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Signs of God’s love - in wilderness, desert and exile

Signs of God's Love

In these days of interest in climate change and the importance of understanding our relationship with the environment it’s a good time to look at what the environment – or different types of environment – signify in the bible.

Deserts and wildernesses figure prominently in the bible, often literally as places, but also metaphorically – as experiences – which the people of God encounter during their journey towards God throughout history as well as in their individual lives. Usually references in the bible to the desert really mean a deserted place rather than the sand dunes of the Sahara or the Arabian peninsula – wilderness is usually what is really meant. There is a difference – a wilderness is a place untouched by human activity, whereas a desert is a dry place where very little rainfall comes. So sometimes a wilderness is a desert as well. Usually in the bible the desert is a place of hardship or suffering, and the feeling of separation from God, whereas the wilderness is where people go, often by choice, and have significant experiences of God. Another very strong theme in the bible is the idea of exile, and all three – desert, wilderness and exile are key to understanding our first reading – that beautiful piece of poetry which speaks of the transforming power and love of God which makes all things new, including us.

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It is likely that when this passage was composed (very roughly six hundred years before the time of Jesus) the people of Israel had already been taken into exile in Babylon. Their failure to live according to the covenant by which God had made them his chosen people had led in the end to their being overrun by a more powerful nation – the Babylonians – and anyone who was of use to the new regime was carted off to Babylon. For those who were faithful to God this was a devastating blow as it meant they could no longer worship at the Temple – so they felt cut off from God. For many it was the end of faith in God and the beginning of a new life in a new culture. For the few whose faith led them to see that God was not confined to the Temple in Jerusalem this was a time of testing and renewal – the prophet Ezekiel spoke to the exiled community and gave hope of a return. Although after seventy years the exiled community was allowed to return home to Jerusalem, some preferred to stay put where they had settled and become part of the Babylonian people. For them the journey home wasn’t worth the effort.

Whilst they were in exile the Israelites felt they were in a spiritual desert where they were separated from God. To get home to Jerusalem and the Temple they had to pass through a real desert. But the prophet Isaiah speaks of a highway through the desert that will lead the faithful home. They won’t get lost on the way or be attacked by wild animals. They will come home in safety – come home not just to Jerusalem but to God himself.

The history of Israel is littered with episodes of being overrun by enemy powers. The religious leaders interpreted these events as God’s judgement on the Jewish nation for being unfaithful to God’s law. They looked for signs of hope for better times ahead. The prophets repeatedly preached the message that God is always faithful to the promises he has made, and that the people should remain faithful to God, and follow his law, especially the first two commandments – to love God above all else, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself. To do these things put you in a right relationship with God – not to do them means exile in spiritual terms – a self-imposed exile, because one’s relationship with God is not right. That in a nutshell is what the whole of the Old Testament – the Hebrew scriptures – is about.

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It sounds simple, but the Jewish people found it impossibly difficult and as we know well it ain’t that easy. Things were no better or different in Jesus’ time – it was just a different occupying power – the Romans. Jesus preached the same message of love for God coupled with love for one’s neighbour, but as so often happened with the prophets several hundred years earlier, the religious leaders would not listen. In their hearts and minds they were in exile. And because the ordinary people were denied access to God by thousands of petty rules which no one could keep, they often felt they were in a spiritual desert – described by Jesus as sheep without a shepherd. So the Jewish people needed to come home to God, and Jesus would make that possible.

But the bible tells us, and today we remember especially, that before God’s special messenger – Jesus – would come, someone else would be sent by God to prepare the way: to open the hearts and minds of the people to receive the message that God was sending in Jesus. That someone was John the Baptist. In Isaiah ch. 40, v3 we read “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” In Matthew ch. 3, vv1-3, we are told that John the Baptist is the one to whom this prophecy refers. And in our gospel reading today we hear Jesus confirming that he, Jesus, is indeed the one for whom John the Baptist was preparing the way. John had sent a message to Jesus asking if he really was the one and Jesus sent a message back to say that you could see the transforming work that was being done – the people were being led back to God from their desert experience, although many of the religious leaders remained in their spiritual exile as they rejected Jesus.

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The work of John the Baptist was to make people ready to receive Jesus. He did his work in the wilderness – that’s where he lived and it’s where the people had to go to hear him preach and to be baptised by him. He called people to repentance and he baptised them as a sign of that repentance. He spoke of repentance from sin, which is the first step towards the true repentance which Paul talks about – the repentance which is a transforming experience. So the wilderness is where people began to find new life. They had to go into the wilderness to be renewed and transformed – that was where they truly found God. John the Baptist knew this was only a first step towards God and that Jesus would bring an even more radical change by giving the people the Holy Spirit to complete the work of transformation, but it was a necessary first step and set the scene for Jesus’ ministry.

This was not the only time the wilderness was important in the life and ministry of Jesus. In Mark’s gospel [Mark 1:12-13] we read that immediately after Jesus was baptised by John that the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness where he spent 40 days being tested by the devil and being prepared by God for the work which lay ahead. At other times Jesus went into the wilderness to pray – he got away from the busyness of everyday life and work and went to a quiet place where he could talk to God without interruption. When Jesus fed large crowds of people he did so because they had been following him for several days and there was nowhere to buy food because it was a deserted place. God fed his people in the wilderness both literally and spiritually.

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These metaphors of exile, wilderness and desert apply just as much to us today as they did to the Jewish people in Isaiah’s time and in Jesus’ time. By our own attitudes we can put ourselves in exile, in a place or state of mind where we no longer hear what God is saying to us, where we put ourselves first and God last. Where we think God doesn’t matter, or we just don’t want to know. God is patient – he waits for us to think again and realise that his way is better. But he doesn’t give up and he longs for you to turn to him and repent – which means not just being sorry for what we’ve done wrong in the past and trying to do better in the future – it means much more than that. It means a whole new way of seeing the world – a new world view – with God at the centre, not ourselves – seeing the world through God’s eyes, not through our own. A really radical repentance that transforms and renews your whole mindset and approach to life. At other times it feels more like the desert – we want to be close to God, but we have lost our way. But then if we really are seeking then God will come to us and find us. It begins with the humble acknowledgment that we can’t do anything by ourselves to renew our lives. The transformation of the desert places in Isaiah’s description is all the work of God – there is nothing we can do to make it happen, other than asking God. And he is faithful and will hear and answer us – in his good time, not ours – sometimes an immediate answer isn’t forthcoming. We mustn’t think that God has rejected us – in our second reading the value of patience is made very clear. Just remember that God’s love transforms even the driest of deserts – and the most difficult and painful situations.

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Even in good times we need to have the courage to take the risk of going into a place that may seem dangerous or at least uncomfortable – the wilderness by definition lacks the comforts of the world as we know it. But we sometimes need to have wilderness places that we can go to so that we can get close to God. It is very difficult to hear what God is saying to us, and it’s difficult to concentrate on praying if we are too caught up in the clamour of the world – especially at this time of year when there is so much to be done and so little time to do it. Do you have a wilderness place where the world can’t touch you and you can get close to God? Even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time it is so important.

I think too that all this doesn’t just apply to individuals – it also applies to communities and even to nations. We see people around us who we might describe as being in exile – they are living lives in which God can play no part. The world with all its materialistic concerns is a place of exile in itself. We need to pray for our community and for our nation, and for the world with all its troubles and conflicts and injustices. There are many people in their own private deserts, but also I believe groups of people who have all sorts of questions about life that they’re not getting answers to – many people are searching for a meaning to life. We need to pray that the meaning they find is given to them by God – so the ministry of the church – not just this church – but the church as a whole needs to be much more effective in leading people to find a real faith in God.

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It’s an interesting point that the story of God’s people begins in a garden, a place of cultivation – not a wilderness – and it ends in a city. There isn’t a return to the garden. God’s people are on a journey and it takes us through different types of environment, some hostile and some more comfortable. It includes times of exile and homecoming as well as the desert and the wilderness. But God is on the journey with us. Those times which feel like exile are our doing as we have turned away from God. The desert is an arid place where we can’t find the way but somehow God leads us on, and when we learn to trust him, the desert is transformed and the road ahead becomes clear.

If you feel you are in a desert today try looking for the signs of transformation that God is actually at work in your life. Where are the signs of hope for you? Who are the people in your life who make you feel that God loves you? If Streatham is your desert look around you for signs of God’s love – the people who are here today, or at Lewin Road Baptist church, or other churches in the area. Look for God’s love in the words of our service today, in the sacrament of the bread and wine.

Of course God is just as much in the city as he is in the wilderness or anywhere else. And we can find him there. But sometimes the clamour of the world, the bright lights, the lure of exciting but often false hopes, prevent us from hearing what God is saying to us. Wherever you feel you are, try to find time in the preparations for Christmas to step aside from the world and ask God to lead you into a wilderness place where in the peace and quietness you can experience his closeness and his love for you, and he can fill you with joy and hope. Learn to trust him and take him at his word. The wilderness looks inhospitable because it lacks the false comforts offered by the world, but it is God’s place for us and he will meet you there and lead you along the way he wants you to go.

This sermon was given at Holy Communion on 16th December 2007 - the 3rd Sunday of Advent. © Copyright Marion Gray 2007.

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