Second Sunday Of Lent

Scripture: Matthew 4:11
photo credit: Thomas Cole: Angels Ministering to Christ in the Wilderness [public domain], via wikimedia commons

Emergency Assistance Caseworker Jill Cartledge recently shared this story:

“Miss Annie” is a senior citizen living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Like many senior citizens in our community, she has to juggle the costs of her medication, rent, utilities, water, and other bills. She has to find a way to pay all of these and more on a meager fixed income. She knows the wilderness of poverty.

A lot of us imagine the wilderness as lush and green. Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we have forests and wetlands. In other parts of the country there are prairies and meadows and rolling hills.

The wilderness of poverty is more like the wilderness of Israel, the wilderness that Jesus knew: it’s a desert. There’s never enough.

Most of the lectionary readings this Lent are from Luke. But in Matthew’s gospel, after Jesus sends the devil away, something interesting happens: angels appear to serve Jesus.

Jesus was not alone in the wilderness.

Neither was Miss Annie. Miss Annie had angels waiting here to serve her during her time in the wilderness. Miss Annie had Back Bay Mission.

For more than 90 years, we’ve served in the wilderness of poverty. We’ve given people food, helped people pay their bills, provided safe places to stay, and quickly gotten people into housing. You can read about the many ways we’ve been angels on our history page and see some of what we’re doing now on our ministries page.

Miss Annie came to us for help with her electric bill. We’re doing more than that. Over the next few months, we’ll be helping her with rent, electric, and water bills. We’re also connecting her with our Community Health Partner to help her manage her illness and the cost of her medications. We’ll be angels to her, helping her make it through her time in the wilderness.

This kind of emergency assistance isn’t the end. But for many of the people who come to us, it’s a place to start. It’s a way to get through their time in the wilderness. It’s a much needed chance to rest during a hard time.

A few meals worth of food, a safe and welcoming place to rest, or some help with a few bills might not change the world. But for the people we serve, it can make a world’s worth of difference.

Lent is a season of wilderness. It’s a time when we imagine ourselves in the wilderness, when we take stock of the things that draw us away from God, and when we’re reminded of our mortality. We begin the season with the reminder: from dust we came, and to dust we will return.

But what if, this wilderness season, we imagined ourselves as angels? What if we took stock of the service that can draw us closer to God? What if we remembered that the one we serve is the pathway to abundant life? What if we took the reminder: from love we came, and to love we will return?

All of us have the chance to be angels in the wilderness. And while that might not be the end, for those we serve it can be a wonderful new beginning.