On the Way to Wonder

“Isolation” is now politely called “sheltering in place.”  Controlling diseases that are thought to be highly contagious require placing people where they are unable to spread the sickness.  Today we know the dynamic.  We, though, can put on our mask and run to the store to be with other masked people and quickly grab that which we cannot do without.  We cheat “death.”  In Biblical times isolation was also used for contagious diseases but the most feared was leprosy.  Jesus leaves Peter’s home early in the morning, leaves the people gathering to be healed, and heads to “nearby villages – so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.”  Preaching sounds a lot safer than dealing with masses of sick people!  So what new lesson do we learn?

         Mark immediately enters the next scenario in chapter 1, a man with leprosy encounters Jesus, falls on his knees and pleads, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  A man with an unclean spirit at the synagogue, a widow with a fever laying in bed, and now Jesus faces an isolated man, condemned to live out his disease who voices our cry, “Lord, if you are willing.”  I listen to women praying a similar prayer to get help for loosing weight.  Their will power has a problem.  We talk about systemic evil like prejudice and hatred in our world but that seems to come back to our heart and will power.  For the leper, no amount of will power or changed behavior was going to make him well.  He needed a divine intervention, a miracle.

         Today as we come to Jesus, our situation may be the lack of will power to deal with our addiction – to food or whatever, or it may be an external illness like a fever, but for some we need a miracle.  Mark 1:41 says that Jesus was filled with compassion, not revulsion, and he reached out his hand and touched the man.  Not everyone receives a miracle but we all receive compassion and God reaches out to all of us in one way or another.  We may face isolation from people but we do not face isolation from God.  We may need to wear masks but that does not stop prayer.  We may be at the bottom of the line for the vaccine but God can still touch us.  Jesus says in this scenario, “I am willing!”  Let those words ring in your heart today – I am willing to be with you, to see you, to touch you, and to care.  Thank you, Lord!

“At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert,

and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. 

He was with the wild animals

and the angels attended him. (Mark 1:12,13)”

Deserts!!  Now there is a topic.  We started our missionary career in a former famine relief camp in northern Kenya on the edge of the Chaldi desert.  I used to say, “I come from the freeways of Los Angeles,” to answer questions about my home and to emphasize the culture shock I was going through.  Deserts are very different from urban settings or rural settings.  Water and supplies are scarce. But that was the home of the people we were establishing an alphabet for and giving an opportunity for literacy.  I wonder what the desert experience taught Jesus and what those desert times might teach us?

         A subtly shocking entrance to our desert life was that the language had no word for “please.”  People came to the door and said, “Give me.”  There was no shame or guilt in asking for help because people lived by community ties.  A warrior would start a day foot trip to cross the desert with only his spear and no supplies.  He knew the person on the other end was obligated to offer hospitality – kill a goat.  Jesus was forty days alone in the desert and the presence of Satan must have offered community – of a sort, at least conversation. Satan chatted with him and “suggested” he use his supernatural powers to short circuit the discomfort of the desert experience.  Community can support but community can also distract! 

         We thrive on community that dispels aloneness, offers support, and affirms us.  How tempting to be recognized as true God by Satan.  How tempting to be “wanted” by friends.  Loneliness hurts.  Sheltering to avoid illness seems very unnatural right now and many refuse to follow the guidelines of social distancing.  We sit with TVs and zoom meetings but somehow it feels less than satisfying, less than a hug. So I reflect on where we find community now.  What drives us to go to a neighbor’s door and beg a cup of sugar or a glass of water because of drought and famine? 

         The desert experience affirms to me that Jesus, true God and true man, who lived his life swarmed by people wanting healing or wanting to test him, that same Jesus also had an extended time alone in a desert, cut off from human support systems.  Matthew and Luke give more texture to this experience.  Turning rocks to bread – deserts test us physically as we hunger and nothing seems to satisfy.  Jump from the temple – deserts test our sense of safety and protection for surely the God of the universe could prevent us from getting hurt.  Avoid the cross and worship Satan – deserts test our resolve to do things properly and not short cut “the rules.”

         Perhaps today, sheltering is wearing on your nerves and loneliness is knocking at your heart.  Fears about the upcoming inauguration play on our sense of security. Doubts of love, fears about protection, and temptations to expediency keep coming to mind.  Many are demanding that government, health systems, education systems and human organizations resolve the loneliness of deserts in our lives.  Jesus, in his desert experience, found focus in the Word of God and so can we.  We are never alone.  Where will we turn today when we feel like we are in a desert?  We need each other.  May we like, Jesus, find comfort in the Word of God.  And perhaps a call to a friend or an email someone  to encourage!  Blessings. 

“On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:

8 maids a milking,
7 Swans a Swimming, 6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree”

Eight maids are milking today.  Coffee shops could certainly use this for a logo.  What are the maids milking?  In Kenya where I worked for 25 years, the young girls could be milking cows if you were rich, but also goats, or even camels.  The milk provided the protein for the morning “chai” or tea that gave strength to work through the day.  Milk is the food that helps babies grow when they are helpless and cannot eat adult food.  So the connection of these eight maids to the eight beatitudes found in the Gospel of Matthew 5:3-12 is challenging. 

         Jesus lists eight “Beatitudes” or blessed states but they are not what we expect, “ Blessed are -the poor in spirit, -those who mourn, -the meek, those who hunger after righteousness, –the merciful, -the pure in heart, -the peacemakers, and -those persecuted.  Most of us would not choose any of these “blessings” except perhaps to be blessed with peacemaking and mercy.  None of us would choose to be a helpless baby (ask the unemployed, the elderly, the disabled who would long to contribute and are crying for milk – not the whole cow!) but we do want to have eight maids doing our work for us so we can have our morning tea or coffee.

         The eight beatitudes are each followed with a “for they shall be…” outcome.  Mourners shall be comforted.  Hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied.  Persecution for righteousness sake leads to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Does “the ends justify the means” or do the beatitudes remind of us a basic principle we must remember?  When we perceive ourselves as infants, challenged and unable to meet the challenge before us, the journey of faith leads to a blessed goal.  The beatitudes remind us that the difficulties and longings of this world are working for us to carry us to fulfilled existence, even as milk feeds the baby and helps the child grow.  That does not make the problems of this world “good” because evil is evil but it does affirm that “God works all things together for good,” walks with us helping us as maids help their caretaker, and is leading us to maturity. 

         Today is not the end of the journey; we are in process. We are not alone (eight maids – the community), and we are growing.  So how does that apply today?  I ponder where I might need milk to sustain my soul and encouragement from those working with me.  Is one of the beatitudes giving direction to your prayers this month or perhaps pray a different beatitude each month!  Let’s also not forget to look outward and think about whom we might give a “cup of water” or glass of milk to.  Who in our life is struggling and perhaps discouraged that we could bless?  Blessings are received and blessings are given by True Love who is working “all things together for good,” for our growth.  Open my eyes that I might see the beatitudes at work in 2021!