Go in the Wilderness
Sun, 06/14/2009 - 9:12pm — amandah
Note: This is the sermon given at the Lake Edge UCC Campout at Indian Trails Campground in Pardeeville, WI.
Wilderness is mentioned all over scripture metaphorically and literally. Many of those stories we hear about God in the wilderness are solitary. Throughout history and across many religious traditions, great leaders and regular folks alike have gone into the wilderness to connect with God. Jesus was lead by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness for his 40-day time of testing and preparation. Or sometimes it’s as simple as using a walk alone in the garden as a chance to pray.
Some of us may have gotten a little wilderness alone time on this trip. But that’s not the main thing this trip is about. No, we have come out to the wilderness together. We are here to connect not just with God but with each other, and we’ve been having a great time doing it. In my wanderings over the last week or so preparing for this worship I have come across two powerful images of people coming together to worship in the wilderness.
One is the John the Baptist story we just heard. Mark, the oldest of the Gospel stories, does not begin the story of the gospel with the story of Jesus’ birth. Instead, he begins the story with the people preparing for Jesus’ ministry. Often we focus on John the Baptist himself, his crazy camel hair outfit, his diet of locusts and honey, his choice to live in the wilderness. But today let’s think about the people who came to John the Baptist. Mark says “People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the wilderness to see and hear John.” His preaching was so powerful, and their desire for something new and better was so great that they were willing to travel out TO the wilderness to hear him. Probably their journey contributed to their sense of a life changing experience. They came to repent their sins and turn to God. Turning their backs on the city and their usual routine was part of that turning. John the Baptist’s preaching was all about the need to turn your back on wicked ways, and people knew that’s what they would be getting when they came out. They wanted to turn away from all that and get a chance of something pure and fresh and free.
The other image I found of people coming together to worship in the wilderness is a story of American slaves. A few plantations permitted their slaves to have Christian worship in their own way, and many others provided a special worship service for slaves in their plantation churches. These worship services presented a slave-owners' view of Christianity, and, sadly, were often used to send the message that God wanted them to accept their natural place as slaves. But those worship services weren’t enough for those African-American people. They DID share in the Christian faith, but they wanted to worship in their own way. So on many plantations, they would slip away in secret to have their own worship service later. They would slip away deep into the wilderness, around the edges of the plantations, out of earshot from the buildings and deep in the woods or swamps. If they were caught, they risked beatings or death. But their need to come together to worship was so great that they took that risk. They would leave subtle coded trails, bending branches in a certain way to point to the sacred space so they could slip away and find each other. These secret worship gatherings were called “hush harbors.” There in the woods they could be free for a brief time, free to make noise, free to worship as they chose, free to be together.
There, two amazing and wonderful things happened. They encountered God as they needed him, not the God who said their place was to be slaves, but the God who liberated the Israelites, the God who would take them away from all the wickedness and bring them to joy in heaven, the God who was with them through all the trials. They may have first heard those Bible stories in the plantation church, but somehow in the wilderness they were able to find their way to the liberating and loving God.
The other amazing and wonderful thing is that there in the woods they could be noisy. They did sing on plantations, but in the woods, they could really sing out, clap and get into it. They created that category of music we call the spiritual, a uniquely American blend of Christian themes, American folk styles, and African music styles. If you look in the fine print in your hymnal you can see that many of our favorite songs today are spirituals. Wade in the Water that we already sang is one of those spirituals. To me that is a second miracle, that somehow out of that terrible experience God could bring the music that has in turn brought a powerful sense of God's presence to so many people.
So now we’re going to wrap up by singing one of those spirituals about the hush harbors, “Go in the Wilderness.”
[We don't have a recording of the campout group singing, but you can listen to a sample from the recording of the "Go in the Wilderness" spiritual sung concert-style by the Princely Players.]
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June 14, 2009 Note: This is the sermon given at the Lake Edge UCC Campout at Indian Trails Campground in Pardeeville, WI. Wilderness is mentioned all over scripture metaphorically and literally. Many of those stories we hear about God in the wilderness are solitary. Throughout history and across many religious traditions, great leaders and regular folks alike have gone into the wilderness to connect with God. Jesus was lead by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness for his 40-day time of testing and preparation. Or sometimes it’s as simple as using a walk alone in the garden as a chance to pray.
Some of us may have gotten a little wilderness alone time on this trip. But that’s not the main thing this trip is about. No, we have come out to the wilderness together. We are here to connect not just with God but with each other, and we’ve been having a great time doing it. In my wanderings over the last week or so preparing for this worship I have come across two powerful images of people coming together to worship in the wilderness.
One is the John the Baptist story we just heard. Mark, the oldest of the Gospel stories, does not begin the story of the gospel with the story of Jesus’ birth. Instead, he begins the story with the people preparing for Jesus’ ministry. Often we focus on John the Baptist himself, his crazy camel hair outfit, his diet of locusts and honey, his choice to live in the wilderness. But today let’s think about the people who came to John the Baptist. Mark says “People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the wilderness to see and hear John.” His preaching was so powerful, and their desire for something new and better was so great that they were willing to travel out TO the wilderness to hear him. Probably their journey contributed to their sense of a life changing experience. They came to repent their sins and turn to God. Turning their backs on the city and their usual routine was part of that turning. John the Baptist’s preaching was all about the need to turn your back on wicked ways, and people knew that’s what they would be getting when they came out. They wanted to turn away from all that and get a chance of something pure and fresh and free.
The other image I found of people coming together to worship in the wilderness is a story of American slaves. A few plantations permitted their slaves to have Christian worship in their own way, and many others provided a special worship service for slaves in their plantation churches. These worship services presented a slave-owners' view of Christianity, and, sadly, were often used to send the message that God wanted them to accept their natural place as slaves. But those worship services weren’t enough for those African-American people. They DID share in the Christian faith, but they wanted to worship in their own way. So on many plantations, they would slip away in secret to have their own worship service later. They would slip away deep into the wilderness, around the edges of the plantations, out of earshot from the buildings and deep in the woods or swamps. If they were caught, they risked beatings or death. But their need to come together to worship was so great that they took that risk. They would leave subtle coded trails, bending branches in a certain way to point to the sacred space so they could slip away and find each other. These secret worship gatherings were called “hush harbors.” There in the woods they could be free for a brief time, free to make noise, free to worship as they chose, free to be together.
There, two amazing and wonderful things happened. They encountered God as they needed him, not the God who said their place was to be slaves, but the God who liberated the Israelites, the God who would take them away from all the wickedness and bring them to joy in heaven, the God who was with them through all the trials. They may have first heard those Bible stories in the plantation church, but somehow in the wilderness they were able to find their way to the liberating and loving God.
The other amazing and wonderful thing is that there in the woods they could be noisy. They did sing on plantations, but in the woods, they could really sing out, clap and get into it. They created that category of music we call the spiritual, a uniquely American blend of Christian themes, American folk styles, and African music styles. If you look in the fine print in your hymnal you can see that many of our favorite songs today are spirituals. Wade in the Water that we already sang is one of those spirituals. To me that is a second miracle, that somehow out of that terrible experience God could bring the music that has in turn brought a powerful sense of God's presence to so many people.
So now we’re going to wrap up by singing one of those spirituals about the hush harbors, “Go in the Wilderness.”
[We don't have a recording of the campout group singing, but you can listen to a sample from the recording of the "Go in the Wilderness" spiritual sung concert-style by the Princely Players.]