What we wear carries a lot of meaning. For instance, today is the second time in St. Paul’s Church that I am wearing my stole over both shoulders. It signifies that I am now a priest in Christ’s one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Doctors wear white lab coats to signify their profession; and from what I understand the longer the coat the longer the tenure. Construction workers carry tool belts with tools specific to their trade. Some people wear gray hair; a sign of age, yes, but also wisdom and character. What we wear carries a lot of meaning.
And today we give special consideration to what we wear upon our brow. In fact, for those of us who follow Foley High School football today might be the most important day in forehead apparel in recent history. Not only will we leave this church carrying the cross of Christ in ash upon our foreheads but at some point today, national signing day, Julio Jones will don the cap of his chosen university; signifying to everyone where the next phase of his football carrier will take him. What we wear carries a lot of meaning.
As we prepare to wear this outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace today, we hear from Jesus that, when it comes to our relationship with God, what we wear and how we wear it has nothing to do with how close to God we are. Instead, our inner life is what matters. What we do in secret carries a lot more meaning in God’s eyes than what we wear.
Jesus begins the lesson by offering this warning, "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them…” He then goes on to offer three examples of how “acts of righteousness” are turned into “acts of pride” by how we carry ourselves in performing them. “When you give to the needy… When you pray… When you fast…” And we can easily add, “when you leave Ash Wednesday services…” as we will leave this place wearing something that could turn our act of righteousness into and act of pride which is a question that his close to home for me.
Cassie and I were married on March 1, 2003 and so our anniversary will almost always fall in Lent; our third anniversary happened to fall on Ash Wednesday. We attended the 7pm service at my church in Maryland and then headed off to dinner at one of our favorite Indian restaurants. Cassie and I debated some, and my seminary friends debated even more about the appropriateness of wearing our ashes to dinner. Would the Indians think we were mocking their faith practice? Would they think we were smacking our religion in their face? Would they care? Would they even notice? And on a larger scale, with today’s Gospel lesson in mind should we leave the church grounds with ashes on our foreheads at all?
It is an interesting question; one that leads us to believe that Jesus is addressing a much larger spiritual issue in this lesson. It isn’t Jesus turning us back to the Law; making very specific rulings of how we should practice our faith, but instead Jesus is checking our motivations. Is the focus of our almsgiving God or us? Is the focus of our long-winded prayer God or us? Is the focus of our fast God or us? Whose glory is being shone by these actions? If it is us, then the actions mean nothing, they aren’t spiritual disciplines, but instead they are acts of self-delusion. They aren’t religious observances, but instead they are pride filled statements of life on our terms.
Instead, Jesus says, store up treasure in heaven. Don’t let your left hand know what the right is doing. Pray in the secrecy of your heart, your private room, not out in the streets for all to see. Don’t wear your mardi gras mask while you fast so that others will ask what you are doing, instead shower, shave, and look normal. Or, in other words, don’t wear it on your sleeve so people will think you are a spiritual all-star, let God make that determination.
So as we ponder the question that has long bothered me of whether we leave the ashes on our foreheads or wipe them off we have to ask again, what is our motivation? Will it be a good reminder for me of my own sinfulness and mortality? Will it remind me that God is in charge? Will it draw me into deeper relationship with God? If yes, then by all means keep it. --- BUT --- Will it get me a lot of attention at the grocery store? Will it make my Baptist neighbors uncomfortable? Will it get me some sort of praise from my mom who thinks this stuff is really important? If yes, then maybe I should wipe it off.
See our walk with God is first and foremost about realizing that God is God and we are not. All that we do in our spiritual life is a response to what God has already done. God won’t love us any more or any less because we give to the poor. But God is glorified more or less depending on how we approach our giving. Like it or not, God’s reputation here on earth has everything to do with those of us who follow him. If we make ourselves to look high and mighty; God looks bad. If instead, we live a life of reverent faith; joyful, loving, and compassionate, God looks good. It is that simple.
What we wear carries a lot of meaning. But infinitely more important is what we do not wear; what gets done in secret. Our spiritual all-star badge should be carried on the inside, rather than on our forehead for all the world to see. So check your motivation, Jesus tells us, and give God all the glory. Amen.
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