Ash Wednesday [Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21] (18-Feb-2015)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 7.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’d like to read to you the words of Jesus as St Matthew wrote them down in his gospel, where it says:

You must not be like the hypocrites… Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our reading today, Jesus talks about three things: giving to the needy (or works of mercy), prayer and fasting. And this reading is set for today, because the season of Lent which we are beginning today is often set aside as a time dedicated to these things, to these spiritual disciplines, if you like.

So our reading begins today where Jesus says: 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.

This verse here in key in the whole passage. And later on, Jesus explains what he means in more detail. But why does he say: practicing your righteousness? Normally, when we talk about righteousness, we talk about Christ’s righteousness. He’s is the one who put everything right for us through his suffering and death on the cross. And we are saved by faith in him. Right? But here Jesus talks about our good works as practicing righteousness. Jesus is not talking about things where we might put ourselves right with God, and earn righteousness before God, but he is talking about works that we undertake which flow out from the fact that we have already received righteousness from God through Christ. So as St John says: We love because he first loved us.

Some people say, I’m a Lutheran, and that means that I’m forgiven no matter what I do, so I’m going to assert my rights by sitting on my backside and doing nothing. But it’s not true. Of course, your forgiven, despite the fact that you don’t deserve it. And of course, Jesus promises you and offers you and applies to you forgiveness for each and every sin, no matter how small or how great they may be. But you’re not forgiven no matter what you do—of course God cares what you do. Now that he’s given you this wonderful freedom in Christ, he wants you to learn how to use that freedom for the benefit of others, and in service to other people around you. He has forgiven you so richly and generously. Don’t you want to fight against those things for which you have needed forgiveness? Or do you want to have your cake and eat it too?

And so, Jesus calls us today to practice righteousness. But he doesn’t start by saying, simply “practice righteousness”. He starts by saying: Beware. There’s a trap. When you want to do something good, the devil is very close by wanting to turn the whole thing on its head into something evil.

So let me paint the picture. God has created human beings in his image. And when he looked at his creation we read: God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. But through the fall into sin, the devil has so corrupted us so terribly, that every single thought, word and action that comes from us is corrupted by sin. In fact, even if we had no thoughts, no words and no actions, we would still be corrupted. These things are only poisoned streams that come from a poisoned river.

And so, when we receive the forgiveness of sins each week in the church, we don’t simply receive forgiveness for individual sins, but we receive forgiveness for all of our sin, for our whole person, because everything is corrupted.

Now, this is a message that your flesh doesn’t want to hear, because it exposes your flesh for what it really is. St Paul says: The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. The whole purpose of everything that Jesus teaches today is directed against your flesh, against your sinful nature, against your old sinful self.

Our flesh has other ideas—it says: well, I’ve sinned. And now, I better do something to make up for it. And I better make sure that someone pats on the back for it too, so that it makes me feel better. And so, what happens is people look for opportunities to do good things for people, but only so that they will be validated and congratulated by those people. So we don’t go out of our way to help everyone—we only help the people we think we would get a compliment from.

This is called: self-righteousness.

So Jesus says: 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.

There is such a temptation towards this everywhere in our church today. People say: Our congregation need to be seen to be out there in the community. It’s not enough to help people, but people need to see it. No—Jesus condemns it. You don’t do things to be seen by people—you do thing to be seen by God. Because if you do things to be seen by people, it means that you think that those people are your judge. And simply put, they’re not. When you have to appear before God on the last day, those people won’t be there to help you. But Jesus will be there. So do things to be seen by him, and by the Father.

But then people will say: But doesn’t Jesus also say: Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works? Yes, it does, but not so they will see your good works and give glory to you… Or to give glory to Christians…or to give glory to our congregation…but it says: Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. This is such an important thing when it comes to mission—do we want people to give glory to God, or do we want people do give glory to us? If we—Christians, or St Mark’s congregation—want the Holy Spirit to gather people around us instead of Christ, just remember the Holy Spirit is no fool and he will not gather anyone around a false god, even if that false god is the Christian church itself. The Holy Spirit only gathers people around Christ.

And so when we do good works, they shine before others, but we are especially called to shine them in the darkest of places. God will reward these things in his time. Letting our light shine means also not doing things in order to be seen by others.

And so, Jesus says: When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love the stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

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.

Now, giving to the needy, prayer and fasting, are good things. But the devil is always not far away, wanting to corrupt them. Do you hear the pattern in these three passages, as Jesus speaks?

The first thing he wants to warn us from being hypocrites. So what’s a hypocrite? A hypocrite is an actor. This is what the Greek word really means. We are so used to hypocrites—they are on TV all the time. Everytime we watch any acting on TV, we are watching hypocrites, we are watching actors. Actors are people who pretend to be someone else, when they are not actually that person.

Now—there are many Christians like that. They can give a good show about being a Christian, but the heart is not right. They come to church for the emotion, but not for God’s word. They like Christianity, but as long as it doesn’t affect their heart. They say that love Christ, but they hate the church, his bride. They come to church and say “Praise the Lord”, and “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”, but as soon as they are out the door, they turn into the nation of Israel whinging and whining in the desert, wishing that they had onions, garlic, cucumbers and melons like they had in Egypt, instead of the tasteless manna that God provided for them. Yes—there are many Christians like that. They are called hypocrites, actors, pretenders, false Christians.

Of course, there is a sense in which every Christian is a hypocrite. The only people Jesus died for was hypocrites. But now, Jesus warns us away from hypocrisy. He does not want us to be people who have the appearance of godliness, but who deny its power, as St Paul says. On one hand, Jesus is of course encouraging us to do works of mercy, to pray and to fast, but first of all, he cuts to the heart, and he warns us from hypocrisy. If there is something for you to really dedicate yourself to this Lent—dedicate yourself to true Christianity, to true godliness, to true piety, to true faith—and if there’s one thing that you would want to avoid at all costs and to fight, it is hypocrisy.

You see, it’s not good works that God rewards. It’s the attitude with which the thing is done that he rewards. The good works are rewarded because of the faith from which they come. True faith doesn’t come from our hypocritical hearts, it comes from God’s word, it comes from the good news of the forgiveness of sins, it comes from the purity of Christ’s blood applied to you in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christ calls you today to set your mind on those things, and to set your mind against yourself.

And so he says: When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

True Christian charity is very different from the world’s charity. When Jesus is talking here, he’s not talking about something like Lutheran Community Care, which has to demonstrate to the government that it is doing its job, so that it can continue to receive its funding. That’s not actually what Jesus is talking about. Jesus encourages us to the greatest secrecy.

He’s also not talking about throwing money at things. The word in Greek for giving to the needy means “works of mercy”. God has been merciful to you: how can you be merciful to others? For example, we are not called to give money to drug addicts so that they can buy drugs with it. That would not be merciful to them at all—that would be hurtful and destructive for them.

Also—there are thousands of organisations who like to call themselves charities. Even the Australians who have gone over to Syria and Iraq to work with Al-Qaeda and Isis say that they are doing “humanitarian work”. But there are plenty of groups, who under the banner of “human rights”, put money into programs to give women abortions, and seek to destroy the family unit in places in the world where it actually strong. A cent of your money that goes anywhere near these hypocritical, pagan money-pits, is nothing remotely like Christian charity.

So who should you do? Who should you give to? Well, remember that there was a rich man who had the poor man Lazarus at his front door. If you have money, you have a responsibility to use it for the benefit of others. Ask God—who can I help in my abundance? Who would like me to be a friend to? Who would you like me to be generous to? Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the human need around you, and He will show you what to do. Your Father who sees in secret with reward you.

But then Jesus also talks about prayer: When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Prayer is the most intimate time spent with Jesus alone. But when you go into room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, you are inviting your heavenly Father into a dirty, teenage bedroom. There are socks on the floor, there is half-eaten food under your jacket. When we go into our room and shut the door, we must be careful not to try and gain messages from the dirty floor. We are not called to listen to God speaking to us in our hearts. Of course, sometimes, a bible verse springs to mind—and that’s a wonderful blessings, or we feel relaxed and calm just from being with Jesus. And that’s a wonderful blessing. But if we finish our prayer, and think: “God’s telling me to go and curse someone’s unborn child”, then we know that that’s simply a dirty sock from the floor. This is an occasion where the devil wants us to go and stand on the street corners and tell everyone just what a wonderful prayer life we really do have.

But the real people of prayer are the ones who pray behind a closed door, and yet other people will not be able to help seeing the calmness and the wisdom and the patience that comes from being alone with the Saviour of the world, and our heavenly Father.

This room, and this door, can be understood very easily as our heart. In Revelation 3:22 Jesus says: Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. Every time we are pressed with some need, Jesus knocks on the door of our heart, because he already has in his hand some gift that he wants us to receive. Prayer is not trying to twist God’s arm so that we can trick him into giving us something, but it is simply receiving the gift that God has already prepared for us to receive. Jesus will come into your heart and eat with you and he with you. There’s an old expression: If you’re going to the dine with the devil, you better have a long spoon. But if you dine with Jesus, the spoon is short, your needs are his, your cares are his, your anxieties are his. He feeds on your cares, and he lets you feed on his forgiveness, his life, and his salvation. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

But one last thing that Jesus talks about: fasting. Fasting means going without food. Sometimes in the bible it means going completely without food or drink for a time. There’s an old custom in the church for people to go without breakfast on a Sunday morning, so that the first thing they receive into their bodies for the day and for the week is the body and blood of Christ.

It can also sometimes refer to eating less food, or going without a certain type of food, like going on a diet. So in Lent, some people might take it as an opportunity to go without some luxury, like chocolate, or coffee, or sweets, or TV, or Facebook, or whatever.

But when we fast as Christians, if it’s going to be useful for us spiritually, it has to be directed against our flesh. It’s not so that we can look healthier, and people can say how much weight we’ve lost, and compliment us on how trim, taut and terrific we look. There are plenty of gym-junkies in our society who know how to fast like that. That would still be hypocrisy.

But fasting helps us fight our flesh. It’s not directed our flabby body, but it’s directed our spiritual fat, that flabbiness that surrounds our hearts so that the word of God can’t penetrate through. Our sinful nature is always rising up to protest against the Holy Spirit, and it needs to be told to shut up.

St Paul says: I pummel my body and subdue it, so that after preaching to others, I too may be disqualified. Jesus says: Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus even says: If anyone does not hate even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

So if you are going to give something up for Lent, make sure it teaches you patience, generosity, sacrifice, mercy, love. But most of all, however much we may fast or train our bodies, faith and perseverance are the most important things. St Paul gives this wonderful advice to Timothy: Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training if of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

And so let’s finish our sermon today with the wonderful encouragement from the book of Hebrews: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, help us to be your true disciples and not hypocrites. Teach us and lead us so that we may not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but treasures in heaven. Keep our hearts with you, that they may not wallow in the mud, but that may be continually with you in heaven. Amen.