40 days, wild animals: Lenten Journey

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 there forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
---Mark 1:11-13

Lent. Forty days (plus Sundays) of reflection leading to Easter. But why forty? The passage above, detailing the aftermath of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptizer, provides our model. I have always been fascinated with Jesus' fully human state --- feeling the things we feel, experiencing the gamut of our experiences. The old court hearing question --- "What did you know, and when did you know it?" --- seems to me to apply to Jesus' life. A human like me, would Jesus have doubted his readiness for his calling, questioned his life's meaning, wondered where he fit into the grand scheme of things, been confused or afraid? To me, these are essentially human questions.

So, after hearing that he was indeed claimed by God as Beloved Son, Jesus was 'driven' into the wilderness. Have you ever had those times in your life where you felt 'driven' to ask the hard questions about yourself and your place in the world? Have you come to places where to compromise something essential in yourself seems to be the only way to accomplish your goals? Have you been tempted to give up on something good to accept something adequate? Looked for shortcuts to good ends? Wondered, "Why me?"

Here, then, is your wild place, your forty days to ask the hard questions, to find out what you believe about yourself and your relationship with God and this world, to reflect on what it means to be 'beloved' of God.

And the 'wild beasts'? That is a fascinating mystery to me --- important to the story (else the succinct Mark would not have wasted space on it in his slim Gospel), mentioned in the same breath with the angels that attended him. My immediate reaction to the phrase --- 'wild beasts' --- evokes snarling, predatory danger. But then I think, could those beasts have been a benevolent part of this episode? What could Jesus have learned from the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air? We know the stories of Jesus that are preserved as parables are full of animal examples of how the reign of God looks. I have to think that every part of this wilderness period of Jesus' life deepened his understanding of who he was, and what was to be his journey.

May our journey be blessed, by knowing our belovedness, by searching, by angels attending, maybe even by the company of wild beasts.

Put down, pick up: Lenten journey

Wednesday marks the open of the Lenten season, and we are familiar with the idea of "giving up something for Lent." I would encourage you to consider with me the purpose of giving up something. At the risk of offending popular culture, "giving it up for Lent" is not to help break a bad habit, to jump start a diet, or to save money. And though there may be some aspect of self-denial involved in the practice, I don't believe Lent is meant to be a body- or spirit-punishing discipline. Stay with me here, if you will. I believe that the purpose of Lent is to open our hands. When we hold onto our lives, our things, our status, our comforts, our time tightly, to keep them close (and to keep them to ourselves), our hands are clenched around them; the only way to hold on is to grab and to grasp, and to hang on for dear life. Only, so often it turns out that the life we are holding on to is anything but dear; it is plain, and dreary, and common. In order to make room in our hands for some truly worthy thing, something of value, we must open our fists and risk letting something go. Just let it go. And look at your open hands. And wait, with expectation. Blessings in this wilderness season...