Sermon – Spring Cleaning – Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Spring Cleaning – Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Ash Wednesday

February 6, 2008

When I was young my family would visit my grandparent’s home in Pennsylvania. My grandfather was a coal miner and most of the people in his town heated their homes with coal. So whenever we went there in winter the first thing I always noticed was the aroma of coal burning in those furnaces. All of those coal fires sent soot into the air which settled over everything. My grandmother would get up at 4 a.m. to hang the clean clothes in the back yard to dry so that they could be brought into the house before everyone else woke up and stoked their fires releasing ash into air which would soil the clothes.

Once a year a day would come which we called “spring cleaning”. During spring cleaning all of the coal ash that had accumulated during the cold winter months had to be swept out of the house. Rugs were beaten in the back yard, walls were scrubbed, porches swept, and windows shined inside and out. The house was made spic and span for summer.

This is what Ash Wednesday is all about. It is spring cleaning for our souls. Tonight the soot of sin which has built up over the months and years is swept out leaving behind forgiveness and a spic and span clean heart ready for a restored relationship with God.

Tonight we will be looking at the soot of sin which has penetrated our souls, and needs to be cleaned up. Specifically I will look at three sins which separate us from our creator. These sins are: prayer, fasting and giving money to the poor.

Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus we come to you today covered by the ashes of our sin. Cleanse us and renew us so that we may come closer to you, amen.

You are probably thinking that it is time to find a new pastor. Whenever a pastor says that prayer, fasting and alms giving are sins then it is clearly time for a change. The Bible tells us to pray. Daily prayer is essential for spiritual growth. Prayer connects us with God and allows us to mold our will around his. How in the world could prayer be a sin? Listen to what Jesus says:

Matthew 6:5-8 ⁵ "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. ⁶ 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. ⁷ "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Several years ago I was visiting a church in rural Mississippi. A young woman rushed into the room and said that we have to pray for Eunice. Everyone immediately bowed their heads as this young woman prayed for Eunice whose husband had been seen with another woman. At the conclusion of the prayer the pastor of the church took the young woman aside and told her that prayer should not be used as a way of spreading gossip.

This is the way sin works. We take something good that God has provided for us and we twist it, pervert it into something bad. We think that we are not sinning because we are doing what we are supposed to do. But because sin is so much a part of our nature we turn good works into abominable things. Even praying becomes something we are ashamed of.

And what about fasting? Does not the Bible tell us that we should fast? Does not a fast intensify our experience of prayer and meditation? Should we as a church not fast when we have an important decision to make and need to know God’s will? Of course fasting is an important part of our spirituality. It heightens our experience of listening for God in prayer and helps us to understand where God is leading us. But listen to what Jesus has to say about fasting.

Matthew 6:16-18 ¹⁶ "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. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 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.

The medieval church knew about the importance of fasting. Monks would use it to intensify their spiritual experiences. Whenever the church experienced persecution or schism a period of fasting was needed to focus the church on God. But over the years fasting was tied to the church calendar and became a hollow expression of faith. Ash Wednesday kicked off the forty day Lenten fast leading up to Easter. By the time of the Protestant Reformation the Lenten fast consisted of doing trivial thinks like not eating meat on Fridays. The Reformers abolished Ash Wednesday and the Lenten fast in an effort to restore fasting to it proper place in the church.

Sin has a way of taking spiritual practices that God has given us to bring us closer to him and twisting them for our own uses. Rather then allowing a fast to increase our sense of humility before God we turn it into a way of puffing up our own sense of pride. We boast to others about our higher level of spiritually. Our focus is on ourselves rather than God. Fasting becomes useless because we use it exalt ourselves rather than bow down at the feet of Jesus.

But certainly giving money to the poor must be good. How could sin ever mess up something like that? God demands righteousness for the poor throughout scripture. Listen to what Jesus says.

Matthew 6:2-4 ² "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. ³ But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

As the nineteenth century came to a close many of the great industrialists who had made fortunes in banking, steel, and oil were approaching retirement. They were plagued with the concern of what to do with all their money. Philanthropy was the answer. Capitalists like Carnegie, Mellon and Rockefeller formed foundations to distribute their vast sums. Their names when up on buildings and they became very well known. They became better known for their giving than they ever were while leading corporations. And they really enjoyed their notoriety. All of this is being repeated today with the internet tycoons and Hollywood celebrities. But they forgot that all of the wealth that they had was given to them by God and it God not them who was at work using them to help the poor. So even if we give money to the poor we sin if we do not acknowledge that we can love the poor only because God loves us first.

It would be nice if sin was just about sex and alcohol. Sex and alcohol are things we can deal with. We can stop having sex outside of marriage. We can stop drinking inappropriately. But sin is far more than this. Sin is buried so deep in our hearts we cannot get it out. Sin is like dandelions back east with roots that go so deep in your lawn they cannot be pulled out completely. Trying to clean up your life by doing a little better has little or no chance of eradicating something a pervasive as sin. For that we need much stronger medicine.

That is why we have come here tonight for a little spring cleaning. It is time to get the brooms and mops and begin cleaning up the ashes of our sin. This can only be done by approaching God humbly in confession and asking God to create in us clean hearts. We need to admit our fallenness and ask for forgiveness. This will prepare us for Lent as we pray each day, fast and give to the poor with a spirit of humility and an acknowledgment of God’s love and power. And then we will then be ready for Easter when we will receive in abundance the grace and mercy of God, Amen.