Ash Wednesday – February 14th, 2024
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Paola, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21
“Fasting and Prayer”
Theme: We must often give up something in order to make time for things that are more valuable.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
How many of you made a New Year’s Resolution and have kept up with it for the last six weeks? I’m always a bit skeptical when people brag about their New Year’s Resolutions because I know humanity. We often don’t live up to the goals that we set for ourselves. On the other hand, sometimes we do, but this often happens by giving something else up. Here’s the thing: We must often give up something in order to make time for things that are more valuable.
For example, we can look at marriage and having kids. Men and women must give up a lot of things to enter into marriage. One thing that most people find easy is that you must be “exclusive” with that person and not flirt around with anyone else of the opposite sex. The benefits to marrying someone usually outweigh flirting around. But you must also forego time with your best buddies or fellow girlfriends. You can’t spend as much time playing video games. But again, you get something great in return. You get more time with someone you love. God has built this into humanity.
This also happens with kids. You give up a lot of your personal free time, but the time you invest in your kids is paid back a hundred-fold. One pastor I know has said this: Kids are great because they break your idols. You spend time and money raising them that you would probably be wasting otherwise on yourself.
Returning to the New Year’s Resolution, in order to accomplish something, sometimes it’s also worthwhile to think about what you want to give up. If you want to lose weight, what are you going to give up to accomplish that? Are you going to give up certain foods or treats? Are you going to give up a certain time of the day to exercise?
I think sports coaches know this in how they challenge their athletes to accomplish more. You want to play in the next game? You better be at every practice this week. You want to be ready for the next season? Come to conditioning this summer.
Christianity understands giving things up. This is really no different in the church as well. I would love for each one of you to consider a way to grow closer to God. There are a number of ways to reach this. Devotions are a great resource—we have some in the back. Reading through books of the Bible paragraph by paragraph or chapter by chapter is another great discipline. Starting regular prayer is another great practice.
Here’s the thing: you might have to give something up in order to do these things. Again, if I want to lose weight, I know I need to give something up. If I want to grow stronger in faith and trust in God, it might mean giving something up. We call this fasting.
This is one of three aspects to Lent. Lent is about giving something up in what’s called fasting. Lent is about alms giving, or giving to charity. Lent is also about focusing your mind more on Jesus and his suffering.
Jesus says a lot about prayer and fasting. I want to focus on one word in our Gospel lesson for today: “when.” Jesus says “when you give,” “when you pray,” and “when you fast.” He does not say “if” you pray or “if” you fast. Jesus is assuming that you are doing these things already.
Now, you can misuse all of these things—that’s actually what Jesus is warning about. He criticizes those who blow their own trumpet about giving to the needy. He criticizes hypocrites who pray in the streets that they might be seen by others. He criticizes those who look gloomy during their fasts because it’s such a burden to give things up for Lent. If you do these things, you will get an earthly reward, because other people will be impressed that you’re doing these things.
But note what Jesus isn’t telling us. He isn’t tell us not to do these things, not to give to the poor or not to pray or not to fast. He bids us still do these things, only to seek no earthly benefit out of them. Why? Because we receive benefits from God when we seek him alone. When your heart is focused on God while doing these things, he sees it. He sees those who give in secret. He sees those who pray quietly in their rooms. He sees those who fast and don’t tell anybody that they are fasting.
God does reward you in quiet ways. His reward may not be in the treasures of this earth that moth and rust destroy. The things of this earth can be stolen by thieves. God bids us lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, which cannot be stolen from us. If God is your treasure, no one can take Him away from you.
If knowing God better means that you must give up a few earthly things in this life, then God invites you to consider it. Carve out ten minutes before going to bed. Maybe cut out a certain tv show in order to have family devotions. If you can do it physically, one purpose of fasting from food was to spend that time in prayer. Not everyone can do it, but it is a historic Christian practice to eat less and spend more time in prayer during Lent.
At the end of the day, New Year’s Resolutions will come and go. Giving up things for Lent may come and go. But God will never leave you nor forsake you. So if there’s one thing that you should focus on this Lent, maybe it can be carving out some time to get to know God better through His Word. After all, if you set time aside to foster a good relationship with your spouse or fiancé(e) or boyfriend or girlfriend, wouldn’t it be even more important to do it for God who loves you more than you can even imagine?
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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