Is that the normal we want to “get back to”?Īnd whether it was a fast paced, packed life or unhealthy behaviors you hid from the world or broken relationships you wanted to repair… Many of us had wilderness places in our lives before covid kicked us into quarantine. There was an incredible documentary made before covid hit that epitomizes our kids’ culture called “race to nowhere.” It was about how kids were constantly engaged in activities before and after school, expectations and pressure to perform was increasing so rapidly that kids were experiencing higher and higher rates of depression and anxiety. And many of us are talking now about “getting back to normal,” getting back to the “before times.” But… I wonder do we really want to just “get back to normal”? Was there wilderness in your life before covid hit that you might actually not want to “get back to?” We know that no matter how much we try to deny, avoid or erase it, suffering is still a part of life. It is a season in our church calendar when we allow ourselves to gaze at and walk through and spend time sitting in the wilderness… which is especially important in our era and culture that actively tries to avoid, erase, ignore, and deny suffering. Lent is a season when we get to dig into these wilderness places. Reading Mark’s account, I get this baptismal image of a river, green grass along the banks, light flooding the scene, little chickadees chirping, butterflies passing by, a peaceful, uplifting moment then all of the sudden, we are kicked into this dark, lenten foreboding barren land with a dark red sky and black crows cawing overhead.Īnd as insane as it sounds being in this dark, barren, wilderness place is what is so important, so sacred, so life changing about Lent.
We are the beloved one moment and the next moment we are thrust into the wilderness place. Wilderness places tend to come out of the blue. We don’t get a calendar alert a month in advance: “season of wilderness” March 15, 2020. He gets right to it without taking a breath and in many ways this is how wilderness places come about. The other Gospel accounts of Jesus in the wilderness have much more detail and description. Mark tells us this morning of the heavens being torn apart at Jesus’ baptism “and a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved with you I am well pleased.” Next sentence… “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”
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