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Christ Church Covington
Ash Wednesday
March 05, 2003
Not long ago, a family I know was discussing its household Lenten
discipline – what they were going to do as a family for Lent. The parents
were batting around such ideas as foregoing television or meat, not eating
between meals, that kind of thing. Then one of the children in this family
had an idea. “Hey,” he said, “let’s give up Church!” Now, given today’s
Gospel reading, one might think he was on to something. “And whenever you
pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in
the synagogue… But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door
and pray to your Father who is in secret…” I can see how one might
interpret that passage as, “Don’t go to Church.” That is, if you excise
those few verses and look at them in isolation. But if you started cutting
and pasting passages in the Bible you could get it to say just about
anything. We’ve got to look at passages of scripture in the context in
which they appear, in which they’ve been divinely placed, in order to get
an accurate understanding of what they’re saying.
The list of dos and don’ts that comprise our Gospel reading today
(including the verses about when and where to pray) are but a small
portion of the Sermon on the Mount – a pretty hefty chunk of Matthew’s
Gospel (remember, the Sermon on the Mount is the part that begins with the
Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and so on). We could say
that the Sermon on the Mount is where Jesus addresses how the rubber hits
the road: the behavior of those who follow him, what we do by virtue of
who we are. In the section that was just read, Jesus tells his followers
that they are to be a people of purity, not just piety. In other words,
legitimate Christian piety begins with pure motive, and that pure motive
is the giving of self for the sake of others. Indeed, we could say that
the Sermon on the Mount equates religious purity with genuine
self-sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice for which there can be no
possibility of earthly reward.
Of course Jesus gives us the ultimate example of this kind of sacrifice by
his death on the cross: his giving of his whole earthly existence for our
sake.
Now, today is a good day to look at our religious practices – both our
ordinary observances and our seasonal disciplines – and examine our
motives. This is a good time to ask ourselves why we’re doing what we’re
doing for this season of Lent and throughout the year. For example, going
back to the fellow I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, the one
considering giving up Church for Lent might want to ask himself why he
goes to Church at all. Is it to be seen in Church? Is it so that others
will think well of him as a churchgoer? Or does he go to church to place
himself in God’s presence and enter more fully into His life of Communion?
Purity of motive is what is at issue. One motive points to self. The other
motive points to the Cross. One motive involves personal fulfillment. The
other motive involves self-emptying.
Before this all starts to sound too harsh and gloomy, let us be mindful
that the trajectory of Lent, is Easter Joy. Our mortification over the
next few weeks is intended to yield new life. But standing between us and
Easter, is Good Friday. There can be no Resurrection without Crucifixion.
We must aim for the Cross if we’re going to attain everlasting joy.
Amen.
The Rev’d Robert M. Odom
M.Div., Curate
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