Notes for the Week Fourth Sunday in Lent March 22 2020

Dear friends,

We have entered uncharted territory and like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we are going to find ourselves coping with our circumstances in the best way we can. We won’t be perfect. The Israelites certainly weren’t. But we can learn from their ancient footsteps and from the mistakes they made and from the triumphs they celebrated.

First of all, we have to trust, just as they were asked, to trust. Sometimes they did better at this than others, following Moses as he somehow made his way to Canaan, gratefully receiving sustenance from heaven along the way. Then there were times when they lost their trust and let Moses have it (that business with the golden calf, you may recall.) They even got mad because God didn’t provide something else besides unflavored manna. Yet, regardless of their complaining, their dissatisfaction with services provided, they hung in there and finally arrived at their destination, a changed people, a more generous people, and infinitely more trusting in God.

Now it is our turn to face a wilderness that gives us no choice but to walk through it. We Christians should be prepared to do so with trust, faith and plenty of good humor. After all, we have been in training for this for as long as we can remember. Lent is no stranger to us, and as Lenten people, we are no strangers to the wilderness.

Yet, this time Lent is real, not just a liturgical way of having us remember our past. This time, we are the ones being called to make our way through it and it will draw out the best and the worst of us…..who we are and what is the measure of our strength. And, just like the Israelites, it’ll be some time past Lent before we can actually enter Canaan. The arrival time changes daily, just as it did back then, and we are called to make the best of the situation. We are to take whatever lemons we are handed and set up our lemonade stands. We are to take bad news and create some good news for someone who needs to hear it with a smile, a conversation, a little humor and a whole lot of patient understanding with those who are close to us who might be getting a little testy with confinement.

Most importantly, we know that, eventually, we will emerge from this wilderness, an Easter will come. We may not celebrate it in the way we are used to celebrating, but we will emerge into a new way of life, newly aware, newly led to face whatever trial comes our way and back in touch with just how important our relationships are to each other and to God.

Welcome to the real wilderness, we have no maps in this uncharted territory, but we will have faith in the signposts that appear along the way, and we will trust in God to guide us.

We journey together,

Mother Esme+

May we be God’s blessings, and instruments of God’s love. May the words of the Apostle Paul ring loudly and true in our hearts, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.”   (2 Cor 1:3-4)