Sermon for Ash Wednesday – Matthew 6:1-6

Has anyone asked you yet? What are you giving up for Lent? I confess I don’t really give up anything for Lent. Evidently I’m not very pious. But I used to be. I grew up Catholic, sort of. We rarely ever went to mass. But something changed when I got to college. All of a sudden I REALLY wanted to be super Catholic, and I went to mass all the time, and told everyone all about it of course. I thought I was having some kind of incredible spiritual awakening. But I’m little older and wiser now. It occurs to me that’s a fantastic way to get attention at a Lutheran university. So we’re on spring choir tour during Lent, singing at Lutheran churches of course. And they’re good Lutherans. You know they’re going to feed you. So it’s Friday, and what’s for dinner? Lasagna! Like you do. There was one other token Catholic in our Lutheran choir, and we were so proud of ourselves that we only ate salad! No secret piety for us!

This is what Jesus is talking about when he says – “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” We do things for a lot of different reasons, especially when it comes to religion. But we don’t always think about it. Sometimes it’s about what we were taught growing up, and some of those things stick with you. The way we were taught to pray, or what our favorite hymns are. Sometimes it’s about trying to be better Christians. We take a look at ourselves and decide to make some improvements. We try to be more generous, or be more humble. Sometimes it’s about trying to get closer to God. We all have times when God seems distant, so maybe if we pray more or volunteer more, maybe God will notice and give us a little more attention.

Or maybe there’s a little bit of self-righteousness going on. We see how others live out their faith, and we think we can do better. We compensate for them. We compensate for ourselves when we feel undisciplined, and we want to prove to ourselves and everyone else that we’re really faithful. Now of course this is a pretty negative picture of piety, but if we’re honest we all have something to confess. So Jesus seems to be asking us what our motives are. Are we trying to be seen, or earn praise, or get attention? If it wasn’t true, Jesus wouldn’t have to say something. Jesus is also warning us that the things we do affect others around us. Is our fasting a stumbling block to how others show hospitality with lasagna? Do our prayers actually seek the wellbeing of others? Does our piety stand in the way of fellowship?

Sermon for the Transfiguration – Mark 9:2-9

Do any of you know who Daniel Day-Lewis is? British actor. He’s in this new movie Phantom Thread, where he plays a fashion designer who’s some sort of tragic figure. He’s been acting for a few decades, and he’s got a laundry list of big awards. He’s a serious actor. I haven’t seen the movie, but I just happened to catch an NPR interview with a film critic who was talking about him, and apparently there’s a kerfuffle about him saying this is his last film, period. Supposedly, after learning all about fashion design for this role (that’s what serious actors do), he decided that’s it. He’s packing up and jumping ship for fashion design. The critic was pretty let down about this. He’s one of the best actors of all time. What possessed him? I mean, fashion designer? Can you say “irrelevant”? Oh, I’m really going to miss him. Like he died or something.

Of course, we don’t know the whole story. We’re not in his head. But you know what it sounds like? It sounds like an identity crisis. Think about it – you discover your skill. Cooking, building, remembering, you can fill in the blank. You fall in love with it. You work passionately at it. It’s a part of who you are. Then people notice and they start to expect it from you, but you don’t mind that at all. For a while. But something starts happening. Maybe you feel a little resentful, like people only care about you because you give them what they want. Maybe you feel used. Maybe you feel fake, like you don’t know what you’re doing anymore and you’re just going to let everyone down. Maybe you start wondering what’s the point? Am I actually helping anyone? Maybe you feel like no one knows the REAL you, like no one actually SEES you. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever had an identity crisis? I bet we all could tell some hilarious stories about things we’ve done about it.