Enduring in the Wilderness of Chaos and Confusion
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, First Sunday in Lent, March 9th, 2025
“Enduring in the Wilderness of Chaos and Confusion”
“After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil…”. Luke 4: 1-13
Every year, on the First Sunday in Lent, we hear the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, from either the Gospel of Matthew, Mark or Luke. And in all three, Jesus is led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness immediately after his baptism. As he comes up out of the water, Jesus hears the Voice of God, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well-pleased.” In that moment of profound grace, Jesus knows who he is and what he has been called to do. He knows that he is one with God and that God’s love for him is everlasting and that God has a mission for him to share that love with the world. Jesus’ baptism is a moment of ecstasy, a transcendent experience, a spiritual high. But Jesus is not allowed the luxury of dwelling there. The Spirit immediately leads him into the wilderness to be tested. All three gospels make the explicit connection between Jesus’ baptism and his time in the wilderness. Jesus’ clarity about his purpose and mission at his baptism is immediately put to the test before he begins his ministry.
Jesus’ 40 days in the desert recalls Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wandering in the Old Testament, when God frees the Israelites from bondage in Egypt in a most dramatic way. Moses holds his hands up and God parts the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to escape and they rejoice as Miriam and the other women lead them in praise and dance for all that God has done for them. Moses leads the way, toward the land that God has promised them, a land flowing with milk and honey. But then the hardship and testing begins and it lasts for 40 years. (Forty in Bible speak means a really long time.) And the Israelites complain. They doubt that God will provide for them. They start worshipping false gods, thinking that if God is going to allow them to suffer, they will find another god who will offer comfort and an easier life. They rail against Moses, whom God has commissioned to lead them and to remind them that God is faithful. And despite the Israelites’ waywardness, their looking for answers in all the wrong places, their trying to take matters into their own hands, their failure to trust in the one true God, God still provides for them. Not in the way that they wanted, but in the way that they needed. Every day God rains down manna from heaven, just enough to feed them that day, no more, no less. In fact, if they take more than enough for one day, it spoils. They learn to trust that God will give them enough tomorrow, just as God has given them enough for today. And they go forward, day by day, step by step.
In the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, he too is tried and tempted, just as his ancestors had been tested, but unlike them, Jesus does not lose his faith. He does not look for an easy way out. Remembering his baptism, remembering his connection with God, he stays the course and does not give into temptation. He does not lose faith that God would provide for him. He trusts that the Spirit has not abandoned him in the wilderness. God has not left him to bear everything alone. The Spirit leads him there and is with him, guiding him, and giving him strength to endure.
We all need the gift of endurance right now. We are in a wilderness of chaos and confusion. This is a collective time of trial, as we wonder what each new day will bring, stress from the news, stress for those of you in the federal workforce, fear of losing your own jobs, concern for those whom you work with or are responsible for. People do not deal well with uncertainty and instability. So it is especially important to stay rooted in our faith. The “peace that passes all understanding” is the only thing that is going to get us through. Trusting that God’s Spirit is with us right now is key. The Spirit didn’t just drop Jesus off in the desert and abandon him. The Spirit gave him strength and sustenance and God’s Spirit will do the same for us. Like the Israelites, we will be given manna. We need to ask God for just enough grace for each day. Just enough for each day. This is not the time to be thinking too far ahead. Today’s trials are enough for today.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan he had passages of Scripture that came to mind that enabled him to withstand the particular temptation he was faced with. (Interestingly, all of his responses were from Deuteronomy, one of the books that describes the wilderness journey of his ancestors.) Jesus was absolutely starving after so long without eating, and Satan told him that since he was the Son of God, all he had to do was to command a stone to turn to bread and it would, but Jesus refused saying, “One does not live by bread alone.” When Satan tempted him with worldly power, he replied “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” When the devil tempted him to throw himself off the pinnacle of the temple to prove that he had the power to call down angels to protect him from harm, Jesus replied, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Temptation is all around us right now. Fear and insecurity about the future provide fertile soil for the seeds of temptation. And we need very practical ways of staying centered and focused and faithful. Just as Jesus had passages of Scripture that helped him withstand the wiles of the devil, memorizing key Bible verses is a primary way for us to resist despair, cynicism and hopelessness.
One of the oldest prayer forms in Christianity, which has even older roots in Judaism, is Lectio Divina, divine reading. It was given this name by Saint Benedict over 1500 years ago. He said we are to pray with Scripture as a cow chews its cud. As we meditate on a biblical passage, we chew on it, getting spiritual nutrients from it. The words of Scripture become part of us, as they work their way down from our heads to the center of our beings. It’s simple. You just pick a passage and read it slowly and meditatively three times, narrowing it down each time until you have a mantra, a few words or lines that you come back to throughout the day, when a new, unsettling thing is reported in the news or happens at work. Today’s psalm is great for that, repeating throughout the day, “Lord, you are my refuge and strength.” “Lord, you are my refuge and my strength.” “Lord, you are my refuge and my strength.”
Times of trial can either weaken our faith or strengthen it. My prayer for all of us today is that we will be strengthened, just as Jesus was strengthened. That during these 40 days of Lent we will find sustenance in coming to church and meditating on passages that can give us the grace we need to meet each day. Amen.