I’m writing this sitting on a plane on the tarmac as we wait while to take off for NYC.  It seems like every flight I take ends up with me sitting…sitting and waiting at the end of runways, sitting and waiting due to missed or cancelled flights.  It is that and running…running to catch connections due to very late arrivals, running to catch new connections.  Wait and run.

Waiting…these waits at airports and planes the past few months have been different than before.  For some inexplicable reason I am not stressed.  Waiting is easier.  There is nothing I can do other than wait but it is my choice how I wait.

It seems so appropriate to be waiting in Lent. It is also appropriate and perhaps ironic that I’m headed to NYC.  For those who braved the winter storm on the First Sunday in Lent, you hear me talk about how in Lent we are invited into our own wilderness; into the places we are most tempted.  Invited to confront temptation knowing God is with us and that Jesus has shown and will show us the way in the wilderness – the wilderness outside of ourselves and the wilderness within ourselves.

In Lent we are invited to take notice of that which tempts us, that which can lead us to turn from God, to turn toward separation and sins, and then to choose to turn towards God and with God’s help to embrace forgiveness and mercy.

I shared that for me, wilderness is not the desert or forests for there I am most usually aware of my dependency on God.  I am aware of God and God’s power of creation and expression.  I am aware of God’s on-going gift of life and new life.  For me, venturing into wilderness is best symbolized by the city.  It is the place I am lost likely to be overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed by bright lights that are not the light of Christ.  Overwhelmed by noises that are not joining the chorus of angels and archangels.  Overwhelmed by the things that ‘go bump in the night.’  In the city I find it hard to see the light of Christ or hear the chorus of angels and archangels.  I find it hard to find God among the glitz and made man constructs and products that beckon me to become a new person, not as God defines new life but as culture defines new life.  I can slip, without even being aware of it into the thinking that ads project, “I can be the master of my destiny.”  I can be self-sufficient and in control.  Or if I just do this, buy this, experience this, I will find happiness and power.

Even thought, on that Sunday, I invited us all to go into our place of wilderness I never thought that God would take me up on it and send me to a city for a week.  As I still wait to take off, I find myself wanting to go home.  Home to our small town.  Places where, for me, it is easier – easier to be, easier to live, and easier to experience God.

Yet I must remember God is in the wilderness of the city just as much as God is in the wilderness of the desert or forest.  And just perhaps I need to have my eyes opened so that I can see God’s presence, mercy and abundant love in the city.

Faithfully, Priest Joanne