A Sermon preached on Ash Wednesday March 6
2019 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Isaiah 58:1-12, 2
Corinthians 5:20b-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
I know I said
something similar before (and probably will again), but today is one of those
days when our readings from scripture seem to contradict our actions. On Sunday
we heard how at the Transfiguration God speaks from a cloud and says loudly and
clearly, “Listen to him!” Listen to Jesus: we seem to be doing exactly the
opposite. Of course, some people would say that doing the opposite of what
Jesus teaches is something that Christians do very well.
According to
Matthew (5:43-44) Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you.” That has not always been one of our strong points,
has it. Or later in Matthew (25:35-39), in the so-called judgment of the
nations, Jesus says, when explaining why some have been identified as the
righteous who will inherit the kingdom: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I
was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care
of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” How many of those of us who call
ourselves Christians, can say that we do this?
And today it
seems, we will once again do exactly the opposite of what God and Jesus tell us
to do. In just a moment, I am going to mark a visible sign on your forehead – a
cross of ashes. And yet, we just heard Jesus tell us: “Beware of practicing
your piety before others in order to be seen by them.” (Matthew 6:1) Yet this
is a pretty obvious public practice of piety! Jesus also goes on to tell us to
pray in private: “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door
and pray to your Father who is in secret,” (Matthew 6:6) and yet we are praying
very publicly today, as we do at all our services.
Let me reassure
you, none of what we are doing is wrong. The issue at hand, the issue bothering
him, is our intention and our motivation. Why do we give alms, fast, pray, or
confess – is it for a reward or just to be seen to be good? The Roman Stoic
philosopher, statesman, and dramatist Seneca criticized this sort of behavior
too when he wrote: “Whoever wants to publicize his virtue, labors not for
virtue but for glory.”[1]
The act as such is
not the problem. As the prophet Joel tells the people of Israel, who are in the
face of great danger, God wants them to “return to me with all your heart, with
fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not (just) your
clothing.” (Joel 2:12) He wants them to fast, and mourn and call a solemn
assembly, but with all their heart. It must be sincere, and the intention is to
effect change, not just play act: to rend their hearts, to make them vulnerable
and open to be changed by God.
This is what Jesus
is telling his disciples, his followers too. He
does not say: do not help the poor or do not pray or do not fast, but do each
and all of these things for their own sake, because they are good for others –
like the examples I quoted earlier, and good for us. No act of mercy or compassion
or piety should ever be for any form of public recognition. And that is not why
we have come together today. Instead we are here to practice these practices. The
whole season of Lent that begins today is a time of practice and preparation. Praying
together, repenting together, lamenting together is a form of training. You
might have noticed that we have only read a part of this section of Matthew’s
Gospel, we left out verses 7 – 15. That’s actually the section in which Jesus
teaches his disciples how to pray, “pray then in this way” he says, before introducing
what we call the Lord’s prayer.
Giving alms,
praying, and fasting, like all our acts of worship and devotion, must be part
of our living, personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. They are not for
public show, and they are not effective in themselves. If we do not approach
these acts with the desire to be changed, then we had better stop doing them. If
prayer is just something we do on a Sunday, and now and again on a Wednesday in
church, then there is really no point. God already knows what we need. Prayer
is about nourishing our relationship with God. I realize there may be some
relationships that only survive because the partners never talk with one
another, but those are not good relationships, and they cannot be our example. We
should be in regular conversation with God. That is how we store up “treasures
in heaven,” through acts which already enrich and reward us now, through practices
that focus our heart on God and our neighbor and on our own spiritual
well-being.
Amen.
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