Transforming Ugliness

Armodoxy for Today: Transformation through Christ

During the last few weeks of Lent, we met the Prodigal Son and the Dishonest Steward through a couple of Parables offered to us by Jesus and recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke. This Sunday, we will meet the Unrighteous Judge, completing a trilogy of “heroes” picked out by Jesus to teach us about the moral truths of life.  The characters, the Prodigal, the Manager and the Judge, are all people who we would hardly consider to be models of character and ethics, yet Jesus selects them for these lessons. Only Jesus can take something of deception and negative imagery and transform it into examples for our lives and for living.

William Shakespear wrote, “All that glitters is not gold” (Merchant of Venice). We may twist this around to say that not all that is dull is tin. We have something to learn from each of our encounters, from the variety of people that we meet. Jesus invites us to interact with our world and understand that there is an opportunity to learn and grow from everyone.  considering that everyone is a child of God.

With these ethically “ugly” people, the Prodigal, the Unrighteous and the Unjust, Jesus shares a bit of beauty about them to teach about the Kingdom of Heaven. As we are winding down the Lenten journey, consider the words that separate us from God, when the tempter offered the forbidden fruit. The words, “Take and Eat” – those words of condemnation, Jesus took those same words and transformed them into words of salvation: “Take and Eat” establishing the Holy Eucharist.

We offer a prayer of thanksgiving today, We thank you Lord, for opening our heart and soul to the beauty of the world and using us to express that beauty. Amen.