An Ash Wednesday Meditation; preached to the congregation gathered at Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview, Minnesota on Wednesday, March 5, 2014. Blessings - John
Today we gather to worship and
commence the season of Lent. The next 40 days are set aside in the life of the
church as a time of reflection and a time of repentance. Much as Advent is a
time to prepare for Christ to be born again, Lent is also a time of preparation.
We are preparing internally – our hearts, our minds, and our souls for the
season of Easter and of new life. The truth about the resurrection is this –
that in order for something to be born again and to live again, something must
first die. And so we gather to reflect on that part of our self that needs to
die, namely the sin, the stumbling blocks, the things that keep us from living
the life that God intends for us to be living.
For many the season of Lent
involves giving something up. I’ve been known incorporate this practice into my
own personal spirituality. There is a part of my that realizes that the season
of Lent has deep meaning in the life of the church and little impact in the
life of the world. And because Easter is such a big deal to the story of our
faith – then I want Lent to be something that disrupts my routine so much that
I am ready to pay attention to the signs of new life around me. And so I’ve
been known to give up things like caffeine…or television…some give up Facebook
for Lent. One year, I gave up driving for 40 days. Maybe you have tried
something similar.
There has been a counter trend in
some Christian circles of instead of giving up something for Lent, folks have
chosen to add something that adds value to the spiritual life. A time of daily
prayer or a memory verse each day.
There are many ways to engage in
the life of the spirit during the Lenten season – but I encourage you to take
advantage of the season of the church year to deepen you relationship with God.
If it involves giving something up to make this relationship more meaningful, I
encourage you to give it up – and I’d love to hear your story. If it involves
adding something to make this relationship more meaningful, than I encourage
you to add to your life – and then tell me those stories as well.
But what I want most for you this
Lenten season is that you reflect on the things that matter most – namely your
relationships – with God and with one another. There are many ways to be during
Lent. Matthew’s gospel lifts up a few things that Jesus expects his followers to
do and helps focus them by lifting up the motivations that people have.
There is a bit of irony in the
passage today. I get that Jesus is telling us to avoid showing of our deep
levels of piety….and then later on in the service we are going to mark ourselves
with ashes and leave this sanctuary bearing the sign of the cross on our
foreheads. Seems like a pretty public display of our faith to me, does it not?
However, I think the idea that
Jesus is telling is that we should not practice our faith only so that others
might notice them. In other words, we aren’t here tonight to worship so that we
can be seen by others as deeply religious. Or at least we shouldn’t be. We are
here tonight in worship to mark the beginning of the Lenten season, a time of
reflection and repentance. I used to be really into giving things up for Lent
because I wanted it to be such a big disruption that I would notince when
Easter came…the great disruption of our faith. In a world of instant
gratification it is important to be able to slow down and wait for something
important. (The problem with instant gratification is that it takes to long).
The text from Matthew, chapter 6
offers to us three ways in which we the people of his time practiced their
faith – and they are important enough that I offer them up to you as ways in
which you might engage your faith at a deeper level. Jesus offers a framework
for us…but it is up to us to put them into practice. Notice that Jesus doesn’t
say, “If you….” Or “When you begin…” Jesus says – “Whenever you….” In other
words, Jesus is assuming that these practices of the ancient Jewish tradition
are our practices as well. There is the implication that we will be givers –
prayers – fasters. Jesus is simply giving a better way to do these disciplines by
correcting the motivation his followers have for doing them.
In part, what Jesus is doing is
setting priorities straight and helping us make better choices in the way our
faith is lived out. The first practice
Jesus deals with is giving. Being generous with what we have. Throughout the
Old Testament there is an ethic and a concern for such social structures as
debt forgiveness, fair treatment of works, just distribution of crops and of
land, and of interest-free loans – all of which is designed to prevent poverty
among God’s people. However, in Jesus’ day, the practices of the rich and the
wealthy – the “haves” were often oppressive and left many “the have nots”
struggling just to survive. Jesus expects those who listen to him and follow in
his ways to show mercy to the poor by being generous in giving. In other words,
God desires justice – the right treatment of all, but when the world is unjust,
those who are able and who are merciful must protect those who are without.
The truly merciful, however, do not
call public attention to their acts of mercy. Jesus refers to those who sound a
trumpet before them when they make a generous donation. It’s a rather humorous
hyperbole of the ways in which givers make sure that they are noticed. Don’t be
like this, Jesus says. Give, but don’t draw attention to yourself. Not only
because it draws attention to yourself, but it draws attention to those in
need, who are unable to give.
Jesus then turns to prayer and
looks at the motives of the people who are doing the praying. It’s not that he
is against prayer – formal prayer, corporate prayer. Later on in Matthew’s
gospel Jesus will teach the disciples the Lord’s prayer which we still use each
week in worship. Jesus offers us the Lord’s Prayer as a model to memorize and to
use. Jesus calls us to be critical of examining our motives for prayer – the
why and the how we prayer.
Genuine prayer is not grand drama
and theatre. It is simply a conversation. If I wanted to tell my mother, I love
you, I wouldn’t necessarily shout it on Broadway over the lunch hour. I would
most likely hug her and whisper in her ear these words. Such is prayer, says
Jesus. Intimate conversations with our heavenly parent – not staged acts to
dazzle with our big words. Real love – nurtured in prayer – focuses on the
beloved, not the onlookers.
Then Jesus turns to commands about
fasting. As before, Jesus warns against practicing this as a way to gain praise
from other people. Fasting that wins God’s approval is inconspicuous. The
person who fasts should look just like anyone else going about his or her
normal business. Dressed and ready for the day.
Jesus’
final words in today’s reading warn against “treasuring up treasures on earth.”
In context “treasures” refers both to other peoples’ good opinions and to
material goods. The Greek phrase used indicates that Jesus is telling his
hearers to stop doing something they are already doing: Stop storing up
treasures on earth, where they will be eaten away. Treasure up heavenly
treasures instead. How can someone store up treasure in heaven? One way,
according to Jesus, is by selling one’s goods and giving them to the poor
(Matthew 19:21). If God’s approval is our greatest treasure, then we will
direct our hearts and minds and wills to loving God and our neighbor. Then,
indeed, we will have treasure in heaven.
The true
treasure that we have in our life of faith is made most real in the
relationships we have. In the cross there are two lines – one beam goes up and
down – and can signify our relationship with God in heaven through Jesus
Christ. This Lent practice something that deepens this relationship. There is
another beam – a horizontal one – and this can signify our relationship with
one another – especially with those who mean the most to us – our friends, our
family, our community members. Make Lent be about nurturing this relationship
as well.
