Matthew
6:1-6, 16-21
I’ve
always found Ash Wednesday to be a bit of a challenge.
Where
I used to work, many of my coworkers were Catholic, and they would go to Ash
Wednesday Mass early in the morning before work, or else they’d go on their
lunch hour, which meant that they would be at work for most of the day, walking
around, going to meetings and stopping off in other people’s offices to chat, all
this time walking around with this big smudge of dirt on their forehead.
When
I was with them, I would try hard to not stare, and to behave with them just
like I would on any other day, but that smudge – it was just so obvious – and so,
for me it was nearly impossible to act like there was nothing unusual about
them.
So
when the Presbyterian Church I was attending began to practice the imposition
of ashes during their Ash Wednesday services, I was glad to have the
opportunity to worship in this way, but I was kind of disappointed, quite
honestly, that I would be leaving worship around 8 o’clock at night with my own
smudge of dirt on my forehead, and would just be going home for the evening.
None
of my friends or co-workers got to see that I had a smudge too!
Sometimes
I would imagine myself stopping off at the grocery store, or maybe the mall, on
the way home, just so I could walk around a bit and let some other people see
my smudge. ////
But,
in the end, I just went home, and debated with myself about whether it was more
appropriate to wash off my smudge before my head hit the pillow for the night, or
if I ought to just leave it there, and let time and nature take its course.
In
our gospel reading from Matthew tonight, Jesus’ words to us come in the middle
of his Sermon on the Mount.
He
has already told the crowd assembled on the hill about how it is more blessed
to give than to receive.
He
has called them salt and light, and he has challenged them to let their light
shine, so others may see their good works and give glory to God in heaven.
He
has called them not only to love and do good for their friends and the people
who are good to them, but also to love their enemies and to do good even to
those who persecute them.
And
then we hear these words from Jesus, where he tells us how to go about giving
alms, and praying, and fasting. These are three ways we often practice our
Lenten disciplines, so these words from Jesus are very timely for us as we
begin our season of Lent.
The
passage ends with words that are probably familiar to many of us.
“Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and
where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in
and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
But
how do we store up treasures in heaven? And what’s so bad about storing up
treasures on earth?
In
the first part of this passage, Jesus makes it clear why he wants us to do
this.
In
the Message translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson, we get another way to
hear what Jesus is saying. I’m going to read the first four verses of this
passage from the Message.
Jesus
says:
Matt. 6:1 “Be
especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a
performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t
be applauding.
Matt. 6:2 “When you do
something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them
in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street
corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching,
playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. 3 When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. 4 Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God,
who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
So
Jesus is telling us that if we go after the attention and the applause, then that’s
what we’ll get – but that’s all we get. That will get added in to our store of
treasures on earth.
Jesus
is telling us this because he knows how easy it is for us to shift our
attention away from God, and to concentrate on what others are thinking. This
is one of those places where we benefit so much from Jesus having lived among
us, from his humanity. Jesus knows firsthand how often we get distracted while
we’re “trying to be good,” and before we know it we’re worrying more about how
we’re going to look to other people, and we’ve forgotten what our true reason
is for doing these things at all.
The
true reason that we fast, and we pray, and we give alms, whether it’s
during Lent, or during our everyday lives, is so that we can be closer to God. It’s to increase our understanding that we are completely dependent on God. It’s
to help us to rely more and more on God and less on our own abilities. It’s
to place our trust in our store of treasures in heaven, and to let go of our reliance
on our store of treasures on earth.
What
does it take for us to make this shift, to focus on storing up treasures in heaven,
and not on treasures, rewards, and recognition on earth?
It
starts by realizing and accepting that all that we are, and all that we have is
not really ours – it all belongs to God, and we are called to be good stewards
of all of it.
If
it were our wealth we were giving away, it might make sense to be recognized
for it. But it’s not our wealth – it’s God’s.
If
it were our words we were praying, then having people admire us for it might be
appropriate. But the Holy Spirit gives us words to pray.
And
if it were our own strength of will that got us through our fasts, or our
struggles in life, then maybe people ought to give us the credit, seeing how
hard we are working at it. But our strength comes from God.
In
the end, the purpose of doing these things is not so others can see us doing
them, but so God sees what we do. In this way, God sees our hearts.
And
this is good news!
We
don’t have to worry about what other people think. We have been liberated by
God from the impossible burden of meeting other people’s expectations. We can let
go of worrying about the results of our efforts to do good. That’s up to God,
not us.
The
good news is – the only opinion about us that matters is God’s opinion. And God
loves us with an everlasting love.
So
what does Ash Wednesday have to do with all this?
Well,
receiving that smudge of ashes on this day is not about who sees us, or about
what they think.
Receiving
the ashes is a reminder to us of three things:
First
- It reminds us of our humility and our limitations, our brokenness and our broken-heartedness. We are all dust, and no matter how hard we
try to be seen as something more, something great in the eyes of others, that
is ultimately what we all are.
It
reminds us of our mortality. To dust we all shall return. Our treasures on
earth, our status, our certificates of recognition, our brief moments of fame
and fortune, and we ourselves – none of this can last forever.
And,
it reminds us of our adoption by God – we are marked by God, we are all
children of God, and God loves us with an everlasting love. God hears our
prayers. God is our strength when we are weak, whether that weakness comes from
fasting, or failure, or discouragement, or loneliness, or temptation. God sees
our hearts when we are generous toward others with our time and our resources.
Through
our salvation in Christ, we have been released from the bondage of lives that
only matter based on what others think of us, and we have been freed to live
our lives completely in response to God’s love for us.
And
that, brothers and sisters in Christ, is good news!
