- February 25, 2018:
As preached by Sr. Rebecca
Holy Wisdom Church
Holy Wisdom Church
It is fitting we begin Lent with the story of Jesus going into the desert; it is more fitting still that we recall the Spirit of God in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism, an event in which Jesus experiences his own deepest identity. Jesus hears himself named God’s beloved son and realizes his own unique relationship with the Father and the Spirit. Jesus then is led by this same Spirit into that desert –paradise lost- to confront the devil, the same who tempted our first parents. The word devil: diabolos in Greek- mean separation, division – the one who strives to separate us from God and God’s will.
The temptations aim at sabotaging Jesus’ newly experienced identity: ‘If you are the Son of God then fill your emptiness, your hunger, by turning these stones into bread; then the devil uses another “if” to urge Jesus to prove to himself that if he is God’s son then he must have spectacular gifts and now is the time to display them: “make yourself visible, famous”. The last and most pernicious of the three temptations: grasp all the power and control the whole world. But Jesus discerns this spirit and overcomes all the seductions of the tempter by the Word of God as in the Epistle to the Hebrews: (Heb. 4:12-13) “The word of God is alive and active; it cuts more incisively than a two-edged sword: it can seek out the place where soul is divided from spirit…it can pass judgment on secret emotions and thoughts.” With the word of God in Jesus responses, the devil leaves him and the angels minister to Jesus.
Lent invites us to stop ‘eating’, taking into ourselves, whatever protects us from having to face our inner desert. It invites us to feel our own vulnerability, to feel our fears and to open ourselves up to the chaos of the desert so that we can give the angels a chance to feed us, to encourage us to go inward and to face our own chaos. We are now a week into lent and some of us may well feel that we are still in process of entering the desert. As we enter more deeply into the desert we will find ourselves wrestling with our false-self
The desert is the place where stripped of all that normally nourishes, boosts and supports us. Our body, mind, and soul are exposed. We become vulnerable to being overwhelmed by chaos and temptations of every kind. But precisely, because we are so stripped of what we normally rely on, this is a privileged time for God’s visitation. Why? Because all the defense mechanisms, support systems and distractions that we normally surround ourselves with, keep much of God’s grace at bay. Why are we so resistant to desert time? The desert embraces us and makes us open. It is a time apart from noise, fragmentation, useless talk and worry. It provides a space of silence, meditation, prayerful reading of Scripture, where there are no unnecessary computers, phones or iPods to check on the latest news, the latest Facebook, latest Tweet. All this is more entertaining than going inward for surely we will be confronted at some point with our baggage and shadow stuff lurking just beneath our ordinary consciousness.
The desert is not only a place of temptation but especially a place of encounter with God: When the devil leaves Jesus, the angels come and minister to him. And God’s Spirit speaking through the prophet Hosea says: “I will lure her and lead her to the desert and speak to her heart”.
Desert time is vital to a mature and intimate relationship with God. If we are committed men and women of faith then God is going to bring us to the desert at some point to look deeply at ourselves and see ourselves as God sees us. And God’s gaze upon us is one of unconditional love.
The voice of God addressed to Jesus is also addressed to us: “You are my beloved”: “this is who you are”. And if we really hear this, we will be driven into a wilderness, wherein, if we open our minds and hearts and persevere through the painful awareness of our brokenness we will encounter a joy beyond anything we can imagine.
