Mark 1:9-15
How can I pray? Lenten Preaching Series I

Lent is one of the times when people think a little more seriously about what it means to pray. Prayer means a lot of things to many people. Every single religion has some form of prayer, and prayer is seen as the very foundation of all spiritual disciplines and the very fuel or energy for all our spiritual journeys. For most people, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about prayer is that it is about asking for something, or to beg before God. In a way it is true that in our prayers we ask God to meet our needs in some way or the other, and sometimes we beg Him to answer us. However, asking God for something is a very small part of what it means to pray. Prayer in its most comprehensive meaning is to enter into spiritual communion with God. And as we all know, communion involves so much more than just asking for something. Communion has to do with interaction between two or more parties, and it has to do with engaging with each other’s interests and needs. Communion clearly involves listening to each other, as well as welcoming and serving each other. In other words, prayer is not just about going before God when we need something, or when we are in trouble.

This year our Gospel narration about the baptism and the temptation of Jesus seem more like a summary of what we read in Luke and Matthew.  At the baptism of Jesus the voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And as soon as that declaration is heard, what does Jesus do? He goes into the wilderness. It is as if he cannot help but go into the wilderness, away from the noise and all the worldly activities so that he can spend time alone with God. It says, “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” Wilderness has always had very deep spiritual meaning in Scripture. In the Israelite tradition, to a large extent wilderness represented their failures, their mistrust and grumbling before God, which in turn became a symbol of God’s displeasure toward His people. On the other hand, the wilderness also happened to be the place where God revealed Himself in a very special and spectacular way to His people. The wilderness is thus understood as the place where God appears most fully to his people.  It is the place where he announces his claim on their lives. The wilderness is really the place where the Israelites experienced the steadfast love and faithfulness of God in a very real way. And above all, it is in the wilderness that God makes a covenant with his children.

As scary, stark and lonely as it sounds, the wilderness in fact is the place where a profound communion between God and his people take place. It is no wonder than that Jesus feels the deep yearning in his Spirit to go into the wilderness as soon as he hears the voice from heaven. He knows that he needs the time and the place to get into an attitude of prayer before God, the Father. In more ways than one, the picture of going away into the wilderness must define our prayer life.

At first glance, going into the wilderness seems like the most unlikely way to understand how our prayers must be defined. Because, the wilderness, by its very definition screams of God-forsaken-ness, helplessness, a total vulnerability to the elements, a place where self-reliance evaporates in the harsh environment, a place where one is forced to gather and sharpen all the senses for the very primal instinct to survive. But that is exactly what prayer is about, becoming completely vulnerable before God, exposing ourselves before God in all our raw emotions. Prayer has to do with understanding and believing completely in the providence of God and our utter dependence on Him for our very being. Like in the wilderness, prayer must gather all our senses together to focus on the one single source of life, which is God.

Like Christ, we must find the time and place to enter into communion or pray with God. Jesus, the Son of God took the time and sought out places away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to pray regularly, how much more do we need to take time to pray before God? And like Jesus, we too must deliberately seek out the wilderness in our lives to engage in and experience true prayer and communion with God. As long as we depend on our own strength and continue to nurture our proud sense of self-reliance, our prayers will remain merely applications before a God who we use and remember only when we are desperate. In order to experience and enjoy the abundant life that is promised in Christ, our prayers must be about being in communion with God every moment of our lives.

We know that for Christ going out into the wilderness was about praying before God because when temptations came, his source of strength was God’s word, and he could clearly discern the true voice of God from that of the tempter who also used scripture to tempt him. Jesus’ being in the wilderness was definitely about being in communion with God in prayer because as soon as he finished his forty days in the wilderness, Jesus went out with authority and power to proclaim the Good News of God’s kingdom come. Similarly, true prayer is what gives us strength and power to go out into the world to proclaim and live out the Good news of God. This Lent, may you make that journey into the wilderness to know and understand what it means to pray with God. Amen.