This passage from Matthew is an odd choice from the lectionary, for the day we have the most public display of our Christian faith. “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them,” Jesus says. Good advice. Then we go ahead and mark our foreheads with ashes for everyone to see. If we stop for bread and milk on the way home or go to an early service and wear our ashes to work, if we stop by for some drive-thru ashes, we can’t help but advertise our faith. Most days of the year, no one knows from the outside that we’re Christians. We don’t wear a hijab, like some of our Muslim neighbors, or yarmulkes, like some of our Jewish neighbors. But on Ash Wednesday, everyone at the grocery store, the office, or Starbucks knows our faith.

Are we doing exactly what Jesus warne…