Parish of Llandudno North Wales, Rector's letter

March 2009

On the first Sunday in Lent the Gospel Reading is always one of the accounts of Our Lord’s 40 days in the desert – this year we will be hearing St Mark’s version:

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him (Mark 1:12 -13).

Mark tells us that after his Baptism Jesus had to be driven into the desert by the Spirit. It evidently wasn’t somewhere he really wanted to go and who can blame him! The desert was an uncomfortable and hard place in which to live, a place far from the comforts of home and human companionship. There would be dangers from wild animals and the desert was also believed to be the domain of demons.

And when he arrived there, Our Lord found that it wasn’t just the discomforts and dangers of the desert that he would have to put up with, but something much, much worse. He was confronted by the power of evil and found himself being drawn into the conflict between good and evil in a big way. Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark doesn’t deal with the detail of the temptations Jesus faced, but it was a profound and deeply troubling experience for him, in which he had to make a crucial choice between what he believed was God’s way for the ministry which lay ahead for him rather than what must
have seemed more ‘sensible’ and easier alternatives.

When reflecting on Christ’s time in the desert I find great inspiration in a series of paintings entitled ‘Christ in the Wilderness’ by the 20th
century English artist Stanley Spencer. In these paintings the artist – like St Mark – was not so much interested in the detail of the temptations but rather on Christ’s day to day life during this time and in particular his sense of aloneness, of exile from human society his isolation and his need to sort things out at the beginning of his ministry.

Spencer was also very interested in the relationships Christ may have had with the creatures of the desert during his time there. He felt that the many references in Our Lord’s teaching to the natural world reflected his experience in the desert. So, for example, he based one of the pictures of the Wilderness series on Matthew 8:20:
The foxes have their holes and birds their roosts; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matt 8:20).
In this picture Christ sits among the foxholes, almost with his arms around them, with the foxes coming and going around him, their presence a comfort in a time of testing and isolation. Perhaps the most famous of all these paintings is called ‘The Scorpion’ and it reflects Luke 10:19:
I have given you power to tread underfoot snakes and scorpions and all the forces of the enemy. Nothing will ever harm you. (Lk10:19).
In this picture Jesus sits in the desert with a scorpion crawling across his open hand and another scuttling at his feet. Perhaps the scorpions represent the power of Satan which is testing him at this time, although it has to be said that he looks down rather tenderly upon these little creatures which could have given him a very poisonous bite. His attitude though, reflects his confidence that the power of evil, however dangerous cannot prevail.

Unfortunately I can’t reproduce these pictures here but I will bring copies to show the congregation on the first Sunday of Lent when we are thinking about this desert time. Be there if you want to see them!

Mark’s Gospel account of Jesus’ time in the wilderness and Stanley Spencer’s paintings of it are an encouragement to us to enter the spiritual desert with our Lord this Lent. We know that if we have the courage to go there we will certainly be leaving our normal comfort zone and may face discomfort and challenge, the need to confront our own demons and face the darkness within ourselves. We may have to spend time grappling with the direction our lives should take in the future. Yet we know that He will be with us through it all, that the angels will wait on us and the power of evil will not overwhelm us.

The special activities of Lent, our Quiet Day, times of prayer, reflection and discussion are designed to help us in all this so please do use them as well as all the normal resources of worship, sacraments etc. In particular you might find the sacrament of penance (confession) something well worth considering at this time of year.

Lent is sometimes called a ‘springtime of the Spirit’. But spring means growth and growth can be challenging and painful. Let’s have the courage to go into the ‘desert’ and allow God to help us to grow this Lent. And maybe as in Stanley Spencer’s vision of Christ’s closeness to the world of nature, the beauty of the natural world around us here in Llandudno can help us too!

Fr John

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