Camels and Deserts

Sermon for 1st March 2009 (Gen 9: 8-17, Mk 1: 9-15)

A mother camel and her baby are talking one day and the baby camel asks, “Mum, why have we got these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replies, “To allow us to walk across the soft sand of the desert without sinking.” “And why have we got these long, heavy eyelashes?” “To keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert ”replies the mother camel. “And Mum, why have we got these big humps on our backs?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They are there to help us store fat for our long trecks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods.” “OK, I get it!” says the baby camel, “We have huge feet to stop us sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and humps to store water. Then, Mum, so why do we live here in London Zoo?”

Modern life sometimes makes one feel like a camel in a zoo. Like camels in a zoo we need sometimes to go into the desert in order to discover who we truly are. Lent invites us to enter into this kind of desert experience.

The desert was the birthplace of the people of God. For 40 years they wandered, and camped, wandered and camped, gradually shedding their self-reliance and learning the vital lesson that they needed God; not just for the Sabbath as an object of worship, but they needed him in all of their lives. They needed God to shape their lives, to make a nation, a society, a place of hope and peace. They came out of the desert changed by their experience.

And they were led by one man who had already learned from the desert: Moses was a proud young man from the Pharaoh’s household until he intervened to save one of his own Hebrew people; he then became a refugee, in the desert for 40 years. A young proud man went into the desert, a wiser, humbler man left it, a man ready to listen to God.

The Gospel reading today is first about John, speaking from the desert, but his prophetic ministry was modeled on a much earlier prophet, Elijah, hugely faithful, but when the chips were down his doubts returned; where did he really learn to trust God – in the desert.

John follows in that tradition, from an early age living in the desert, so that by hid early 30‘s he was ready to prepare the way for Jesus.

Finally Jesus, having been baptized by this strange character, has his own ‘40’ – 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, fasting, alone, except for God.

Down the ages Christians have literally gone into the desert, to face themselves and their limitations, and to meet God in that emptiness without distractions. (Mark 1:12-13).

The desert is the university where God teaches his people. So what is our desert this Lent? How do we create that space for ourselves? May I suggest three things we need:

I) Desert on your own- ‘quiet times’ each day, space alone to be quiet with God, – space to pray, space to read a bit of the Gospels and to ask ‘What is this saying to me?’, space to listen. Just as Jesus faced wild beasts in the desert, we need to listen to recognise the ‘beasts’ in us, and confess these to break their power. Just two tips on doing this:

· Don’t try too long - at first a few minutes may be what you can cope with, build up slowly

· Work out when; late at night I fall asleep if I try this, but that might be your time

II) Desert space with others, bible study, or Lent lectures (see the notices for details), space to talk through with others on the same journey about you believe God is saying to you, to check out what you hear and perhaps to help someone else – we are, ultimately intended for community, so sometimes we need to share our desert places

III) Oasis space to join with the whole community in worship and learning each Sunday as a model for life. Like eating three meals a day, or regular exercise, so we need regular worship, with our community, to begin to prepare ourselves for our ultimate goal, of heavenly worship beyond this life

In the desert we come to know ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, and our divine calling. Lent is the time for the desert experience. We can’t all buy a camel and head off for the desert. But we can all create a desert space in our overcrowded lives. We can set times to be alone daily with God, spaces to share in learning from God, and times to worship alongside others, in their deserts, a time to hear God’s word, a time to rediscover who we are before God. Welcome to Lent! Welcome to the desert!