Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading from Genesis recounts the events after the Noah’s Ark flood. In that story God decided that the world had gotten so wicked that he would destroy the world and start over again; only Noah, his family, and one pair of each animal would be saved. He instructed Noah to build and ark and gather the animals; after this it rained, the earth was flooded and only those on the ark survived. After they find land God tells them he will never do this again. God then showed them a rainbow as a sign of his new covenant. In Mark’s Gospel we learn that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness for forty days where he was tempted by Satan. After John (the Baptist) was arrested Jesus returned to Galilee and proclaimed this: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”

I’m not a betting man but I’d wager nearly everyone who reads this has a picture of a rainbow on some device: phone, laptop, desktop, whatever. There’s something about rainbows that makes us smile. And we generally see rainbows after rainstorms. I live in Southern California and we’ve had more than our fair share of rain in the past year and it has pointed out for us the complicated relationship we have with precipitation.

All life requires water and it covers much of our planet but that water also has salt which prevents us from drinking large quantities of it. For all that we’ve mastered our world we are still dependent on seawater evaporating as fresh water and raining it down on land. If that process stops we will all die in a matter of months. But that water that waters vegetation and provides for our thirst can also drown us. It’s a fine balance and the horrific fear of drowning probably explains our attraction to the story of Noah’s Ark.

I’ll confess that I’m still troubled by the Noah’s Ark story and it can easily be read as God having a “temper tantrum” and expresses his regret to Noah and family by promising never to do this again. Yeah, let’s leave that for another day. Whatever the reasons, Noah’s family was given the chance for a “do over” in a brand new world but only after the ordeal of the flood. They all spent those months looking at the sea hoping to find dry land. The flood had cleansed the earth of its wickedness, except that it really didn’t. The rest of Genesis gives us the Tower of Babel (chapter 11), Sodom and Gomorrah (chapter 19), Joseph’s enslavement in Egypt (chapter 37), etc.

In much the same way Jesus didn’t choose to enter the desert: Mark tells us that “the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.” As Noah and family searched for dry land, Jesus no doubt searched for water. And after his ordeal was over he began his journey to Jerusalem to be arrested, tortured, and killed (only to rise again on Easter).

A few days ago, on Ash Wednesday, we began our journey (which sometimes feels like an ordeal), Lent. As Noah’s world rained for 40 days, and as Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, we spend 40 days in Lent. Long time (and even moderate time) readers of my homilies well know that I find frustration over the way many of us view Lent. As children we were told some version of this: “Jesus died for you sins so don’t you think you can at least give up sweets?”

That’s fine as far as it goes but if we’re still doing that as adults it may be time for an upgrade. Neither Noah nor Jesus sought out their ordeals and I don’t think we need to either. It’s been my experience that ordeals seem to find us. Instead of enduring Lent maybe we can explore. Neither Noah nor Jesus chose their ordeals but they did choose how to respond. If Noah spent all that time just staring at the ocean he probably wouldn’t have accomplished much. But if he spent that time in nature learning about the animals he could have come away with a better understanding of God’s creation and his place in it. He could have learned about the sleekness of tigers and the playfulness of lemurs. He could have marveled at the complexities of spiderwebs and the problem solving abilities of elephants.

Jesus could spent his 40 days grumbling about the lack of water. Or he could have sought out the beauty of the desert, the sounds of life and the brilliance of the Milky Way. It’s always a little dicey to try to imagine the world through Jesus’ eyes but I hope his divinity didn’t take away his sense of awe and wonder.

It can be the same for us. Perhaps instead of doing (or giving up) we can look at some of our challenges and see if there is a hidden lesson for us. Perhaps a difficult relationship calls us to pray for the other person and try to understand what pain is causing them to cause us pain. Maybe we can look at some area in our lives where we feel stuck and look anew at ways we have more agency than we thought.

The purpose of Lent is not to punish ourselves. Jesus died for our sins but that doesn’t mean we should drown ourselves in guilt with the hope that a dry Lent or an Etsy free Lent will even things out. There are parts of our world and our lives that may benefit from another look. And it may take an ordeal to allow that to happen. Then again it may be a rainbow.