Return to the Wild

Readings: JER 20:10-13; JN 10:31-42

Have you ever felt like the world was out to get you?  Like a lot of things all at once were not going your way or that quite a few relationships seemed to be in turmoil at the same time. I saw a meme the other day that said, “I feel like Mercury’s been in retrograde FOREVER!”

That’s a bit of what it’s like in today’s readings.

Jeremiah’s words probably describe how Jesus was feeling as the net began to close around him and his enemies and detractors gained momentum, “All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.”

It is painful when we feel like people are taking some form of pleasure in our failures or are talking behind our backs.  We are social creatures who rely on others for community and identity, and when our relationships break down, parts of us break down too.

Especially with those we thought were friends or close to us.  Those betrayals really sting.

In Jesus’ case, he’s trying to explain that he’s living out the new revelation and offering people a new vision for human community.  But the authorities won’t have it and even some people close to him are rejecting him. People want to do him harm.  He escapes their clutches and we are told that he retreats  “to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.”  It’s such a simple line that we might gloss over as we read the text.  But more recent scripture scholarship started to wonder, “What is the significance of this geographical switch?  Why would Jesus go there?”

Scripture scholar and Spiritus visioning board member, Ched Myers, says that in the beginning of his ministry, Jesus apprenticed himself to John the Baptist and deeply identified himself with this tradition.  It was a marginal, wilderness tradition located along the sacred Jordan river where Jesus likely was initiated into old land-based traditions. It is where he discovered his identity, his purpose, his sense of community and belonging.

And so in the midst of these rejections, Jesus seems to return to where he started – on the margins and in the wild – to remember who he is.  He surrounds himself with the wilderness that originally shaped him so that he can renew his strength and vision as things become harder for him.

Where do you go when you need to recharge?  What contexts help you remember who you are?  What geography helps you get clear on your purpose or mission? Where do you go when you need healing or when the world seems to be a harsh place?

I can’t help but think of the Wendell Berry poem The Peace of Wild Things.

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I suspect that Jesus would agree.

For today, spend time outside if you are able, and be present to nature.  Let the peace of wild things offer you something that you need.