It is Enough*

Did you ever notice

that in every story about Jesus

it seems that he was always coming from somewhere

and just about to head out somewhere else?

Especially in Mark

in Mark, Jesus is a man on the move

a man on a mission

with not much time to get it done

This Jesus, this Markan man

never stands still

let alone sits down

for a cup of tea

We get it now

we can see the hurrying

rushing reason  of it all. . . 

right there before him it stands

the cross

waiting

always 

just waiting. . . 

But what must it have been like back in the day?

Did they think he was rude?

Or just wonder what the young man was 

always rushing off to?

And now, here he comes and here he goes 

again

Coming from Nazareth

to the Jordan river

where John and his pals hang out

Was he coming to see John?

Or did he go in order to

jump into the Jordan

for a quick baptismal bath

before rushing off to the next thing?

John . . . check

baptism . . . check

wilderness . . . check

I don’t think so

at least not that last part

There he was

coming up out of the Jordan

fresh and refreshed

when comes the secret telegraph message

from God for his ears alone

at least in Mark

where it is Jesus who hears

and others who must wonder

Jesus who sees

and others who must scratch their heads

heavens rending

dove descending

God-voice proclaiming

all for Jesus . . . all for Jesus

But he hardly gets out of the water

scarcely has time to towel himself dry

when the Spirit dove

turns into the divine cracked-whip

driving

Driving?

Driving Jesus into . . . 

W - I - L - D - E - R - N - E - S - S

The wild place

where the wild things are

where rules are left behind

and knowing what comes next isn’t even possible

Where savage and scary and unsafe live

the land of monsters

the place where it all begins

The land called chaos

Wilderness travel

is a going back

back into the primordial ooze

from whence it all began

The place of the ashes and dust of all things . . . 

Jesus is chased back

back to beginnings

back to first things

back . . . back . . . back . . . 

There is no going forward

for him

for us

until he has first gone back

It’s dangerous

this chaos-place

where rules haven’t yet been made

and those without wings

are dared to fly

those without bread

challenged to eat rocks

those without power

mocked to don their king robes and claim it all

There

back into that nothingness. . . 

There 

Jesus must go

driven there by God’s own fury

that it should be so

to the wilderness

doth Jesus go

What must it have been like

to survive all that

only to find

on his return

that John was arrested

sure to die

in the hands of such a one as Herod

unfit, surely, for even the sandals of John?

He doesn’t miss a beat

this wilderness-surviving Jesus

it’s like Messiah boot camp. . . 

when you come out of that

you’re stronger

tougher

and you stand just a little bit taller

able to see what others cannot

able to see the wilderness

that lives inside

of you

able to see the face of that and live

When you survive the place where the wild things are

you just know

that whatever you do next

is enough

This is my Son

the Beloved

in him I was

I am

I will be

Pleased

And

it

and

he

is

enough

___________________

*Continuing from yesterday's post, this is the 2nd Sermon Reflection from the 1st Sunday in Lent, reflecting upon Mark 1.9-15 (Jesus' baptism, time in the wilderness and beginning ministry after the arrest of John).