God’s Word, Jesus Christ God’s Son

“O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son.” (Book of Common Prayer, Page 218)

Our opening prayer reminds us that our God is merciful and gracious and has given us the Word of God, Jesus Christ his son, to lead us into all truth. Note, that God’s word is not the Bible, but the Bible, a wonderful Library that records the words of God’s people as they try to explain their experience of God, Points us to The Word of God, Jesus Christ God’s Son.

In the Gospel of Mark, the writer gives us a sense of God’s truth when he writes, Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?” (Mark 8:31-38)

In following Jesus and the Gospel, the Good News, we find life. And when we find life, we want to share it, no, we must share it. The powerful poetry of Psalm 22:22-30 draws us into a way to begin to share life.

22 Praise the Lord, you that fear him; stand in awe of him, offspring of Israel; all you of Jacob's line, give glory. 23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither does he hide his face from them; but when they cry to him he hears them. 24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him. 25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him... 26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow before him. 27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; * he rules over the nations... 29 My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall serve him; they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever. 30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn the saving deeds that he has done.

 

Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 and advocate for the Poor, echoes the words of Psalm 22 when she says, “We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.”

 

Often, I lose sight of poverty. I am comfortable and warm; I have many friends. But if I, venture far from my home, poverty stands right in front of me, sometimes blocking my path. Then I see it, whether I want to or not.

 

Within the past two weeks this has happened more than once: a young couple knocked on my door to see if they could do some work in my yard; a young man from India was walking down the street in the rain and asked how far it was to Guntersville where he was to meet someone. And just last Friday I went kayaking with friends on the Flint River near Huntsville, Alabama and we saw what we thought was an abandoned car under the bridge where we put into the river. We realized that the van was not abandoned but a woman and two children were inside. Four hours later we shuttled back to pick up our trucks and the family was still there, apparently living in their van and found this to be a safe place to spend the day, if not the night.

 

I was not able to give much help to any of these people, but it made me aware of our calling from Jesus to help bring about God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. The Psalmist proclaims that “God hears the call of the poor and that they shall eat and be satisfied.” My experience in the past two weeks reminds me that we who are comfortable my just be the Lord’s servants who make sure that the Poor eat and are satisfied.

 

“O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Give us strength and a steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son.”

 

The Wilderness Changes Everyone

The Wilderness Changes Us

 

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him…. (Mark 1:9-15)

My sense is that Jesus went into the wilderness to prepare for his ministry which God had sent him into the world to do. At his baptism, God had proclaimed him His Son and that he was well pleased with him. However, the human side of Jesus needed time to reflect on his life in this world, his purpose in this life, and how to approach the people God had sent him to.

The Wilderness is a place where one can be alone, away from distractions, away from noise. The wilderness gives us uninterrupted time to think about, to pray about what is important to us, about what God has called us to do.

I believe Jesus reflected on God’s words: what does it mean to me to be God’s Son? What does it mean that God is pleased with me?

And then prayed: How and where do I carry out this mission? Who will help me do this? What if people get upset with what I say or do? Who will continue this ministry after we are all dead, not matter how that happens?

I like Mark’s Gospel because he does not waste any words. He gives us the facts, just the facts, and moves on.

So, right after Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, Mark tells us, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” And immediately after that Jesus recruits the first four disciples.”

Yes, we will get more details, from Matthew and Luke, but Mark gives us what we need to know, including some answers to the questions I believe Jesus wrestled with in the wilderness. 

I truly believe Jesus’ wilderness time was not only important to him and his ministry but set an example for us to follow in our lives. Lent is our opportunity to spend wilderness time as Jesus did. Time reflecting on why God sent us here, what are our gifts and talents, what are we called to do to be Co-creators with God in helping fulfill the petition of the Lord’s Prayer for God’s” Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.”

As we observe Lent, we will have opportunities to be together. To worship and study and enjoy fellowship as we build up the body of Christ on Earth.

I also hope we will all have wilderness time, whether that wilderness is in the forest or on a river, on a walk in our neighborhood, or even a few minutes alone in our homes or garden or yard.

From 1990 until 1995, Psychiatrist and Writer, Gerald May found peace and the presence of God, and meaning in the wilderness. May would go into the forest, and spend days and nights, sometimes just gazing at a fire and “doing nothing.” The Wilderness experience did for May what I believe it did for Jesus. He found a connection with creation and with nature. The nature around him as well as the nature inside of him. He connected with his humanity and with humus, the soil. May rediscovered the presence of God, a presence he referred to as the Slowing.

Five years later, May was diagnosed with cancer and over the years of his treatment and ultimate death, the lessons and he gained from his wilderness time gave him the wisdom and courage to stay connected to creation and to the presence of God, the Slowing, he found.

Wilderness is a place and a time where we find peace, where we find wisdom and guidance. Wilderness is where change can take place.

Wilderness Changes Us: Wilderness changed Jesus and Gerald May and it will change you and me.

Lent leads to Wilderness, leads to Mystery, leads to Change, leads to Life. In wilderness we find our deeper, wilder, more natural selves, and we find God.