Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church
18313 Lappans Road Boonsboro, MD 21713
301-582-0417
stmarks@myactv.net
Sermons by the Rev.
Anne O. Weatherholt,
Rector
Date:
February 13, 2005
Liturgical Day: First Sunday in
Lent
Propers:
Matthew 4:1-11 Title:
The Wilderness I grew up in an
area of Kentucky that was near what was once called “The Wilderness Road.” This
mountainous path ran through the rough southern Appalachians and linked the east
coast to the mid-west. One of the reasons I feel so much at home in Maryland is
that I still live along one of those wilderness roads that were carved out over
two hundred and fifty years ago. The road that runs in front of St. Mark’s was
once part of the early route used by settlers as they came over South Mountain,
near what is now the South Mountain Inn, and filtered into the valley before
ascending and descending the layers of mountains between here and Fort
Cumberland. For years, settlers made their way west along these wilderness
roads, gradually finding and making their homes. Sometimes when I drive back
and forth, especially on those occasional trips to Baltimore or Washington, I
try to image what the first pioneers must have thought as they came over the top
of South Mountain and saw this beautiful valley, or the trepidation they may
have felt when they reached
Siding
Hill and saw the challenge of the Appalachians rising in the west. And I wonder,
what drove them into the wilderness to seek new lives? What kept them going?
What was their wilderness experience like? Every year the
Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent is the account of Jesus’ temptation in the
wilderness. As we are in Year A of our three-year lectionary, this year’s
account is from the Gospel of Matthew, but if you will bear with me for a
moment, I want to do a little Bible study with you. Matthew, Mark and Luke all
tell a similar story. Immediately after Jesus was baptized, we find him in the
wilderness being tempted by the devil. What we don’t often notice is the
manner in which Jesus got into the wilderness. Matthew says that he was
“led up” by the spirit. Mark uses an even stronger image where he writes that
the Spirit “drove” Jesus into the wilderness. Luke is similar to Matthew and
says the spirit “lead”
Jesus into the wilderness. What is fascinating to me is that when we study
these words and their Greek roots, we find that this was no walk in the park, no
hike on a Sunday afternoon, and no stroll up into the hills. The next time in
the Gospel when Matthew uses the same word is when Jesus is “led up” before
Caiaphas on his way to the cross. In Mark, the Greek word means that Jesus was
literally “thrown” or “cast out” into the wilderness We know the rest of
the story almost by heart.
Jesus was tempted
by Satan. Three times the devil tried to warp his sense of
mission. Three times he was tempted to become superman, to leave his total
incarnation within human flesh and flaunt the power of God. Three times he was
tempted to twist the gifts of creation towards his own ends. And each time,
Jesus resisted, using the tools of God’s holy word. The Spirit drove Jesus into
the wilderness As we look at these
wilderness accounts we also see that the temptations came at the END of the
forty days.
Forty days of walking a wilderness road. Was there something in
the wilderness that prepared Jesus to resist temptation? What does Jesus’
wilderness experience teach us today? Christian writer
Harry Williams gives us a place to begin our own wilderness journey during
Lent. He explains that the Holy Spirit in each one of us is the place where we
meet God at the most holy and complete level. Therefore “…it is from this place
where God and I mingle…that I am thrown out into the wilderness. The story of
Jesus reminds us that being thrown out in this way must be an inevitable
[result] of our call to God’s service. To feel isolated, to be incapable for a
time being of establishing communion, is part of our training. This is because
so far our communion has been shallow, mere pirouetting on the surface. We’ve
come to see its superficiality, its unrealness. Hence the feeling of loss.”
[Celebrating the Seasons,
p. 161]
When we view our
own wilderness experience as a part of our holy training, we begin to realize
that only when we know the wilderness within ourselves and meet Jesus there are
we willing to meet others in the wilderness of their lives in order to bring
Jesus to them. Think on this for a moment, for I believe it is very important.
Each of us has had and will have what we call “wilderness” or “desert”
experiences. Each of us has known that longing for closer communion with God.
Sometimes these wilderness times have come after a personal tragedy or loss. At
other times they descend upon us for no apparent reason. Most of us do not
willingly choose to walk the Wilderness Road. Let me ask
something else to those of us who have had those shattering experiences of
life. What happens when someone tries to comfort you or make you feel better or
even says, “I understand?” Quite often we may reply, “You cannot understand if
you have not been there, if you have not know There are so many
others walking their own wilderness roads, roads they did not make, roads they
did not choose. Many of them have never even had the experience of baptism, of
that moment of closeness with God. But you can bet all of them have felt the
same pain, had the same anxieties and troubles as you and I have. In that way,
Christians are really no different than anyone else! Where we differ is that we
believe that it is in the wilderness that we will meet God Throughout the
writing of this sermon, I have been remembering the beautiful old Appalachian
hymn, “Jesus walked this lonesome valley.” The words remind us that each of us
walks a lonesome valley by ourselves. No one can walk in the same path that we
do. No one has the same life, the same experiences. But the hymn affirms that
Jesus has walked the lonesome valley before us, and we are called to walk the
lonesome valley with others, offering the pain of our own lives in understanding
and compassion.
and from that word we get the English “eject.” Luke’s
description also has strength to it. He was “driven” into the wilderness. The
same word here is used in another place in the New Testament to describe a ship
being driven before a storm, unable to do anything but run before the wind. How
peculiar
as this Spirit that forcefully drives Jesus, ejects and throws him
out is the same Spirit that only moment before descended gently upon him in the
form of a dove! Jesus has a profound experience in the wilderness, one that was
so necessary to his ministry and to the accounts of his life that the Gospel
writers are almost unanimous in their parallel versions of this event. and the devil’s
temptations rested on the false perception that the Spirit had then left Jesus.
Each temptation asked Jesus to deny the Spirit, to deny the weakness that is the
human condition. He resisted in the only way that any of us can resist, using
the very human and humble way of choice to live God’s way, free will to turn
away,
and trust in God’s larger purpose. Jesus proved that the Spirit is most
powerfully present not when we are strong, but when we are most vulnerable. n
the kind of pain or loss that I now know.” Comfort that is offered from a place
of comfort seems hollow, devoid of truth. I remember a turning point in my
ministry that illustrates this point. I was working in the Cathedral in Jackson,
Mississippi as a Seminary intern for a year. After a youth group meeting, I was
taking one of the girls home,
and she began to tell me some of her troubles. Then she stopped suddenly and
said, “But of course, you could not possibly understand, you are always happy,
and everything is right for you!” I was astounded! Not only was I not happy,
but I had had several difficult weeks prior to this incident. I learned a vital
lesson of ministry that day: If I always covered up my feelings in order to
seem strong, if I could not walk my own wilderness road and deal with my pain
honestly, the support I might offer to others would never be real, and others
would never feel that I truly supported them. It was then that I made the
decision to learn to live in the wilderness, not to resist the Spirit’s leading
up out or up or even throwing me out to where I felt separated from
God, so that I might,
in a strange way, become closer to God, more able to reach out to others, more
able to minister in Christ’s name.,
and God in Jesus Christ walks with us! We are perfectly equipped to help others
live through their pain, not by offering strength, but by offering true
compassion, born of our own pain. We can recall those words from the prayer of
the Eucharist: “He stretched out his arms on the hard wood of the cross and
offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole
world.” (A)