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?

So we figure Jesus is telling us what we need to fix, but something’s odd. Whenever you pray, go and hide. He means every time. So much for intercessions or table grace. When you fast, put oil on your head, but the oil he’s talking about is aromatic, so it’s won’t be so secret. It certainly won’t help you fast. There’s certainly nothing secret about the ashes we’re about to place on our foreheads. And here’s the best line of all. When you give alms, don’t let your left hand know what the right is doing. We know that’s absurd. Does that remind you of anything? If you right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Do it, and your left eye will immediately show you why it doesn’t work. Jesus actually isn’t teaching us here. He’s just playing with us. He’s only making piety harder. It’s all law, and the law doesn’t tell us how to be better. It only tells us one thing – what we haven’t done. It’s the only thing it can do. The law doesn’t save, because we can’t save ourselves, and our piety isn’t fooling anyone, especially not God. The law didn’t even save Jesus, and he was the most pious of all. Jesus didn’t just die to himself. He died. On a cross.

But Jesus isn’t done. He says something else that’s odd. 5 times, just to make sure we can’t miss it. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Your Father who is in secret. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Your Father who is in secret. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Brothers and sisters, this is the only secret of Lent, and this is our good news. Nothing is secret from the God who sees clear to the depths of our broken hearts. There is nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide from God, because nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God made manifest in Jesus, who goes to the cross, to suffer and die for our sake, and after 3 days be risen. Jesus does all the work because our works don’t work. He doesn’t even wait for us to repent – he makes the first move by giving you his free forgiveness, because that’s the only way you can even know there is such a thing as repentance at all. And he takes our sin upon himself so that he can give us HIS righteousness, his very own self-giving piety. That’s what the word “piety” actually means! “Piety” doesn’t mean “habits or faith practices”. “Piety” means righteousness, and it’s always a gift.

Friends, true piety isn’t about discipline or perfection. True piety is the power of God made manifest in our weakness and imperfections. How else could we possibly know that God is at work, reconciling the world to God’s own self, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And God never does anything the easy way. The Spirit is the weak power of love, never forcing but always drawing us, luring us into its tether. We serve our neighbors for no other reason than that we love them, and we all know you can’t force that. We give alms simply because we can, and we rejoice to think that others might know that this is a God of abundance. We pray just because it’s unbelievable to think that the Creator of the cosmos actually knows us by name. We fast just because we rest in the truth that it’s God who sustains us in every moment of life, and Jesus who sustains us with his body and blood. We stand against injustice and inequality because we have been overwhelmed by hope, for we know that God will have God’s way, and the world WILL know that. We do anything and everything we do with joy, because everything is gift, and we don’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore.

So, has anyone asked you yet? What are you receiving for Lent? Wait, you don’t have to tell me. But I do know a few things. Ashes and repentance. And 40 days to discover the rest. Thanks be to God. Amen.