1 Driven into the Wilderness Sermon by W. Dreyman Lent I Year B February 22, 2015 Holy Trinity Church, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). Is this not what many of us feel when we go through tough times? That God has put us in this circumstance; has driven us into this place of despair; has moved us into this realm of difficulty. Certainly we would not consciously choose to be in this place. Yet, here we find ourselves, driven out into the wilderness. Alice was a person of extraordinary achievement. In her 50 years she had become a professor in one of the finest universities in the world. She had met and married a fine husband, named John and raised three children, Lydia, Anna, and Tom. Anna is an attorney, married and is expecting twins. Tom is a med school student. Lydia, much to her mother s consternation, has chosen not to go to college, but to give herself to the acting profession. The family lives on the east coast. Lydia lives on the west coast. The family is settled, secure. Lydia is struggling. Then Alice finds herself searching for a word during a presentation to a group of students. She is so articulate. It s a word she knows, but it is lost to her. Lapses in memory
2 continue, causing her increasing concern. Alice gets lost on a jog through campus. Is she experiencing normal stuff for a 50 year old? That s what John thinks. She goes to a neurologist and after a variety of tests learns of a troubling diagnosis. Later, her student evaluations come back and she is surprised to learn that her lectures seemed disorganized to her classes. She is meeting with the head of her department who is very concerned and asks if she is having substance abuse problems. That is when Alice admits that she has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer s disease. This is part of the story behind the book by Lisa Genova, Still Alice, which has been made into a movie by the same name. The book has been called the best portrayal of the Alzheimer s journey that I have read by an expert in the field. The movie is nominated for several Academy Awards that will be announced later tonight. I share the story with you because it is about a person who, along with her family, feels thrown into a situation of despair. Alice feels driven into the wilderness with wild beasts where she discovers the loss of everything meaningful. She sees that the diagnosis is an unusual one, passed down genetically from her forbearers. If you have the gene, you definitely contract the illness. This adds a dimension to the story because Alice s children and her
3 children s children are at risk. They each have a 50/50 chance of having the gene. A test can be done. Her son, Tom, tests negative. Her daughter, Anna, tests positive. Alice knows that the story of loss is not merely her own, and she suffers the shame of passing the disease to her descendants. Lydia chooses not to take the test: not to know, at least at this point in her life, and in her mother s life. Lydia, the struggling one, provides solace and care for her mother. It is a touching story that ends not so much with a surprise, but with meaning in their lives: ordinary people thrown into the wilderness who discover love even in the darkness that surrounds them. As Alice s memory and selfhood fade, the family discovers love among the wild beasts that seek to undo them. Maybe that is a surprise. Love creeps into even the most difficult, darkest places of our lives. The same Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness is the one who earlier in this reading came descending like a dove upon him. You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased (1:11b). The same Spirit that sent Jesus to the wilderness was living and moving in his baptism. Mark s gospel is clear. God is involved in every aspect of Jesus life and ministry in the real world. The breath of God blows in blessing and in challenge. The breath of God blows in love and in trial.
4 Should we conclude from this that God drives us into the wilderness experiences of our lives? Does God bring Alzheimer s or any other disease to our door? Does God initiate broken marriages or joblessness? Is God the one who brings about war and violence? It may seem that way, but no. These conditions of brokenness and illness are not caused by God to test our faith. They just happen. God created the world with freedom at every level of our existence and in that freedom bad things as well as good things happen. Our sinfulness is behind much of what befalls us. The sinfulness of the world, of creation itself, that condition of separation from God, is why people get sick. It s just the way it is in a world that is truly open and free. We are captive to sin, yet freed by love. God is in Jesus in all of life just the way it is. Jesus lived, suffered and died just like each of us. The presence of the Spirit in every aspect of Jesus life and ministry is a sign that Jesus came to transform the world with love. Ann and I went to see Still Alice last week. I remember being touched by several of the scenes, especially as Alice was trying but failing to tie her shoes. It caused me to remember my post stroke experience of having to learn to tie my shoes. It s easy for me to say that God was with me helping me to relearn that childhood task because I can do it now. How much
5 harder it must be to find God in your life when you are losing that ability and know it will never return. How much more difficult it must be to lose your sense of self, knowing that it will never be regained. This reminds me of a faithful member of a former parish I served, who a couple of months before her death said to me: I m not afraid of death. It s the dying that scares me. I can appreciate that fear. I share that fear. It is what makes Alzheimer s disease such a frightful possibility. That loss of memory and the self is scary for most of us. But, even if the worst happens, it is about the love of Jesus that conquers death. It is about the presence of God at Jesus baptism and ours that sees us through. It is about the resurrection promise that gives meaning even when memory and selfhood are lost. Amen.