Matthew 11:2-11
For some…the wilderness is a desolate place…devoid of human civilization…
- Where plants grow wild…or not at all.
- An arid desert or an exposed moor or heath.
- A place of too little food and water.
- A place of too many predators.
The wilderness can be an urban jungle…a city that never sleeps.
- With lights and traffic and honking horns and loud noise.
- Being lost without a map.
- Taken advantage of by a dishonest huckster or just feeling lonely.
We seek out the wilderness. But why?
- There is a common literary arc-type about the rugged individual who seeks time in the wilderness…
- To be alone as a balm for the trials she has met up with in life.
This is the idea that made famous the memoir and movie…Wild…by Cheryl Strayed.
- Strayed tells the story of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail without any prior hiking experience.
- Carrying a pack that was too large and boots that didn’t fit.
- Strayed took to the trail after her mother died of lung cancer at age 46.
- Her mother’s death left her emotionally bankrupt.
- Strayed’s behavior became erratic and sometimes dangerous.
- She left her husband…abused heroin and just lost herself.
What better way to find oneself than to take to the Pacific Crest Trail. Right?
- It was 1995 when Strayed decided to begin the more than 2,000-mile hike.
- The trail was known to be difficult and dangerous.
- Particularly ill-advised for single women.
This did not seem to deter the inexperienced Strayed.
- She walked and walked until six toenails fell off.
- She walked even after losing a boot down the side of a mountain.
- She walked through snow…rain…sleet.
- She kept walking when she was lost.
- Sometimes she had no choice but to depend on the kindness of strangers.
But…why? Why did she do it?
- It seems she was driven to the wilderness because she had lost a bit of herself in her grief and trauma.
- Indeed…her story is redemptive.
- She needed to find and learn a truth that only she could learn…
- In a way and place unique to her.
Near the end of the story…Strayed wonders what her life could be like if she forgave herself?
- What if she was sorry and just forgave herself?
- Sometimes it takes 2,000 miles on foot through treacherous conditions to conclude that we need to forgive ourselves.
Matthew tells another wilderness story in today’s Gospel.
- Jesus asks the crowds about John the Baptist:
- “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?”
- People do not go to the wilderness to seek fame or to find power.
- People do not seek the wilderness to become rich or popular.
- What do you hope to see in the wilderness…Jesus asks?
- Why come to the wilderness? What do you expect?
- A prophet…we go into the wilderness to find a prophet…Jesus says.
Jesus did not mean a fortune teller or soothsayer or a clairvoyant.
- Real prophets are not future-casters.
- Genuine Prophets are people who can see and state the truth more clearly.
- Often uncomfortable truths.
- Like calling out corruption or advocating for the oppressed.
- Prophets tell us when we are not living up to the people God calls us to be.
Prophets encourage us to be courageous…to make the tough decisions that are the right call.
- Prophets push us to do hard things.
- They tell us when we are being overbearing or too judgmental.
Cheryl Strayed went into the wilderness to find a prophet.
- She sought an experience of time and space that prophets offer.
- She wanted to hear the truth about herself…about her relationships.
- About the world she lived in.
- She went into the wilderness to find hope…forgiveness…grace.
In the Bible God’s people go through the wildernesses.
- In every case the wilderness is a defining experience that refines what it means to be the people of God.
- Through the Exodus…the people of God received the Ten Commandments that shaped their identity as a people.
- It was in the wilderness that Elijah heard the still small voice of God.
- The wilderness can be an uncomfortable experience.
- But it is also one way people come to understand themselves more clearly…
- As individuals or as community.
John the Baptist invited people to the wilderness to hear about something new.
- Not just something new…but someone new.
- He wanted to tell people about the Son of God who has come to make them new.
- The blind will see.
- The deaf will hear.
- The poor will receive good news.
This wilderness experience would change the world.
- God sent his son to gather God’s people in.
- To upset unjust systems that enslave his creation…his people.
Every one of us will have a wilderness experience in our lives.
- Part of being human is walking through times and spaces where we wonder who we are.
- Wondering where we belong.
- Wondering what our purpose is.
- Wondering if we can be forgiven.
Few of us will choose to walk through a literal wilderness as Cheryl Strayed did.
- Though each of us will have times and places where we seek a prophet to help us see the truth.
- The truth of who we are and whose we are.
During Advent we listen again to the stories of a young…pregnant Mary perched on a donkey making her way with Joseph…
- The expectant father…to be counted as part of the census.
- Talk about a wilderness journey!
- Not only would this trek through the wilderness claim Mary and Joseph as citizens of a particular region.
- But it helps define them as people…too.
No longer simply “Mary.”
- She is becoming the mother of God.
- Not “just” a carpenter.
- Joseph will soon be the father of the Son of God.
We can imagine that Mary and Joseph were seeking their own prophet on this journey.
- Someone who would tell them the truth about the mysterious baby that was coming.
- And the truth about who they are in relation to the baby.
- And they get just that when the angels…shepherds and Magi come to bear witness to the birth of the Christ child.