Mar. 6, 2019                Ash Wednesday                                       

As I noted in my newsletter article this month, Lent is that 40 day period between Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, Sunday’s not included. Lent is supposed to be for us, like 40 years in the wilderness was for the Israelites, and 40 days in the wilderness was for Jesus when he was tempted. The entire purpose of Lent is for us to grow in our relationship with God, and that can’t happen, when we continue in our devotion to the God’s and idols of our lives.

So for many people Lent is a time when they give up something. Some give up soda, or sugary foods, or time watching tv, or smoking, or drinking, or gambling, the list goes on and on.  The point being, to somehow better ourselves, through suffering the absence of such things. And perhaps, this is the only way that people can appreciate that all suffering isn’t bad, and sometimes it is helpful. But that’s not quite what Lent is all about, as I noted above, the suffering of Lent is supposed to help us understand the suffering of Jesus, so that we may be ready to appreciate the new life that is offered to us at Easter through Jesus resurrection. 

William Shakespeare has a famous line from one of his plays, “All the world is a stage, and men and women are merely players.” When Jesus talks about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, this is what he is getting at, their acts of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, are done to be seen by others, to curry favor or acts for which they are well spoken. As Jesus says in another part of the gospel, those who perform these acts for such reasons, have earned their reward, and it is a human reward, not one from God.

The purpose of the disciplines of lent, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, are not meant for us to earn a human reward, each of them is meant instead to bring us closer to God, to knowing God’s presence, compassion, and strength through a process of emptying ourselves, giving of ourselves, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others. Because ultimately, life is not about us, it’s about our relationship with God, and that comes through the way we relate to one another.

So what is this almsgiving all about? Almsgiving is something that most of us really don’t do today. Actually, there are many who do almsgiving year round, but we don’t realize that is what we are doing. We have our offerings on Sunday, we have special collections in church, sometimes during Lent there are even special offering boxes that we fill, and then send in to a mission. Even people today, who don’t give to others through their church, can send money online, or sign up through facebook to support a cause, or even make a donation to hurricane victims via text. All of which makes us feel good about ourselves, but safely keeps us from interacting with those in need.

Real almsgiving is about interaction with people in need, it is one on one assistance, helping a struggling family pay their bills, or deal with their problems. Real almsgiving forces us to see their predicament, to see how the system is stacked against them, to see how the rules work against them. Real almsgiving forces us to realize that those who are deeply in debt to credit cards, who lose their homes because of medical payments, who choose drugs as a way to escape their pain and hopelessness, who are discriminated against because they are strangers, or foreigners, or just plain different, are not all that different from us. Real almsgiving challenges us to see the world differently, and allows us to experience God’s compassion for those the world so often ridicules or ignores.   

So what is this prayer stuff all about? We all know about prayer, in fact it is the most requested topic of sermons for the pastor. Pastor, why don’t you preach a really good sermon on how to pray? A lot of times, in response to this, the pastor will pass on some other prayer from scripture that can be read or memorized.  Then there are family prayers, said at mealtimes, or there are morning or nightly prayers said after or before bedtime. These prayers are usually a long list of what we want, or to help a family member or neighbor, or someone else in trouble. Some when they do pray, are in the deal making game, God if you do this, then….. But most of us are just to hurried, to busy, to devote ourselves to the kind of prayer Jesus is talking about.

When was the last time, you set aside a certain amount of time to pray? You know, twenty minutes of quiet time, when you actually took the time to ask God, for direction in your life, how to handle an awkward situation at work or school, how to love your children when they make mistakes, how to forgive your spouse when you have a disagreement or when they have done something wrong.  How often do we ever acknowledge things are not working out as we plan and ask God how to be a better person. Not many people today are willing to stand directly before God, and allow our lives to be examined, admit our insecurities, mistakes, our weaknesses, and ask God to help us, to guide us. This kind of prayer is the kind that leads to the thing we most fear, change, and it requires of us a trust in God that can be life changing. That’s the kind of prayer Jesus is talking about, the kind that lets God into our lives.

So what is fasting all about? Now I checked online and there are all kinds of fasting, some is total water, bread, and vitamins, some is partial fasting, excluding meat and only eating veggies during lent, one is even called supernatural fasting – going without bread or water for 40 days – somehow trusting that God will sustain you. Can you say tempting God? Also, for some people, a Lenten fast is a chance to diet, to lose some weight or go down a pant size, that’s more of a self-help version of fasting, which really misses the point – growing in our relationship with God.

In America, where the average weight of our citizens is pushing 200+ lbs, fasting during lent is perhaps not such a bad idea, however, what is more important about fasting during lent, is the way it changes the way we look at the world. As well fed Americans, we are full, satiated, sometimes even to the point of feeling ill. Fasting changes that, through fasting we learn what it is to feel empty, what it is to be hungry, and even more, to realize how much we have, and how much food we waste. When we fast, we come to realize, God really has given to us, more than enough, especially of food, and to trust that God has also done that in the other areas of our lives, enough to trust that we will not perish if we are not full of everything we want. 

So, you might have noticed that Jesus doesn’t say if you give alms, pray, or fast, but rather when you give alms, pray, or fast. The purpose of these is not self-help, nor is it to look good before others, but it is indeed for us to experience God’s presence in our lives, to grow in our relationship with God, but most importantly, to prepare ourselves to enter into that new life, that is ours through faith in the resurrection. For as the scriptures tell us, in dying to this life, the door is open to the new life that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s the Good News of Jesus Christ in this season of Lent!