Tuning In

Readings: DT 26:4-10; ROM 10:8-13; LK 4:1-13

In the first reading, Moses reminds the people of their extraordinary journey.  They started as a wandering tribe, ended up enslaved and oppressed and, ultimately, found a new home where they thrived as a people.  They are reminded, however, that they did not do this themselves.  God brought them through and, because of that, they needed to give God the “firstfruits” from the land as a form of gratitude and recognition.

More than anything else, the Hebrew scriptures keep coming back to this theme: remember what God has done for you, and during Lent, we’re invited to remember all that God has done for us – all of the blessings, all of the connections, all of the sustaining – and to say thank you in concrete ways with our lives. 

Then we hear Paul tell the Romans that, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”  There is an intimacy that Paul wants to remind us about.  God is not “out there” so much as “in here” and close to us.  And God is the life force that animates and connects everything.

I love the Star Wars movies, and I often think of God being like “the force.”  The great Jedi teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi tells a young Luke Skywalker that the force is an “energy field created by all living things…it surrounds us and penetrates us…and binds the galaxies together.”  And like the young Luke Skywalker, we must practice tuning in to the force in our lives so that we can tap into this power.

But like any power, this energy can be used for good or in other ways.

In the gospel, we read of Jesus’ temptation to use his power in ways that are not aligned with what he knows his mission to be.  I’d point out two things here.  First Jesus has already aligned himself with the energy of God and has been practicing tuning in to it.  Secondly, Jesus is clear on who he is and who he is not.  So when “the devil” visits him in the desert and offers him an alternate path that would elevate Jesus and make him popular, impressive and successful, he is clear and can say, “No!”

Most of us likely do not have this level of clarity in our own lives, and we live in a culture whose values all seem to align more with the temptations than with the gospel. It takes work not to go along with the flow.

And so during Lent, we intentionally pursue a path of quiet and contemplation (what 14th century mystic Meister Eckhardt spoke of as a spirituality of subtraction) so that we can do what all 3 readings would have us do: Remember what God has done for us, tune in to the power of God around us and stay true to our call.