reflect on our lives as we live out our baptismal promises. It is a time to turn back from doing things our way and to let God work through our lives. So, Lent is a time to remember and a time of our own journey in solitude and in community. We are reading this book 1 together through Lent. Jesus parables looked at through the lens of passion. Parables speak to us indirectly; they are metaphors that invite our imaginations. This week our readings are all about simple gifts and how we can see the sacred in simple common elements: in a mustard seed, in hidden treasure, in a coin, in leaven, in a vine branch. Jesus used his imagination, so we could see things in new ways. He invoked the mundane to help us see the holy. 1 John Indermark, Parables and Passion: Jesus Stories for the Days of Lent (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2006). 1

2 In today s reading, we have the gift of the image of the wilderness. Jesus spent 40 days in this wilderness or the desert with the wild beasts. I want us to ponder or wonder today how this wilderness image might faithfully speak to our imaginations. Imagine you are going on a camping backpacking trip alone to the high desert. Arizona or New Mexico perhaps. What would you take? Backpack, Tent, Sleeping bag, Pillow, Stove & gas, Pans & plates, Utensils, Food, Water, Insect Repellant, Sunscreen, Hat, Clothes, Soap, toothbrush, towel, Camping stool, Fishing Rod, Book, pack of cards, Pen & Paper, IPod, Cellphone? Now you feel the weight of it. Are you going to carry it all? What will you discard? Pillow, Stove, Camping stool? What things are you going to leave behind? Comfy bed, Computer, Kitchen equipment, Television, Clothes? Now you have lots of time on your hands. Perhaps it is no so bad! No worrying about meeting deadlines. No children or grandchildren to look after. No long to-do list. No computer or phone to keep checking or maybe there is! No companions to talk to. There s time to unwind. Lots of time to exercise, or to sit still. Plenty of time to read if you brought a book, or your kindle if it doesn t run out of battery. What are you going to do with the silence? There s no nagging kids, spouse, boss! Will you hear the birds, the insects, the wind, running water? What will you start to notice? What wild beasts are you going to have to live with, or avoid? Snakes, spiders, mountain lions, ants, bears, mosquitos? What voices have you been shutting out of your life that you are now going to hear? What thoughts have you outrun that will now catch you up? What has been causing you to veer from the path you believe to be good and right? What temptations are going to grab you? Is the voice you hear from God or is it the devil tempting you? How do you know if it is Satan s voice or an angel? What will you do when you an encounter a wild beast? Are you going to stay or pack up? Where are you going to go? A wilderness is a hostile place, where you will experience trials and challenges. It is a place where you will be tempted whether to do something or to deny something. Perhaps your wilderness looks like a solo camping trip in the desert. Or it might be another physical place altogether, or perhaps it is a spiritual place. It could be a place that you choose to go, or one where you currently find yourself. It might be a place you can choose to leave or maybe you have no choice but to stay. 2

3 As I found this picture for our sermon series, 2 it looks at first like a simple series of colored rectangles. Yet it doesn t take much imagination for it to come into focus as a set of high rise buildings lit up at night. The city can also be a wilderness. A place where many people live and congregate, and yet to some it can also be the loneliest place on the planet. It is a place where opportunities abound, and yet some of those opportunities can become temptations. It can be a dangerous place too, with higher crime rates than the suburbs and countryside. Where s your wilderness? Is it a physical place or a spiritual place? On my trip to Australia to be with my brother in his cancer battle those high rise buildings came into focus literally and metaphorically. Graham lives an hour north of Brisbane on the Sunshine coast, but up and down the coast and in Brisbane were so many high rise buildings. Sometimes the light reflected off the buildings. Sometimes it was so foggy, we knew buildings were out there we couldn t see them. Sometimes the lights shone through darkness. Sometimes it just looked beautiful. There are dangers that lurk in high rise buildings though. Yesterday there was the news that hundreds of people in Dubai were evacuated from one of the world's tallest residential buildings when a fire swept through a 79-story skyscraper. As far as I know, no casualties have been reported. Back in Australia, some of the buildings I showed you were offices. Others (like this block) are apartments for living in. Some are occupied by their owners. Some units are rented out. And other units are available as vacation rentals. This one my brother rented and lived in for one month 10 years ago when his family emigrated to Australia

4 And so there I was on the ground (or the water) looking upwards at so much life, watching and seeing life all around me while I was in my own wilderness time. Not 40 days, but 20 days, of walking alongside my brother in his cancer journey facing my fears and considering how I could best walk through that time with him. There are two types of wilderness experiences that I d like us to ponder today. A wilderness could be a place where you did not go willingly, a challenging place where you currently find yourself OR it can be a place where you choose to go and sometimes even the place where God sends you. FIRST. Let s wonder about the wilderness in the times that we do not go willingly but when we simply find ourselves wandering in the desert. In this case the wilderness is a place where the future feels frightening and the path ahead unknown, when all hope seems to have vanished and we feel alone. It is a place of fear. The Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. As a group they were able to escape from Egypt, but I am sure that they did not know that they were signing up for 40 years of wandering desert time. During their time in the desert, they showed their allegiance to God, and they broke God s trust. They sought to provide for themselves instead of relying on God s promises, and they also learned how to be faithful to an unseen God. It was there that God made and renewed covenants with them. And it was the place where God delivered them. The wilderness is a holy place in the Biblical witness. In the wilderness we become more aware of our dependence on God learn to trust God s way of being are connected to what God is doing in the world learn the value of things when all else is taken away, and the ultimate value of love. This opening passage of Mark has so many echoes of the past. Jesus is in the desert for 40 days, whereas for Moses and Israelites it was 40 years. Jesus is with the wild animals, whereas Adam got to name the animals in the garden. At Jesus baptism, God s voice comes from heaven whereas it is the prophet Isaiah who speaks the words of God beholding the servant in whom God s soul delights. Listen for a moment to the opening verses of Mark 1:1-4. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 4

5 3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, 4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark opens by telling us that this gospel is the beginning of the good news. It is not the total story, it is an ongoing one. God is still in the process of making all things new. Mark then goes onto to talk about John the Baptizer as he refers back to the prophet Isaiah. This new story of Jesus is connected to what is foretold by the prophets and the ongoing story of God. And it begins with John offering baptism with God s gracious act of forgiveness of sins. John offers baptism in the desert not in the temple. He offers it to all who come forward not just those who can afford to offer the appropriate sacrifice. God was doing a new thing in the desert. God spoke a fresh word. So when we find ourselves in the desert, let s remember To find the holy in the moment To recognize that God s work is ongoing and is not finished. To listen to God s word in the desert, through the words of the prophets that still speak to us today That no desolation is so complete that God is not there with us speaking fresh words to us. God is always present. Indeed as we face the wild animals, God send us angels to wait on us. And I will say a bit more about that in a moment. SECOND. The wilderness can be a place where you choose to go, or perhaps where the spirit sends you to prepare for something. In this case the wilderness is a place of temptation, a place where we have to resist trouble. What has been causing you to veer from the path you believe to be good and right? Yes, that s an area I struggle with! <picture of donut v fruit> Mark s description of this wilderness time is brief. He tells us: 13 Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Jesus stood up to temptation, not because he was divine, but because he didn t use only his own resources. The angels ministered to Jesus. Angels could be divine beings with wings, but I don t believe that they usually are. Angels are those that God places in our lives to minister to us. 5

6 We have the angels in our lives who are our role models and inspire us motivate us in some way by their actions or words bring the gift of laughter offer comfort share their own stories of temptation and how they came through come alongside us and travel with us What should we do with Satan and the wild beasts? Theologian Karl Barth taught that the devil and demons are subjects we should not linger over for long. The very thing they are waiting for is for us to find them dreadfully interesting and give them our serious attention 3 So when we find ourselves tempted and troubled in the wilderness, let s remember to look for the angels that are all around us, and that God sends to us and places in our lives. The good news is that those angels are there even if the wilderness has Satan and wild beasts. LENT is traditionally a 40-day journey, of praying, fasting and giving. You can choose what spiritual disciplines you take up or give up on your personal Lenten journey this year. There s ideas on our Facebook page. 4 Rethink Church, a UM initiative, even has a daily photo challenge. 5 I ve already suggested a devotional book Parables & Passions that you might add to your daily reading and meditating on the Word of God. You can join us on Wednesday evenings for a Soup Supper and discussion of the readings followed by a brief closing worship. And you can join us on Thursdays at Noon for a time of prayer by walking the Labyrinth out the back in our sacred garden. Not so much a spiritual discipline, but perhaps a time when you can be in the company of angels, is on Friday evenings (but not this Friday) when you can go to St. Anne s for the Friday Fish Feed. (More info on our website And so, I invite you, in the name of Christ, to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and penitence, by prayer and fasting, by works of love, and by reading and meditating on the word of God. 6 Thanks be to God. Amen. 3 As quoted by Mark E. Yurs in Feasting on the Gospels: Mark, Eds. Cynthia A. Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), United Methodist Book of Worship. 6

7 Resources Jarvis, Cynthia A. and E. Elizabeth Johnson, Eds. Feasting on the Gospels: Mark. Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, Bartlett, David L. and Barbara Brown Taylor, Eds. Feasting on the Word. Year B, Vol. 2. Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, Summary A wilderness is a hostile place, where you will experience trials and challenges. It is a place where you will be tempted whether to do something or to deny something. Perhaps your wilderness looks like a solo camping trip in the desert. Or it might be another physical place altogether, or perhaps it is a spiritual place. It could be a place that you choose to go, or one where you currently find yourself. It might be a place you can choose to leave or maybe you have no choice but to stay. 7