Tuesday, October 6, 2020

The Wealth of the Wilderness

 ONLINE REFLECTION, ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

 

The Gospel lesson for today is from the beginning of the fourth chapter of Luke’s gospel.  It is the story of Jesus being driven into the wilderness for 40 days and nights after his baptism.  A similar account is given in Matthew’s gospel.

 

The wilderness near to the Jordan River – the place of Jesus’ baptism – is just as you would think.  I have been there many times.  It is a wide, expansive area where the landscape becomes more and more arid as the Jordan Valley descends from the Sea of Galilee.  I describe it as spectacular desolation.

 

It is a dry, remote, mountainous, dusty, rocky land.  Life there is very sparse – typically rock badgers, hawks, and the national animal for Israel, the Ibex, a deer-like creature.

 

Jesus established a precedent for going into the wilderness.  For centuries, desert monks and hermits have secluded themselves for weeks or months at a time in the myriad caves which dot the canyon walls.  Each person who does that is trying to encounter what Jesus found there – both temptation and the ever-abiding strength and presence of God.

 

Jesus, of course, was tempted during his weeks in the wilderness.  Yet, we do not have to travel to Israel to find the wilderness, nor do we need to go there to find temptation.

 

Events of the last few months and even last few days qualify as wilderness.  The pandemic, the precipitous economy, and most recently, Hurricane Sally have placed us squarely in the middle of our own figurative wilderness.  The temptations may seem mundane – relief from the absence of power, a warm meal, a hot shower, our lawns and streets cleaned, a sense of safety like we once knew.

 

I know that I have told Nora that when the pandemic abates and I get my vaccination, I want to travel.  The freedom to roam has a certain allure now. But, that wish misses the point.

 

As much as this time and these circumstances seem to be abhorrent and cause our minds to wander toward a more placid period, these days offer us something else.  Like Jesus’ experience of the wilderness, we have a chance to face our individual demons and to go deep in our spiritual journey.

 

I encourage you to live in the now… to see the presence of God in the rocks and rills of life… and to find the spring of eternal water which can nourish you for all times.

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