Jesus is tempted in the desert. The reality of his humanness comes into focus as his dark side emerges. Why are we so fearful to know and love the Jesus of human experience? There is no weakness here, only grace. It strikes me that his desert is our desert, the place where the cold wind blows.
The institution has a dark side - Christ as head of the Church infuses it with his divinity and his humanness. Why are we as individuals and as a family of faith so fearful of embracing this cold place?
The cold wind of encounter with God cleanses with a surgical precision. The cold wind is an astringent to shrink our inflammation. The cold wind insists on slowing our movement and facilitates the germination of spring.
Working in the AIDS epidemic brought me to the fringes. It brought me to encounters with the cold wind of the renewing Spirit. We move into this season of the Great Encounter with the cold wind blowing in, over, through and around our garden spreading the seeds of the pleasant fruits of truth, light, and grace-filled love. Step into the cold wind of the unexplored darks places, the places of fear and brokenness, reject the protections of power and place and be welcomes as the beloved invited to eat the pleasant fruits of resurrection.
Awake O North wind and come thou South
Blow upon my garden that the spices may flow out
Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits"
Daniel Pinkham, Wedding Cantata, movement 3