REPENT, PART 3: A CALL TO REPENTANCE, RENEWAL, AND REDEDICATION
The Rev. Mark Sherwindt, Pastor
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
Ash Wednesday: February 9, 2005
It is now no secret that I am a long-time advocate for the genius of the Gospel of Mark. As I said on Sunday, while I think Mark is perfect, Matthew thought that Mark needed some improving. So, Matthew's Gospel spends a good deal of time developing the theme of how Jesus' coming proves to be the fulfillment of what God had promised through the prophets of old. This interest has suggested to many, and rightly so, that Matthew had a different audience than Mark. Mark's Gospel proved that Christianity had gained a foothold among Gentiles right off the bat, since his Gospel is written to Gentiles. [He often has to explain Jewish customs to his readers.] Matthew, on the other hand, is clearly focused on a Jewish audience, which is only right, since Christ's coming was promised to and through the history of Israel. As Paul writes in Romans 9:4-5, the covenants, the promises, the patriarchs, the prophets, the history, the heritage: the whole of Christianity emerges from the heart and soul of its Jewish roots.
Matthew's Gospel accentuates this connection, which is interesting because it under-scores the age-old truth that familiarity does not insure acceptance, nor even recognition. This is why Matthew's Gospel is the voice of God for Ash Wednesday, as Christians acknowledge that our familiarity with God's will does not insure our decision to do it. Our familiarity with God's Word does not insure our interest in listening to it. Our familiarity with the Good News of God's gracious love does not insure our willingness to trust God's grace or to share God's love. Matthew's job was to remind a people who should have known better, the people of God known as Israel, that they needed to repent, to receive God's grace, and follow its call by submitting their ways to God's in Christ. That is Matthew's purpose tonight, to remind a people who should know better, the people of God gathered here at Zion, that we need to repent, to receive God's grace, and follow its call by submitting our ways to God's in Christ. It may seem strange to suggest that the Church is at risk of making some of the same mistakes that Israel made, namely, presuming upon the privilege of being God's people rather than proving more attentive to the responsibilities of faithfulness; but that is exactly what Ash Wednesday is all about. Presumption must give way to humility. Complacency must give way to commitment. Lackadaisical indifference - our feeling pretty good about what we're doing and how we're doing - must give way to the reality of repentance, our heartfelt desire for spiritual renewal, joined with real dedication to actually reform.
At first glance, our reading from Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 may appear to be focused on turning public displays of religiosity into private disciplines of personal piety; and there is certainly great value in this. We shouldn't be interested in using our appeals to God at worship as opportunities to impress others with our heavenly connections, or to express some form of self-congratulatory testimony to how good we are, and how properly focused on the right things we are. But there is something even more important going on in Matthew, and something more important going on with Ash Wednesday. That something more is this. What God has done in Jesus Christ, what has been made so very clear through The Passion of the Christ, should open the eyes of the whole world to the absolute wonder of God's love. The power of this love has driven God to exceed every expectation in fulfilling all that the prophets of old foretold. We now know that God is true to His Word and faithful to His promises. This Good News - the gracious gift of undeserved mercy, which God has so generously lavished upon us - was intended to inspire the humility of service and an overflow of gratitude directed to God. It was not meant to lead, as it did among those whom Jesus criticized in our Gospel, to the complacency of self-satisfaction that invariably leaves us far short of the mark when it comes to living the love God so graciously gives.
The great tragedy of Israel was that this people who knew God's Word, who studied the prophets, who built historic temples to offer sacrifice, who established neighborhood synagogues to sing God's praise, who anticipated Christ's coming with eager longing, NEVERTHELESS failed to recognize the fulfillment of God's promises and missed the very embodiment of God's will when God's Word was made flesh in the person of Jesus. In our case (as Christians as Zion), having recognized Christ as the embodiment of God's faithfulness, and having embraced Jesus as the reality of God's Word made flesh, how tragic it would be if, upon Christ's return, our neighbors here at church and in the world were to look at us and see no resemblance to the Lord we claim to serve. That is the call of discipleship, namely, following in the way Jesus walked, seeking to learn how to live in Christ as we allow Christ to live in us.
The main point in our Gospel for Ash Wednesday is not to direct attention to the contrast between public shows of religiosity and private disciplines of personal piety, but to focus on the contrast between clinging to illusions of privilege and practicing the realities of discipleship. To grow in love and service by grace: this is our mission statement here at Zion. It is written into our constitution so that all of our activities - whether at worship, through Christian education, reaching in through fellowship, reaching out through service - might serve our hope that through all that we do, Christ's love will grow in us and flow through us. It is not our desire to grow presumptuous because of our long and storied past, or indifferent to the responsibilities of serving others now. Rather, it is our desire to be informed by our knowledge of God, to be transformed by the power of the Spirit, and conformed to the image of God's love, which we have found through Christ our Lord.
It is certainly true, and none would dispute it, that we no longer have Israel's challenge of figuring out when Christ will come, which prophecies are more telling, and how God will use the words of Isaiah, Micah, the various psalms, and historic promises to announce the Good News that the Kingdom is here and Christ has come. Ours in the challenge of showing that this Good News makes a difference, that it has made a difference for us and through us. That is what our Gospel text is trying to say. That is what the Gospel of Matthew is trying to say. That what Ash Wednesday is inviting us to say, and even more importantly, that is what Ash Wednesday is inviting us to live … in Jesus' Name. Amen