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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from
God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
And your Father who sees in secret will
reward you.
Prayer:
Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your
Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tonight we are gathered here on Ash Wednesday, which is the
first day of the church season of Lent. Tonight is 40 days before Easter
Sunday. And during this time, it has been a long-standing custom in the church
to devote ourselves to self-examination, repentance, and the reflection on
Jesus’ suffering and death.
Lent is 40 days long because it calls to our mind the 40
days which Jesus spent in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan. He also spent
this time fasting—he ate no food and no drink. The first of Jesus’ temptations from
Satan was to break his fast by pigging out on bread: Command these stones to
become bread. And so it has also been a custom in the church for centuries
that Christians dedicate this time, like Jesus did, to prayer and, if a person
is able, fasting. And our reading tonight deals with these topics.
I think a shift has happened in our commemoration of Lent, away
from Lent as a season of repentance, to a time of spiritual discipline.
Now spiritual discipline is a good thing, but not without repentance. In
our reading tonight, Jesus teaches us about giving the poor, prayer and
fasting. Anybody can be charitable—there are plenty of charities that all kinds
of people can give to, whether or not you’re Christian. Anybody can devote time
to pray, to some degree. Buddhists and Hindus and Muslims pray. Anybody can
fast—how many TV shows are there and books about losing weight and going on
diets?
What Jesus teaches us in our reading about being charitable
and giving to the poor, what he teaches us in our reading about prayer, and
about fasting, we need to understand as a fruit of repentance and a fruit of
faith. John the Baptist said: Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Both
John the Baptist and Jesus went out saying: Repent and believe the Gospel.
Now what is repentance? The word for repentance
in Greek is μετανοια. Μετα has
the idea of changing, or going beyond, and νοια has
to do with thinking, or our mind. So we could say that repentance is a change
of mind, or a change of thinking, or going beyond the way we normally think.
Repentance means thinking about our sin the way God thinks about it. So what
does he think about it? Well, he condemns every single minute drop of it—he
doesn’t just condemn a raging fire of sin in the fireplace, but he also
condemns every single smouldering cinder of sin. Would you drink water if you
knew it had a drop of poison in it? But then, also, because of Christ, and
because of his suffering and death on the cross for us, God also sees our sin
as completely forgiven, and because of Christ, when he looks at you, what does
he see? He sees a completely pure, spotless, pure person: not because you are
so pure, but because Jesus is, and Jesus is with you, and through his word and
holy baptism, Jesus has joined himself to you, he has promised to be your
Saviour.
Now, repentance and faith is not even something that we do,
but it is worked by the Holy Spirit through the word of God. Repentance is
worked in us through God’s law—God’s law never makes a saint. It only finds a
sinner. It’s like a laser beam on the end of an assassin’s rifle that lines you
up, ready to fire. But faith is worked in us through the Gospel—the Gospel
never finds a saint. It only makes a saint. It speaks a word straight out of
heaven that your sins are forgiven because of Jesus, and his blood, his
atonement, his sacrifice.
Now, if we don’t understand any of this, we won’t understand
anything in our reading tonight about almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Because
St Paul says in Romans: Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Repentance
and faith is the power behind anything we do as Christians. Faith means that we
have a Saviour, and repentance means that we need him to save us. St Paul tells
us in Timothy about people who have an appearance of godliness, but deny its
power. He is talking about people who can be charitable, pray and
fast, but there is no power behind it—it is empty, it is fake. What’s the
power? It is Jesus himself, our Saviour from sin.
Our society today hates repentance. They are happy for us in
the church to tell them anything, except to repent. But isn’t that the same for
us? And so there’s so much hatred among people, both inside the church and
outside the church. It’s easy to hate other people, but not the enemy that is
within us—our sinful heart. -- So may the Holy Spirit work in us a living
repentance through his law, and a living faith in us through the Gospel. Amen.
Our text tonight has three basic parts:
I.
Jesus teaches his disciples about
giving to the poor, or as it is called: almsgiving.
II.
Jesus teaches his disciples about
prayer.
III.
Jesus teaches his disciples about
fasting.
Tonight
we’re going to focus on the first two parts, about almsgiving and prayer. We
can leave the part on fasting for another time.
I.
Almsgiving.
On the
first Sunday of Lent, which is this coming Sunday, we will read—God
willing—about Jesus time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. One of
the temptations that Satan threw at Jesus was to take him on to a very high
mountain and show him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and
worship me.”
Now
Jesus teaches us about giving to the poor, almsgiving. The devil wants to tempt
us with all of the worlds wealth, but Jesus teaches us instead to give it away.
Now, Jesus gives us possessions, income and money as a gift, to support
ourselves and our families, but then in our life, we may also see someone who
is in particular need. God not only gives us our money and possessions for
ourselves, but also for the benefit of others who might need it. Jesus doesn’t
stipulate how much you should give away—that’s up to you. It’s a matter of
freedom for you. But just as he saw people in need and was compassionate to
them, so also he wants us to be compassionate to others, and help them, and
especially when God sends them to us. Remember the Good Samaritan—he didn’t go
out looking for poor people. He just happened to come across the man on the
road, and he helped him.
Now,
we are not as warm-hearted as we should be. There are plenty of times that we
might look back and think of someone who needed us, and we actually walked past
them like the Priest and the Levite on the other side of the road. You will
know in your own heart those situations. Well—remember this actually a fruit of
faith. It does not earn us salvation. We are going to get this wrong, and we
are going to make mistakes as Jesus leads us in our Christian life and trains
us. But he forgives us, he is the one who gives us his own mind and heart as
our new heart, and he is the one who leads us step by step as we learn what it
means to be merciful just as he was.
Jesus
doesn’t so much teach about almsgiving, as much as he warns us how not to do
it. He says: Beware of practising 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. Thus, 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. But when you
give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what you right hand is doing,
so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will
reward.
Jesus
is such an amazing preacher, because he sees directly into the human heart, and
he knows exactly what our temptations are. In the Gospel of John it says: He
knew what was in man.
If you
look in the bible for other passages about “almsgiving”, there are hardly any
passages in the Old Testament which use this word. It seems to me as though in
Hebrew, there’s not really a word for it in general, like here in our passage.
Instead, it’s spoken about in a different way. For example, in Deuteronomy 15:11
it says: There will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command
you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the
poor, in your land.’
This
sounds very much like what Jesus says when the woman poured ointment on his
feet, and Judas thought it was a waste of money, and that it should have been
given to the poor. Jesus says: You always have the poor with you, and
whenever you want you can do good for them. Sometimes, there is a
temptation for us in our country with government welfare to think that there is
nobody in our country who is really poor and needy, and if they are, it’s by
their own fault. Well, there are always people who fall between the cracks, and
if the government really could eradicate poverty, or if young people with
wristbands could really “make poverty history”, then they really would be God.
But they are not, and so they fail. And so we always have the poor with us, or
as it says in Deuteronomy: There will never cease to be poor in the land.
Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the
needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Notice
the words: open wide your hand. People always have the temptation to
open their hand a bit too wide, so that everyone sees it. They think that as
long as they open wide your hand, they have done good. Keep opening your hand
wide enough and you might get the Nobel Peace Prize. People will accolade you,
and they will reward you, and they will fatten up your ego to such extent and
put you on a red carpet, and tell you just what a wonderful person you really
are. Jesus says: no. Do it in secret.
Trumpets
are a great musical instrument. They’re great for weddings, big ceremonies, Christmas
pageants, in the army, you name it. And weddings and Christmas pageants are
something for us to look at. But not your charitable works. Jesus says: Sound
no trumpet before you. Open wide your hand, but not in such a way that
accompany it with music, so that you have your very own Christmas pageant,
whether it be in person, in the newspaper or on Youtube. Instead, Jesus says: Do
not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving
may be in secret.
Notice
also, the word reward. Jesus says: They have received their reward. And:
Your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Jesus is not giving us
eternal life as our reward. Eternal life has already been promised to you. Now
Jesus is training you in good works. And what happens when you train a dog? If
he does well, you give him a biscuit, and say, “Good doggy!” The same with us.
As Jesus trains us, all amid our sin and failings and stumblings, he promises
to reward us, to that we are encouraged and know that our work has been
pleasing to him. So when we do well, like a every good dog-trainer, he gives us
a biscuit—he promises to reward us but in such a way that he has not told us
about how. But he wants us to follow his training in faith, and he promises to
reward us, and to lead us forward not in service of the world so that we get
praise from them, but in service of him and his kingdom, so that it is he who
commends us.
II.
Prayer
The
second part of our reading has to do with prayer. When Jesus was tempted by
Satan in the wilderness, another of the temptations was that he took Jesus to the
pinnacle of temple, and to throw [himself] down, knowing that God will
command his angels concerning you. Jesus says to Satan: It is written:
You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
Our
Christian faith is not about magic tricks, about displays of glory and about
testing God. Instead, Jesus gives us the gift of prayer. In our reading
tonight, he gives us his own prayer, which we know as the Lord’s Prayer. And in
our sermon, we do not have the time to go through this prayer, but what a wonderful
gift it is.
Once
again, Jesus teaches a lot about how not to pray. Prayer doesn’t show to us how
wonderful we are. Prayer is not about going on leisurely excursions of our
soul, jumping off buildings, diving into swimming pools, and making us feel so
good about ourselves and our own mystical powers.
Jesus
says: When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. Here is
another word we do not find in the Old Testament: “hypocrites”. A hypocrite is
an actor who wears a mask. It is someone who puts on an act, but inside they
are someone different. When we pray, we can easily put on an act, and be
someone who we are not.
We
often think that we are not very good at prayer. And that is true, we’re not.
Anyone who thinks he is, is even worse at it. But we do not need to be good at
it, because Jesus is good at it. And when he teaches us what to say in prayer,
he says: Our Father. We never pray: my Father, because all our prayers
are made together with Jesus, and all of our fumblings and stumblings and stammerings
are covered over with his blood.
So he
says to us: You don’t need to be good at prayer. You come in all your
helplessness and in all your wrestlings with your sin, and let me train you not
in front of other people, but behind a closed door, in private. Jesus says: When
you pray, go into your room and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And
what we said before about rewards also applies here. Jesus says: And your
Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Jesus
has some more to say about prayer. He says: When you pray, do not heap up
empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for
their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need
before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven.
Notice
that when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he gives them words. He actually
gives them a prayer to use—the Lord’s prayer. We use this prayer all the time.
But this prayer is also a template, where we can go through it and fill in the
blanks for our own life. Martin Luther has given a wonderful help with this in
the Small Catechism.
But
also Jesus tells us not only not to pray as hypocrites, but not to pray as
Gentiles. Remember here he was talking to a Jewish audience, because at this
stage he hadn’t sent his disciples out to all nations yet. Here he teaches us
that his way to pray, conflicts with the way the Gentiles pray. In the book of
Deuteronomy, before the people of Israel were about to go into the promised
land, Moses says: When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations
whom you go in to dispossess…take care…that you do not inquire about their
gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?’—that I also may do the
same.’ You shall not worship the Lord God in that way.
When
the Gentiles pray, when pagans or heathens pray, the focus is on techniques.
How can pray in such a way to make me feel as though I have achieved something?
How can I pray in such a way that I can really twist the arms of the gods or
the spirits to force them into doing what I want? How can I pray in such a way
as to enter into my psychic or mystical space and feel as though I am a god
myself? Remember Satan said to Eve about the fruit: You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.
And so
we have these pagan prayer practices such as mantras from Hinduism, the
repetition of empty phrases. Or you might know about the Whirling Dervishes,
who dance themselves around and chant themselves into a mystical state. Or you
might think of those Buddhist monks who chant and repeat their verses all day
long. Even some Christians try to practise all kinds of superstitions, thinking
that they will receive some kind of spiritual power from simply repeating some
prayer or phrase over and over again, so that they can achieve some awesome
state of contemplation. Or sometimes people simply think that a good prayer is
a long prayer. This is not what Jesus teaches. But it’s so easy to look at
these people with their complicated techniques, and think our spiritual they
are—and we, sitting on our chair at home, praying for our dying parents, or our
wayward children, seems to be so ordinary. It’s ordinary because it’s real.
Creating an illusion takes a lot of effort, but the illusion is not real, even
if it’s an illusion of being spiritual. Jesus cares about our ordinary, every
day lives, and to place them into his hands in prayer.
He
gives us no techniques—no centering our thoughts, no slowing down our
breathing—He gives us a prayer, he gives us the words to pray. And in such a
small prayer, he summarises everything that we need. He says: Do not be like
them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. What a
wonderful blessing it is to have a heavenly Father like this who knows exactly
what we need so intimately and so completely!
So as
we begin this time of Lent, on this Ash Wednesday, let’s commend ourselves to
our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and place ourselves in his hands. He has judged all
of your sin by dying for it on the cross, and the forgiveness of sin which he
won for you now belongs to you. And so now, he trains you as his disciple,
through showing you your sin and proclaiming to you the complete forgiveness of
it in the church. And now, as you learn to be generous, to pray, and even to
fast, his word teaches you how to do these things in a way which is pleasing to
him, knowing that he forgives for all of our blunders along the way! Thank God
for that.
Lamb
of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us. Amen.
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