Have any of you gone into the wilderness? Have you experienced challenging nature treks…with minimal supplies…navigating rugged terrain? My guess is that few of us have ventured into these kinds of conditions. I know I haven’t. So, when we consider the season of Lent as being a time of Jesus’ wilderness wandering, and ponder our own wilderness time, many of us have difficulty relating.
Yet, we have experienced other ‘forms’ of wilderness, haven’t we? Wilderness times can be experiences of uncertainty, of waiting, of wondering if God’s promises will one day arrive. Times of uncertainty…when finances are uncertain, when health is uncertain, when the future is uncertain. YES…we have been in the wilderness of uncertainty. We have had times of waiting…for hope, for health, for the next chapter to finally begin. YES…we have been in the wilderness of waiting. We have had times of wondering…as we wonder about when the sun will shine again and when things will be as they should. YES…we have been in the wilderness of wondering. So, while we may not have wandered in the physical wilderness like Jesus, Lent is surely a season that touches some of the more challenging times we have, or currently are, living in!
And the message we receive in both texts is that God offers holds out a deep promise to all of God’s people. God’s promises are certain, even in the wilderness, God’s promise is certain. God’s promises are sure, especially, in the wilderness. God’s promises are for you!
We start with an examination of one of the original promises in scripture; a promise shared between the three faith traditions of Christian, Muslim and Jew. That is the promise given unto Abram and Saria, who we later know as Abraham and Sarah. In Genesis 15, Abram is struggling. God had promised him descendants as numerous as the stars, yet the couple remain childless. Abraham and Sarah were in a season of waiting, a place of wilderness, a time of deep uncertainty and (perhaps) even a lack of faith. Yet into this uncertain time, God speaks promise to Abram! The opening words of the text to Abram are “Do not be afraid”. Scholars tell us that “do not be afraid” is one of the most commonly uttered phrases in the Bible! Spoken as a promised assurance from God, from Jesus and from the angels, the comforting words to not be afraid are offered to God’s children facing uncertain times. The promise is spoken 365 times. For all of the days we deal with uncertainty, waiting and wondering, the holy promise of assurance through the wilderness is offered.
God speaks further assurance of the promise saying, “I am your shield, your very great reward.” What a powerful image to receive! Knowing in the struggles and wars experienced, that God’s grace and protection will be “shield” and “reward” for us. God continues reassuring Abram “I have NOT forgotten my promise.” Waiting is, indeed, one of the hardest parts of faith, isn’t it? We want things on our own timeline. And when we don’t receive that, we behave like a petulant child…angry. We distrust God; we lose faith in God. Yet this powerful text, that encapsulates one of the original promises, assures Abram in his fear that God is with he and Sarai through this wilderness time!
There was a powerful shift that occurrs following Abram’s vision. The shift occurred in his relationship with God: Abram believed; he believed in the promise! Following the vision, Abram believed God would fulfill it. This shift was the time when Abram became, what the text called, “righteous”. Righteousness is not a term in common use in the world today, so it is worth probing for a moment. Righteousness is that deep shift of our alignment with God; it is the moment that we believe; it is that essence of holding a deep faith, an obedience to God, and living according to God’s will. You might think of some of the people that exhibit this kind of deep faith in their living? And, in the polarity of disobedience on one end, and obedience on the other, we all might ponder ways that we could move a little further in that direction of faith. Abram believed…following that vision and God sealed the promise; the couple were renamed: Abraham and Sarah, and they left for the ‘Promised’ Land ~ the land that God had promised all along would be on the horizon!
I wonder how you might find your story in the story of Abraham and Sarah? The wilderness time of your uncertainty, your waiting, your hoping is truly that time where your faith can come alive! Don’t let your wilderness shake your faith! Allow God to speak to you; to guide you; to let you know that ‘all WILL be well’. Sometimes God’s timing is not what we want. Sometimes God’s timing will shake the strongest in faith. Yet God’s promise was, and is, and always will be fulfilled…in due time. When John the Baptist announces the arrival of Jesus at the beginning of Mark’s gospel, he pronounces “the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). He is referring to a Greek word for time called “Kairos”. Kairos time is “the opportune or appointed time”. It differs from chronos time which is the chronological or sequential time that we measure with our watches. Kairos time is about God’s perfect timing of divine intervention and the fulfillment of promise. Kairos time can be frustrating; it can be the period when we lose faith; it is the time that arrives after the wilderness when God’s promise is fulfilled; and God’s promise is that Kairos time WILL arrive!
Shifting to the gospel text, we move to a time when Jesus is actively engaging in his ministry, unstoppable when facing opposition from Herod. Determined to stay the course of God’s direction “today, tomorrow and the next”. And, in that focused determination is found a caring heart buoyed by God’s promise to be with us in our fears. The text says that Jesus weeps for Jerusalem saying: “How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Jesus continues the promise offered to God’s children in their times of wilderness and fear. He promises never to leave or forsake, even in the wilderness. He promises to gather us in comfort and care!
Take that powerful image in: a mother hen gathering her babies under her wings. That is an image that is truly touching and powerful if we ponder what is happening between mother hen and chick. Protection: under those large wings, the mother hen shields the chicks from harsh weather, from predators, from all forms of danger. Warmth: As the baby chicks cannot yet regulate their body temperature, they rely on their mother’s warmth for comfort. They are protected from the cold wind; the rain; all that threatens. Bonding and comfort: during the infancy of a chick, they learn the comfort and security that is only felt by the mother hen. Guidance: these babies learn the place where shelter and safety are to be found. For one day, they will need to provide that their little ones.
We are into the second Sunday in Lent, and you might have noticed a very distinct disharmony between these two Sundays. On the first Sunday, the texts ushered a call to what I called “surrender”. And we talked about “Surrender: Faith in Uncertain Times”. We heard, in the texts, a challenging beginning to Lent. This Sunday, we receive a timely reprieve as we shift from “surrender” to “promise”. Promise provides this wonderful counterbalance to the challenges we are facing as our faith assures us that ‘all will be well’. When I was studying the texts for Lent this year, I wanted to emphasize the disharmony of the upcoming different weeks. I wanted to do this because, frankly, that’s usually how life goes. We encounter some deep struggles in the wilderness. The call is to go deeper with God. And when we do this, we are always assured of the promise that God holds out for all God’s people. We don’t surrender and ‘give up’. We surrender and go deeper in faith. And we are reminded that God’s promise is eternal, irrevocable and for all God’s creation.
Amen.