When I was a student pastor in the early 90's at First Congregational church in Fargo, ND, our youth group did a summer canoe trip. Though we would have loved to come to the Boundary Waters, the limits of the size of the group were too small as we usually had 10-15 youth, not counting the adults. The trips were usually 7-10 days and up in Canada in the Turtle River system, we usually saw just one other group or person the whole time we were out there, anymore would have been a crowded trip. The senior minister worked as an EMT when in seminary so he knew the basics if someone broke a leg or had an accident. But we would have had to haul them out as there was no way to contact the outside world. Often there was more young women than men, so they had to portage Old Town canoes and two or three fifty pound Duluth packs. This was before the internet and smart phones, but it did get the youth out of their comfort zones and help them discover things about themselves, teamwork, and the beauty and dangers of the wilderness. I think I did about 4 or 5 of those trips, one year I twisted my ankle and this was my crutch (branch about 5 foot long, about an inch thick).
Last month, when the search for Denny Pechacek was happening and we have fifty to one hundred searchers out there walking through the forest; each day, at least one searcher had to be carried out by his or her team because they twisted an ankle or something, luckily they didn't need to go to the hospital, but it was hard and dangerous work walking through the forest just 20 miles up the Shore. Many leaders didn't have hope we would find him, even though we had drones and satellite helping us. The wilderness, the forest was just too wild. His body was finally found in about forty feet of water off the shore where his helmet washed up. We know the dangers of this beautiful country we live in.
In the Hebrew Testament, the wilderness represented danger. There was danger from wild animals, the elements of the heat or the cold, winds, rain, or snow. Danger in the Middle East of not finding water as much of it is desert. The Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness to get to the Promised Land and often complained that God brought them out to the wilderness to die for lack of food and water. If they had a choice, they would have rather gone back to slavery then endure the wilderness. So when they are in Babylon, they want freedom, but they know the journey back won't be simple or easy, so Isaiah proclaims that a highway is being built, valleys raised and mountains flattened so the people of Israel may have an easy journey to go back home. Of course, it didn't exactly happen that way, but they did back home relatively quickly and easily compared to that first journey.
In our Christian Testament, we take that prophecy of Isaiah to say that John the Baptist is out in the wilderness and all people are going out to him to be baptized. He is like the guru on the mountain to whom people have to climb up the mountain to find. He is by the Jordan River so don't have to worry too much about water to drink, but it is out of the way and inconvenient. After Jesus was baptized, he was lead, or driven according to Mark's Gospel, further into the wilderness. In the wild, Jesus was tempted to see what kind of ministry he would have: one of security, one of power, one of certitude. He choose one of faith and love and trust.
The early monks of the Roman Catholic Church, our desert mothers and fathers, went out into the wilderness because they found too much security, power, and certitude in the church. Many came to the wilderness of America to find that religious freedom but too quickly turned around and made security, power, and certitude their religion.
We, as the human civilization, have tried exert our dominion, for our security, power, and certitude over the world. For in God's eyes, and Isaiah's vision, there will be no civilization and wilderness, but all will come to the mountain and the lion and the lamb will lie down together and the snake and the child will play together. We, as humans, have to admit that we are caretakers, at best, of this world. The world is fighting back against the pollution by which we continue to pollute it. The mysteries and the beauty of the eco-systems have been and are being disrupted again and again by the assertion of our vision of what the world should look like. There is no separation, for this planet is home to all, not just humans. This plant is bigger than us, the more we try to impose our will on it, the more we disrupt and destroy what God has created.
I am very glad we have the Boundary Waters set up the way it is, to remind all the beauty of the world. I think we all are aware of the dangers of the landscape of this place and the waters of Lake Superior. They must be treated with respect. I hope the valleys aren't raised and the mountains laid low. I hope that all humans can find a home and land which they can call their own. I pray that we, as humans and as Christians, finally choose faith, love, and trust over security, power, and certitude. I pray for God's kingdom, kin-dom, come upon this world so we may all gather in one big family. Amen.
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