Ash Wednesday
Mt
6:16-21
3/6/19
“He really telegraphed that pass.” Commentators for basketball and football
games use this expression when a player throws a pass and it is stolen or
intercepted. They use it to describe a
situation in which the player locked onto and kept looking directly at the
teammate to whom he was going to throw the ball. Alerted to the exact location where he was
going to throw the ball, defenders were able to anticipate the throw and steal
or intercept it.
In some ways, it is surprising that
this metaphor still exists. The
telegraph was, of course, a nineteenth century technology that used a wire to
send a signal. A long line of poles
carrying the wire extended from one location to another. It was obvious where the line was going. I’ve always assumed that it is point of
connection for the metaphor. In an era
when there were telephone lines, it still made sense. As new generations live in the wireless era
of life, I wonder if the metaphor will die.
The sermon for Ash Wednesday is one
in which I always feel like pastor telegraphs the point of his sermon. Congregation members know exactly what the
pastor is going to say in the sermon before he even starts. They know exactly where it is going.
Now in one sense every sermon is
like this. You know that every sermon is
going to have Law and Gospel. You know that every sermon will be about the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
But the content of the sermon is not
always this obvious. Most texts have a
number of different ways you can approach them as the preacher. There are certainly days in the church year
when the general point of the sermon is obvious before the pastor starts. So, you know that on Christmas the focus will
be the incarnation of the Son of God, and on Easter it will be the on resurrection
of Jesus Christ. But even there, I think
there are a number of different ways you can approach it based on the different
texts that are available.
To me, preaching on Ash Wednesday
feels very much like preaching for Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, you know exactly what I am
going to talk about: giving thanks. And
today, Ash Wednesday, you already know exactly what I am going to talk about:
repentance.
And indeed that is precisely what I am going to do. I am because the primary focus of the season
of Lent that begins today is repentance.
It’s not the only one.
Historically in the Lutheran church, and for that matter also the early
Church, catechesis – teaching about the Christian faith – has also been an
important part of Lent. But that is
certainly secondary. The main focus – the emphasis of today and the whole
season of Lent is repentance.
To repent is to recognize our sin;
to be sorry about our sin; to confess our sin before God as we turn in faith
towards Jesus Christ for forgiveness. We do this during Lent because the season
prepares us for Holy Week and Easter. It
prepares us to remember how Jesus suffered and died for our sins on the cross
of Good Friday. Lent places our attention on
the reason the Lord did this for us – our sin. When we do so, there can
only be one God pleasing response: We repent.
Since we are talking about
repentance, the beginning of our text may seem like a strange place to
start. Jesus says in his Sermon on the
Mount: “And when you fast, do not look
gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting
may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may
not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who
sees in secret will reward you.”
You may be
thinking: “No problem here. I don’t
fast. I can’t be doing anything wrong.” Coming
out of the Old Testament, fasting was part of Jewish piety. While Jesus and the
New Testament don’t command fasting, it is clear Jesus assumes that his
followers will be doing it. It was
indeed a common part of Christian piety as well – and that includes
Lutherans. After all, Luther writes in
the Small Catechism about the Sacrament of the Altar, “Fasting and bodily
preparation are certainly fine outward training.” Fasting is about disciplining the flesh, and
then the time that would have been be used eating is given to the reading of
Scripture and prayer.
Fasting is
just one of three common Jewish religious activities that Jesus talks about in
this section of the sermon: he addresses the giving of alms, prayer and
fasting. He introduces the discussion by
saying: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order
to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in
heaven.”
Our Lord
warns about making a show of our piety in order to draw attention to ourselves
and make us look good in the eyes of others. He says that instead we should do
these things in ways that so that only God knows. Then they are being done in faith and not
because of sinful motivations.
Certainly,
our Lord’s warning is something that we do need to hear. There is always the danger that we will do
the right thing for the wrong reason. And when your motivations are sinful, it
doesn’t matter if the action itself is a good thing. In God’s eyes, it is sinful.
However,
Jesus spoke these words in a culture that highly valued faith in Yawheh and the
practices associated with faith. A
person wanted to be perceived as
being pious and faithful. But what about
our world today? Here, the opposite is often true. The pressure of the world sets itself against acting in ways that reflect the Christian
faith.
For us Jesus
could have said, “Be careful to practice your righteousness before other
people.” In fact, he actually did
because he said in the previous chapter: “You are the light of the world. A
city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it
under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the
same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
The real
issue that confronts us tonight is the reason
we do something or we choose not to do something. Our Lord says at the end of our text, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What we treasure – what we really value – is
what will determine our actions. And you
know what you call that?: a god. Do we
avoid doing what is right because we want the world’s acceptance? Do we do what is wrong because we want the
world’s acceptance? Both are sinful not just because of our action. They are
sinful because of our motivation. They
are sinful because we break the First Commandment as we fear, love and trust in
something other than the one true God.
So on this Ash Wednesday we consider
our lives according to the Ten Commandments. We consider what we do and fail to
do in rejecting God’s will for our lives and world. We consider the reason that we do these things and
fail to do these things.
We recognize
our sin. We are sorry for it because it is sin committed against God. We confess our sin to God and ask for forgiveness. We
turn in faith towards Jesus Christ, confident that because of his death on the
cross he has won forgiveness for us. Our
Lord said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus Christ did give his life as a ransom
for you. Your forgiveness and salvation did not come cheap. It cost his holy
precious blood, and his innocent suffering and death.
Yet in his love, Jesus Christ did
this for you. He received the wrath of God against your
sin. He cried out, “My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me” as he experienced what you deserve. And because he has done this for you, your
sins have been taken away. When you
repent; when you are sorry for your sin; when you confess your sin to God and
ask for forgiveness, God does exactly
that.
He does so because this is precisely what he wants to do. God is
the One who said to the prophet Ezekiel, “‘As surely as I live,’ declares Yahweh, ‘I take no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.
Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’” God calls us to repentance because he wants to forgive. He has done everything needed to give us forgiveness
in the death and resurrection of his Son.
God calls us to repent; to be
sorry for our sin; to confess our sin to him as we believe in his crucified and
risen Son. And he forgives our sins.
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