Life in the Desert

Luke 1:46–55 ESV

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Isaiah 35:1–10 ESV

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

James 5:7–10 ESV

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Matthew 11:2–11 ESV

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

What Did You Go Out to See?

Most of us are at least passingly familiar with the Christmas classic, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. We use phrases like “Don’t be a scrooge” when people don’t seem to be in the Christmas mood. But when you look back with Scrooge and the ghosts, you see that he is hiding a great deal of pain and loss. He’s not just mean for no reason. Christmas is a painful time of year for him. Scrooge is an extreme and fictional example, but many of us do just that.

When his nephew wishes him a “Merry Christmas” on Christmas Eve, he scolds him, “"Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough."”

When he is asked for donations to help feed the poor at Christmas, the following conversation takes place:

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. 

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again. 

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?" 

"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

Scrooge then refuses giving any donation, saying the following:

“I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned--they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there." And with that, he shoos the do-gooders out the door without so much as a penny in donation.

Later that night, he is visited by four ghosts. First, the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley visits him to warn him that his lack of joy has sent him into a dry and terrible place: not the actual desert like we hear about in Isaiah, but a spiritual and emotional desert. He is a sad, bitter, lonely old man because he has shut everyone out by being a miserable, nasty person to be around and by ignoring the plight of those around him. 

Marley says that, in order to help show him joy in the world around him, three more ghosts will visit him. That night (Christmas Eve, remember), Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. Through the things that are revealed by them about his past, the circumstances of others living around him in the present, and the ramifications his actions will have on his future, Scrooge makes a great discovery: happiness and joy are very different. There is something deeper about a celebration based in joy than happiness. And there is something important about finding joy even in the unhappiest of circumstances. By the end of the tale, Scrooge has found so much joy in the desert of his life that he is wishing a loud “Merry Christmas” to everyone around him.

Very few people outside Dickens’ fictional world have the nerve to actually and out loud poo-poo those who find great happiness this time of year, but there are many who struggle to find the joy of the season as Scrooge did. When we’re surrounded by happy songs and jingle bells all over the place, it can be hard to celebrate if we’re in a difficult place of our own. If we’re in a hard place or a sad place or a confusing place or in a lonely place, perhaps even in a curmudgeonly place like dear old Ebenezer, it makes it hard to see any reason to celebrate life at all. These times and places in our lives feel dry and barren like a desert.

Isaiah offers words about what happens when God gets ahold of the desert. We read many passages during Advent that came out of Israel’s exile. This was literally and figuratively a desert for them. 

The desert isn’t all bad though. It has a special beauty that is unlike anything else. Some of my favorite places in the country, and indeed in the world, are desert. The desert is haunting, but it has a special beauty nothing else can touch.

At first glance, it can look like there is no life there at all. And you don’t want to get stranded there because the desert can be deadly when you’re alone. 

It’s no wonder there are times in life that are easily compared to the desert. There are these times that just feel barren. There are times in life that feel like we’re going to wither up and die because we’ve been left alone.

But here in Isaiah, we see that the desert does have life in it. Even in the wilderness, there are flowers that bloom outrageously and flamboyantly. There are creatures that scuttle about under the ground and in tiny hiding places. Cacti are full of moisture and life. Isaiah the prophet tells the people that God is the life-bringer, even in the most apparently dead places. 

Our God is, as we know from our privileged point of view some thousands of years later, a Resurrected and Resurrecting God. God’s Modus Operandi is to bring life from death.

So, the Hebrew people continue to wait for this new life out of the barren lands: a resurrection of their people and their faith.

And then, they are sent this Messiah who is nothing like anything they’d assumed the Messiah would be.  Even John the Baptist, king of the weird outliers is wondering if Jesus is actually for real.

John was sitting, rotting in jail because he lived in a land ruled by a corrupt king who locked away people who said things he didn’t like. If Jesus came to take away the sin of the world, why was John still suffering because of King Herod’s sin? Jesus didn’t fit into the theology John had in mind for the Messiah. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you sure you’re it?” The voice crying out in the wilderness wavered. Even John the Baptist questioned God.

And Jesus said to John, “You have to figure that one out for yourself. Here’s what I’m doing. Take a long hard look at it and decide for yourself.” 

I imagine that were I in John’s position, I’d have said something along the lines of, “What good is THAT, Jesus?! That’s not an answer!”

I think that most of us have had the same question as John did in the deserts and prisons of life. “Jesus. . . are you really it?” It’s a question generally associated with not enough faith or being a bad Christian. Rarely does any churchgoer want to ask it out loud. But here we have the voice calling out in the desert to prepare the way asking it. “Jesus. . . are you really it or was I wrong about you?” And no wonder. Here Jesus is healing all sorts of people all over the place and John the Baptist is still stuck in prison! For all John knew, he was never getting out. Which, for the record he never did. It’s easy to believe in God, to have happiness in our heart when we’re lying down in green pastures, but when we’re parched and starving in the desert, things are a little different.

Jesus basically told John to just “wait and see.” And again in James, we hear a message of patience and longsuffering. After spending a great deal of time in his letter condemning rich people acting heartless toward the poor (Scrooge would have done well to read the book of James), the author of James then reminds those on the other side of the spectrum that while we are called to a life seeking justice, sometimes it’s going to take a while and we have to be patient with God’s plans and stay strong in our faith regardless of what’s hitting the fan around us. If we are impatient and grumbly with God about unchanging situations, we’re just another face of Scrooge.

We are not called to idly sit by and bear injustice, abuse, or oppression, but we are called to “take the long view” and see past, present, and future, as Scrooge was forced to do. That is patience.

Like the poor begging for change outside Scrooge’s house, those who are patient and strong in heart and whose faith endures through desert times, will be blessed: they will be joyful.

Sometimes it is easier to rush to the veneer of happiness we see with Christmas than to wade patiently through Advent to find true joy. 

So what then, does it take to be strong in heart?

When I first started running in 2009, I was in terrible shape. I had to work up to running a 5k, then a 10k, then a half marathon, etc. It wasn’t just my joints and muscles that had to get healthy enough to run that far, my heart - in fact my whole cardiovascular system - had to get in shape too.

If it takes that much work and discipline to make our physical hearts strong, how on earth can we imagine that we can have strong spiritual hearts without working out consistently? I can’t just run once a week for an hour or show up at the gym for half an hour when I feel like it and expect to have a heart that can handle a marathon. In fact there are two main types of non-injury medical emergencies in distance running: people with previously undiagnosed heart conditions that would have caused issues anyway, and those who haven’t trained right and whose hearts therefore can’t handle the pressure of the race. Endurance is not just legs, my friends.

When we talk about spiritual health, it’s important to remember that showing up once a week isn’t enough to keep us going in a meaningful way. We have to maintain faithful relationships with God through constant worship and study and exploration and we have to care about and develop healthy relationships with the peopel around us too. Scrooge’s grumpiness with others built up huge barriers between him and the people around him and it also made him a weak and unhealthy man. He had alot of nice stuff, but he was still in terrible shape.

When the people begin to question John and Jesus, Jesus asks them, “What did you expect to find here? Riches? A king in a nice suit? That’s not what this is all about! It’s not about the short term happiness of the world’s riches!” It’s about looking forward to the next age. It’s about keeping God’s long term plans in view.

A question that plagues many faithful people is why we are stuck in this in between time. If Jesus came to save and redeem, why are sin and death still sticking around? Like John must have wondered how he was still imprisoned because of Herod’s sin, we wonder why we are still held captive to sin in this day and age. Why are we still wandering around in the desert? 

A colleague of mine answered this so eloquently in his statement of faith a few years ago. “In Christ, we see that the final goal of creation is the new heaven and new earth. The powers of sin and death will no longer be able to refuse their defeat in the resurrection.” It’s not that they haven’t been defeated. Sin and death have been defeated. They are just still refusing to admit it. In Advent, we say, “Here comes the one who defeated you!” In Advent, we look forward to that day when those powers can no longer turn their backs and pretend they haven’t been conquered. 

If we forget the past, we run the risk of forgetting the joy that comes from being around other people who love us. We risk forgetting where God has brought us from. Scrooge realized when the Spirit of the Past visited him, he’d forgotten the love of others in his life and had lost touch with his roots. If we focus only on the present, we run the risk of finding ourselves alone and of missing out on opportunities to be with those who may not be around tomorrow. Not only that, we miss opportunities to help others in need. When Scrooge realized the joy that his clerk Bob Cratchit had found in his family, in spite of the illness of his little son, Tiny Tim, he realized he’d been missing out on an opportunity to help them and potentially save Tiny Tim’s life. 

Scrooge was getting in the way of his own joy and in the process of that, he was getting in the way of other people’s happiness. Ebenezer Scrooge needed Advent, not Christmas. Only after the ghosts of past, present, and future brought him Advent could he experience Christmas. 

We need Advent before we can really experience the joy of Christmas. This reflection on past, present, and future in the context of God’s big story is exactly the context we need to move through the deserts to joy. 

Ebenezer Scrooge needed Advent, not Christmas. Only after the ghosts of past, present, and future brought him Advent could he experience Christmas. 

Witnessing: Joy

This can be a hard time of year for many people.

We talk about joy, joy, joy. And sometimes that is justified by saying, “happiness is circumstantial, joy is enduring”. And I can buy that, but according to dictionary definitions, they are basically the same thing. And it can lead us to get stuck looking to the next “good” season or to the last one and we miss the joy in the current moment. I find it more helpful for me to look at it that sometimes we’re overwhelmed by joy or happiness all around and sometimes we have a hard time spotting it. Either way it’s there.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) Happiness

hap•pi•ness \ˈha-pē-nəs\ noun

15th century

1 obsolete: good fortune: PROSPERITY

2 a: a state of well-being and contentment: JOY

b: a pleasurable or satisfying experience

3: FELICITY, APTNESS

New grandbaby? Easy. Joy.

Boiler back on after 6 weeks? no brainer. Joy.

What about the harder to spot joy? Or unexpected joy?

That neighbor who is always friendly to you when you’re out walking the dog?

You dog gets excited to just go walk around the neighborhood with you for half an hour? That’s joy too - don’t miss out on the opportunity to embrace it and share in it.

A little kid is restless or loud this time of year because of the excitement? That’s joy - they are embracing the joy.

I think the trick is not to look at difficult seasons as, “Well, things will improve some day” but to look for the joy in the midst of the difficulty.

We need to remember this in community too: This congregation has been in a difficult season for a while. It’s the sort of season that makes it hard to see the joy sometimes. So our task is to seek joy in the little things.

So what if we don’t have baptisms all the time? Let’s celebrate the HECK out of today!

Sure, the boiler pooped out on us for a month. We had somewhere warm to go when it got REALLY REALLY cold in here. Not only was it warm, it was welcoming and we knew the people there and have worshiped with them before and it sure sounds nice during the hymns when we’re all together like that!

Nope, this sanctuary isn’t filled to capacity these days on Sunday morning, but it was full of music lovers last Saturday because we’ve been reaching out to the community for ways to share this beautiful space! There is joy in meeting new folks in our community and celebrating Christmas with them!

Oh, our organ has decided to retire itself, but what a lovely space we have for organ music!