This is the time of lengthening daylight as our daystar, the Sun, shines more directly on our planet each day. Though ice covers the ground where I live, green shoots are beginning to appear. And yet, another ice storm is coming. How is Earth protecting or preparing for new life? Why is the struggle of beginnings and endings a necessity?
The same doorways open and close, repeatedly. Confusion and confidence are dancing new steps. Even though we are deep in pandemic time, vaccines are rolling out and “soon” sparks conversations, imagination and planning. Yet new variants of the virus are growing. It is an odd time of mixed messages.
The gospel reading for reflection this week* echoes my sense of God’s pace picking up, even among the shadows of suffering and fear. For “just as” Jesus comes up out of the baptismal waters of the Jordan, the heavenly Voice names and claims him. “Immediately” the Spirit leads him into the wilderness of forty days of temptation. All of this in five sentences. “Now” Jesus’ ministry begins, proclaiming the kin-dom of God has come near with his whole being. The new revelatory realm of Sacred Energy is at hand. Believe it, he says.
The details of the forty days of temptation can be read elsewhere. Mark skims over them staccato-like. Mark seems to be intent on succinctly and dramatically naming the empowering events of Jesus’ preparation for ministry. There is quickly mounting intensity. This intensity of pace alerts me to the intensity of divine power penetrating Jesus. Truth, goodness and love are about to overflow into the world in a new way.
As I live into the illuminating days of Lenten time, heading toward Calvary, the urgency of Jesus’ short ministry comes into focus. Again, and in a way like the first time, I realize the gift of his wilderness time. The intensity of his baptism followed by the intensity of the temptations equip Jesus for the unique ministry he was called to. His momentous ministry was brief, briefer than he and his companions hoped. Yet it changed the world forever.
In my own “little life,” as Henri Nouwen used to say, I have learned that temptation and struggle are valuable for clarifying and strengthening purpose. I confess that they usually slowed me down. Yet the persistent truth of my baptism, the reality of God’s presence and the insistent guidance of the Spirit never let me hold back for long. Now, with COVID vaccines changing our world, there are many arenas of need and injustice that cry for healing. What is next?
Jesus said the kin-dom of God is near. Believe. I do believe. And I am alert.
-Ann Dean, Dayspring Church
Reflection Questions
- What temptations are you struggling with?
- How might Lent be a wilderness time of preparation for you?
- What spiritual friends help you stay alert to divine beginnings?
