Year A Ash Wednesday 2023 Counterintuitive

 Year A Ash Wednesday 2023, 22 February 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Counterintuitive”

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,

"At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

and on a day of salvation I have helped you."

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Jesus said, "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.

"So 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, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up 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."

Friends, there are many things I have learned to be true. This is one. Sometimes life is just counterintuitive.

Many of you may have seen the show Seinfeld. The characters in this “show about nothing” were supposed to make no point, to learn no lessons, and to be pretty despicable along the way. Funny much of the time, but unrepentant and never learning from their mistakes, they were unredeemable.

At one point in the series, Jerry’s friend George decided that his life was so bad, he needed to think of what he would do, and just do the opposite. As Jerry put it,  "If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right." He would become the Anti-George. And in doing what he normally would not, he found that his life was so much the better. 

Friends, so often our Christian walk is so much like the Anti-George. We think we know best, we think we can make it on our own, but we need to often do the opposite of what we think for things to come round right.

Jesus’ instructions for true piety from today’s readings are much the same. To be truly pious we need to do the reverse of the way of the world. 

“When you give alms, let it be done in secret.” 

“When you pray, go to a private room.”

“When you fast, go out of your way to keep it personal, clean up and look good so no one will know.”

We need to be anti-worldly to get the most out of our devotions.

We do it all for an audience of one, God the Father Almighty. If it is for anyone else, we have, as Jesus said, “received [our] reward.”

One of my great heroes of the faith from the last century is the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammerskjöld. He was a tireless worker for human rights, and he died while on a peace mission in Africa. He very well could have been assassinated and it is one of the great cold cases of the 20th Century.

But just as surprising was a journal of thoughts and prayers that he left behind. It was published posthumously. A quiet Swede, his deep faith was something he held in secret. The depth and intent of his faith was a surprise to many when his journal was discovered. Poet W. H. Auden wrote the foreword for his friend. While his faith was unknown to most, there were some hints.

In 1953, in an interview with Edward R. Murrow, Hammerskjöld said this:

I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics for whom 'self-surrender' had been the way to self-realization, and who in 'singleness of mind' and 'inwardness' had found the strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbors made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.

 It was this self-surrendering, this giving up of our way, that he found life-giving. He modeled it in his work as a diplomat, and privately as a follower of Jesus Christ.

He is an embodiment of how I see Lent, a time of setting self aside, to more fully embrace Christ and be more fully embraced by Christ. He put all his life on his discipleship, and that discipleship came in the form of serving the world.

He died as he lived, all in on Jesus Christ. Entirely unknown, storing up his reward in heaven. In Markings, his only published work, he spoke of full commitment. He said, this:

“There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return.”

Friends, for a season, may we be challenged to go all in, to embrace “Life’s point of no return.” 

It may seem counterintuitive, and it is.

Like when you are on a swing, to go higher what must you do? Lean back!

And to swing back harder, what do you do? Lean forward!

We sometimes must do what is opposite for the outcome to be what we truly want. If so, then what St. Paul said to the Church in Corinth can ring true.

We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 

as unknown, and yet are well known; 

as dying, and see-- we are alive; 

as punished, and yet not killed; 

as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; 

as poor, yet making many rich; 

as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

In Christ, the man fully God, in Jesus, the God fully man, the contradictions are true. To be who we truly are we must die to self. To be fully rich, we have to give it all away. This is nonsense to the world. It is clear to those who follow along Jesus’ way.

Blessings on all of us as we enter into a Holy Lent. Amen