Matthew 6:1-18 Ash Wednesday

Is our Giving up for Lent God driven or self driven?

Someone coming to Church on Sunday say for the first time and then coming again today would no doubt find the readings and message somewhat bemusing. For three days ago we celebrated Candlemas – the presentation of Christ at the Temple, today we begin to remember Christ’s time in the wilderness thirty years later. But perhaps the proximity of the two events will bring home even more clearly the power of Simeon’s prophesy to Mary ‘and a sword will pierce your own soul too’.

Ash Wednesday offers us a chance of dying into new birth. We are called to remember that we are dust and to dust we will return, to bring to God all those things that hold us back. Everything which hinders our reconciliation with God needs to be cleansed from us. The imposition of ashes reminds us of the ancient Biblical tradition of covering one's head with ashes, wearing sackcloth, and fasting. So the marking of the cross on the forehead with ash is a sign of penitence and mortality.

The liturgy for Ash Wednesday with its emphasis on penitence allows us to prepare for our Lenten journey, to rid ourselves from all that prevents us from feeling God's love and from being who we were created to be.

We must look at how we treat one another, how we care for the earth. We are to look at how we praise and give thanksgiving to our God. And, according to Jesus, we are to do this without fanfare.

Joel's words, written almost two-and-a-half thousand years ago seem to bring us uncomfortably close to home. with the seemingly constant news of wars, violence, disaster. But within Joel’s message in a reminder of hope. We are assured that a merciful God is with us in the midst of all the disasters . "For the day of the Lord is near." Yet the challenge is that we are called, in the words of Joel, "to rend our hearts and not our garments," to turn to God with our innermost selves, to meet as a people and sanctify a time of fasting, to put our treasures down if only for a moment and reflect on who we are in the deepest places.

All through the Old Testament God wanted purity and righteousness in what people did, and he still does. He wants us to worship, to do good deeds, and to help those in need. God wants us to pray and fast, but he wants us to do it for the right reasons and that is not to glorify ourselves but to glorify God.

To the Jew there were three great cardinal works of the religious life - charity, prayer, and fasting. Jesus did not have a problem with these things. He just had a problem with someone doing them with the wrong motive.

But the beginning of Lent is not merely a time for inward looking, we have to be careful not to play into the hands of our of our individualistic culture.

In my newspaper today there is an article ‘Are we giving up for the right reasons’ written by a former editor of the Catholic Herald. He goes on to say ‘Lent used to be about selflessness – now its all about self’. Later in the article he says we are encouraged to ‘Give something up and do yourself a favour. Lent is the perfect time to start a diet. Think of the pounds you will shed – not the pounds you’ll donate to a good cause’. Is he being harsh or is her horribly near to the truth?

Sometimes when I read about celebrities and charity I wonder if it is the celebrity or the charity which is the news item. Is it celebrating the work of the charity of the status of the celebrity. Now we only read about the ultra rich doing that but I think it is very easy for all of us to fall into that trap, perhaps totally unintentionally. Equally we can pray in such a way that our prayer is not really addressed to God, but to man. (and I more than suspect that that is a trap clergy can very easily fall into) or we may fast, not really for the good of our own soul, but to simply show off our self-disciplined character.

When someone is walking around with their religion or piety an display for everyone to see it can seem they are saying ‘I am more righteous than you’ . It can make others feel inferior, and anyone who looks smug (Christians included) can be a real turn off. And that surely is the last thing God wants, and that it is what Jesus warns us - that we are to avoid any demonstration of superior piety.

Did the people Jesus was talking to literally go around blowing a trumpet before they gave. Whether they did or not who we don’t really know, but his point is clear, when you do something good don’t blow your own trumpet. For as Jesus says, if you are doing that then that will be your reward, that is the payment for our good deed. Don’t expect God to reward you too. It’s as if He says “why should I look at what you have done, why should I notice, you didn’t do it for me, you did for yourself.”

That doesn’t mean that everything we do must be done in secrecy. For we are called upon to work for peace and justice, and to be bold enough to criticise where there is inequality, prejudice and persecution and indeed smugness.

In chapter five Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Then our good deeds are done for the right reasons, the attention and glory are focused on our heavenly Father rather than on ourselves.

Jesus Himself is our perfect example. He preached His messages in public, he performed his miracles of healing, he showed compassion in public. But he always focused the attention on His heavenly Father.

And so on Ash Wednesday, we take a close look at our lives and through Lent, we allow our fasts, our rituals, our prayers, and our studies to clean and wash away that which prevents us from growing in Christ.

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells us not to store up treasures on this earth, and isn’t that the ultimate challenge of Lent: to follow Christ’s examples, to turn our hearts towards God. To be true to who God made us to be. Self-denial is about losing the baggage that gets in the way of who we really are. Fasting, is not just not eating chocolates or some other food, but is about clearing our minds so we can find clarity and simplicity in our complex, materialistic world. It is coming to realise how much we have, that we really do possess all we need.

When we can do this we will truly be able to make room in our hearts for our God and each other, to hold a light up in the darkness for the God-given gifts which we truly cherish, our families, friends, creation, but most of all the gift of salvation bought for us on the cross.