Come and Take My Hand

Texts: Luke 4:1-14; John 13: 30 – 36; and the song, Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart by Meshell Ndegeocello

Our celebration of Black History Month continues with a song by Meshell Ndegeocello.
**************
We are entering a ritual season. The 40 day or 40 year wilderness experience is understood to be a time of testing, trial, and discernment which leads to a call to action which then leads to a promise fulfilled.

In Genesis 8, the rain fell for forty days and forty nights ... a time of testing for Noah's family followed by a call to follow God which is followed by the promise of God to never curse the ground because of humankind's propensity to be evil.

Exodus 16, "The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan."

Moses twice went into the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights to meet with God. Exodus 24 tells of the first time. Exodus 34, the second. In Exodus 34 it states explicitly that Moses "neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." The first time was easier - God wrote on the tablets and Moses might have had food.

Moses sent spies into the land of Canaan, according to Numbers 13, and "At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land." What did the spies discern? The spies reported that the land was amazing but so were the people ... the conclusion being by all but 2 of the spies that Israel didn't have a chance against the Canaanites. The people cried out against Moses and then in Numbers 14 God cries out to the people ... another 40 years for this. And it's not going to be you, it's going to be your kids that get to enter the promised land.

Deuteronomy 8:2 "Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments."

If you go to a concordance – whether and actual book or online – you will see forty days and years everywhere, such as 1 Kings 2:11, "The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem."

I bring this up not just to give a Bible lesson, but to say that this is a long-standing tradition that is used in various ways. There's trial. There's testing. There's discernment. It's poetic rather than literal. It's a concept of – a long time – as well showing it is a contained time.

Story after story, even when one like Jesus or Moses goes off into the mountain, what I've noticed is that a person is rarely sent off alone. They might be the only person there, but The Presence accompanies. For, it is to The Presence that we are sent. Even in the midst of trial or discernment ... it is not to the hard thing that we're sent to ... it is to The Presence. The hard thing happens, but hard things always happen. I wonder if it's in contrast to the presence of our Divine Beloved that the hard things feel and even become even harder.

As I've been contemplating Lent ... this season of a long yet contained time of reflection, discernment, and trial ... I have strongly felt that as alone as I am often in person; as alone as I am when I sit on the train filled with other people; as alone as I am because I am the one who inhabits this particular body; I am never actually alone.

In our reading tonight in John 13 Simon Peter doesn't want Jesus to leave him alone. He wants to know where Jesus is going. Jesus answers, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward."

This is afterward. We are living in afterward. Jesus calls to us - Come and take my hand.

When life becomes as Meshell Ndegeocello sings from the adapted words of Ecclesiastes, that it is time to move to the next step ... that this place and this season is winding down. As she sings, "I'm so ready. Free my heart so my soul may fly," she also sings, "Come and take my hand."

I see here so many pictures from these words. I see Jesus at the Table with his friends. I also see him in the Garden praying. In addition I see Jesus at the resurrection turning to us and saying, "Come, take my hand." It is as if our taking the hand of Jesus helps to free not only our souls, but also his soul.

In the wilderness story where Jesus was tempted he was not alone. It wasn't just the tempter with him either. It was the Spirit that drove him there to begin with. It is not my impression that Spirit just pushed Jesus into the mountains and then said, "See you later. Good luck.Hope it turns out well." I believe Spirit was with him. I believe Spirit sustained him during his time of decision-making. Who was he going to be? What was he going to choose? How was he going to live? Both paths were difficult ones laden with burden and with treasure.

No matter what decisions you are making, no matter how you are shaping this season of Lent to be meaningful to you, please do me this one favour. Don't live through it alone. Even if you need to be the only person on the mountain, don't go through this alone. Let Spirit sweep you up and love you. Let Spirit hold you and comfort you. There are so many people who feel alone and lonely. Sometimes we all feel alone and lonely. It is hard to reach out to The Presence, to feel being accompanied. But mark my words – you are never alone, when you are the only one there or when you are in a crowded room.

This Lenten journey that we are on is toward Easter. It is toward the promise of resurrection. It is toward our own spirit's rebirth. Whatever you do and however you do it, please know that Spirit is with you.

Sometimes Spirit, though, is not enough. Being accompanied by a person can bring great strength and comfort. But it is also a very vulnerable place to be. To give up our walls and our defensive tactics is scary and difficult. Like Peter, we want assurance that with whomever we have shared that kind of intimacy that they won't just go away. Unfortunately, sometimes we are whisked or driven into a seemingly solitary experience. And the truth is that we are the ones who inhabit our bodies, even when we share them with others. It is the you in your you-ness that stays constant.

At every turn, I believe Jesus is singing to us, "Now is afterwards. Come and take my hand. You can go through this forty days. You and I together because I've already done it and I know it's possible. Come ... take my hand."