From Our Associate Pastor: The Wilderness of Lent

Throughout scripture, certain motifs and plot points pop up over and over again. Think of all the Bible stories that tell of sibling rivalries, unlikely heroes, and miraculous births. These motifs show up like the chorus of your favorite song: familiar, repetitious, and expected.

One of the motifs that occurs throughout scripture is that of the wilderness. Words translated as “wilderness” occur nearly 300 times throughout the entire Bible. When Moses encounters God, he does so in the wilderness. The Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the promised land. The wilderness is not an idyllic, peaceful place. Rather, wilderness is the setting for intense experiences—hunger, isolation, danger and deliverance. The wilderness is uncharted territory—unfamiliar and unpleasant. Nevertheless, the wilderness is also a place where we encounter God.

On February 14, Christians all over the world will celebrate Ash Wednesday, the official start of Lent. In many ways, Lent is liturgical wilderness. It is an in-between time that links the repentance of Ash Wednesday with the joy and hope of Easter morning. In fact, Lent always begins with wilderness. On the first Sunday of Lent, we usually hear the story of the Spirit taking Jesus from the baptismal waters of the Jordan River into the wilderness for 40 days. After rejecting Satan’s repeated temptations in the desert, Jesus leaves the wilderness to begin his ministry of proclaiming the Good News.  

This motif of wilderness is resonant in our own spiritual journeys, our own lives. We don’t have to be desert monks or biblical prophets to understand what wilderness feels like, what it’s like to be in a lonely, isolating in-between space. We know how it feels to be tempted, to be lost and in need of a way out. We know what it’s like to be uncomfortable and uncertain.

And yet, the liminality and struggle of the wilderness is an essential part of our faith. We can’t get to the joy of Easter morning without the uncomfortable and soul-searching wilderness of Lent. The preacher Barbara Brown Taylor wrote that “anyone who wants to follow Jesus all the way to the cross needs the kind of clarity and grit that is found only in the wilderness.” Lent, therefore, is an invitation to intentionally journey in the wilderness and let the landscape change you.

The wilderness is inevitable. We all wander. We all feel lost at times. However, when we find ourselves in the wilderness, like Jesus we can trust that God is with us, that we are not alone. When we deliberately enter into the wilderness, step out of our ordinary routines and tend to our relationship with God, we find ourselves changed. My prayer this Lenten season is that you're brave enough to sit in the wilderness for a while and recognize God’s love and call on your life while you’re there.  

Yours in Christ,
-Rev. Haley Hansen