This week has, once again, brought us to the season of Lent. Lent happens during the 40 days leading up to Easter. It is a time that mirrors the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before starting his public ministry. 40 days is an interesting phrase in Biblical references because it means a long period of time, but it is also used as a marker of times of testing and trial. That is what Jesus experienced in his 40 days in the wilderness – he fasted, experienced temptation and was cared for by angels. It was a time of reflection and preparation for his ministry.

Our observance of Lent is also a time of reflection and preparation. For some it is a season of fasting. For some it will be a season of temptation. For some it will be a time of reflection and intentional engagement with prayer or other spiritual practices that offer opportunities for remembrance and repentance. And just as Jesus was cared for in the wilderness, all of us, no matter how we engage in the season of Lent, will be held in the care of the Creator through whatever our journey brings.

While we do not yet know what the journey of this particular season of Lent will look like, we are lucky enough to live in a time that allows us to know where the path leads: it leads us to Easter morning, to a celebration of new life. But I am getting ahead of myself here, because knowing what awaits us on Easter morning doesn’t release us from, once again, taking the journey that Lent offers. It is through the journey of reflection and preparation that comes with Lent that we are able to experience Easter morning with a renewed sense of wonder and meaning.

So let’s back up a bit, and in fact, let’s go back more than just a bit. Let’s go all the way back to the Genesis text we heard this morning. This passage from Genesis 9 picks up after the flood (another 40 day story of trial) brought destruction to the earth. In this part of the story we are made witness to the love and mercy of God’s own repentance and the establishment of a covenant. A covenant of respect, care and love between God and every living thing on the earth.

A covenant (particularly a Biblical covenant), as the reader’s theatre explored this morning is more than a contract – it is a declaration, a promise. And in the case of the Genesis 9 covenant, it is a promise that God is offering to all living creatures. The particularly unique feature of this covenant, is that it is a promise that God is committing to uphold and honor, even if we do not play our part in honoring the relationship that it establishes. God’s covenant is not dependent upon us behaving well (it would be lovely if we would behave well, but that isn’t God’s focus). Instead, God chooses to freely offer care and love and does so without placing condition or expectation on us. God is choosing to love us, through whatever comes, forever.

And God, knowing that that we living creatures on the earth will most likely offer challenges to the One offering us eternal love, God goes ahead and puts in place a support network for God’s self – by creating a sign that will serve as a reminder for God:

God said, “Here is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature for ageless generations: I set my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth…Whenever my bow appears in the clouds, I will see it, and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature on the earth.”

God chooses a rainbow as the sign of the covenant. It is a fitting sign, for a rainbow (in one of its forms) shows itself after a storm, it is seen most vividly just as the light begins to break through the cloud cover. The light catches on the particles of moisture still in the air and bounces off of them creating visible beauty, sometimes unspeakable beauty. And this beautiful wonder of God’s creation is what God chooses to use as a reminder of God’s covenant with us. God does not choose to linger on thoughts of the wrong-doing or pain that we may create. Instead, God chooses to see the beauty in the aftermath of a storm and then imbues that beauty with meaning by making it a sign. An everlasting reminder of the choice that God has made to declare life precious and to love and preserve all that lives.

The gospel text today talks about another sign of a covenant: baptism. The 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective states this about baptism:

We believe that the baptism of believers with water is a sign of their cleansing from sin. Baptism is also a pledge before the church of [the believer’s] covenant with God to walk in the way of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The covenant of baptism is our opportunity to respond in kind to the covenant that God has made with us. Baptism starts with us committing ourselves to loving God, and to seek what it means to live out that love without placing expectations of our own on God.

God’s covenant with Noah and all generations to follow and all living creatures did not place demands on us. It was God’s promise and commitment to continuously extend relationship. But relationship is best fulfilled when it is reciprocal. So it is that our choice to enter into a life of faith through the act of baptism becomes an act that says we are willing to step into the continuously offered relationship with God and we are choosing to put forth effort to enter fully into that relationship.

When we choose baptism, the sign of our covenant is water. Water is another natural element that takes on new meaning through the covenant we make in the act of baptism (it’s also a key factor in the appearance of rainbows). When used for baptism, water, be it sprinkled, poured or fully enveloping, this water which normally serves to quench our thirst or wash our physical bodies all of a sudden becomes a symbol of a cleaned spirit and a promise from us to God to hold God and all of God’s living creatures as precious in our sight.

The baptism recounted in the Mark text today is the baptism of Jesus – and it is more than just a baptism story. It is one of those stories of the spiritual and supernatural aspects of our religious life that a couple of weeks ago Micah Tillman challenged us to start sharing more of with each other. It is Jesus’ own tale of what I would guess Micah might call: an embarrassing send shivers down your spine spiritual experience. Jesus doesn’t just get baptized by water, he also sees the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove and he hears a voice coming from the heavens saying:

“You are my beloved, my own. On you my favor rests.”

…at least I think I would have been shivering if that had happened at my baptism.

But Jesus doesn’t get to linger in this moment of glory and revelation. Instead, that Spirit which has just been poured into him as an offering of approval and love immediately drives him into the wilderness. From the wonder of all embracing love to wilderness in an instant. This is what the beginning of covenant life looks like for Jesus.

And it is into this moment that we are invited to step during the season of Lent, we are invited into the wilderness with Jesus. Upon first glance the idea of being invited into wilderness may not feel very ‘inviting’. The idea of wilderness may seem daunting, lonely, or chaotic, because wilderness, in its nature is a space that is outside of our human control. But, if we open ourselves to it, wilderness also offers space for exploration, new connections, and growth.

This congregation is one that is well versed in the art of travelling in the wilderness. All of us individually walk on wild paths from time to time, often uncertain of the next step, yet we choose to seek to find our footing in faith. Collectively, we have been in a wilderness, of sorts, for the past three months while Cindy has been on sabbatical and we have explored what it has meant to be church to each other during this time. I, for one, have learned much and have grown during this time and I have also seen many of you step up and invest in the community in new ways which have allowed the congregation to thrive. Cindy herself has been in a space of wilderness, spending time resting and reading and being empowered to come back (starting next Sunday) and serve this community with a revived spirit.

While this recent period has, hopefully, been a positive encounter with wilderness. I also acknowledge that experiences in the wilderness are not without their growing pains.  Our congregation encountered a wilderness ten years ago when we were disciplined by Allegheny Mennonite Conference for choosing to fully embrace LGBTQ people in the life of the church. We have diligently continued to chart a course through that wilderness by offering energy to build relationships and pursue reconciliation while remaining authentic to our belief in inclusive living, even to the point of hiring a non-straight person as an associate pastor. The path has not been pain free. But it also hasn’t been without its wonders either.

As we anticipate the upcoming delegate session on March 7, where a resolution will be voted on that will most likely determine our future relationship with the conference (details are posted on the bulletin board in the foyer for those who missed the announcement last week), we find ourselves standing on the edge of another wilderness. The landscape of the conference has changed in these past ten years, as has the landscape of this congregation. No matter what the outcome of the delegate session we will, once again, find ourselves in uncharted territory.

Jesus was also certainly in uncharted territory when the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. The Mark text, unlike the Matthew and Luke accounts of Jesus’ time in the wilderness, doesn’t go into much detail about Jesus’ encounters in the wilderness but it does offer some hopeful clues that we can carry with us as we journey through the coming weeks. The text says this:

Immediately the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.

What clues do we find here? We see that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness – this is the same Spirit that Jesus just received in his baptism and it doesn’t abandon Jesus, it carries him into the wilderness and journeys with him. We see that he was in the wilderness for forty days – the path through the wilderness, whether we are comfortable with it or not, can take time. We see that he was tempted by Satan – time in the wilderness offers us opportunities to be distracted from our relationship with God if we choose to accept them. We see that he was with the wild beasts – the wilderness can bring us into contact with forms of life that can hurt us, but the Spirit that journeys with us can create peace even in the most unlikely of gatherings. We see that the angels looked after him – even in the wilderness, God works to keep God’s promise to love and preserve life. And we see that after his time in the wilderness, Jesus re-appears in civilization proclaiming the reign of God – there is life beyond wilderness, and it is a rich life full of Good News.

As we journey in the wilderness that this season brings, may we welcome the wilderness as a space of exploration, encounter, and growth. May we step into the uncharted territory ahead with peace and confidence, knowing that the Spirit is our travelling companion and that the path we take is persistently winding its way towards new life.