2026-02-22 (Iain) Wild, Wounded & Faithful reflection
22nd Feb 2026: Wild, Wounded & Faithful
I continue from last week, the theme of metanoia, a word essentially meaning transformation: a change of heart, mind, and body – of enlarging compassion, understanding and presence, leading to new life, whilst also introducing our Lenten theme of the Wild Messiah, which we have based on a poem of the same name by Jon Swales. The poem ends with the words Let us be: Wild, Wounded & Faithful: words I will interweave into my reflection.
In our Gospel, Jesus clearly undergoes metanoia/a transformation which prepares him for his life purpose. His time in the desert follows a typical initiation rite in many indigenous communities. These communities wisely understood that their young men had energy that needed to be channeled, otherwise they could misuse their power and cause great harm. So they created a ritualized wounding: The initiates are taken out of their familiar environment, away from home and community, placed in a ‘Liminal Space’, where role and status are uncertain and where control and certainties diminished. This space was almost always in nature creating a sense of the individual not being the centre of the world but part of something much bigger. Then in this space some kind of symbolic death/wounding is experienced. The initiate is led to the edges of their normal resources – they are rendered powerless, stripped of any false illusions, and taken down to their core self. It often takes the form of extended times of solitude, silence and sometimes fasting – all experiments in powerlessness, surrender, understimulation and underperformance. Then a new birth, life, self emerges and, when ready, the initiate is reintegrated back into the community. Here the interior change in the initiate is honoured by the community and they are given new status, dignity and authority. This precious transformation is understood as something given and not earned.
Jesus is led into the wilderness to undergo an initiation before embarking on his ministry/life purpose. We try and replicate a soft version of this in the form of retreats – which in my experience involve adequate, often good accommodation, good food, a spiritual director you can talk to at the end of the day and a community to be with if desired. Jesus foregoes this ‘soft’ option and goes into the wilderness or wild ness – with no props/ no support structures/ no sustenance – it is the act of a Wild Messiah. Mark’s gospel says he is with wild animals and with them danger. Jesus is pushed to the edge of his physical, mental and spiritual resources , where he is required to face his demons, which all have something to do with the misuse of power – something Jesus had to confront because his life was one of surrender, not control. If we are to be disciples of Jesus we also need to learn a life of surrender and confront the temptations of power.
The first temptation is about Personal Power: ‘tell these stones to become bread,’ – Jesus is being tempted to take a short cut and avoid the emptying, the hunger, the journey he has been led by the spirit to complete . He foregoes comfort and courageously enters the Wild ness.
Then comes the temptation to misuse Religious Power: as the devil quotes scripture: it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
This illustrates how the misuse of power can be wrapped in religiosity – throughout History, religion has justified the horrendous abuse of power: slavery and the colonization and genocide of the indigenous peoples of Africa, America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and of course Gaza and Palestine today. Jesus sees through false religious justification and replies: it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Finally we come to the temptation of Political Power: The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." This is the temptation that leaders face on their way to the top. The Epstein files shine a light on how powerful elite figures from all walks of life, live in a bubble where they lack accountability or consequences, leading to the gross misuse of power. If people have not encountered vulnerability or woundedness they are likely to lack empathy and abuse their power. Christ in the temptation undergoes a wounding, stripped down to his naked self, a self which is founded on his belovedness in God and not on any external displays of personal, religious or political power.
The first two temptations start with the words, ‘If you are the Son of God,’ testing Jesus’ sense of Divine identity, which is also one of our temptations – To not accept our divine identity, to our belovedness as children of God. We deny our Royal heritage; that we contain the divine seed, spark, light – the pure diamond within, as Thomas Merton called it. Instead our inner critic asks how can God love me when I’ve done this or not done this.
For the seeking of power is a substitute for a strong sense of self because we will seek our identity, through status, position, money, possessions, costumes, achievements. The truth is that we are all equally children of God, all equally fed by the same bread.
Throughout this testing Jesus remains faithful to God, to himself and to us – all of Humanity. Faithfulness that is foundational to everything Jesus did and everything we do.
Jesus stays faithful to God. His final emphatic words when Satan says you can have all these if you fall down and worship me are: Away with you! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" He also stays faithful to himself, to his identity as a beloved Son of God – refusing to deviate from this truth: He doesn’t wonder if this trial is a punishment for wrong doing or doubt that God no longer loves him. Finally he is faithful to us and the task he has been set. He walks through the desert, inhabits wild ness, emptiness, dryness – faces his own demons: in other words he goes before us and becomes somebody who accompanies us in our desert times. Thomas Merton says that Jesus, in his 40 days in the wilderness/desert, sanctifies the desert for us all. He makes those times when we feel dry, empty, thirsty, and vulnerable – Sacred and transformational.
Faithfulness is also foundational for our community. On our vestry ‘Awayday’ I asked each vestry member a question: What is the one charism/the one Gift that you have to give to the St. James community. You have some amazing people on Vestry with some wonderful gifts to offer our community. One person said: I always show up: if I say I am going to do something I do itl – suggesting maybe that that wasn’t important but what a gift that is.
There is a great new energy at St. James and I am profoundly grateful for God’s grace in fostering that but I am mindful that it is based on people who have showed up over many years, who have been here over a period of time and have been faithful in their tasks, their prayers, their relationships to both others and God. I’m sure there are times when they have been fed up, weary and the last thing they may have wanted to do was go that meeting, help with this task but they have showed up; they have been faithful.
There are many good reasons why people might not show up for something, that’s not what I am talking about and it is important we set boundaries and manage our time and priorities but I am talking about the willingness to take something on that requires a commitment over a period of time, and being faithful to that.
So let us, as a community this Lent endeavour to increasingly seek and uncover this Wild, Wounded and Faithful Messiah and begin to integrate these characteristics into our community life. If we do then maybe the Angels will attend to us. Amen.
I continue from last week, the theme of metanoia, a word essentially meaning transformation: a change of heart, mind, and body – of enlarging compassion, understanding and presence, leading to new life, whilst also introducing our Lenten theme of the Wild Messiah, which we have based on a poem of the same name by Jon Swales. The poem ends with the words Let us be: Wild, Wounded & Faithful: words I will interweave into my reflection.
In our Gospel, Jesus clearly undergoes metanoia/a transformation which prepares him for his life purpose. His time in the desert follows a typical initiation rite in many indigenous communities. These communities wisely understood that their young men had energy that needed to be channeled, otherwise they could misuse their power and cause great harm. So they created a ritualized wounding: The initiates are taken out of their familiar environment, away from home and community, placed in a ‘Liminal Space’, where role and status are uncertain and where control and certainties diminished. This space was almost always in nature creating a sense of the individual not being the centre of the world but part of something much bigger. Then in this space some kind of symbolic death/wounding is experienced. The initiate is led to the edges of their normal resources – they are rendered powerless, stripped of any false illusions, and taken down to their core self. It often takes the form of extended times of solitude, silence and sometimes fasting – all experiments in powerlessness, surrender, understimulation and underperformance. Then a new birth, life, self emerges and, when ready, the initiate is reintegrated back into the community. Here the interior change in the initiate is honoured by the community and they are given new status, dignity and authority. This precious transformation is understood as something given and not earned.
Jesus is led into the wilderness to undergo an initiation before embarking on his ministry/life purpose. We try and replicate a soft version of this in the form of retreats – which in my experience involve adequate, often good accommodation, good food, a spiritual director you can talk to at the end of the day and a community to be with if desired. Jesus foregoes this ‘soft’ option and goes into the wilderness or wild ness – with no props/ no support structures/ no sustenance – it is the act of a Wild Messiah. Mark’s gospel says he is with wild animals and with them danger. Jesus is pushed to the edge of his physical, mental and spiritual resources , where he is required to face his demons, which all have something to do with the misuse of power – something Jesus had to confront because his life was one of surrender, not control. If we are to be disciples of Jesus we also need to learn a life of surrender and confront the temptations of power.
The first temptation is about Personal Power: ‘tell these stones to become bread,’ – Jesus is being tempted to take a short cut and avoid the emptying, the hunger, the journey he has been led by the spirit to complete . He foregoes comfort and courageously enters the Wild ness.
Then comes the temptation to misuse Religious Power: as the devil quotes scripture: it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
This illustrates how the misuse of power can be wrapped in religiosity – throughout History, religion has justified the horrendous abuse of power: slavery and the colonization and genocide of the indigenous peoples of Africa, America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and of course Gaza and Palestine today. Jesus sees through false religious justification and replies: it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Finally we come to the temptation of Political Power: The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." This is the temptation that leaders face on their way to the top. The Epstein files shine a light on how powerful elite figures from all walks of life, live in a bubble where they lack accountability or consequences, leading to the gross misuse of power. If people have not encountered vulnerability or woundedness they are likely to lack empathy and abuse their power. Christ in the temptation undergoes a wounding, stripped down to his naked self, a self which is founded on his belovedness in God and not on any external displays of personal, religious or political power.
The first two temptations start with the words, ‘If you are the Son of God,’ testing Jesus’ sense of Divine identity, which is also one of our temptations – To not accept our divine identity, to our belovedness as children of God. We deny our Royal heritage; that we contain the divine seed, spark, light – the pure diamond within, as Thomas Merton called it. Instead our inner critic asks how can God love me when I’ve done this or not done this.
For the seeking of power is a substitute for a strong sense of self because we will seek our identity, through status, position, money, possessions, costumes, achievements. The truth is that we are all equally children of God, all equally fed by the same bread.
Throughout this testing Jesus remains faithful to God, to himself and to us – all of Humanity. Faithfulness that is foundational to everything Jesus did and everything we do.
Jesus stays faithful to God. His final emphatic words when Satan says you can have all these if you fall down and worship me are: Away with you! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" He also stays faithful to himself, to his identity as a beloved Son of God – refusing to deviate from this truth: He doesn’t wonder if this trial is a punishment for wrong doing or doubt that God no longer loves him. Finally he is faithful to us and the task he has been set. He walks through the desert, inhabits wild ness, emptiness, dryness – faces his own demons: in other words he goes before us and becomes somebody who accompanies us in our desert times. Thomas Merton says that Jesus, in his 40 days in the wilderness/desert, sanctifies the desert for us all. He makes those times when we feel dry, empty, thirsty, and vulnerable – Sacred and transformational.
Faithfulness is also foundational for our community. On our vestry ‘Awayday’ I asked each vestry member a question: What is the one charism/the one Gift that you have to give to the St. James community. You have some amazing people on Vestry with some wonderful gifts to offer our community. One person said: I always show up: if I say I am going to do something I do itl – suggesting maybe that that wasn’t important but what a gift that is.
There is a great new energy at St. James and I am profoundly grateful for God’s grace in fostering that but I am mindful that it is based on people who have showed up over many years, who have been here over a period of time and have been faithful in their tasks, their prayers, their relationships to both others and God. I’m sure there are times when they have been fed up, weary and the last thing they may have wanted to do was go that meeting, help with this task but they have showed up; they have been faithful.
There are many good reasons why people might not show up for something, that’s not what I am talking about and it is important we set boundaries and manage our time and priorities but I am talking about the willingness to take something on that requires a commitment over a period of time, and being faithful to that.
So let us, as a community this Lent endeavour to increasingly seek and uncover this Wild, Wounded and Faithful Messiah and begin to integrate these characteristics into our community life. If we do then maybe the Angels will attend to us. Amen.
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