The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 6th Chapter
“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.
Outside of Taos, New Mexico is the Rio Grande Gorge. It’s a 1200 foot wide, 600 foot deep gorge cut into a very flat part of New Mexico by the Rio Grande river. The first time I saw it, I thought that if I was someone traveling on horseback out here long before roads, bridges and cars and I came to this uncrossable divide that goes on as far as the eye can see, I would be crushed. It is quite a gap!
That gap cut by the Rio Grande is nothing, however, compared to the gap that exists between where we often live our lives and the place God knows we would experience the abundant life God created us to live. We are on one side, living and doing what we do, while WAY over there, is where God knows our lives would be so much better. We are separated from the life God knows is best for us by quite a gap, but just like good, old St. Paul, we keep on doing the things we know we shouldn’t and can’t seem to do the things we know that we should. We continually live our lives confronted by that gap between where we are and where God knows we would experience a more abundant life. In spite of that, we all too often seem to just ride up to the edge, look into the gap, find ourselves stuck and the wallow in our stuck-ness.
Lent, though, is a season of the year for us to work on getting un-stuck... a time to first get ourselves and our egos out of the way and then to build our relationship with God and become more the creation God created us to be. Unfortunately, Lent seems to have become mostly a time to marinade more deeply in how horribly far we are from God’s desire for us, and rarely a time to build up that relationship with God. So, people fast because someone that far from God doesn’t deserve good food. They find ways to suffer to remind themselves how awful they are. They beat themselves with the things they should have done better or different or more faithfully. If you really want to... I suppose you could do that again this Lent. But, the trouble is, I don’t think a deeper, more guilt ridden study of the gap is what God has in mind for Lent. Lent is not only a time to acknowledge our humanity. It is equally a time for intentionally narrowing that gap to more fully experience the abundant life God has in mind for us. Spending the next six weeks of Lent beating yourself with the details of the depth and width of the canyon just won't get any of us any closer.
So, instead of being a season where all we do is study the depths of our depravity, let’s make Lent a season to work on becoming more the creation God made us to be. Building up though, is harder. It’s much easier to tear down. Beating yourself up for six weeks is easy compared to working on actively building a relationship with God. But building is an essential part of Lent.
So, if you decide to work on narrowing that gap this Lent, the first thing you need to know is that you can begin building from wherever you might be. There is no place that is too far gone. Nowhere that is unredeemable. The trick to narrowing the gap is to start where you are and begin to do a few things to help you more fully embrace the love that God has first given you and not become paralyzed, obsessing on the things that separate us from God and almost everything that we can do in Lent which builds up our faith can be connected with Baptism.
In the early Christian church, Lent was a time to prepare candidates for Baptism at the Great Easter Vigil and it was a time for those already in the church to remember their baptisms. The ashen cross on your forehead can be the beginning of a Lent-long practice of building up your faith. It is certainly a reminder of our mortality but it’s mostly a reminder of the same cross that was placed on your head when you were baptized. Yes we will all die, but our deaths are now in Christ and in Christ we have been given new life... we are a new creation! Lent is a time to begin to live into that reality!
From the foundation of your Baptism, you can continue to build. Light a candle each day as a reminder of the candle you received in Baptism when you were called to let the light of Christ shine through you in everything you do. Come to the font and mark the sign of the cross on your forehead, right where the ashes are tonight! But don’t just wait to use ONLY the water in the font! When you wash your face every day, make that cross with your thumb using the water in your sink as well! The Holy Spirit is not restricted to just the font, after all! A cross just like that one was signed on your forehead when you were sealed with the sign of the cross at your baptism, so let that cross remind you every day that you have been claimed by God and there is nothing in this world that can separate you from God’s love.
Send one thank-you card every day during Lent (you can take Sundays off because they aren’t counted in Lent and the mail isn’t picked up that day anyway). Read one passage of scripture every day… just one verse. Pray for those you love at every red light and for the unknown person in the car behind you. Buy the meal for the car behind you at the drive through. COME, EVERY WEEK to Sunday worship, our midweek worship and the book study. Remember the words of that august theologian Woody Allen... “80% of success is just showing up” or do my personal favorite Lenten discipline... instead of giving up dessert, pray through it, remembering one person in prayer with every bite.
Whatever it is you choose to do during this season, do what builds you up... builds your relationship with God in Christ and builds up the people around you. Choose the things that build, rather than what tears down. Do what encourages rather than criticizes. Look for opportunities to be thankful, rather than opportunities to lament and in everything you do remember your Baptism! Remember, the promise, that in your Baptism God has already bridged the gap and come to you in unconditional love. In Baptism, God has invited you to walk along The Way, and each day more fully live into the abundant life God created you to live. The disciplines of Lent are meant to help you experience more and more that abundant life, dying to the things that tear down and hold you back and rising to new life with every step of your Lenten journey and in every moment of your life as beloved and cherished Children of God. Amen.
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