Father John McGinn, Rector

Saint John’s Episcopal Church

Sandwich, Massachusetts

 

February 25, 2007                          First Sunday of Lent

 

 

For many years, Marion and I and our two children went camping in a place called Plymouth, VT.  It was a wonderful place to go because we could get away from everything, no telephone, electricity, the water had to be carried to the campsite and the restrooms were a quarter of a mile away. We got to cook on an open fire and sleep in a lean-to, and had the Green Mountains in front of us.  It was absolutely beautiful. 

 

Now is not camping time, but over Lent I am going to preach about going into the wilderness as we prepare for Easter Sunday.  While we make our journey through the wilderness together I am going to tell you some stories, wilderness stories from the bible.  While I was preparing I found a list of camping tips that will help us get in the mood.

 

·       When using a public campground, a tuba placed on you picnic table will keep the campsites on either side vacant.

 

·       A hot rock placed in you sleeping bag will keep your feet warm.  A hot enchilada works just as well but the cheese sticks between your toes.

 

·       Lint from your navel makes a handy fire starter.  Warning: remove the lint from your navel before applying the match.

 

·       Take this simple test to see if you qualify for solo camping:    Shine a flashlight into your year.  If a light shines out the other side do no go into the woods alone.

 

·       The electric guitar from the teenager at the next campsite makes excellent kindling.

 

·       Bear bells make excellent safety sense for those in grizzly country; the tricky part is getting them on the bears.

 

These are kind of funny, but good suggestions if you are planning to go on a camping trip.  I want you to imagine that we are sitting around a campfire on our wilderness journey.  Today’s journey is with Jesus as he is tempted by Satan.  Next week I want to go to the wilderness with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, and finally with Jesus again as he makes his way.  Time in the wilderness seems to be a prerequisite for the Promised Land.  You don’t get to the Promised Land without first going through the wilderness.

 

Notice that immediately after Jesus’ baptism, he heard the voice of God say, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

 

We read these words in the Gospel of Luke that I just read.  Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.  He ate nothing at all during those days.  When they were over he was famished.  Time spent in the wilderness seems to be a prerequisite for deep experience of faith.

 

God led the Hebrew people out of Egypt where they had lived in slavery for four hundred years.  They headed for the Promised Land.  It was an eleven day journey, but it took them eleven years to get there.

 

What took so long?  I think the women in the congregation know the answer.  Moses was a man and he refused to ask for directions. 

 

Why did God keep them wandering in the wilderness?  Even when Joshua took over and led them into Canaan, it was many years before they had subdued it.  And even after they were in the Promised Land it was many years before they subdued it.  There came a time where they were carried off into slavery in Babylon, where they cried out, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange language?”  Our faith is a wilderness faith.  It was born in struggle, and hardship. 

 

Why was Jesus led out into the wilderness before he began his formal ministry?  Probably it was so he could fully experience what it is to be a human being.  Authentic faith is not handed to us on a silver platter.  Authentic faith is born in the wilderness of testing and temptation. 

 

Some parents are surprised, they visit me all the time; some parents are surprised that when they make their children’s lives as easy as possible, that their children do not behave as they had hoped.  Here is one of life’s most important secrets, I think.  There is something about struggle that toughens us and matures us.  Time spent in the wilderness seem to be a prerequisite to true faith.  If life comes too easy, if ther are no challenges to overcome, no mountains to be scaled, then we live on the surface of life without ever really understanding God’s love.  Jesus was driven into the wilderness and there he was tested, as you and I are tested in our daily lives.  The old saying goes: “No pain, no gain.” 

 

Notice that it is the spirit that drives Jesus into the wilderness.  He was not lured into the wilderness by the tempter; he was driven there by the spirit.  Evidently the wilderness is where he was supposed to be.

 

I am going to say a hard thing to you.  People of faith often struggle with the question ‘Why is there evil?’  And ‘Why does God permit us to suffer?’  Our stock answer is that God does not cause our suffering, but God can use to make us into Jesus’ image.  I subscribe to this viewpoint.  God sends his rain on the just and the unjust.  God does not pick out individual people and say to them “I am going to cause you unimaginable suffering in order to make you a better person.”  If you are in pain this day, I do not believe that God caused it.  God does not work that way.

 

God did however, create this world, and that says to me that suffering has a place in God’s overall plan.  Some hardship seems to be necessary for spiritual growth.  Of course people respond to their wilderness experiences in different ways.  Life in the wilderness is not easy.  It is filled with tests and temptations, and people respond in different ways.  Some give up their faith, some sell their souls for a life of material comfort, and each of us has a choice in how we respond to life.

 

I read a powerful story recently, told by an Anglican Priest in Australia, but took place in Russia after WWII. 

The Russians were marching German prisoners of war back to Germany, ordinary Russian people lined the streets by the thousands to see the spectacle, remember no country suffered more casualties during WWII than Soviet Russia.  Conservative estimates are that 40 million Russians died as a result of WWII. 

 

One could not imagine the feelings of these people as the German soldiers were marched before them.  A chorus of jeers and heckles permeated the scene.  First came the German officers, relatively well fed, in uniform, marching in step to keep a semblance of dignity.  The Russian people had no problem sustaining their hatred of them. 

 

But after a while the vast bulk of prisoners appeared.  German foot soldiers could hardly march at all, let alone in step.  They were emaciated with few clothes and were truly pitiful and gaunt creatures.  The jeers and abuse stopped.  Finally a few Russian women stepped through the spectators and held out to the soldiers crusts of bread.  The bread was gratefully and eagerly accepted, and soon many of the Russians were offering bread to the prisoners. 

 

It became so overwhelming that the Russian officers could not stop the crowd somehow; these Russian people were moved by unconditional love that had revealed that the German foot soldiers were other people’s children who had become lost and hungry and needed to go home.

 

 No one could have blamed the Russian people if they had spat in the faces of the German soldiers who had brought so much suffering to their land.  These Russian men and women made another choice.

 

How do you deal with you wilderness experience?  Some people have gone through the wilderness and have lost their faith.  Others have moved through the wilderness and found closeness to God and others they never knew before.  A faith they would not have discovered any other way. 

 

Nina Mason Bergman struggled with Multiple Sclerosis and wrote a book of meditations about her experiences.  In her book, she explains that for a long time she found MS as an obstacle that kept her from truly loving God.  She blamed everything on her disease.  Today that is not the case.   She claims she is grateful for the invasion of MS on her life.  She uses this analogy: Her home is nestled on an acre of land a short way from the highway.  A gravel road is the only approach to their house, and sometimes the city sends someone to smooth out all the bumps in the road.  Then weather and wear shape new holes and bumps.  The jarring places are not pleasant, but she is glad to have that road because it leads home.  So it has been with Ms, a rough path to be sure, but it has led her to an awareness of God that she might never have known.  “I discovered that in having less of me, I gained more of God”

 

It seems remarkable, especially to you and me that a person could give thanks to MS or cancer but it happens often enough that we are forced to accept it as real.  Some people discover a faith, a peace, a joy, a healing in the wilderness that they could not have found anywhere else.

 

The spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness where he was tested, he passed the test and so can you.  It will not be easy, but it can be done.  Time spent in the wilderness is a prerequisite to a deep faith; God has a place in the wilderness.  Not that we shall stay there, but that we shall move through the wilderness to experience new faith, new hop, new love, and new healing.  Are you in the wilderness this morning?  By the grace of God I believe you can make it through.  AMEN