February 22, 2023 – Ash Wednesday
Matthew 6.1-6, 16-18
I’ve Got a Secret
Ash Wednesday 2023
I don’t know if cartoonist Scott Adams did this deliberately for Ash Wednesday, but did anyone read Dilbert in the comics this morning? Dilbert comes running excitedly into Wally’s cubicle and declares, “Wow! I did some great work today, if I do say so myself!” Wally asks, “Did anyone see you do it?” “No,” replies Dilbert. “Total waste of time” is Wally’s response, to which Dilbert replies, “Yeah. That’s starting to set in.” “I did some great work today!” “Did anybody see it?” “The hypocrites love to stand and pray in the synagogues so that they may be seen by others. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door… and the God who sees in secret will reward you.” Little did I suspect when I awoke this morning that Dilbert would be helping me write my Ash Wednesday sermon. Now, do I think Dilbert is a hypocrite? No, I don’t. Although I do think that it is Wally who is being the Pharisee with his suggestion that, if nobody saw it, it doesn’t count. Nevertheless it did make for an auspicious start to my Ash Wednesday!
After the Tractor Parade on Sunday, Debbie and I went to high Nine in Deep River to hear some live music. About halfway through the first set, I got out some cash for the musician’s tip jar. Debbie asked me if I was going to put it in while he was playing, and I told her I would rather wait until he took his break. And when she asked why I wasn’t going to tip him while he could see I was doing it, I gave her the kind of reply that only a part-time minister and full-time wise guy could give:
“When you tip the musician, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and stride importantly to the stage and place their alms in the tip jar so that the musicians and everyone else in the brewery can see them. I tell you, they have their reward. But when you tip, wait until the musician in on his break and everyone else is busy looking at their phones, walk quietly toward the stage, and place your alms in the jar in secret. And Euterpe, the goddess of music, who sees in secret, will reward you.”
Or something like that.
I wrote in the latest Uniter newsletter that, during our Lenten Sundays this year, I plan to preach on how we see Jesus in each of the four gospels, and while I will be reading the UCC Lent Devotional along with all of you, I won’t specifically be preaching from it as I have in past years. But today is Wednesday, not Sunday, and so I did dip into today’s devotion by Vince Amlin titled, “Can You Keep a Secret,” in which he looks at our Ash Wednesday text from Matthew. In many instances, keeping something secret is frowned on in polite society. It suggests you have something to hide, and if you have something to hide, little good usually comes of it. But Matthew suggests otherwise. It’s OK to keep your piety a secret, Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mount. And I suspect it is not just about the reward he mentions, that “the God who sees in secret will reward you.” I think it is also about the fact that you really can’t keep the good in you inside for very long. If you are praying, if you are giving alms and if you are fasting, all in secret, chances are quite good that the fruit of your devotion will blossom in other ways. St. John Chrysostom was archbishop of Constantinople in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. As you can see in this afternoon’s bulletin, Chrysostom wrote, “No matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.” And I can agree with that. But I will also maintain that if you do all these things, if you devote yourself to the spiritual disciplines, your soul is probably in the place where you will do good for others, that you will do great things for others.
I was saddened to learn that Jimmy Carter has gone into hospice care. Hospice care is wonderful, as many of us can attest. But it means that a long and illustrious life is coming to an end. Illustrious not because Carter was President of the United States, but because he dedicated his life to improving the lives of others. Carter’s work with Habitat for Humanity is legendary. But what took my breath away is his campaign to eliminate the threat of guinea worm disease, which he began in 1986. The disease, found in Africa’s poorer countries whose water is not safe to drink, is caused by a parasite and is spread by consuming water that accumulates on the surface of the ground; the infected person often does not even realize they’re infected until the guinea worm emerges from the body, painfully, through the skin. In the mid-1980s there were 3.5 million cases of guinea worm disease reported around the world. In 2021, the last year for which records are available, that total was down to 13 cases. Thanks to the efforts of a man who, although at one time the leader of the free world, has lived the rest of his life in quiet but diligent service among his brother and sister human beings. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Carter kept his work a secret, but I think his inward devotion is the root of his fruitful, productive, humble and faithful life. In Carter’s own words, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I’m free to choose that something. … My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can.” Whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can. God bless Jimmy Carter.
In today’s devotion, Vince Amlin wonders what it might be like “to be animated by the mystery you are holding onto.” I would rephrase that. I would suggest during this season of Lent that we allow ourselves to be animated by the mystery that is holding on to us. Because when God is holding us up, when God is animating us, when God sees and hears the prayers and the alms and the spiritual practices that are simply part of who we are as people of faith it won’t be a secret for very long at all.