Touchdown in the Wilds
The Venerable Joan Clark
Luke 3:1-6
Advent is the time when God touched down right here on earth and started a movement that would reverberate throughout the planet. And it all started in the wilderness.
In fact, if you look at the scriptures, every significant God moment happens somewhere in a wilderness place.
Jacob’s vision on a remote hillside in which he sees the staircase of God descending to touch upon the earth.
Abraham’s covenantal pact with God in which a torch of fire seals the deal.
Hagar’s encounter with God in the wilderness, in which she is cared for and fed.
Elijah’s wilderness journey, in which he is fed by angels.
Moses’ surprise in the wilderness, in which he encounters God in a burning bush.
Jesus’ challenge in the wilderness, in which he is tested.
Isaiah’s “voice in the wilderness,” the one that John will pronounce as prophecy fulfilled.
And there are many, many more.
God always touches down in our wilderness place –the place in which we feel most alone, most barren, most despairing, most lost. It is in this place that we hear God’s voice and feel God’s presence calling us out, nourishing us, caring for us, and giving us new direction. The wilderness is a place of change.
Last week, we spoke of advent as a time to get ready for change. For God changes the world by changing us, one person at a time. Jesus too began changing the world by changing people, healing one heart at a time. And the most healing moment in history happened when God touched down for real in the person of Jesus.
I want you to think about space for a moment. Or flow. What happens when you interrupt that space or flow? It changes everything about it. Think about a still pool of water. Imagine in your mind that pool, whether it’s the pool in your backyard or a basin on your table, or a pond in nature, or a birdbath. Imagine water that has no movement. It’s just still. Now imagine a droplet falling into that water. Or if you’re thinking about a larger body, a pouring of water. What happens next?
The water forms rings…..and they start expanding outward more and more until the entire body of water is changing and moving. It’s changed direction. It’s started into motion. The sand beneath has been rearranged. That one drop has changed everything about that pool of water.
Anyone ever take a tour of a cave? Ever notice those amazing rock formations? We call them stalactites and stalagmites. They form long spikes and formations just from dripping water. Consistently dripping water. It’s an amazing phenomenon. Even change that seems as slow as molasses can effect huge changes even in something as hard as rock over a period of time.
Time matters. Change matters.
That’s in a sense what happened when God touched down in the wilderness long ago in the desert place outside of Judea in the region of the Jordan River. God “interrupted” time and space, human culture and context, the earthly realm as we know it, and changed everything.
There in that “wild space,” that beautiful, remote, primal, creative wilderness space, that uninhabited, uncontrollable, unpredictable, untamed liminal space, that covenantal wild space, God began a movement that began with the prophet John and continued with the birth of Jesus.
The scriptures tell us, “God’s word came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. John went throughout the region of the Jordan River, calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins.”
The “voice crying out in the wilderness” is the proclamation that God has appeared and that God’s amazing plan for human and world salvation has been put into motion. Maybe everyone didn’t see that initial “drop of water” that began that colossal change. But John saw it. God made sure that John saw it. And the proclamation was born.
Advent is a time of what we call “repentance.” Repentance sometimes gets a bad rap as though we have been horribly bad people and must fall in prostrate and ask for forgiveness. The kind of repentance John is talking about is a repentance we all need –a cleansing of the soul, a re-commitment to God as our sovereign and Lord, a removing of the debris of guilt and shame that we carry with us day to day and year to year, a renewal of our spirit. Just as that drop of water reverberates through the pond, God’s salvation energy reverberates through each and every one of us reminding us that God is near, God is active in the world, God is making change, and God wants to make that kind of change within us.
Just as in our baptism, we commit ourselves to God, repentance is a time when we remember our baptism and in a time of communion with God, we recommit our lives to Jesus. In a sense, God gets in touch with the wildest place in our soul and interrupts our lives in order to change our hearts, our minds, our intentions, and our actions for the future. God’s touchdowns are always places where covenants are formed, whether in the desert or in the desert of our hearts.
This advent, this day in which you partake of Holy Communion if you will, I invite you into an “immersion” experience with God, in which God can enter into the wildest part of your soul, the most primal part of you, and re-form you into a new creature, one that is at peace with the earth, with yourself, with your neighbours, and with God. God can begin in you a process, whether slow as a stalagmite or fast as a tsunami, that will change your heart and your life, so that you can go on to change the hearts and lives of others.
The wilderness is not only a changing place but an equipping place, a place of change but also of formation. For you, it is an encounter that can change everything. As you come forward for Holy Communion today, think about what you’d like to have changed in your life. Do you want to remove chains that bind you to an uncomfortable past? Do you want to remove guilt or shame that weighs upon your life? Do you want to remove worries or s tress that impedes your wellness and your growth? Do you want to remove doubt which inhibits you from your relationship with God? Do you simply want to remove mistakes that plague you and refuse to let you go?
God can remove all of it in your wilderness place. For God is the King of Touchdowns. God always wins.