Ash WednesdayMeditation

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Jesus said, “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.

So whenever you give alms; do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
. . .
And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

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.

~ ~ ~

There’s an old story about a man from the city who was out driving one day, in the country. The signs on the road weren’t very good, and he got lost. So he stopped at a farmhouse to ask directions. “Can you tell me how far it is to the town of Mill Pond?”

“Well,” said the old farmer, “the way you’re goin’ it’s about 24,996 miles. But if you turn around, it’s about four.”

And therein lies the lesson.

The scripture passage we read this evening acts as a guide to the emphasis of the Lenten season. Part of the Sermon on the Mount, this text focuses not so much on what Christians should pray or what acts of service Christians are called to perform, but on the manner we are to do them.

Few would argue that people of faith are to pray or that followers of Christ are to do compassionate acts of service and to give of their material means. The place where Jesus would say we are vulnerable is in how we do those basic acts of Christian piety. Then he cites three examples: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. The language he uses is pretty much “between the eyes,” direct, and it’s clear that Jesus intends to jar those of us who hear, to compel us to include in our reflection the possibility of hypocrisy.

I think these words are addressed to those who already regard themselves as believers. A non-believer doesn’t pretend to practice the faith. But believers listen up.

Hypocrisy is the issue. The dictionary defines hypocrisy as “the practice of expressing (or professing) feelings, beliefs or virtues one does not hold or demonstrate sincerely.”

Hypocrisy is subtle. It sneakily supplants genuine faith so that a person can be going through the motions convincingly, often unaware that what they are doing is a charade, a performance calculated to convince others of his or her piety. Their actions are appearance without substance; the proverbial talk without the walk.
The danger is subtle because no one starts out with the ambition to grow up to be a hypocrite, but there is this unrelenting pressure to look better than we are, to play out our life before those who are easily impressed rather than before the One before whom we are supposed to play it out, the one to whom we are accountable.
Charles Cousar writes, “The practice [of hypocrisy] often becomes so conventional that the guilty would be surprised by the charge.”

Jesus gives three examples and in each case sets up a comparison or antithesis:

Sounding a trumpet when one gives to charity, or not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing when giving. This certainly

runs counter to fund raising techniques widely practiced which name a building or a stadium after a hefty giver as a reward… and/or as an enticement to their giving..

Praying on the street corners (with one eye peeled to be sure someone is watching), instead of retreating to one’s closet where no one can see or hear, save one.

Parading the fact that one is fasting… or that’s my stomach gurgling; I’m fasting you know; be 3 days in 48 hours, or washing one’s face and making no show.

Presenting his case in this fashion Jesus offers an opportunity for those who hear to start afresh, to detect any dangerous tendency toward hypocrisy and… and to repent.
There’s that word again. Repent.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
“With a gloomy message like that,” some may say, “it’s no wonder the church has a public relations problem!” It’s not easy to feel good about yourself when somebody tells you, “You are dust.”
It was this sort of discomfort the late cartoonist Doug Marlette was getting at, when he drew someone talking to the preacher, the Rev. Will B. Dunn:

“Let me get this straight – the word ‘sinners’ is spiritually incorrect!”

“You got it! ‘People of Foibles’ is more sensitive, supporting and nurturing.”

“I see… People of Foibles, repent!”

“Repent is too harsh. How about ‘reflect’?... or ‘reconsider’?... or ‘take a look at?’… ‘check it out’?”

Can’t you see it now? “People of Foibles, check it out!”

Frederica Matthewes-Green wrote an article titled “Both Door and Path” which was first published in Touchstone magazine. In it she observes, “Talk of repentance makes modern-day Christians nervous. We are embarrassed by the stereotype of old-fashioned preachers hammering on sin and making people feel guilty. We rush to assert that Jesus isn’t really like that, he came out of love, he wants to help us. He knows us deep inside and feels our every pain, and his healing love sets us free.”

But Matthewes-Green continues, “This is one of those truths that run out of gas halfway home. Subjectively, we think we need sympathy and comfort, because our felt experience is of loneliness and unease. Objectively, our hearts are eaten up with self-loathing, blaming, rationalizing. A hug and a smile are not enough.

“We don’t feel like we’re sinful; if anything, we feel like other people treat us badly. One of the most popular myths of our age is that if you can claim to be a victim, you’re automatically sinless.

“A second popular myth is this: We’re nice. Being nice is all that counts in life, right? Isn’t it the highest virtue?
“Finally, there’s the ever-popular conviction that we’re still better than a lot of other people. Christians should know better than this; God doesn’t judge one person against another; he doesn’t grade on the curve. Yet we find it desperately hard to believe that we’re really, truly sinners, because we see people so much worse than us every day in the newspaper. In comparison with them, we’re just so gosh-darn nice.”

Which brings Matthewes-Green to this conclusion: “The problem in all these cases is that we’re comparing ourselves with others, rather than with the holy God. Once we get that perspective adjusted, repentance can come very swiftly. And once we really decide that it is God himself we want to approach, repentance comes to feel like a clarifying, much welcomed, tough-minded friend.

So Lent rolls around each year and bids us repent. It’s not just a one-time or annual act. We never arrive at some exalted state where we don’t need to practice repentance. Practice, according to Peter Gomes, is the key.

Why bother with Lent? Because it encourages for us -- for me in particular -- a form of spiritual practice. The musicians understand this, that is, the good ones understand it at least. And no musician will remain a good musician long without regular practice. Lenten discipline is a practice that enables freedom; not a freedom that avoids discipline. Horowitz, the great pianist said, “If I skip practice one day, I know it. If I skip practice two days, the critics know it. And if I skip practice three days, everybody knows it.”

Lent is Christian practice time. It is spring training for the Christian who wants to stay in shape, or who wants to get into shape. Such spiritual health and the means to it is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

No one is so well off spiritually that he or she can afford to skip Lent. And no one is so bad off spiritually that Lent can’t be helpful.

That understanding retrieves repentance from the dustbin and offers it afresh as a practice that revives the soul and keeps us on the path toward and with God.

AMEN

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Dr. J. Lawrence Cuthill