March 1 - Lent 1

This sermon started by with a reading of the children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. The sermon will probably make a bit more sense if you check the book out 1st.

God Never Leaves Us Alone in the Wilderness

Mark 1:9-15
Lent 1 – March 1, 2009

As I was reading our gospel story for today, I got to thinking about this book, and I was wondering if Jesus ever felt like Max. True, their stories are very different. Jesus wasn't getting himself into all kinds of mischief and driving his parents crazy. Mark's story doesn't open that way at all! Instead of being called “WILD THING”, Jesus hears God's words of love and affirmation when he comes up out of the water at his baptism: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well-pleased.”

“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well-pleased.” But then before Jesus can do anything, the Spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness, still dripping wet from the river, God's words still ringing in his ears. And his head must have been spinning when he got there, trying to figure out what had just happened, how he had gone from being called God's beloved son to being dumped in the wilderness in the blink of an eye. I wonder if it it seemed like a punishment for some unknown misdeed, if Jesus felt like Max did when he was sent to bed without any supper.

But there Jesus was, where the wild things are, for 40 days. Forty days of testing and temptation. Forty days with no one but Satan and the wild beasts for company, and Satan always coming at him from every angle, trying to tempt him into sin. Forty days out in the wilderness, a place of nothingness, a place of emptiness and unsettledness, a place of loneliness and isolation.
I wonder how Jesus felt out there in the wilderness. Because Jesus was as human as we are, and we know that wilderness times are hard times. Sometimes they just come out of the blue and leave us with our heads spinning, wondering what just happened. Wilderness times can come right on the heels of something really good, and then everything changes and we feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us.

We can find ourselves driven into the wilderness by so many things – a lost job, a miscarriage, an accident, a broken relationship, a death. But whatever drives us there, wilderness times make us wonder why we're here, questioning if this wilderness is punishment for mischief of one kind or another. Wilderness times leave us feeling lonely and wanting to be where Someone loves us best of all.

I imagine that even Jesus felt that way sometimes during those 40 days. But the good news from Mark's gospel today is that even if Jesus felt lonely, he was never truly alone. Because even as Satan tempted him and wild beasts surrounded him, God sent angels to wait on Jesus. God sent angels to watch out for him and take care of him. God sent angels to remind Jesus that even in the wilderness, he was never really alone.

And lest we think that Jesus got special treatment just because he's God's beloved son, let me remind you that he's not the only one. All through the Bible we hear stories of people who found themselves out in the wilderness, confused and hurting and questioning what God was doing. Moses fled to the wilderness in fear for his life. Elijah did too. The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before they got to enter the promised land. But none of these people, and they're just a small example, were alone in the wilderness. Out there in the wilderness, they each had a powerful encounter with God! Moses saw a burning bush; Elijah heard God speaking in that still, small voice, and the Israelites were led and fed by God each and every step of the way, every day of those 40 years. In the Bible, the wilderness is a place of testing, yes, but God never abandons anyone out there. It is there in the wilderness, when all of the distractions of life are stripped away, that people get ready for work God has for them to do next. It it there that they learn to rely more fully on God. It is there that they come face to face with the living God who loves them best of all. And so, when his time in the wilderness ends, Jesus comes out, proclaiming the good news of this God who never leaves us alone.

The 40 days of Lent can be a good reminder to us that as hard as they may be, wilderness times are never wasted. For there in our loneliness, in our longing to be where someone loves us best of all, God comes to meet us. From our place with the wild things, from far away across the world, we smell the good things that God has made for us to eat. And we don't have to sail back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day to get there. It's as close as this table. God has supper is waiting for us. Come out of the wilderness. Come and eat.
Amen.