https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/20170305sermon.mp3
Texts: Genesis 2:8-9; 15-17; Matthew 4:1-11
If you’ve read the Lent devotionals, looked at the bulletin cover, or found the pattern in the hanging dots behind me, you’ve likely noticed a visual theme. We’re using the labyrinth throughout Lent as a symbol of the Inward / Outward journey.
It’s an ancient design. Not necessarily this particular one, but the labyrinth. One site in northern India has a labyrinth pattern estimated to be 4500 years old. A cluster of islands in northwest Russia have over 30 stone labyrinths that may be as old as 3000 years.
Greek mythology includes the story the part human/ part beast minotaur who wreaks havoc on the population until the great architect Daedalus designs and builds a labyrinth whose sole purpose is to contain the minotaur at its center. The hero Theseus eventually enters the winding labyrinth and slays the minotaur. Some labyrinths still portray a minotaur at the center.
In later medieval times stone labyrinths show up in regions like Scandinavia, frequently around the coast. Fishing communities likely built these with the superstitious hopes of trapping harsh winds and trolls that may endanger a successful fishing outing.
Around the same time, the...