Mark 1:9-15
“Come Out of the Wilderness”
By: Rev. Kenneth Sauer
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
Jesus’ wilderness time came immediately after His baptism and the powerful affirmation of Who He was: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Wilderness time is a part of our lives as well.
They are those times when we feel that we are being tested to our limits.
Our faith journey may feel desolate, lonely, trying, difficult…
…even agonizing.
But these “wilderness times” will be much more easily overcome and endured when we realize that they are times for learning.
One of those email lists that made the rounds a few years ago…
…you know what I’m talking about…
…listed significant things that children have learned about life.
Here are just a few of them:
“You can’t trust dogs to watch your food for you.”
“Don’t sneeze when somebody is cutting your hair.”
“You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.”
“When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair.”
“No matter how hard you try you cannot baptize a cat.”
These are the kinds of accelerated learning experiences we might call: “learning the hard way.”
And so it is with the hard time in the wilderness.
Jesus’ time in the wilderness came just before He began His public ministry.
It was a time of sorting out what mattered most and to get clear about God’s will for His life.
A key is that Jesus did not stay in the wilderness forever.
He was there for forty days, “being tempted by Satan,” and after coming out of the wilderness He went into Galilee, “proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come…The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Like I said before, we follow Jesus into the wilderness as well.
We are tempted by Satan…
…and sadly enough, we, unlike Jesus, often give into Satan’s temptations.
This may cause our wilderness experience to last longer than forty days.
If we are not alert.
If we do not repent and believe the good news…
…our wilderness time could end up lasting a lifetime…
…a lifetime of wandering, lost, this way and that…
…without the peace of Christ…
…without accomplishing much for God’s kingdom.
We could spend countless years in the wilderness of life…
…and that, my friends would make Satan very happy…
…because a Christian who is just spinning his or her wheels in the wilderness is not doing much…
…not enjoying much…
…not giving much…
…not loving much.
The wilderness time is necessary for our education…
…so that we can be refined in the fire…
…so that we can be made stronger…
…stronger in order to make a greater impact for Christ…
…but the wilderness is a very dangerous place to set up a tent, build a home, or ultimately have our grave dug.
Sometimes we enter the wilderness time because of our own doing.
The most common cause of the wilderness time is a sin of one kind or another.
Our sins usually bring about the confusion and misery that lead us into the wilderness.
First there is the sin of commission.
This is a sin that is known, willful…
…we do it on purpose.
John Wesley taught that such sins…
… “such an abuse of God’s goodness and so great a contempt for His love [can] cause an immediate alienation from God—‘a darkness that can be felt.’”
Have you ever entered the wilderness time by committing a sin of commission?
I have.
Thank the Lord that God is merciful and will forgive us, if we repent, and will lead us back out into the light.
The greatest thing we can learn from committing a sin of commission is to remember how bad it it made us feel.
To remember how dark the darkness was…and to allow that to cause us to think and pray…
…and not fall for the same thing again.
To learn from our mistakes.
There also are the sins of omission.
These are the sins that tend to gradually lead us into the wilderness time.
If sins of commission can be compared to pouring water on a fire; sins of omission can be compared to withdrawing fuel from the fire…
…until the fire goes out.
Some examples of sins of omission would be not taking the time to have private prayer and devotion, not attending church on a weekly and faithful basis, putting off studying the Bible, not ministering and sharing our faith with others.
Neglecting these essential spiritual disciplines can and will lead us into the wilderness….
…where our lives take on an empty quality…
…our faith is quenched…
…we do not feel the power of being close to God…
…we lose the skip in our step…
…we feel uninspired.
So what is the cure for the wilderness time?
It is to do exactly what Jesus is preaching in our Gospel Lesson for this morning.
It is to repent and believe the good news.
“Repent” in Greek means literally to “change one’s mind,” but it is also loaded with the overtones of the Hebrew counterpart which is to “turn” or “return.”
It is about reconciliation with God.
It is a change in the direction of our life.
“Get yourself a new orientation for the way you live, then act on it.”
“Repent and believe the good news!”
And this new way of life is in response to the kingdom of God having come near.
Jesus Christ has come near.
He is in our midst.
God has become flesh.
Jesus has paved the way for forgiveness, salvation, peace, and entrance into the kingdom of God.
It’s right here for the asking.
Repent and believe the good news about Jesus Christ and you will enter the Kingdom of God right here and right now!
Come out of the wilderness!!!
And as a part of the Kingdom of God we are members of Christ’s Holy Church, both universally and locally.
We are called to serve the poor, the outcaste, the lonely, the depressed.
We are called to proclaim the good news to those who are held captive by sin and death.
We are called to revolutionize the world through spreading God’s Word throughout our communities and world!!!
How well are we doing at this?
We can always do much better!
That is one reason why our church, as a part of the Peninsula District of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is embarking on what is called an “Evangelism Priority.”
And we are all called to take part in this.
Many of our churches have reached a plateau, are no longer growing, or are losing members at an alarming speed.
This means that there is something we have been doing wrong.
If we are called to make disciples…if this is our main reason for being…
…to convert the world…
…and we are not gaining in this category…
…then we have been spending too much time in the wilderness.
We are guilty of some sins of commission or omission or both, and we need…
…no strike that…
…we must repent!!!
There will be no renewal in our churches until we repent.
We are looking for a resurrection of our vitality.
But there cannot be resurrection without death.
We must change.
We must re-orient ourselves.
Therefore, each individual church on our district has been asked to meet in small groups in order to identify and name those things that have kept (in our case) Parkview United Methodist Church from doing all of what God is calling us to do.
What has prevented us from fully participating in God’s kingdom?
Where have we failed?
I want all of us to keep these questions, and possible answers to these questions in our thoughts and prayers over the next few weeks.
Next Sunday, immediately following Lunch on the Grounds, you will be asked to participate in a small group setting where this naming and identifying will take place.
There will also be an opportunity to participate in a small group immediately following worship on both Sunday, March 19 and March 26th.
Once all these small groups have met…
…the answers to the questions will be compiled so that we will be able to repent—as a congregation of those things that have kept us from fully participating in building God’s Kingdom—during a worship service during Holy Week.
We will then build a covenant together for more effective evangelism.
The wilderness is an important place to visit, but it is not a place to live one’s life.
We are to live as those who are obedient to Jesus Christ’s call on our lives…
…to repent and believe the good news!!!
And one of the things which is involved in repentance is humility.
We must admit where we have fallen short.
Then we must make a covenant with God to change, and not go that way again.
At one of the recent district evangelism events, Dr. Scott Kisker, a professor of Evangelism from Wesley Theological Seminary, shared this story.
Scott used to be on the swim team in high school.
And when one is swimming the only way one is able to stay the course and reach the finish line is to keep one’s eyes open and fixed on the straight black line painted on the bottom of the pool.
And what is at the end of the straight black line?
What is painted on the wall of the pool…
…what marks the finish line or the place of destination?
Well, it is a cross, is it not?
Too often we think of evangelism as marketing ourselves and then we wonder why nobody wants to be like us.
Evangelism is not about marketing ourselves, it is about lifting up Christ so that Christ may draw all people unto Himself.
How well are we doing in lifting up Christ?
It is time to come out of the wilderness, to repent, believe and to proclaim that the kingdom of God is near…in Jesus Christ…the only One Who can save persons from sin, death, and hell!!!
