The Readings
Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21.
(Ash Wednesday)
Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be
seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a
trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received
their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father
who sees in secret will reward you. And
whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and
pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by
others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever 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. And whenever
you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their
faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have
received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your
face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is
in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do
Mark 1 (1st
Sunday in Lent)
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was
baptized by John in the Jordan. And just
as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the
Spirit descending like a dove on him.
And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with
you I am well pleased." And the
Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted
by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to
Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the
good news."
The message
We are now in Lent. Our readings, songs, banners, music, and
even the tone of the biblical texts we share each week, have all changed. The
surprise of Christmas, the joy of remembering “Christ our savior is born”, the
revelation of Epiphany, the visit and gifts of kings, the baptism of Jesus, the
first calls to “come and follow me” and the world discovering who was born on
Christmas, all that will now shift to the wilderness and cross, to God’s saving
work through the death and resurrection of Jesus. At Lent, we walk with Jesus
and his early followers as they face sin and death, endure and triumph. I wanted to start Lent off with a review of
the two things I talked about on Ash Wednesday since that is when the tone and
spiritual heart of Lent is the most obvious. I apologize is this is a repeat for you but
honestly these things are so counter cultural, so different from the world we
live in, and so hard for us to really get that we could hear them twice.
First, in light of Jesus warning from Wednesday’s Gospel
reading “do not practice you piety before others in order to be seen by them”,
I talked about our need to actually practice our piety, not for attention, not
for the admiration of others, not to look holy, not to look important or be
seen as good but because we need to practice our piety for our own joy, comfort,
understanding and peace. For me piety
means something like “to live consciously aware of God’s grace and God’s
presence” and that is something we do need to practice. Here this building is
filled with people who practice; there is soccer on weeknights, the ABCs, songs
and counting in our preschool, bands from the churches that share the space
with us on Friday nights, our 12 step meetings where people practice facing addiction
together, our choir on Sunday morning and so many others. We should practice our piety here too, to
pray regularly so that it can become a source of strength and part of
life, we should try different spiritual
practices so that we can find the ones that help us powerfully experience God’s
presence, we should share our faith in new ways and speak of God’s love in new
places so that we can find the words that work, we should practice asking
ourselves over and over again “what’s the faithful way to react to this
situation” or:”how can I use my gifts to serve God and neighbor” so that it can
become a part of our regular decision making, we should practice welcoming
others and reaching out to new people so that we can really see everyone as a
child of God.
Second, right before we were all marked with ashes, I shared
the same idea that I mention each Ash Wednesday. We might not like to advertise it or reflect
on it but we know that we are dust. We do not need to have a little dirt put on
our foreheads to be reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return. Every day, every hour, sometimes, even every
minute, we are reminded that we are dust.
We know that we are not invincible, we are fragile. We know there are
many things we cannot control, with every pain, ache, cough or cold in our
lives, with every disappointment, failure, betrayal or loss, with every scene
of suffering we see and every story of war, violence, abuse, inequality or
preventable suffering, with every experience of unfairness or broken promises,
we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return.
We do need Ash Wednesday though, so that we can come
together and be reminded that each of us is dust, each of us has sins, pains,
anxieties and fear, and most importantly that even though each of us is dust,
each of us is dust that God loves.
Now, today, we hear the defining reading for Lent, Jesus 40
days in the wilderness before the start of his public ministry. Mark gives us
the shortest version of Jesus temptation.
Matthew and Luke both include more details, they write about the types
of trials Jesus endures and the offers Satan makes to try and turn Jesus
against God and God’s difficult plan for our salvation. In all of the reports
of the temptation, we see Jesus practicing his piety and we are reminded that
with God’s grace, we are dust that matters, we are dust that God loves.
First, and this might only be me, but I often fall into this
trap of thinking that Jesus has a nice, zen like, meditative time out in the
wilderness, that this experience is nothing for Jesus, that he endures it with
a smile, that he laughs at Satan’s offers. Really though, this story is about
temptation, real incredible offers, and real rejections. Jesus prays because he has to, Jesus is helped
by the angels after the orderal is over, because he has to be. Jesus needs to practice his piety, he spends
every moment in the wilderness, thinking about God’s love and trying to find it
despite his own suffering. Jesus strength comes from his baptism, remember, he literally
enters the wilderness immediately after leaving the water. In the temptations
in Matthew and Luke, we also learn that Jesus’ strength comes from the
scriptures, he turns to God’s word to counter Satan’s word, to reject the
devils offers, to say no thanks to unlimited power, and decline the wealth of
the whole world.
We, as God’s people almost 2000 years after this temptation
in the wilderness, We are dust that has experienced, heard and told God’s love,
we are dust that has been baptized, we
are dust that has ready access to the scriptures, We are left to ask,
imagine and wonder, what will we do with God’s grace, with our Baptism, and
God’s word to us, With it, we can resist temptation, reject the inclination to
be superior, silence the desire for power and shut out the greed for status and
stuff. With these things, we can ignore the
feelings of powerlessness against the very bad things in the world. Being dust that is loved by God is a very
powerful thing This Lent, we are called to dream about what can happen when
dust, that is loved by God, acts like it. Amen
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