conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sermon mumblings and a full day

I believe you can look at solitude, community, and ministry as three disciplines by which we create space for God. If we create space in which God can act and speak, something surprising will happen. You and I are called to these disciplines if we want to be disciples.

--Henri J. M. Nouwen

The last couple of weeks I have been preaching about the nature of the Christian spiritual journey. I've talked about how it begins, what fuels it, a possible purpose for such a journey. I have talked about Dr. King as an example of where a Christian spiritual journey might lead us. I have talked about the Magi, and even Jesus himself upon occasion. I'm a rebel. What can I say? This Sunday I am going to talk about the desert. The desert (or the wilderness) is also an archetypical aspect to the Christian spiritual journey. Entire Christian movements owe their identification to the desert. I'm wondering how the desert reveals itself in suburban America.

I could list a bunch of -ism's here. Consumerism is a desert. Capitalism is a desert. Or I could say that our success driven lives are deserts as well. Addictions are signs of the desert. But I think that this week I'll look at loneliness as a desert. Is it possible that our loneliness (perhaps a result of -ism's etc) is a desert that can transform and be transformed? Jesus goes out into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days. He meets the Devil there. And the Devil offers up a variety of temptations. I can see loneliness in each of these temptations. Loneliness can drive us insane. But what about solitude? Solitude may be defined as sanctified loneliness.

Jesus fasts and prays in the desert. One might say that he went looking for solitude. What he found, however, was a mix of solitude and loneliness. He found temptation and the restorative presence of God. The desert monastics also speak of the difficulties of solitude, the reality of the devils of our imaginations, our hearts, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The suburbs are isolating places. "Bedroom communities" are barely communities at all and loneliness is rampant. Churches can help alleviate that difficulty by providing community. Certainly. Churches can provide fellowship, and they should. It's a wonderful ministry. Is it also possible that churches can teach solitude? Merton said that one learns to be with others by learning to be alone and vice versa. Nouwen had his own ideas about solitude. Most of the great spiritual witnesses within the Christian tradition speak of incredible loneliness. Once again, Mother Teresa comes to mind. We cannot deny the place of the desert in our spiritual journeys.

Christ experiences incredible loneliness in the wilderness. He experiences it at Gethsemane when his friends fall asleep. No one would or could stay awake with him. Loneliness. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Isolation...total, soul-crushing isolation will come. The church must find a way to speak about such isolation, to be able to distinguish between isolation and solitude, to be a safe harbor, an oasis, for someone who is walking through the wilderness. Perhaps then isolation, loneliness, can become solitude.

Of course, Resurrection comes. But first, there is the desert. And that's where we need to stay for one Sunday. A church can be an oasis in the desert, and a gathering of solitaries.

Hmmm...

Solitude and Isolation...and loneliness is part and parcel of each. Now that's a challenging morsel.

Posted by tripp at January 25, 2008 06:22 AM