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Trinity Episcopal Church Hattiesburg, Mississippi Ash Wednesday February 21, 2006 Go To Trinity's Home Page

Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103:1-22
2 Corinthians 5:20b-21, 6:1-10
Matthew 6:1-6; 6:16-21
Collect
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA

“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 not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:1-6; 6:16-21)

It’s All About Motive
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector

     Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday. In the early church, Lent was a time for new members to learn about The Way, as Christianity was called. It was a time for those new to the faith, called catechumenates, to learn, study, reflect and pray as they prepared themselves for Easter Eve when they would receive Holy Baptism, the first sacrament of their new life in Christ. Catechumenates were required to fast for the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter as they spiritually prepared themselves. They were allowed to attend church and hear the first part of the worship service (the so-called “Mass of the Catechumens” or the “Ante-Communion”) with their fully initiated brethren, but were either dismissed before Eucharist or excluded from a separate site where the bread and wine were received by the rest of the assembly (the so-called “Anaphora” of the mass). This was to fulfill the doctrine that Baptism was the rite of initiation into the Christian faith, and a necessary pre-requisite to proper reception of Holy Communion. First Communion of catechumenates took place on Easter morning.

     In the Western Church, Lent was also a time of penance, during which people who had committed particularly notorious acts performed acts of contrition. Once someone with appropriate ecclesiastical authority had been satisfied that proper contrition had been achieved, the penitent was readmitted into fellowship at Holy Communion with other communicants in the church. And indeed, our church still has provision for denying communion to people who have committed certain kinds of acts, and readmitting those persons into community after they have performed restitution (see the Book of Common Prayer, page 409).

     Whether a notorious sinner, a catechumenate, or a rank-and-file member of the parish, Lent is traditionally observed by fasting, almsgiving, acts of penance, and other forms of disciplined spiritual devotion. The solemnity and seriousness of Lent is reflected in our corporate worship by the absence of the alleluias and other joyful music, the omission of The Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum, and the replacement of our grander fixtures and vessels of Holy Communion with simpler implements.

     In the modern western Churches, where preference to infant baptism has been given since the sixth century, emphasis on Lent as preparation for baptism declined in favor of general penitential practices in anticipation of the Pascal Feast of Easter. Most adults now see Lent as a time to strengthen our faith and reinvigorate our zeal.

     All of this language about preparing ourselves for Eastertide seems to suggest that we need to do things to win God’s favor. But do we need to prove our worthiness to God? Are we not created in the image of God – warts and all – and therefore acceptable to God?

     In the Christian tradition, the word “grace” sums up the relationship between God and creation. Grace is considered to be the means by which creation is brought into communion with the creator God. Since Christian doctrine, worship, and life are all shaped by the way grace is understood, and since grace determines our understanding of divine action and its relationship to human action, we need to look at what we do as we move into Lent.

     In the Gospel lesson today, Jesus speaks about human action in terms of praying, fasting, and almsgiving. Jesus commends these actions when he says “Whenever you do these things…” In and of themselves, Jesus suggests that doing things that help others, like prayer and almsgiving, or that help oneself, like fasting, are reasonable and important things for humans to do. But, Jesus exhorts us to look carefully at why we do these things. Do we do them for recognition or praise, or do we do them because we want to? And why do we want to do them anyway?

     What Jesus asks us to do is to examine our motives. In essence, he asks us to completely transform our hearts and minds in ways that bring about a powerful change in the relationship between God and the human person.

     And fundamentally, that change has its basis in trust. All of Jesus life and ministry – including his death and resurrection – all speak to God’s love for us. God loves us, and no amount of good deeds will increase God’s love for us. God’s love is the given. And with God’s love, comes God’s grace. Grace is God’s work alone. We cannot contribute anything to our own salvation other than this – and this is crucial: We must trust that God’s self-giving love for us – in the person of Jesus Christ – is sufficient for our salvation. It is belief in the Truth of God’s unconditional love for us that stimulates the faithful to give alms freely, to pray for one’s enemies, and do other pious acts.

     Sometimes we do things during Lent, believing that by doing them we will benefit from the rigors of taking on a discipline. But the problem again has to do with motive. If I take up something as a discipline, and I fail, I will feel an inordinate amount of guilt about it. If I promise to give up something, and I succeed, then I might begin to feel some self-righteous smugness. Sometimes we might engage in so many activities during Lent that we become slaves to time, and forget the reason we undertook the activities in the first place. We become easily distracted and we lose focus of the very things we set out to accomplish.

     To prepare for Easter and to have a Holy Lent is to seek to grow in our relation with God, to be more open to God’s presence in our lives, and to love God more and more in our hearts. Lent is a time to reorient, and restructure our lives and to examine our motives for our actions. It is not what we do in our outward lives that matters; but, rather it is what happens within each of us as we seek to know and be known by God.

     But even if our motives seem good and honorable, sometimes we just don’t do what is good. St. Paul said it best when he wrote, “Now I do not the good I desire, but rather the evil that I do not desire. Now if I should do what I do not wish to do it is not that I do it, but rather sin that swells within me.” As Paul Tillich once wrote about this, Paul experienced “the split between his conscious will and his real will, between himself and something strange and alien within him. Humankind seems to always be split against itself through aggression, hate, enmity, and despair. It is the mixture of self-love and self hate that permanently pursues us, and prevents us from loving others, and that prohibits us from losing ourselves in the love with which we are loved eternally.”[1]

     The season of Lent has to do with refocusing our lives and with growing in grace. It is a good time to banish illusions and to restore priorities. It is a time to control the strutting peacock in every one of us. It is a time to discern what we value most, which is hopefully the God who made us and calls to us through the Gospel. It is a time to clear away the stuff that prevents us from feeling God’s love, and that impedes our growth in God’s grace.

     So as we begin this Lenten season, let us pray that we will clear away that which impedes our growth. Let us pray that our inner Christ will grow and outshine our personal doing, so that what we do becomes God’s work. Let us pray that we will become able to bring Christ into the world – both individually and as his body.

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Isaiah 58:1-12

Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

Psalm 103:1-22

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, *
and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.

2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, *
and forget not all his benefits.

3 He forgives all your sins *
and heals all your infirmities;

4 He redeems your life from the grave *
and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;

5 He satisfies you with good things, *
and your youth is renewed like an eagle's.

6 The LORD executes righteousness *
and judgment for all who are oppressed.

7 He made his ways known to Moses *
and his works to the children of Israel.

8 The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, *
slow to anger and of great kindness.

9 He will not always accuse us, *
nor will he keep his anger for ever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, *
nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.

11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, *
so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.

12 As far as the east is from the west, *
so far has he removed our sins from us.

13 As a father cares for his children, *
so does the LORD care for those who fear him.

14 For he himself knows whereof we are made; *
he remembers that we are but dust.

15 Our days are like the grass; *
we flourish like a flower of the field;

16 When the wind goes over it, it is gone, *
and its place shall know it no more.

17 But the merciful goodness of the LORD endures for ever on those who fear him, *
and his righteousness on children's children;

18 On those who keep his covenant *
and remember his commandments and do them.

19 The LORD has set his throne in heaven, *
and his kingship has dominion over all.

20 Bless the LORD, you angels of his,
you mighty ones who do his bidding, *
and hearken to the voice of his word.

21 Bless the LORD, all you his hosts, *
you ministers of his who do his will.

22 Bless the LORD, all you works of his,
in all places of his dominion; *
bless the LORD, O my soul.

2 Corinthians 5:20b-21, 6:1-10

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Matthew 6:1-6; 6:16-21

“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 not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:1-6; 6:16-21)

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1] Paul Tillich as quoted in Synthesis. Year A, Ash Wednesday, 9 February 2005. Boyds, MD: Sedgwick Publishing.

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Copyright © 2006-7, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
20 February 2007

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