Second Sunday of Lent; Luke :1-13
Lord of all ordinariness, Lord of all miracle, transform us, transfigure us, make us your own!
February is the shortest month of course but to me it always feels like the longest. It’s still winter but I can’t wait for spring. One gray day follows another. Everything is ragged and muddy and tired.
And my big temptation in moments like this is to start eating, especially sweet things, or to collapse on the couch and watch TV all day, especially something with spaceships, or to go online and start buying things, especially shiny things. I don’t want to face reality. I don’t want to face myself.
I don’t want to face reality. I don’t want to face myself.
I think what’s amazing about Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness in last week’s readings is how willing he is to accept how boring life can be. The devil is really saying, let’s do something exciting, let’s distract ourselves from this ordinary reality, and Jesus can, of course. He’s God himself, full of power and miraculous potential. Why not just go ahead and zap something, turn a rock into a loaf of bread, if only to relieve the tedium?
But Jesus knows that miracles are not the point. However many rocks get turned into loaves, you still have to face your own limitations and needs, you still have to act with compassion, you still have to get up in the morning and go to work.