Sermon 48
LIKE A CROCUS
The Gift of the Desert - Matt11; Is 35
Some years ago a young woman from what was then the Soviet Union travelled to the USA to study theology. Upon entering a supermarket for the first time, she promptly fainted. Her senses simply shut down, overwhelmed by the unending aisles and the avalanche of products.
…Apparently our capacity to take in what is most important and to perceive what we are most seeking has become clogged by unrestrained abundance, ‘confused by adjacent irrelevancies’ (Joseph Wood Crutch).
- The desert is the place of miracles.
- The desert is the place of dreams
3. The desert is the place of wonder and of prayerfulness
Matt.11: ‘What did you go out into the desert to see?’ (Matt 11:7). People had flocked to John the Baptist in the wilderness. But Jesus knew that along with the curiosity or yearning that brought them to John, they also carried with them the assumptions and distractions of the world….‘What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in palaces’ (Matt.11:8). The world that had shaped their sensibilities had followed them into the wilderness, that lonely region beyond the edge of their world. And so they could not see that John represented the long-awaited return of Elijah (Matt.11:4). How hard it was for the people to see what Jesus saw….that there was a prophet in the wilderness, and one greater than a prophet!
Yes, the desert is the birthplace of prophets, of women and men marked by true wisdom and a remarkable knowing.
Small wonder that the biblical references to the desert are many and varied…
.. The people of Israel in Sinai, ..Judah in Arabah,.. Jesus in the wilderness….
…the desert, the place of spiritual paradoxes: disobedience and intimacy; prayer and temptation; angels and demons (see Weavings, XVI:3 p.2).
Isaiah 35: The wasted world will become an earthly paradise. The land will rejoice and blossom like a rose or, more probably, crocus (meaning uncertain).
…Hope for the inhabitants of Judah.
Let us allow this image to sit with us for a few minutes. A crocus in the desert … emerging into full blossom. What does this image say to us?
In our land, we are well acquainted with the image of ‘desert’.
On the one hand, in recent times we have invaded and corrupted the human experience of desert (Sheraton hotels, helicopter flights and airconditioned buses speeding through mallee and spinifex).
On the other hand, the desert is the place of testing and enigma and harsh loneliness and death…the place, not of excitement, but of grief.
We, who do not live in a literal desert, but who love our cities and towns and the vibrancy of community, may still experience desert…a moral equivalent of the desert. It is not hard to imagine how we may experience, even in the midst of crowded, ordinary lives, an isolation and lack of resources reminiscent of the desert:
Emotional deserts (disappointment regarding relationships; or the deep pain of sitting with a dying man, a broken child, a hardened, bitter woman, and feeling utterly useless; or the dismay of experiencing ego-driven success…. ‘beware when all people speak well of you…’)
Bodily deserts (illness and accident, germs and the process of ageing)
Vocational deserts (the pressure to have a career path; or in our midlife we suddenly realise that we still do not know what we want to be when we grow up)
Deserts of time (too little available, too much wasted; a lack of control over our time)
Spiritual deserts (a place of pain and controversy in the Christian community; division instead of unity, frustration and anger in the face of elusive outcomes and perplexingly ambiguous consequences of our words, or of our silences .. yes, the church may be our desert)
Real deserts are inner experiences, not restricted to our outer world
- The desert is the place of miracles.
‘The crocus will burst into bloom, the desert will shout for joy…feeble hands are strengthened, fearful hearts become strong, eyes truly see and ears truly hear and the lame leap like the deer, and the mute tongue shouts aloud!’
'But when John the Baptist asked Jesus if he was the one - if the moment in
history had come - Jesus responded in terms of process, not events; transformations in many lives, not accomplishments of the one life.
Instead of feeding the "great man" theory of history that has dominated humankind's self-awareness, he spoke of a garden in bloom. '"The blind receive their sight," he said, "the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed," and more. "And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
'The point is that life is continually being transformed by a loving God who
always has more to offer than humankind is prepared to receive.’ Tom Ehrich.
.
- The desert is the place of dreams
Sometimes, the hardest places in life become the most creative: the Spirit helps our spirit to breath deeply of the Divine, and we must tremble at such beauty and such love.
Hence, the desert is the place for which we do not pine, but which, when we enter it, we welcome, seeking grace and wisdom. ‘I walk on thorns, but firmly, as among flowers…’ (from a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh).
3. The desert is the place of wonder and of prayerfulness
The desert is the crucible of the sense of wonder and anticipation. We are not to flee the desert, but rather to discover again and again our Divine Friend in the desert…the One who breathes courage into our hearts, and feeds us with manna and quail, and who calls us to renewed dependence on the divine presence.
In the desert, formal structures and supports crumble; there remains only a veiled God and a promise
….Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can, I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and purity and purify my thoughts. What else can I do? The old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to Joseph, “If you will, you can become all flame”.
ooooooOOOOOOooooo