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 1:12-13

The desert waits
(an invitation to Lent)
by Ruth Burgess

The desert waits,
ready for those who come,
who come obedient to the Spirit's leading;
or who are driven,
because they will not come any other way.

The desert always waits,
ready to let us know who we are --
the place of self-discovery.

And whilst we fear, and rightly,
the loneliness and emptiness and harshness,
we forget the angels
whom we cannot see for our blindness,
but who come when God decides
that we need their help;
when we are ready
for what they can give us.

Okay, I confess. I'm using this poem twice this week: once for y'all who are reading this, and once in my Ash Wednesday sermon. But it's a good poem, one that calls us into the spirit of Lent.

After Jesus' baptism, just before he begins his three years of ministry, he goes into the desert to wrestle with Satan (in Hebrew: the adversary). And every year, for the forty days before Easter, we in the church give ourselves a chance to do some wrestling of our own. We wrestle with God, with ourselves, with those stubborn and broken parts of our lives that seem to be insurmountable obstacles to faith and wholeness.

Lent is a season for sober reflection. We remember our mortality. (On Ash Wednesday, we're marked with ashes on our foreheads. "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.") We remember our limitations, our weaknesses, our inclination toward sinning against God and neighbor. All of this is part of getting ourselves ready for the deep joy that pours out of the tomb on Easter morning. Renewed life can be quite meaningful after all that sober reflection!

I share this program with you because it's a good reminder that we all come to Lent for different reasons; we may be driven into the wilderness, into the desert by any number of things. Maybe it's just the sense that we're longing to do something different in our spiritual life, and so we come to Lent willingly. Maybe it's a crisis that sent us reeling into Lent with less than a willing heart. But we all end up in the desert, one way or another.

So many times in Scripture, and in our own lives as well, the desert is the place where faith is born, renewed, strengthened. It's not an easy place to be, but because it's not easy, we're reminded of God's grace. When we have to turn to that grace, we remember, as Burgess say, the angels whom we'd been previously unable to see for our blindness. The desert, perhaps, is the place where our spiritual sight becomes a little clearer. We're able to look at ourselves with more humility, and we see God's grace more fully.

What are you doing this Lent? How will you find your way into the desert? However you spend your Lent, remember: God is there, walking through it with you.