Travel Essentials
First Sunday of Lent – Year C
February 21, 2010

This is a continuation of the learning we did with the children this morning, a consideration of travel essentials required for the oft described Lenten journey. In fact the season of Lent has been described so often as a journey that at least for me it's becoming a well worn trail. Perhaps too well worn. Maybe it's just a sign of my age, that I'm growing tired of travelling the Lenten road – having done it now so many times. And yet, when I bring to mind, as I did a few minutes ago as I went through my pack and the list of things I would need to take, I kind of recaptured the old feeling I used to have when I was preparing for a mountain backpacking trip. Maybe that's what I need to rekindle my interest in Lent as a journey – a nostalgic reminiscence of my own wilderness experiences such that they provide a context for the spiritual journey as likened to a physical journey.

So, let me describe further the kinds of spiritual learning that I've experienced . In so doing I might spark your own reminiscences of wilderness journeys, or help you to consider what kinds of wilderness you've encountered and the importance these various experiences have played in your own spiritual development.

It's an interesting thing to me that a whole range of past experiences can be connected to one particular image. Let me give an example – my friend Kevin and I, when we were in our late twenties, hiked hundreds of kilometres in the Rocky Mountains all around Banff and Kananaskis. We had many adventures, spent many nights in a tent in the crisp mountain air, and saw many different sights. But when I bring those times to mind, they are always connected to a specific place and time. It is a backcountry campground right at the junction where the trail from Johnston Creek branches in two directions – straight ahead to Pulsatilla Pass and a ninety degree right turn towards Badger Pass. That's the place that seems to be filed in my memory as THE wilderness spot. Perhaps it is because this is the place that was furthest from so-called civilization on this six day trip. Perhaps it is because it was at this camp ground that our stove fell over and nearly started a forest fire as a circle of brown pine needles went up in flame all around the stove. You might expect the filed photograph would be the next night's campground where we were hit by a mountain hail storm that circled in the valley coming back three times to dump several inches of pea sized hail on our tent and brought the creek we were camped beside from a clear babbling brook to a muddy deluge that threatened to flood our campsite. Of course now that I reflect on that journey – lots of other images come to mind – like the dinner plate sized grizzly tracks that had to be fresh because the previous night's hail and rain had otherwise washed the trail clean. It was an eerie experience as we were hiking through an old burn, which meant there was nothing but willow brush for miles and miles – willow brush that was just high enough to hide an unsuspecting bear. Another image comes to mind from the same day – the fourth day of our trip when we stopped for lunch and watched a wolf hike the same trail we had been on only minutes before – casually making it's way along the path, past us by not more than a few metres and then finally angling off into less worn territory on a quest for whatever it had on its mind that day.

I have to admit that this seems like an epic journey, but the point I'm trying to make is that while this particular trip did have its share of interesting and even a bit scary experiences, it wasn't that much different than many others we did. Yet it is this picture of the campground at the junction to Badger Pass that comes first to mind.

I think that's the way our mind works – creating images that represent a whole range of emotions and experiences – giving us a picture to capture the thousand words it brings to mind. For me that's one of and probably the most prominent image that captures the world “wilderness”. So when I hear and read the stories of Jesus' time in the wilderness, that's the story from my life that comes to mind. And then it seems natural to connect the stories. Jesus encountered his own share of troubles and temptations and yet steadfastly withstood them – recognizing that giving in to them would lead him to a place of weakness rather than strength. The temptation was to replace will power with other powers that ultimately would have weakened him.

The troubles that my friend Kevin and I encountered on our Badger Pass trip were not of the spiritually challenging kind – at least at first consideration, but they certainly were spirit building for us. We learned many things about ourselves as we encountered a number of challenges. We met very few people on this trip – spending most of the time by ourselves on the trail and always alone in the campgrounds each night. We knew that whatever adversity we encountered would probably be for us to deal with by ourselves – without any quick help at least. If we ran into trouble it would be up to us to figure out what to do. It was also confidence building and relationship building. Over the course of many trips together we learned that we could rely on each other and we learned what our skills were. There was much spirit building in these mountain adventures to say nothing of the main reason why we did them – to respond to the spiritual longing we both felt to experience the wonder of God's creation in the beauty of the mountains in which we hiked. As hard as the slog up Badger Pass was for us on the day that epitomizes all my wilderness memories – it was all worth it for the views we received at the top of the pass and the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep that shared the pass with us when we arrived. And yes, we were pretty wary of them as well – watching them from the corners of our eyes as much as they watched us.

One of the messages I hope to convey here is that Wilderness is not necessarily scary. It can be exciting and invigorating. It can be challenging for sure – but challenge is both character and spirit building. As much as learning independence and self-reliance and finding inner strength are important for us, I believe they inevitably lead to a a great spiritual discovery as well – namely that as good as we are on our own, as strong as we can be by ourselves, we will always need the help of a companion. For me on those trips my companions were at least two in number – my friend Kevin and the companionship of God – although I think there is a lot to be said that in many ways they were the same thing. As you know I am a strong believer in the immanence of God – the part of God that is present in each of us – which is both reassuring and challenging. It is comforting to know that God is as close as the air we breathe and the skin that covers our bones and muscles, but it is also challenging to know that we embody God in some intricate, intimate way and that we are therefore called to live out that embodiment in our lives in the world. I think that's what Jesus learned in his wilderness time – and he lived out that discovery in the days following his wilderness sojourn – in his Galilean ministry of teaching and healing.

I remember reading a book by Margaret Atwood called Survival – a thematic guide to Canadian literature. In it she proposes that Survival is the basic motif in Canadian fiction – that most Canadian authors have Survival as their underlying theme. Very often in Canadian Fiction this survival comes as a result of an encounter with wilderness. It only makes sense that in this land which still, despite the urban sprawl that is a constant concern, has many thousand upon thousand of square kilometres of wilderness, that survival on the land should be a theme.

So, Canadians, and perhaps especially northern Canadians, are well placed to consider the wilderness journey that we call Lent. We know that wilderness is good to have, good to experience. We know that it can be both a place where the spirit is close and a place where our spirits are strengthened. It is a place which many people see as representing their own spirituality. We know not to fear it, but respect it. We know to embrace it for all that it can do for us. Let us make ready for this trip in the land of Lent, making sure we have what we need. Amen.