Sermon for Ash Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Texts: Joel 2:12-19; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

            Beloved in Christ, from time to time we need an attitude adjustment. We settle into routines, which become habits, which lead to a settled frame of mind. And that settled frame of mind produces new vices, so that one sin in the end compounds another. Lent is a time to examine our attitudes and get them more in line with God’s way of thinking.

            But what exactly is wrong with our way of thinking? Well, there may be several things, but let us focus on two things this evening. First, there is the attitude that doesn’t recognize any problem at all. Life is good. Sin is either non-existent or a trivial problem. We are too prosperous, too smart, and too socially well-adjusted to think otherwise.

            What allows this attitude to take root is that we live in a land that is always Christmas and never winter. You may recognize that I have inverted a phrase from C.S. Lewis’s book, The Chronicles of Narnia. There the land had been put under the spell of a wicked queen, who had made it always winter, but never Christmas. For us who live in northern climes, we bear the onset of winter in early November or so, with its cruel winds and frigid temperatures, with the thought that Christmas will come near the harshest time of winter and bring us a bit of joy to remove the bitterness of winter. But it would be awful, thought Lewis, if there would be one cold, dreary day after another, with no Christmas to alleviate the gloom.

            But Lewis couldn’t have imagined a land like ours, where it is always Christmas and never winter. He had served in one world war and lived through another, with a depression between the two. Rationing had been normal for vast stretches of his life. The idea that anybody could go to a store and buy anything they pleased because society was prosperous enough to offer everything at all times—well, he couldn’t have imagined such a thing. But we in our affluent country begin celebrating Christmas sometime in September or so, long before the leaves have turned colors or fall chills have entered the air.

            Such luxury can deaden our senses to the reality of sin. We see that money can buy food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and homes for the homeless. And then we make the illogical leap that our affluence will solve all our problems—our broken friendships, our troubled marriages, our strained relationships at work, our negligence of God and prayer. But it is when we begin to think this way that God calls us to fast, weep, and repent. He calls us to put aside the joys of Christmas for a while and feel the biting winter wind. It is not that He will cruelly deprive us of Christmas in the future, but rather that we need to feel that wind in order to appreciate the gift of Christmas.

            That is why Joel called his affluent society to take a break from their overindulgence and instead to put on sackcloth and ashes and to fast and mourn. That is why the church for centuries has found it useful to set aside the forty days before Easter as a time of fasting and intensified prayer. Now the Scriptures do not mandate a particular way that this time must be observed, and we Christians have some freedom in exactly how we observe this season of Lent. But let me encourage you not just to do the same old things that you normally would. Instead, let this be a time when you deprive yourself of some of your usual joys so that instead you can focus on God and His kingdom.

            But at the same time we ought to recognize that there is another attitude that might need to be adjusted. And this is an attitude that most affects religious people, the sort of people who would tend to make a big deal out of Lent. While the world overindulges, we make a big deal out of the fact that we don’t.

            For us, Lent poses a hidden, but deadly danger, for we are tempted to show off our fasting, our intensified prayers, and our good works. It is bad when we give nary a thought to righteousness, but it is equally bad when we pursue righteousness only so that we can count ourselves superior to the vast majority who are less spiritually-minded than we are. In fact, the latter action may be more dangerous than the former, for those who are altogether worldly might one day be brought to repentance, but those who deem themselves spiritual think themselves to be in no need of change.

            That is why we need to hear our Lord’s words today. They do not forbid us to pray, fast, and give alms, but remind us to do these things in a truly spiritual way. These things cannot merely be an act where we look more pious than the people around us. Instead, they should be true spiritual disciplines whereby we repent of our sins and draw closer to God. When we do these things, we will not be looking around to compare ourselves with others. We will fast because we are disgusted with the way we have filled ourselves with everything in life to the point of bursting and realize we need to take a break from stuffing ourselves. We will pray because we know that we have serious issues we need to talk over with God, issues that others have no need to be privy to. We will give alms and do other charitable deeds because we want to get over our selfishness and let God’s love shape our own.

            In short, we will do these pious activities with the understanding that they are not really about us or the way we appear before others, but are about God. We will see that it isn’t our righteousness that will get us into heaven, but rather Christ’s righteousness will accomplish that. Because Christ has suffered and died to atone for our sins and has risen from the dead in order to forgive us, everything has been done to reconcile us to God. Our holiest deeds won’t make us more beloved to Him. All they can do is show that we take seriously what Christ has done for us.

            And so, beloved in Christ, we are freed from the awful burdens we place upon ourselves. We are freed from the burden of self-indulgence, which makes us responsible for our own happiness and which teaches us that that happiness is found only by ever-increasing pampering of our desires. And we are freed from the burden of justifying ourselves, of trying to prove to ourselves and others that we are really superior to others in our morality and thus ought to be accepted by God. Instead, we receive Christ’s righteousness and we acknowledge that true happiness comes from knowing our creator rather than piling up created goods.

            With that in mind, let us keep the Lenten discipline of fasting, prayer, and alms. Let us put aside the things that encumber us and devote greater attention to God, for He is always attentive to us. Let the next several weeks be a time when you come to understand Christ at a deeper level and take more to heart all that He has done for you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.