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Matthew 6:1-4 · Giving to the Needy
Beware Of Your Piety
Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:19-24
Sermon
by Harry N. Huxhold
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Whatever happened to Lent? It has been some time now since church attendance was swollen during this season. Congregations also conducted weekday services that were well attended. Lenten reading was popular, and people talked a great deal about their Lenten fasting. "What did you give up for Lent?" was a common question. Very often that was done with little thought. In the Chicago area in the '50s, where and when Lenten piety was quite prominent, a woman was shopping at the bakery. While she was waiting her turn to be served, a young lad told her he was going to buy some brownies instead of cream puffs. That, he said, was his Lenten sacrifice. The woman suggested that was not much of a sacrifice for Lent. The boy said, "Lady, you don't know how much I like cream puffs."

In a way, the boy's answer illustrates the problem of dealing with the matter of fasting and sacrificing in Lent. The home journals that feature Lenten dishes without meat can produce some very tasty recipes that make the fasting very attractive. Much that has passed as Lenten fasting and sacrifice has been no more than superficial. However, on the other hand, the more obvious complete neglect of Lent on the part of a good number of Christians raises the issue of whether we should not be much more aware of our Lenten piety.

The History

Our observance of the season of Lent has its roots in the early church. Two early church fathers, Augustine and Tertullian, related that the Lenten fast originated with the Apostles. However, the fast of which they wrote was neither the season nor the fasting that we know. What the fathers were undoubtedly referring to was the desire of the early Christian community to sense anew the deep sorrow and pain they experienced during the period that our Lord lay in the tomb. The time was calculated as forty hours and was suggested, therefore, to be the appropriate span for fasting. There also appears to be some evidence that even prior to the suggested forty-hour fast, Christians fasted on Wednesday and Friday. The first fast was a reminder of our Lord's betrayal, and the second the remembrance of his crucifixion.

However, each Sunday was regarded as the Lord's Day, a little Easter, in which both the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord were observed. In time, however, as people fixed more and more on the need to consider why our Lord was crucified, the stress was placed on the need for contrition and repentance. Soon the Lenten period was extended to a week, then to two weeks. Ultimately, the forty hours were extended to forty days. At one time this was a period of eight weeks of five days of fasting. By the seventh century the time was calculated as six weeks, not counting the Sundays, which were excluded as days of fasting. That is how we still reckon the period for our observance which began last week with Ash Wednesday.

Lenten Piety Is Personal

How then are we to use these forty days? One can argue that the suggestion of a forty day period of concentration on the passion of our Lord as atonement for our sins does not seem too appropriate in an age in which people generally do not have a deep sense of guilt. Dwelling on the passion of our Lord to heighten the sense of guilt may have worked in the Middle Ages when both the church and the society were so legalistic. However, that does not have much appeal in an age when people are constantly explaining away their guilt or relieving it by some psychological do-it-yourself exercises. Then again the whole pattern of a period of remembrance may have worked well for the calendar of medieval monks and even for horse and buggy days, but it does not fit the era of jet flights and cellular phones. In an age of stress, perhaps the best that one can expect of people for a spiritual observance is that they watch a rerun of The Ten Commandments sometime in the forty day period.

To be sure, no one should dictate how one is to conduct pious observances. The Apostle Paul taught that one should not judge us in respect of a holy day. Our Lord taught the same. The text before us is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. This section has to do with how our Lord's followers were to express their piety. Jesus began on the note that the believers are to express their faith in a personal fashion. Jesus began, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven." Jesus was reacting to the kind of public displays of piety that had been prominent in the Hebrew community. Pharisees, in particular, were most demonstrative in their worship and prayerful activity. Jesus found such piety highly offensive in spite of the fact that it appeared so attractive and ordinary people felt the pressure to emulate it. Jesus opposed worship that was designed to impress others and encouraged his followers to make their worship a personal relationship with God.

Lenten Piety Reaches Upward

Lenten piety reaches upward to the Heavenly Father. Each of the prescriptions Jesus gave for wholesome worship were rounded out by a phrase taking note of the Heavenly Father's concern for what we do. Jesus repeats the observance that "your Father sees in secret" and "your Father knows." Jesus does not say this to frighten us into good behavior. Nor does he mention this to make us all the more self-conscious. There are some people who can confess to you that they love their fathers dearly but are all thumbs or trip over their own feet when their fathers walk into the room. Jesus does not want us to think that way about the Heavenly Father.

You are not to be nervous about the fact that God may be looking over your shoulder. When Jesus says that "your Father sees in secret," he means that you are absolutely free to concentrate on what has to be done. God will take note of what you are doing, but as one who is cheering you on to do what has to be done. We do not have to waste one ounce of energy or one breath in trying to impress God or to impress others. To look upward is to look to God for help and the assurance of his support in getting done what has to be done. God will reward those efforts in the proper way and at the proper time.

Lenten Piety Is Sacrificial

Lenten piety is sacrificial. Jesus in no way discouraged sacrificial giving. What Jesus said about giving was, "Whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Fund raisers and development officers rely very heavily upon the publication of the lists of donors. They create all kinds of lists and many categories to be sure that people will see their names in print among the donors, contributors, patrons, sustainers, and friends. Of course, the real reason donors want to see their own names is to be sure that others will see their names. Jesus says that such giving has its own reward. The people who give for the purpose of being noticed by others do get what they want. They are noticed by others.

However, when people give in the unselfish manner of which Jesus speaks, they get the job done. They are able to concentrate on what is needed and who needs what. They do not have to worry about even recognizing themselves in the act. They lose themselves in thinking about those for whom they give. The congregation that exercises its stewardship without having to nail plaques all over its walls, furnishings, and accoutrements to give credit to someone encourages its members to observe what our Lord has to say about sacrificial giving. What is more important is that the dear people who practice this kind of sacrificial giving enjoy the freedom of being able to do for those in need or their favorite causes without having to worry about who notices and whether even they themselves have had a sense of reward. God takes care of all the rewards.

Lenten Piety Is Self-Denial

Not only is Lenten piety sacrificial, but it also calls for self-denial. Jesus certainly was not opposed to the practice of fasting. Fasting is a wholesome practice if pursued properly. What Jesus criticized was the custom of going through such rigorous fasting ordeals that the one who fasts can draw the sympathy and applause of others. Again Jesus says that such fasting will not go unrewarded. People will notice. However, there may be a price to pay. Not only will the one fasting derive some benefit from the purgation that fasting does provide, but the rigorous fasting that produces the disfigurement of the face might also develop other ailments of the body.

Luther was one who suffered in his later years from a host of ailments induced by his intense observance of fasting and other forms of self-denial in his earlier years as a monk. Jesus does encourage fasting. But he encourages his followers to put oil on their heads and wash their faces when they fast. What he meant by that was that his followers should practice good health rules. Fasting is one of them. We all have to struggle with our diets. However, we should also practice all other good forms of hygiene and physical culture. Keeping fit is not a means of trying to please God or atoning for our sins. It is one more form of piety to express our freedom as the children of God in taking good care of our physical condition. The experts would also add that this is the primary and best way for us to achieve healthcare reform.

Lenten Piety Is For Eternity

Lenten piety is for eternity. Jesus said, "Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also." Most certainly a basic feature of our piety should be the opportunity to get our priorities straight. To rehearse anew the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is to remind ourselves that we are destined for eternity. What we do here upon this planet earth is related to where and how we spend eternity. To measure our lives only in terms of what we possess, what we can amass, and what we want to acquire of material things will frustrate us now and eternally. The hell of it will be that the life we treasured will be no more. Eaten by the ravages of time and robbed of worth and beauty by immeasurable numbers of enemies, the pain of that hellish frustration will be unbearable.

To lay treasures in heaven is to believe and trust that the God who created heaven and earth fashioned a life for eternity that was spoiled and warped by a humanity that thought it could be god-like and content forever by worshipping the things of the creation. However, God was willing to redeem the creatures by restoring to them their innocence by making it possible for them to trust the Creator again rather than the creature. That is what the passion of our Lord affords us. We are led to examine anew what really counts in life. In the Suffering Servant, our Lord, we learn that we can lose everything, life itself, as Jesus did at the cross, and still gain heaven.

Observe Lent

To be sure, what our Lord taught in the Sermon on the Mount about piety was not specifically about Lenten piety. What Jesus said should govern all of our piety. Consequently, how we keep the season of Lent should be shaped by his directives. We recognize that we should avoid the legalism, superficiality, and the showiness of medieval forms of piety. Above all, we do not want to assume the notion that whatever we do will somehow earn the good favor of our Heavenly Father. Instead, we follow the guidelines our Lord gives us for the practice of our piety. When we do that we look upon the season as an opportunity.

In freedom, we begin by noting that our Lenten worship and devotion is meant to deepen our relationship with God. However, as we deepen that relationship, it is because God affords us the opportunity to concentrate completely on what has to be done. God's part in our piety is to strengthen and encourage us. When we think of Lenten sacrifice and denial, the same is true. The sacrifice is focused not on how well we are doing, but what needs to be done. Self-denial in Lent for us is the occasion for us again, not to impress others, but to engage in that kind of introspection and physical training that help us to be fighting trim against all the evil forces and enemies that threaten our relationship with God. The kind of piety which our Lord prescribes for us does suit us up for eternity.

CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, Which Way To Jesus?, by Harry N. Huxhold