Tarrying for the Spirit
I wonder what your Lenten season has been like thus far. We began this journey a little over five weeks ago as we were reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return. On that same day, we were invited into the practices of observing a holy Lent - a time that we set aside for deepening our faith and for growing in our spiritual journey from, toward, and with God. If your Lenten season has been anything like mine, I imagine you have had moments in which you have forgotten to do your Lenten practice once or twice (or even left it behind after life interrupted good intentions). I have had those moments in which I forgot to complete my daily morning prayer practice, which I am working to re-establish as the bedrock upon which I build the rest of my day. I have had weeks in which I fell behind in my reading of the book I took up during this season and then had to play catch up in the week that followed. I have had moments in which it felt much more like a wilderness season than it felt like a season lush with growth and deepening. And, I reckon, my experience within Lent is part of what it means and what it looks like to take up new practices for a season that is being set aside for growth and deepening. I reckon that experiencing the wilderness is normal when I am trying to find a way to fit something new into my life or when I am having to re-order things on my calendar to accommodate a new practice that I am seeking to turn into a habit.
The beginning of Lent this year started with the story of Jesus being baptized and then being driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. Thus, I tend to understand Mark’s telling of this story as also saying to us that the Spirit was in the wilderness with Jesus, and if the Spirit is in the wilderness with Jesus, I rather think that the Spirit is also abiding in the wilderness with us when we find ourselves in those moments on our spiritual journey. To say it in this way seems to place the emphasis on humanity as the abiding place of God’s Spirit, which I think is probably seeing the Spirit’s presence in such a small part of the created order that it cannot be the only place in which the Spirit is found. In fact, it might even be putting humanity on too much of a pedestal and failing to recognize that we benefit from the presence of the Spirit by virtue of our place within the created order which is the true abiding place for God’s Spirit.
In her book Tarry Awhile, Dr. Salina Stone helpfully reminds us that the center of the Spirit’s abiding is within the created order, and it is in her presence there that we, as creatures within God’s creation, participate in the life-giving work of the Spirit. She writes, “Before the Spirit of God was breathed into us, she hovered over the deep, and had intent and purpose before we existed. We are as much an expression of the creativity of God’s surveying Spirit as the witness. The Spirit causes the glory of God to be seen in parts of God’s created world that only God will ever know about.”
I love that Dr. Stone reminds us not only of our role as witnesses of the Spirit but also of our role as an expression of the creative work of God. Our tarrying in the Lenten season and our experience of the wilderness within that season is part and parcel of the two roles we inhabit as particular creatures within God’s creation. The journey we take up in the life of faith always reminds us of how we are creatures who serve as witnesses of the work of the Spirit in our midst. We are not simply a creature within creation but also the very creatures who are given the mission and ministry of preaching the Good News to others. In this particular way, the Spirit continues to empower us for mission and ministry and to abide with us in the wilderness of the spiritual journey.
The way in which the Spirit dwells within the Church, within the Body of Christ, is the way in which the Church continues to have the ability to preach the Gospel in word and action. The Pentecost moment that we come to after Easter is a moment that, for many, has remained within the church since that moment came and went. Dr. Stone offers, “For some, this moment is simply a one-off event, which means that the Church today is not only the body of Christ, but also the body in which the Holy Spirit dwells. All who belong to this body, because of this moment for the early Church, will share in this divine inheritance.”
All of this comes back to how our Lenten season has unfolded and where we might find ourselves today as we enter into the last week of the season. For some of us, we might find that we need to pick something back up - even if only for a week. For others, we might find ourselves in a place in which we have grown in our spiritual journeys and are now wrestling with new questions or feeling slightly uncomfortable as we continue to grow into the newness of our place.
For reflection:
Where are you in your Lenten journey?
How do you experience the presence of the Spirit in your life? Within God’s creation? Within the church?
In what ways have you experienced growth in your spiritual journey from, with, and toward God during the season of Lent?
