Lent Paid Forward

Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Theme: “Lent Paid Forward”
Ash Wednesday
February 22, 2012
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Nineteen hours ago, when the clock struck midnight -- while many of us were getting ready for bed or already asleep -- the Time of Christmas silently gave way to the Time of Easter.

The Time of Christmas has three seasons: the season of Advent, the “little season” (as it is called) of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the season of Epiphany. Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the Time of Easter. It, too, has three seasons: the forty day season of Lent; the “little season” of Holy Week which includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday; and the season of Easter itself which runs for seven weeks – a “week of weeks”, if you will.

So here we are at a unique moment in time: the beginning of The Time of Easter and The Season of Lent on the day that is called Ash Wednesday. In a matter of minutes, we will observe a solemn ritual called The Imposition of the Ashes. And it is an imposition. In a culture that vainly and desperately tries to find the fountain of youth and seeks what some have called “the eternal sunshine of the soul”, the imposition of ashes is an imposing, gritty, dirty, perhaps even nasty reminder of our mortality. It recalls that word from God recorded in Genesis: “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” The words are echoed at the countless gravesides of history: “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; from dust you came and to dust you shall return.” As an old doggerel goes: “The clock of life is wound but once, and no one has the power to tell just where the hands will stop – at late or early hour.”

The ashes, smudged on our foreheads in the sign of the cross, are an invitation as well. They invite us to repent, to change our mind, to get real with God, with ourselves, and each other. They call us to get back to the basic, to put first things first, to observe the Biblical and historic disciplines of Lent, to acknowledge both individually and corporately, that life isn’t one bright, shining moment after another that’s fit for broadcast on Entertainment Tonight! It it has been said that “Only those who have walked through the darkest valley can truly appreciate how magnificent it is to stand on the highest mountain.” In Lent, we are down in the valley – with our Lord and one another. We are mindful of the words of the great King David in the 23rd Psalm: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

So, let the journey begin! In tonight’s Gospel, our Lord highlights disciplines, practices, or spiritual exercises that are helpful not only in Lent but throughout our entire lives.

But He prefaces His remarks with a warning. He says: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” There is no reward in that, He says. He’s not saying that you can’t practice your righteousness. He’s not saying that you can’t express or confess or live your faith at all. He’s operating under the assumption that you will express, confess, and live your faith. He’s zeroing in on the whole question of motive. If our motive in expressing and living the faith is to be seen by others and to pick up spiritual brownie points for ourselves and gets kudos from other folks for how wonderful and upright, moral, and beyond reproach we are, we’ve got it way wrong!

Jesus says: “When you give to the needy, don’t announce it with trumpets.” He doesn’t say “If you give to the needy.” He says “When you give to the needy.” He assumes His followers, you and I, are going to be charitable. But again, we’re back at the whole motive thing. We don’t engage in charitable giving to get a pat on the back for our generosity or to boost are sagging egos. He says that when you “give to the needy, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.”

Now comes the whole matter of prayer. Lent is a prime time to renew our devotion to daily meditation and prayer. But the idea, again, is to do it privately – or, as in the words of Jesus, “in secret.” Here at FPC, we’ve provided some great devotional material for meditation and prayer during Lent. But if and how and when and where you use them or don’t use them is not something that we need to talk about. Do you get what I’m saying?

Next comes the whole matter of fasting – or, as it is occasionally asked, “What are you giving up for Lent?” The minute you answer that question, you’ve torpedoed what Jesus was getting at. Again, He’s not saying that you should not make a sacrifice. He just wants to make sure our motives are right. We’re not giving something up so that we can shout to the world what a wonderful sacrifice we’ve made. Jesus goes as far as to say that He wants it to look like we’re giving up nothing at all.

Finally, Jesus considers the practice of storing up treasure. Again, He’s not saying you shouldn’t do it. He does have a thing or two to say about where to do it. Listen to this: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

I think it safe to say that there are times when we worry ourselves sick about storing up treasures on earth. We earn; we spend; we budget; we do financial planning; we set up wills; we try to avoid the taxman; we spend money for expert opinion on how to invest; we cross our fingers and hope that our 401K and our Social Security will hold up, and that the moth and the vermin and the thieves won’t eat or steal the little pile of cheese we’ve managed to store up. “But,” says Jesus, “what would it profit a person if he/she gains the whole world” – with every conceivable golden parachute ever conceived of or offered – “but forfeit your own soul?”

At the end of The Season of Lent, we’re going to see once more how valuable we are to our Creator. We will take careful note of the investment God made in us. The Gospel says that, in Jesus Christ, God invested His life! The more we realize this, the more our heavenly stock portfolio rises – not because of who we are or what we did, but because of what God did for us.

And in the meantime, in this Season of Lent, and quietly and consistently and, at times, even secretly, throughout our lives, we get to pay it forward.

“Freely you have received,” says Jesus. “Freely give.”

Amen.