More Than Enough in Wilderness Times

Mark 1:9-15

On my day off this week I installed a new toilet paper holder.

Now you should know I'm not the handiest person around. While I can accomplish some simple household tasks, it always takes an extra measure of effort and concentration. I was prompted to do this only because my old toilet paper holder had fallen off the wall one time too many and I had had it.

So it was that I went out and bought a new toilet paper holder, brought it home, and took it out of its package.  I studied the instructions carefully, or so I thought.  I figured out how to take the set screw out with the tiny Allen wrench which was provided --- even though the instructions didn't exactly tell me how to do that.  And I gathered up my electric drill, my measuring tape, and a pencil.

Now I did notice there was a template provided in the instructions, but I thought that was a bit superfluous as all I needed to do was hold the mounting bracket against the wall and mark where the holes needed to be.  I did so.  Once I measured the required distance between the two brackets and I marked again, I started drilling.

Well, in spite of my careful measuring, it turns out that I put those brackets too close together. So I measured again and moved the left one over.  This time?  They were almost too far apart, but I figured they were close enough to actually hold the toilet paper --- as you can see in the above picture. This was good enough for me, for this much I do know: too many holes in the dry wall and it won't hold anything. So no, it's not perfect, but it's not too bad for someone with my particular skill set.  Or lack thereof.

Here is what I discovered later though. As I went to recycle the instructions, I realized that the included template not only showed how far apart the screws should be on each bracket, but how far apart those brackets should be placed on the wall.

And so it is that I have learned once more that templates are not so superfluous after all. No, in fact, when used they can give us something to measure against so that our home improvement projects hold up. Templates --- or guides or examples --- in the rest of life aren't so bad either.

Now I know that the story before us now is so much more than a template. For one thing, the cosmic battle which Jesus successfully engages in while in the wilderness demonstrates how very different he is from any one of us. Even more than that, we are reminded that in these verses the stage is set for Jesus finally vanquishing evil itself on the cross so that you and I won't have to.  Even so, I have spent enough time in the wilderness to know that it is also ours to come up against evil in powerful and terrifying ways and I find it profoundly helpful to know that Jesus has already been there. Indeed, I have found it to be pure gift to be able to lay my experience alongside his and to look for wisdom on how to deal with even those smaller battles which are mine to engage.

The only challenge is that in Mark's Gospel we are given so little to go on.  I mean seriously, it might almost be possible to miss the piece about Jesus and his forty days in the wilderness when we come upon it here.  For as you can see, it is but two verses nestled between the dramatic account of the voice of God sounding his identity at his baptism and Jesus' first sermon which quickly follows. You might almost miss it.

Indeed, we are left without the detail of the story we hear in Matthew and Luke --- most especially that specific triad of temptations which we almost cannot help but superimpose on Mark's telling as we listen in now.  No, this time through this is all we get:

• The Spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness;
• Jesus was in that wilderness 40 days;
• Over those forty days (and might I add, nights) Jesus was tempted (or perhaps more accurately 'tested') by Satan;
• There were wild beasts and angels present in the wilderness.  Actually, the wild beasts are simply named. The angels are said to be waiting on Jesus.

So no, there really is not much to go on here. All we know is that the wilderness Jesus encountered held great danger and that he was powerfully protected at the same time.

And while at first it may not seem like much, maybe it is still enough.

Indeed, perhaps it is enough to know that for all the terror the wilderness can hold, God's promised protection is there for us, too, even as it was for Jesus. And as we remember this?  Perhaps our deep remembering is also enough to enable us to withstand the evil which threatens to overcome us when we find ourselves embattled, too. 

I have been especially taken in these last days by the story of Kayla Mueller, the young woman who recently died while in captivity by the terror group, ISIS. If you have not yet spent time with the letter she managed to send to her family through others who were released, I would strongly commend it to you.  You can find it in its entirety here:  

I've had my share of wilderness times, to be sure, but none like the one this young woman endured. In the midst of her imprisonment she managed to get out a powerful witness as to what sustained her then. I am especially struck by the following part of her letter to her family which was written nine months ago:

"I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in my experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator because literally there was no one else... by God and by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in free-fall.  I have been shown in darkness, light and have learned that even in prison, one can be free.  I am grateful."  

It seems to me that if there is a gift in wilderness times it is this: we are reminded that 'in the end, the only one you really have is God."  And what a wonder it is in such times to experience being 'tenderly cradled in free-fall" by that same God.

It would appear that we are given more in this small part of this young woman's letter than we have in today's Gospel's rendering of Jesus' wilderness time.  Even so, I can't help but believe that Kayla experienced some of what Jesus did --- that she came to the same conclusions that Jesus did.  For through the rest of Jesus' ministry: his living and finally, especially in his dying, he surrendered to the One he called Father.  This is where it breaks down though. For Jesus did not only witness the light in the darkness.  Jesus is the light in our darkness.

I don't know about you, but the next time I find myself embattled? The next time I find myself in the wilderness?  I will carry both of these examples --- both of these 'templates' with me and others, too, of those I have known who have come through such wilderness times to the other side.  Oh yes, if I can but remember that God is all there is AND if I can trust myself to be "tenderly cradled in free fall" by God's great love? I expect that will be more than enough.

• On first reading, it always strikes me that Mark's Gospel leaves out much of what is essential in the story of Jesus' Wilderness Testing.  What do you think?  Is there enough in these short verses?
• While there is so much more to this story than a 'template' for our own wilderness times, I have always found it helpful to hear it as example and guide, as challenge and comfort both.  How about you?
• Jesus is, of course, the best guide and companion we can hope to have.  I have offered the example of the faith and witness of Kayla Mueller in her wilderness.  What other examples would you offer?

Uncharted Territory

Mark 1:9-15

I have to say that the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness could not have come at a better time for me for I have found myself in ‘uncharted territory’ these days.

The call came at a little after 6 am last Thursday morning.  My 81 year old mother who has always been self-sufficient was calling to say she could hardly move.  I hung up the phone and drove the half an hour to her home where we managed, somehow, to get her out the door and into my car and to the hospital emergency room.

Four hours later they had admitted her for ‘intractable back pain.’  Further tests showed that she had experienced a huge flare up of her rheumatoid arthritis.  From the moment we hit the door of the emergency room and throughout her stay in the hospital, those who cared for her were paying attention to her pain, doing what they could to make her comfortable.  Indeed, modern medicine surely can be a marvelous thing for within 24 hours they were able to bring the inflammation down and things were looking better.

And yet, with all those gifts so apparent, still, I knew right away that I was in a place I had never been before….as she certainly was.  I knew it in an undeniable way that first afternoon as I made my way down the hospital corridor and met her doctor who told me then and there, ‘You know she’s not going to be able to go directly home.’  Yes, of course, that had occurred to me already but I hadn’t had the courage to fully articulate the thought quite yet.

The next morning as she slept soundly I sat in the recliner next to her bed and simply wept.  I am not unacquainted with grief, certainly, but this piece of the journey is one I have not traveled before.  I had not known this particular wilderness yet.  And I marveled at all the times I have stood with families who were negotiating this very same tough terrain.  I imagine I was kind in those times.  Still, I also know I had no idea of what they were going through… couldn’t begin to comprehend the fear and pain and sense of loss that so marks hours like those.  Indeed, I know some things now I could not have possibly known before.

And so it was that in the next couple of days we made arrangements for what is turning out to be a short stay in a rehab center.   She is making the adjustment well, is blessed with a room-mate who is simply delightful and is fortunate to be in a place where they are doing all they can to be attentive to her needs and where they are working with her to get her back on her feet again.  Even more, she is, we are, blessed by a larger community of people who are dropping in and making phone calls and remembering her in wonderful and meaningful ways.  We, like Jesus, have known ‘angels waiting on her’, on all of us.

I have to say I’ve always rather liked this shorter version of the temptation of Jesus we hear in Mark’s Gospel this week.  It’s hard, of course, to read it and not overlay the details offered in the other Gospels.  Still, perhaps because it offers fewer specifics, I find it easier to imagine how this particular account could be any one of ours.

For though it’s hard to think of it, I can see how the Spirit could ‘drive us’ to those tough places.  To be sure, most of us don’t choose to go to those places all on our own.  For that matter, it seems it’s only when we are tested that we are strengthened for all that life leads us into.  And while I believe that these times aren’t meant as punishment, they do still come to all of us and they can be, often are, experiences which deepen our faith, our resilience, our hope.  Why wouldn’t the Spirit drive us there if such times can bring such gifts to us?

As for Satan's temptations and wild beasts?  Indeed, they make themselves known in all kinds of places and ways … certainly ones I have experienced myself in these last days.  In grief and fear and despair to be sure… the kind that tears away at your hope and sense of well-being.  In temptations to not look to or rely on the gifts of God which are, in fact, always ours for the receiving. 

And as for angels, well, I’ve already mentioned some of those --- those marvelous people of God --- some we’ve known for a lifetime and others, strangers only a few days ago, who have made themselves known in tender acts of kindness.

Indeed, the story of Jesus in the wilderness could not have come at a better time for me for through this familiar story I am again reminded that every time I am driven into the wilderness, Jesus has already been there.  There is strength in that for me and I have seen what that can mean in this hour.  In much the same way, although the territory may be uncharted for us, a whole host of others have literally taken this path before us… social workers and nurses and even those in the business office who are helping us sort out those necessary details.  And, of course, so many others whose families have taken this journey before who in their wisdom and love are especially attentive to those of us for whom this is yet ‘uncharted territory.’

The story of Jesus in the wilderness could not have come at a better time for me.  How about you?

• How do you understand the Spirit driving Jesus or any one of us into the wilderness?
• When have you spent time in the wilderness?  How did you experience wild beasts and angels?  How did you emerge from that time?
• Why is it that we always begin the season of Lent with this story?  How do you see it tying into the whole Lenten Journey?