Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

The Spirit of Lent

Beauty is only skin deep, so the expression goes. I guess that is a
warning to gullible men not to be attracted only to the outward beauty
of a woman, but to look more closely at the inner, the spiritual beauty,
if you wish, of a woman. I know that a woman whose makeup is always meticulous,
is a one who spends hours in front of a mirror. Men, you will have to
wait a long time on that kind of woman.

Jesus‘ words to us, from that part of the Bible called, the Sermon on
the Mount, seem to tell us much the same. Watch out that your piety,
your spirituality is not just on the outside. Do your good works in response
to what God has done for you. If you do it for what people will think
of you, that’s all you are going to get out of what you do.

Lent is a special time for people who trust in Jesus as the One who
rules and as the One who brings wholeness and healing to lives. It is
a time to examine their lives, to do something about their spiritual
life, to reflect again in depth I would hope on what Christ Jesus has
done for them, and to get in touch again with the core values of their
relationship with God through Jesus our Savior.

That is the spirit of Lent. It will walk you through the sufferings
of our Lord, the commemoration of his death on Good Friday, the pause
of total emptiness which takes place on Holy Saturday, and then the next
day’s explosion of the myths and fears of our lives as we begin to get
in touch with the new reality: Christ lives! We shall also live!

The spirit of Lent, these 40 weekdays before the Festival of the Resurrection,
is to expose the error of our lives known as formalism, of external piety.
Jesus warns us: „Beware of practicing your righteousness before
men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father
who is in heaven“ (Matt. 6:1). It is quite simple. You cannot seek
to please both God and man at the same time. You can’t play to two audiences
at the same time. You can please one or the other, but not both.

That sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? It is, in reality, much more
subtle than it seems on the surface. No devout Jew, and certainly none
of us would try to please God and disregard God at the same time. We
know that would be quite stupid.

But how much today don’t we believe that God approves of us because
we seem to have man’s applause, and/or the approval of our peers. Quite
simply, if you want to know how well you are doing spiritually, see what
your associates are saying about you. If that is how you judge how well
you are doing before God, well, then, get as much praise from others
as possible.

Jesus explodes that myth. He says you cannot serve God and get man’s
approval at the same time. And if you do gain the approved of men, then
you get people’s approval, but you forfeit any possibility of „reward“ from
God.

The spirit of Lent is that we want to know the God who loves us enough
to send his one, his only, his beloved Child to this world to rescue
us from this false and finally fatal sin, we want to know God is getting
our message when it comes to our spiritual and our charitable acts. That
message is: we are beginning to understand your sacrifice for us. This
how we are responding to you. We love you, Lord; we love you.

Jesus then unfolds this spirit we are to have in three areas: giving,
praying, and fasting.

Examine for a moment your giving, whether that is to the poor, or to
church, or to other charities. Far too many of us give because we are
asked. We seem to be blind when it comes to the needs of others. So we
don’t give unless we are asked, and then, of course, we want to be thanked.
You can walk into any major hospital or university building and find
there the names of the major donors or donor.

The church and all charities seem to have to beg us for gifts. We fail
to realize that all we have is a gift to us. Everything–starting from
life itself to our external material possessions–is a gift to us from
God. When we factor that into that our restored relationship with God
through Jesus, his presence in our lives constantly, his gift of eternal
life, a sure hope that we will be taken by the hand and lead home as
we travel this road on earth, we are rich, rich beyond what we think
and what we imagine.

We need to respond to Jesus. And as he says at the very end of the Good
News for this Ash Wednesday: where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.

We know about the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, who had a heart 4 sizes
too small. Are we worse than the Grinch who takes but never gives, or
gives with great reluctance and with some kind of recognition necessary?

I remind you of a man despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief, a man beaten for our iniquities and whipped
for our offenses, who gave up his life, so we could have his life. A
person who has freely given us all things. Is our giving of what we have
generous, according to whose standing? Where is your heart? It is well
to examine our spirit of giving in this time of Lent.

Have you ever seen a couple who are making every effort to show they
love each other in public? They hang on each other like wet leaves on
concrete. They kiss constantly, look fondly at each other, and stop and
embrace without thinking anybody is looking. Actually they are playing
to the crowd. They have no desire to be alone, for there is no audience
there. In contrast, think of the husband and wife who deeply love each
other, but rarely show any sign of affection. Who are you when it comes
to giving?

Our praying should not be acting. That is the meaning of being a hypocrite.
We should not be playing to the crowds, or to other Christians. Only
acting, no truth at all. Some of the Pharisees at Jesus‘ time said that
they would pray at certain hours of the day. Guess where they were when
those times came? You guessed it. In the market place. Suddenly they
would stop, and spend the next moments in prayer. They wanted to be seen,
Jesus says, they were seen and that is their reward.

When Jesus says we should not pray babbling on and on, it reminds me
that some people just like to talk and they talk and talk and they talk.
Today we have prayer partners, prayer chains, and prayer warriors. Pray
in secret, not to be seen but to be heard by your heavenly Father. Pray
at all times, everwhere because you are praying in the secret of your
heart to God.

Fasting is a little known among us, although it is coming into vogue
again by some Christians. In a day when luxuries are considered necessities,
it would be of great benefit for us to understand what are necessities,
by giving up luxuries.

Someone recently stated that there is a lot of fasting going on. It
is called dieting, and everyone is crowing about how they are dieting.
Is it to those people that Jesus is speaking perhaps?

Dr. Martin Luther, talking about fasting in preparation for receiving
Holy Communion, says in his Small Catechism: „fasting and bodily
preparation are indeed a fine outward training, but he who is truly worthy
and well-prepared has faith in these words: given and shed for you for
the forgiveness of sins.“

Before we pass over this section where Jesus speaks about fasting, we
might well consider how indulgent of ourselves we have become. We buy
anything we want, we eat anything we want, we go where ever we want,
we buy more than we can use, we waste food at a phenomenal amount, our
garages are filled to capacity, we need public storage, and we are all
guilty of conspicuous spending.

Fasting aside, perhaps using less and giving more, praying with more
insight into what we are praying for or about, or just praying a bit
more is the spirit of Lent.

A great Roman war hero was returning home. They were giving him one
of those triumphant marches we have seen so often in the movies or on
TV. Soldiers were lined along the streets to keep the masses from getting
in the way of the parade. A little boy tried to break through. A soldier
got a good grip on him and said: „Don’t get in the way of the emperor.
The boy replied, „He may be the emperor to you, but he is my father.“

That is the spirit we should use in giving, praying and fasting. He,
our God is our Father, knowing all about us, caring for us deeply, wanting
to help us. Lent is the time we see him helping us more intimately, in
the person of Jesus.

It is that spirit that is the spirit of Lent. May it be ours as a gathering
of God’s people, and individually as persons brought with the precious
blood of God’s son, so we may always be in the presence of the supreme,
almighty, ever living God. Amen.

Walter W. Harms, retired pastor
Austin, TX, USA
Comments? waltpasto@AOL.com