Almighty God, may you guide us to
seek the truth- come whence it may, cost what it will, lead where it might.
Amen.
Why?
Why do we come for Ash Wednesday? Why do we celebrate Lent? Don’t we already
have enough guilt, enough to do? Isn’t there enough doom and gloom in the
world? Politicians fighting in Washington, Israel and Iran in a Cold War that
is getting hotter every day, rampant poverty and famine around the world,
dictators in Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea, a global debt crisis, not
to mention all the stress and anxiety that we all carry around from our
personal lives. It seems that instead of a season where we are more
intentional, we need a vacation from it all. So again I ask, why Ash Wednesday?
Why
is the most important of all the questions, as it gets to the purpose and end
of things. Why is the language of inspiration, of core values, of meaning. The
other questions: how, what, where, when, and who are just the details. What was
interesting about Rosa Parks wasn’t how she sat at the front of the bus, it was
why she did it. The Wright brothers were the first in flight, even though others had
better financing and better tools, the answer to why they were first is a story
of ingenuity and inspiration. Where or when Jesus was crucified doesn’t change
much about our lives, but the why certainly does. Why is also the hardest
question to answer. We’re all busy, we have a lot to do. Turn the news on, and
they’ll give you all the details in about 20 seconds, but they don’t speak to
the why. Why is also a subversive question, as it challenges our motives and
assumptions. Many of us I’m have been stumped by a child who asks that piercing
question- why? And “because I said so” isn’t a good enough answer. Why did my
dog die? Why do people fight? Why doesn’t that man on the corner have a house
to live in? Why is a tough question.
And
why is the reason for Lent. Lent has always been a season of preparation. In
the early Church, the process for Baptism took at least a year, and Baptism
only happened on Easter. So the 40 days leading up to Easter were a time for
focus, for preparation, for answering why. Why do you want to be baptized? Why
do you want to be a Christian, knowing that the Roman empire could very well
kill you for this?
This
season of Lent, we need to examine the why, because that is where meaning comes
from, because that is the question our hearts yearn to have an answer for. So
let’s walk through the traditional Lenten disciplines and consider both the
modern problem and the why.
We’ll
begin with prayer. The problem with prayer is that most of us don’t do it.
Surveys suggest that 58% of Americans pray daily while 83% identify as being
religious. And the survey didn’t get into how people define prayer. Now I’m
going to make some generalizations in this sermon, realizing that for some of
us, these generalizations do not apply, but they speak to cultural truths. A
lot of people don’t fully understand prayer. Prayers such as “please don’t let
me get pulled over for speeding,” “please let me get this job,” “please be with
my sick uncle” are certainly prayers, but that’s not the sort of prayer that
Jesus is commending to us.
Throughout
the reading from Matthew, Jesus challenges our assumptions about acts of
religious piety. People often prayed in public to be seen, so Jesus encourages
them to pray in secret; that is, have a relationship not with others and your
ego, but with God. This is the why of prayer. Prayer is about relationship building
with God, and others through being mindful of them; and prayer is also about
working with God. Why do we pray? To be in touch with the divine. This doesn’t
really happen though when we do all the talking, when we do it in a few short
sentences of petition. I’m not dismissing intercessory prayer, but rather
highlighting the fact that it’s only one aspect of prayer. And in the same way,
if your prayer life only consists of walks in nature or doing yoga, then you
aren’t getting it all either. And let us not forget about the Bible in prayer.
The Bible isn’t just that book that sits on the coffee table so that others
know of its importance to you. The Bible is a good book to read. I can only
imagine how the world might look if every Christian read from the Bible daily.
At St. Francis this Lent, let’s not have to wonder. Let’s ground ourselves in
prayer, in Scripture, in getting to the why- having a robust relationship with
God. And hopefully we’ll be transformed, and people will ask us, “why?” and
we’ll have a good answer.
Fasting
is another traditional Lenten discipline. The problem here, to put it bluntly,
is that we are gluttons. America has many industries that are built on the
assumption that we will consume that which is bad for us. For the most part, the diet, pornography,
cosmetic, and self-help industries all assume that we will fill ourselves with
empty calories which only satisfy us in the short term and leave us hungry in
the long term. These are all multi-billion dollar industries, and there is
something deeply wrong with the culture that leads to their thriving.
So
the answer to “why fast?” is rather simple- gluttony leads to death. Death of
relationships, death of self-confidence, death of our bodies. In Lent, we are
invited to fast, to give things up. In seminary, I spent a month in the
Dominican Republic and I was struck by both the simplicity in people’s lives,
but also the great joy. I went to a church service that lasted for several
hours and was held in what our parish hall might look like if you dropped a few
bombs on it. It was a three-walled concrete structure with a tin roof. And yet,
that worship service was one of the most joyous and festive I’ve ever seen. No
one thought about a capital campaign to add a fourth wall or some stained glass
windows. Why? Because they had what was necessary and they lacked nothing which
they truly needed. This is a lesson we could learn. I didn’t talk finances with
the priest there, but I’m guessing they had a very small maintenance budget.
Gluttony not only takes us away from what is healthy and important, but it also
costs us a lot. This Lent, let’s focus on why we do what we do, and leave off
the stuff that we can’t come up with a good answer to “why do we do this?”
Lent
is also a season where we highlight almsgiving, not because the church budget
is tight, but because money says a lot about our priorities. The problem is
rather easy to identify- we live in a world in which money is the tool to value
time and goods. If churches and charities had greater financial resources, the
ripples of their ministry would extend further and further.
So
why should we give? I would suggest to you that we give not for tax purposes,
not even because it’s right thing to do, but rather we give because if we
don’t, we become slaves to our own money. I’ve said it before and I’m going to
say it again, if you want to know if you have control over your money, then try
to give it away. If you can’t, then your money controls you. And I’m not
talking about throwing $5 in the offering plate, that’s not a test. Try giving
to the point where you have to rethink your budget. I’m not suggesting
almsgiving to the point of losing your house or not feeding your children, but
I am talking about significant giving. There is no magic percentage or dollar amount,
you have to do the soul searching on your own on this one. Why give? For one,
it changes the world, but perhaps more importantly, it changes you.
And
finally, I’d like to consider one other Lenten disciple- that of introspection.
The problem is that most of us don’t take the time to stop and think; we don’t
see spiritual directors or therapists to debrief. Far too many people have very
little sense of self-awareness. That’s one reason why we put ashes on our
foreheads today with the words “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
We’re all going to die, each and every one of us, even Jesus did it. There is a
book written in the 1970s called The
Denial of Death, and it address the fact that most people live their entire
lives in the fear of death, instead of embracing the reality of life.
Consider
what an apology sounds like today- “I’m sorry if you were offended by my
comments,” which insinuates that we did nothing wrong, but that you’re the
problem. No one ever says “I’m sorry for being offensive.” If we can’t
understand ourselves, if we can’t objectively look at our faults alongside our
gifts, then we are just zombies walking around, going through the motions of
life. Socrates said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” A
paraphrase might be “a life without the why isn’t a life at all.” Without
introspection, without asking and contemplating the why, life passes us by
without us understanding it. And if we can’t understand the why, then we can’t
be responsible.
Look at what
has been happening in the Roman Catholic Church with the sex-abuse scandal, or
what happened at Penn State. No one took responsibility. There was no
introspection. Everyone knew the details, what who did to whom and where. And
they all knew what would happen if this got out, so they kept it quiet. No one
answered the question “why are we covering this up,” “why are we protecting the
abusers at the cost of the victims?” Answering the why can make us see the
things we try so hard to forget but need to deal with. This season of Lent, let
us be introspective by considering the whys in our daily lives.
So we’re back
to the first why. Why now? Why Lent? Well, as Joel and Paul say, “blow your
trumpet…the day of the Lord is near…now is the acceptable time.” There is no
time like the present to wake up to the reality of the why. Why is about
conversion. And we live in a place and time that needs some transformation. We
are hungry for depth. We are hungry for love. Our world needs more followers of
Jesus and less admirers of him. A lot of people like see Jesus as a great moral
teacher, as a wonderful man, as someone to admire. But then there are those who
follow Jesus, who follow him to the cross and the grave because they know the why
of God’s love, of God’s transformative power.
This season of
Lent, let us ask ourselves why. You don’t always have to come up with the
answer alone. We can answer it together in community, God can help you to
answer it. May we explore the why through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and
introspection.
Let us pray-
Almighty God, as we embark on our Lenten journey, may you give us the honesty,
strength, and courage to ask why. Guide us in our answers, that in all we do we
might answer faithfully and to your glory. And through asking why, may we come
into a deeper understanding of your Truth and Love. This we pray in the name of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
