Wilderness

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

March 5, 2017

1 Lent A

          My first clergy colleague when I came out of seminary was something of a wilderness man.  Think John the Baptist in a clergy collar.  David’s idea of a good time was to be dropped off by himself at the entrance of a vast wilderness area in Michigan’s upper peninsula with nothing but the clothes he was wearing and a small backpack.  He would eat what he could find and sleep where he could.  This was not a state park with cabins, indoor plumbing, or cooking facilities.  This was nothing but acres and acres of wilderness.  Weeks later, his wife would pick him back up at the entrance, unshowered, unshaved, unkempt, but happy.  How David even knew what day he would be picked up is beyond me.  How does one keep track of the days out in the wilderness?  This was before cell phones were readily available, and my guess is that he doesn’t own one even today.  And if he had one, how would he have kept it charged in the wilderness?  Somehow, David managed not only to survive his wilderness time, but to thrive there.  The challenge of conquering the wilderness energized David and I believe he experienced something of God there.

          We hear two wilderness stories from scripture this morning.  In the story from Genesis, we hear about Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the garden.  God has put Adam and Eve in the garden to till it and to keep it.  Then God gives Adam some simple instructions about what may, and may not be eaten.  And we know what happened after that.  In short Adam and Eve eat from the fruit of the one forbidden tree and realize they are naked.  The lectionary reading stops before we get to God’s response, but obviously God is not going to be happy with this turn of events.  God had said “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, for of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.  For in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.” 

          What is God’s response to Adam and Eve’s disobedience?  If we read further in chapter 3, we will hear God’s fury as he addresses first the serpent, then Eve, then Adam.  But, Adam and Eve do not die that day and God certainly does not kill them.  In fact, after God finishes rebuking them, God makes garments of skin for Adam and Eve and God clothes them.  And then God sends Adam and Eve forth from the garden to till the ground from which Adam was taken.  The picture of God that we get from the whole story, and not just the piece in today’s reading, is of a God who deeply loves the creatures God has made, to the point of making garments for them and clothing them, even after they have disobeyed the one simple command God gave them.  While God does send Adam and Eve out of the garden and into the wilderness, God gives them what they need to survive there in an act of love and compassion.

          This morning, we also hear about Jesus’ time in the wilderness.  When the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness, Jesus is still wet from his baptism and the words of the voice from heaven are still ringing in his ears “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  We are not told what happens during the forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, other than that Jesus did not eat.  But the last thing Jesus heard before entering the wilderness was God’s voice saying “This is my Son, the beloved.” The first voice Jesus hears in the wilderness is the voice of the tempter saying “If you are the Son of God.” So, my hunch is that Jesus spent some time in the wilderness wrestling with what it means to be the Son of God.  What we learn from Jesus’ response to the three temptations is that whatever it means to be the Son of God, it does not mean using special powers, like the ability to turning stones into bread, or calling on special protection such as safety if he throws himself off the top of the temple, or abusing special privilege such as having all the kingdoms of the world.  When the devil departs, presumably in frustration, angels come and wait on Jesus.

We all find ourselves in the wilderness from time to time.  Sometimes entering the wilderness is completely our choice, like my colleague David.  Sometimes we enter a wilderness of our own making, like Adam and Eve.  Sometimes we wake up to one morning to a wilderness not of our own making when suddenly our whole life has been turned upside down-by natural disaster, diagnosis, or tragedy.  And sometimes we are led by the Spirit into the wilderness as Jesus was, and as we are during Lent, to spend some time deliberately figuring out what it means to be a child of God.  Lent is not about entering the wilderness to be without God.  Lent is a time to enter the wilderness so we recognize our dependence on God and wonder more deeply about who we are as children of God.

In both of stories this morning, and in all the wilderness stories in Scripture, no matter the cause of the wilderness, God is present.  God did not abandon Adam and Eve, and God does not abandon us, even when the wilderness is of our own making.  God did not abandon Jesus, and God does not abandon us, when we enter the wilderness voluntarily.  And God did not abandon Jesus and does not abandon us in the darkest wilderness of our lives, when all hope seems pointless.  In the wilderness, however we got there and no matter how desolate, we learn more deeply who we are as children of God, and how to be sustained by nothing more and nothing less, than the sheer presence of God who never abandons us.

                                                                   Amen.