Friday, March 11, 2011

Urban Wilderness



I've been playing around in my mind with this idea of wilderness all day. I was thinking about those who live in the wilderness all the time. Those who live in poverty, in abusive relationships, in war torn countries. Those who are faced with racism and sexism and ageism regularly. Okay, so those are all very different types of wilderness... but all of them involved being tempted on a regular basis. When faced with the evil and hatred in the world, with the inequality and unfairness of it all, we are tempted to respond in kind. For it can be difficult to remember the grace of God in those moments.

When I think of these others types of wildernesses, I often think of the city more than the desert. I think of urban decay and overcrowded communities. I think of the economic inequality so present in a single city block. But then I had to stop myself short...

In scripture, the wilderness is a place of temptation, but it is rarely a place of punishment. Jesus was not sent out into the wilderness for some sin. Israel first heads to the wilderness to escape slavery, not to enter into it. The wilderness is not just a place where temptation lurks. The wilderness is a place where God is present. Where one's faith is refined. Where God purifies us and prepares us. Moses sat up on a mountaintop of wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights... in the midst of God's glory.

I need to rethink how I interpret wilderness... and the city... and places of war and poverty. I seem to flee them, but I wonder... I wonder if I need to move into them more fully in order to truly find God?

2 comments:

Shannon said...

Hey Pastor Jo Ann, thanks for your posts! I'm enjoying reading them and I think the photo inspiration is a really cool idea.

On this post, I think your instinct is good. I don't know much about biblical times, but it seems to me that the "wilderness" as understood by the tribes of Israel was mostly desert. Open, free, unruled. Not much to do in the desert except survive and reflect. Have you read "The Red Tent"? It's a retelling of the story of Dinah somewhere in Genesis, and is a really neat contextualization of life at the time. At one point the author (through Dinah) talks about the differences between living in the city and living in camp in the desert, and there are a whole lot more reasons to stay in camp despite the protections the city offers.

Maybe overcrowded city blocks provide more opportunity for the oppressed - sexually, economically, etc - to be grace-ful toward their oppressors, or for Christ followers to uplift. But while God is present everywhere, my idea of the wilderness (as a trope in the Bible at least) is that the experience of aloneness and utter freedom of the desert helps people to sense God more clearly. Even now, when hear the word "wilderness," I think of forests and tundra. I guess "concrete jungle" is somewhere in between, but I think I identify "jungle" more closely to "city" because of the danger and confusion of growth they both connote. Not freedom, but cloistering vines or buildings.

Reading that back it sounds simplistic, and I'm sure there are many good reasons to embrace cities and all the need in new ways. But my gut agrees with yours.

Jo Ann Deasy said...

It is interesting, because while I think of wilderness as vast and open, I am not sure I would have used the term "freedom." Though it is an important concept to consider. I wonder, though, if the freedom we often associate with wide open spaces is more of a contemporary concept and a privileged concept. Or maybe to say it another way, for Israel the desert was in some ways a place of utter freedom, but rather than experiencing it as freedom they experienced it as having to be utterly dependent on God. Something they were not always that eager to embrace! And something I am not always that eager to embrace either. Perhaps the wildernesses in our lives are those places where we are thrust into utter dependence on God, whether we like it or not.