And Keeping a Holy Lent
Ash Wednesday | Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Today is Ash Wednesday. I suppose you all know that. People usually don’t wind up here for no reason. We do have a noon service on Wednesdays now, so it’s not totally inconceivable.
We all woke up this morning and said “Yay! Lent is here!”
Well…maybe not all of us. Some of us. The weirdos. The rest are more like “Ugh. Lent again.” Because we know what Lent is about.
Lent is penitential. Which is a churchy word for “serious”. We take a more intentionally self-reflective posture for the season. We fast and pray and study. So “fun” isn’t the right word for it. And neither is unfun for that matter.
In essence, the next forty days are the time Christians spend thinking about the stuff we’re supposed to think about every day. We just…forget to.
So we usually start with listening to Jesus.
And what is he saying today?
Beware of public acts of piety.
Oof. Do we really want to start there?
[OK, I’m not off to a very good start with this listening to Jesus in Lent thing. OK, buckle down. You’ve got this.]
Jesus warns us about praying in public to be seen. We also get some other parts about giving money that way. That it is wrong to want to be seen. That we should give in private so that we aren’t seen by people. Where only God can see our good behavior.
We get this reading every year on Ash Wednesday, which makes us all feel kind of funny because here we are! In public! Being seen!
And those of us who are at both services know who didn’t show up…to be seen…
And what are we going to do in a few minutes, but mark each other’s foreheads with ashes.
So lots of seeing and being seen here!
So right off the bat, we’re all forced to wrestle with something Jesus tells us to do.
I love bringing this up every year because people really are conflicted about this. People get animated about it. Which is actually quite good.
It means we’re listening.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our lectionary skips over part of the passage that we talk about another time in the lectionary, but I think gives real gravitas to the moment.
We gather each year to put ashes on our foreheads and then decide whether or not to wipe them off (That’s practical theology right there. So if that’s you, wondering whether to wipe or not, well then, you can consider yourself a Practical Theologian. Congrats!). We do this and skip over the part about what it all looks like!
The problem isn’t praying in public (period) or being seen praying in public. It is about praying in public to be seen and then doing nothing.
After talking about shutting the door and praying in secret, he says:
“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
—Matthew 6:7-15
No Empty Phrases
Why do people pray in public to be heard? Obviously to seem pious. And to shore up their authority.
Why else?
There’s a particular kind of public piety that Jesus is condemning here. He refers to “empty phrases”. Like, say, when we talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.
When we say that we love God’s children and then make it so some of them don’t feel all that loved. Or when we say “all are welcome” and then only roll out the red carpet when you’re part of a certain class.
Or when someone walks into the school library to murder people and legislators offer thoughts and prayers rather than, say, do the thing that’s in their title: legislate.
If we’re listening to Jesus, we’re listening to what he’s trying to say.
He wants us to pray. And make it real.
This is why Jesus gives them what to pray. This is the stuff he’s focusing on:
- Hallow God,
- Will the Kin-dom here,
- Feed everybody,
- Forgive our debts,
- As we forgive the debts of others,
- And protect us from evil.
That’s the prayer. A prayer about unifying this world with God’s dream for it in equity, health, and wholeness.
We pray this because this is what we want. And because it is what our behavior points us toward.
Praying for peace and preparing for war is empty words. Praying for peace and then making it is being the children of God.
Lent
We get this season of Lent to work on the junk we don’t want to think about. Because he really is asking a lot from us.
It is easier to stay broken and belligerent than resume our place as a child of God.
And it is easier to stay mad with someone than learn to love them enough to forgive.
And above even that, it is easier for this community to pretend it’s learned enough from Jesus that it doesn’t have to change one bit when he walks through that door asking for repentance.
It’s easier to play pretend than it is to listen and change. To grow up. And keep growing.
This is Lent! We look at ourselves to see how we’re doing.
And there’s actually a simple test. We ask ourselves: Are you perfect? If the answer’s yes, may I recommend a psychiatrist? If it’s no, then welcome to the club! This is what we do in following Jesus! We remember that we are dust.
And we learn. We grow. Which means we change.
It doesn’t matter how old you are. There’s no graduation from following Jesus.
So we spend these forty days remembering what we forget to do the other 325. Listening and following Jesus. To learn and pray and change.
We can’t change the world without change. And we can’t love the world enough without letting it change either.