Into the Wilderness

The Gospel reading for today tells of Jesus being driven into the wilderness. The desert was not only an arid place and a home to wild beasts; it was the place where God first entered into a covenant relationship with Israel after liberating her from the oppression and injustice of Egypt. The covenant established a love relationship between God and God’s people after their forty-year journey that we call the exodus. Have you ever wondered why the journey was such a long one? In the harsh environment of the wilderness, habits formed during the generations of slavery in Egypt were discarded and new ways of trusting in God were formed. It took time. Real change takes time. 

As we begin our Lenten journey this year, we too find ourselves in a wilderness; a political wilderness. We are beset by demons in the form of tariffs, threats, and insults, lies, and in fact, the most serious threat to world order since the end of the second world war. Lent this year feels perhaps less individual and more communal. Who could have imagined a year ago that we would face threats to our peaceful country of Canada by our closest neighbor.  

We might ask ourselves: what does our current wilderness experience have in common with that of the Israelites? What habits and ways are we being asked to discard? What are the practices and understanding of our collective identity no longer served. What is God asking us to surrender? 

Many others are in the wilderness too; the people of Ukraine and their beleaguered leader; the citizens of the United States who did not vote for the current president; the people of Gaza: everywhere we turn there is destruction and with-it human misery. It would be easy to be discouraged, 

So today as we begin our Lenten journey, we might consider the question: what is our faith asking of us?  What can we do?  As individuals, very little, but with our voices and actions multiplied, we can effect change. We are at a place where every choice we make has to be considered and weighed:  where our groceries come from, whether we should continue to support American companies, and this is difficult because so many of these companies employ Canadian workers, and our resources and productivity up until now have been shared by two neighboring countries: we are intertwined with each other. Today the Liberal Party of Canada will have a new leader, and in all likelihood, a general election will soon follow.  Our vote in that election will count and requires careful thought. 

We didn’t choose to go into the wilderness in which we find ourselves but like Jesus, we have been driven there. Like the Israelites. We are now on a journey; a journey in which we are to consider all of our choices and actions. A journey that will change us. A journey that is symbolized by these forty days of Lent which we have begun. 

Are we willing to accept this wilderness experience? Will we make necessary sacrifices? Are we willing to be changed?  

And so it is for us: these forty days are an opportunity and an invitation to slow down, to be less busy, to allow space for God. And it can be hard if we are used to being busy, to filling up all our time, to allow for periods of silence, to make more time for prayer. 

Even more difficult is the Lenten call to face our own inadequacies, our limitations, our flaws and our failings: not to beat ourselves up: but to come to terms with our dependence on God, our need for God, and our complete inability to face the desert alone. 

Fortunately, we don’t have to: God wants to be in relationship with us and is waiting for us to respond, to trust, to let go. We are in safe hands as we walk through this very specific wilderness and we are never alone. There is a purpose to this wilderness experience, and as we embrace it and enter into it, we too will hear God saying to us just as God said to Jesus “This is my beloved in who I am well pleased”. 

 Amen