Musical Prelude and Service.

Romans 8:18-27 & Matthew 3:13-4:2
The wilderness is a curious thing. Growing up in Northwestern Ontario camping and hiking were a
part of my life. Canoeing into remote lakes, portaging to even more remote lakes, and setting up
tents was not something I did frequently, but I do have experience at it.
There is a sense of peace and awe and wonder at the environment that comes with that, but I also
only did these things with a great deal of preparation. It involved ensuring enough food just in case
we failed to catch fish. Taking the right equipment to properly filter water for safe drinking. Traveling
with a well-stocked first aid kit. There is more, but you get the idea.
And despite those precautions, you venture into the wilderness knowing things can turn into disaster
with very little warning. Your canoe tips, someone stumbles on a root or a loose rock and now you
have a broken limb or a serious cut.
The wilderness is filled with beauty and awe-inspiring views, but it can also be dangerous, and it can
test who you are and how you respond under difficult situations.
In scripture, the wilderness is described as isolating; lacking in the comforts and the necessities of
life. It is a place far from God. At least that’s the assumption. But stories of people in the wilderness,
from Moses to Elijah and Jesus, consistently tell us God is encountered in the wilderness. God keeps
offering sustenance, water and comfort when it is needed even while in the wilderness.
In Matthew we read that after his baptism, Jesus is led out into the wilderness to the spirit where he
is tested. The word tested is key here. He is tested.
Who are you? What are you capable of? What are your limits? Who do you rely upon in times of trial?
What are your strengths? What truly matters to you?
It is not a time of judgment. It is not a time to decide if you will fail.
Even Jesus spends time in the wilderness. He comes out of the wilderness with a greater sense of
who he is and what his purpose – his mission is.
Paul talks of the followers of Jesus spending time in trial. Of being tested. Just because you have
declared a faith in Christ, that you have chosen to follow Jesus, does not mean life is getting easy.
We are still liable to experience difficult times. Times when we are tested. Times in a wilderness.
But we are gifted with hope. That hope, as Paul tells us, does not give us a vision of how things turn
out. We are not offered an insight into how everything turns out and when. But our hope; based on
our faith, tells us we are not alone. We are provided supports and we are aware of our strengths and
our gifts. We know we are not alone, even in our wilderness times. And that offers us the strength
and the courage to keep journeying. To work toward that better tomorrow.
When Paul writes his letters to the church in Rome, those who had chosen to follow Jesus were still
finding themselves. They felt scrutiny from the wider society, and also lived with conflict from within
this new community as people debated what it meant to be a Christian. Especially as people debated
how much new Christians needed to adopt discipline of the Jewish faith.
There was real concern of the dangers and stresses of living under the imperial rule of Rome.
To many it would seem like living in wilderness while wandering the streets of Rome. And into this
stew of tensions and anxieties, Paul relates things to being cast out from the garden. That creation
itself is struggling to be freed from the bonds of empire, of exploitation and ownership.
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who
subjected it, in hope
21
that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will
obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been
groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor.”
In other words, creation is groaning as it experiences the birth of something new. We too are waiting
and groaning through this rebirth, and Paul urges his audience to live with patience for this new
world that is coming.
It is important to keep in mind that Paul lived with the expectation that the coming of Christ and the
new age was imminent. Yes, we must be patient, but this coming of the end times would happen in
their lifetime. And of course, Paul was a little off on that expectation. That doesn’t negate all of what
he wrote to the churches he spoke to and with. His calls for faith; of experiencing a oneness with his
fellow believers. Of the importance of love and compassion still hold great wisdom. And yes, we are
urged to live in faith for that which we cannot see. To live in hope for that which is yet to arrive and
to continue living and working for the coming of a world of peace and compassion.
Paul acknowledges that this world can often feel isolating and barren. We all experience times of
estrangement. Too many of us endure a lack of food, a lack of water and care. We feel alone or
abandoned.
But we can be assured of God’s presence and God’s love. We can hear Paul’s urging for patience,
and at the same time remember that we are not alone.
It is widely believed that Paul’s friend and supporter; whom he calls a fellow apostle, Phoebe read
this letter to the various churches in Rome. It was not read by a believer all alone in their room.
It was read to communities gathered in support and fellowship.
It was read to communities committed to supporting one another and offering encouragement.
These were communities of slaves and servants, labourers, fishermen and women struggling to find
their places in a world that tended to view them as property and objects of scorn.
Christianity in its early days was dismissed by Roman authorities and the elite as a religion of women
and slaves. But it was a religion that kept growing; in part because it spoke to those women and
slaves and told them they were seen; they were heard. And they were valued as beloved children of
God.
And they were promised a new world, a new heaven in which they were freed of the bonds that kept
them enslaved; owned by others who did not see them as beloved and valued for who they were.
They gathered to remember; to study and to worship a Messiah who promised a new world of
freedom, of love and mercy. And while they did not know when or how, they lived in hope of the
coming of that world.
May we continue to carry that dream of a new world.
May we carry the hope and the faith of those earliest believers, and continue their work of building a
world of love that values and holds precious all of creation.
Even as we journey at times through a wilderness that is beautiful and dangerous and can often feel
isolating; remembering that even then, we walk together with God. Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789