March 10, 2022

As we begin this Lenten season with the story of Jesus in the wilderness after his baptism (Luke 4:1-13), it isn’t lost on me that we’re also hitting the two-year mark since COVID-19 was officially announced a pandemic and the world turned. In some ways, it feels like these last two years have been one long Lenten season, one long set of months in the wilderness.

Jesus is in the wilderness, without any other people, hungry and thirsty, and every temptation to turn from God and live for himself comes his way. The devil questions Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved son – an identity made clear in his baptism just before this wilderness time. How does Jesus resist? How is he able to respond with faith and trust? What is his source of resilience in this long stent of fasting and isolation?

Siblings in Christ, it has been a long forty days in the wilderness. There has been a lot that we have been without, and the feelings of loneliness have been as strong as ever. The questions about our idenity as beloved children of God creep into our minds or confront us directly. The temptation to turn away from God and toward that which will profit us while our neighbor continues to suffer come at us from many angles. How do we cultivate resilience in this time? How do we continue to respond in faith and trust and turn to God who alone is Savior and Lord?

We remember the truth about the wilderness, about ourselves, about God. 
It is in the wilderness:

• That the Spirit moves us into and through the wilderness.
• That God makes God’s home among God’s people in the wilderness and dwells with us there.
• That God provides for us daily bread, manna, to satisfy our hunger with food and with God’s loving presence and powerful word.
• That God transforms us into who we need to become to cross the next waters into the land flowing with milk and honey.
• That no matter who questions our identity, God speaks to us and the world again and again naming us beloved children of God.

And God gives us a language in scripture, tradition, liturgy, and Christ the Living Word to name what’s going on and what God wants us to be and do in response. This Lent as we dwell in God’s Word in scripture together each Sunday and beyond, may it dwell in us to be our reminder, to cultivate in us a resilience filled with the strength and courage to renounce and resist the evil forces of the world that defy and rebel against God, and to live for God alone.

Rest in the grace and peace and love and life of God with you in the wilderness, never leaving or forsaking you, bringing you into the new creation.

Blessings,
Pastor Drew