University Christian Church

Sitting in our kitchen earlier this week, our family was enjoying our breakfast when somehow my sermon began to write itself. We were talking about the week ahead, including Ash Wednesday and the 40 day season we call Lent. I mentioned how we practice this 40 days of prayer and fasting to get ready for Easter Sunday just like Jesus spent 40 days in the desert getting ready for his ministry.

One of my kids asked, “Why do so many people in the Bible like go to the desert?”

I laughed, and then I said something like, “No one really wants to go to the desert. God does not always lead us where we want to go but where we need to be.”

And then I sort of realized that I said something a lot more profound than I intended at 8 AM in the morning.

God does not always lead us where we want to go but where we need to be.

Did Jesus want to begin his ministry in the desert?

I imagine Jesus didn’t want to start his ministry after his baptism by going 40 days into the desert.

I imagine Cancun would have been a better place. I imagine a place where there was lots of water and bread. I imagine couches and waiters. I imagine Netflix and Amazon Prime accounts and a big screen TV. A lavish retreat center. Where everything came easily, and there was plenty to go round.

Throughout the Bible, God uses deserts precisely because they are wild places - full of danger and challenge but also full of possibility. The wilderness is a slice of Creation that is untamed, yet to take shape, what we might poetically call a liminal space, in between. There are animals and uncertainty in the wilderness. There is beauty, and there is ugliness.

Jesus begins his ministry there because God always begins in the “in between”.

In this “in between” place, Jesus becomes ready to live who he is.

Whenever we are “in between” places, whether we are a church or at a turning point in our life, we face tests. Jesus does so too. Those tests that Jesus faced from the tempting spirit we call the devil challenge who he is. “If you are the son of God…” The tempter says to him time and time again, as if Jesus might feel uncertain about who he is or his call or the cross that he will face. Did he have what it takes? Was he really God’s son? Was he really capable of overcoming the evil he would face? Was he ready to go down this road and to the cross?

There in the desert, there were only two voices - the temptation which came from the outside and the voice of God within. Which voice would he choose to listen to?

The devil’s questions and temptations test which voice he will respond to:

- When Jesus is asked about turning stone into bread, Jesus is given a chance to use his divine gifts to take a shortcut from suffering and need.
- When Jesus is asked to throw himself from the temple top and have the angels catch him, Jesus is given a chance to discard his humility and become a modern day reality show celebrity.
- When Jesus is asked to bow down to evil incarnate and in return receive the world, he is given a chance to get power over human institutions and governments.

In each case, Jesus is not simply being asked to twist rules or disobey God. Jesus is confirming if he is really God’s son or just another child of the world.

I think this moment in the desert shapes the rest of Jesus’ journey. Our scripture says that the devil left him and waited for an opportune time to continue the testing. Jesus is able in this wild place to face down some of his fears, some of the great temptations the world, some of the opportunities to take shortcuts in his work, and he says no. No to evil. No to Satan. No to any other way but God’s way.

The Gospel of Luke is resoundingly telling us who Jesus is - that Jesus, unlike us, is strong enough and wise enough to face down evil and follow God’s path. He can stay tuned to that God’s voice within him. He can stay grounded in who he is and who he is called to be.

If Jesus is able to do this, then it means Jesus is worthy to be trusted and worthy to be followed.

And if Jesus leads us into the wilderness of our own, where we face testing and are confronted by voices that try to get us off track, we can trust that Jesus will not leave us. Jesus will meet us there. And God maybe has placed us right where we need to be, so we can live fully into our identity as a beloved child of God.

Parker Palmer, a wonderful author in his book Let Your Life Speak, reminds us that too often we listen to outside voices, “voices out there calling us to be something we are not.” Those voices tell us that we are not beautiful enough or good enough or smart enough or perfect enough to be loved or to have worth. And if we believe those voices, we will give in and live and act in a way that devalues and hurts our bodies, our relationships, and our communities.

But God’s voice comes from within us. Palmer writes, “The voice ‘in here’ calls each of us to be the person we were born to be, to fulfill the original identity given to use by God at our birth.”

This Lent, the invitation to each of us is to listen to that still small voice within - God’s voice. Who are you? Who is God calling you to be and how is God calling you to live? With all of the voices in our lives - the expectations of family and co-workers and bosses, the pressures of our society, the urge to ignore injustices and evil, to live in a way that misuses power to our own benefits - it is hard to shut them out. Lent is a season in the wilderness where we shut off some of those voices - and listen again in the quiet wilderness for God’s voice.

I know one thing that we do as church is to help one another hear that still small voice within, reminding us that we are named and we are loved. And challenging one another to act and live in that way, to be the best that we might possibly be in. Lent Study Groups is one such way.

Friends, I recognize how dangerous deserts can be. While I was down in Tuscon, AZ for the Borderlinks experience as part of my class, volunteers and guides showed us how dangerous the desert is. Snakes. Lack of water. Brutal heat and sheer cold. Disorientation. Wild animals. Jagged rocks. And yet, as we came upon a water drop, we saw that there was life there too. There was love. On some of those jugs, beautiful phrases were written, reminding those making their way through those deserts, that God knew them by name. God heard their prayers. God was with them.

Even as a church, knowing that it has felt like we have been in the wilderness through transition and challenge, we must be confident that God is ready to meet us there. God is speaking to us and calling us by name, to stay grounded in who we are and who we are called to be. Maybe this wilderness is right where we need to be, right where God is ready to do something amazing through us and with us at this intersection.

Think of all the people in our neighborhoods right now who are wandering in the wilderness, hearing voices that are misshaping them and destroying them. Think of all the people who feel denigrated and devalued. Think of all the voices in this world that tempt people into living counter to life-giving, loving ways. What if Lent became our season to invite people into the wilderness and meet a God who can help us be and live in the ways of generosity and love?

Maybe God is leading us not where we want to be but where we need to be.