Along the Way
Mark 1:9-15
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
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Imagine for a moment your life laid out on a single continuum. At one end, you find your birth, your baptism, and at the other, the unknown, the unseeable; the only certainty is that one day, you return to the arms of God. And in the middle, we find today, people who are reminded about life's frailty, that from stardust and earth dust, we came, and to the earth and to the stars we shall return. Viewing our lives this way, are there things that stand out? Along the way to this moment, what would we identify as highs and lows, baptismal waters, and wilderness wandering? Along the way, as you weaved between the hills and valley, did you notice the divine at work?
One of the things I've noticed throughout my ministry is that we often talk about life's extremes, which is reflected in the reading from the Gospel of Mark. We celebrate the high points in moments like the Sacrament of Baptism and memorialize times of loss, but what about the moments in between, the moments we might not notice along the way as we travel along this journey of life? Because it is in these instances that we are formed and the foundation of faith is made sure. If we are not paying attention, we will miss out on the chance to see where the Spirit of God is moving in our midst, to see that along the way, God is present even in the trivial or mundane points in our lives.
After Jesus is baptized by John, we are told that the Spirit drives him into the wilderness, where he is tempted and wanders for forty days. I wonder if ordinary moments (the Season of Lent or time between high holy days) are our wilderness, where we are tried and tempted. It is easy for our attention to be drawn towards God in the extremes of life, but in the wilderness, in the simple things, is where we are tested. And it is in these seasons of life that we can quickly point out all this wrong or not going our way without paying any attention to where God is moving in our lives. Because the truth is that even in the wilderness, Jesus is not left alone, and we are not alone even if it feels like no one is traveling with us.
One of the things that stands out in the reading from the Gospel of Mark is that the angels of the Lord are waiting on or ministering to Jesus while he is in the wilderness. The grammatical/linguistic structure of the passage does not indicate if Jesus was aware of these angels tending to him, but it is reflective of other accounts where God provided for people when they were in a wilderness setting. And this here is the key for us this Lenten season: along the way, God, through conspicuous and inconspicuous ways, tends to us, cares for us, loves us. God may use people or glimpses in creation to minister to us. God plays much more of a role in our lives than we might realize; it is a spiritual practice to see where the divine intersects with our ordinary going on in the world.
And what if we reframed our Lenten journey this way? What if we reframed our understanding of the present time to see it as an opportunity to be a part of the work of angels, who minister and tend to fellow companions as we wander in the wilderness? What if we viewed our journey of life and faith as being a rich tapestry that was woven along the way and, once finished, shared with the next traveler? There is a richness to framing our lives this way so that when hard times do hit (like they do for the psalmist in our first reading), we do not run the risk of becoming bitter or angry or out to get us. God muddled through life the same way we did to show us that there is another way to live.
I talk about taking time to see where God is moving in your life along this continuum because it is a spiritual practice that puts many things into perspective. If we stopped to reflect on our lives, we might uncover the realization of how God was present. Even in the moments where love and compassion felt absent, they were there; in the comforting words of a friend, kind gestures, and support, God was present in more ways than one, ministering through the hearts of God's people. As we look around, what greater good could we do for ourselves and others than to look inside and see that along the way, God tended to us through angels, known and unknown? And we, too, can participate in the work of making someone else's life better by embodying divine love.
If by the end of our Lenten journey or by the end of our life's trials, we can see that there were people or places that ministered to us, tended to us, and made life more bearable, shouldn't we pass it on? Shouldn't we take the gifts we gained along the way and share them with others? Maybe then we will be the angels, the answer to someone's lament, which they carry with them to pass to someone else along the way. As we navigate the complexities of our own wilderness experiences, may we open our hearts to recognize the divine presence along the way, and may we, in turn, extend that same love to others, becoming vessels of God's care and compassion in the world.
I would like us to spend some time on any of these themes, whether it be the continuum of our life, our wilderness journey, the angels that ministered to us, or how we've ministered to others. Whatever your heart is drawn towards, I invite you to reflect as you listen to a song titled "Light My Steps.
Moment for Reflection