Readings: Isaiah 58.1–12; Psalm 51.1–18; Corinthians 5.20b – 6.10; Matthew 6.1–6, 16–21.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So are you giving something up for Lent?
It’s an old tradition isn’t it?
As small children we talked about giving up chocolate –
but to be honest we never had a lot of chocolate,
so there wasn’t much to give up!
And as an adult I have tried eating a bit less,
with limited success;
and I know a number of people
who refrain – or try to refrain –
from alcohol during Lent.
Of course all these things,
we are told,
are good for our health.
But Lent isn’t really about our health,
not our physical health anyway.
It’s not a sort of “dry January” for Christians.
So what is Lent for,
and what does Ash Wednesday mean?
Our service booklet tells us a little about the history –
that Lent perhaps originated
as a period of instruction
for those who were to be baptized at Easter.
It seems possible
– and we don’t really know –
it seems possible
that Easter was originally not always on a Sunday
but could fall on any day of the week.
And the day before Easter,
the eve of Easter, whatever day of the week it was,
was kept as an extra day of fasting.
But eventually the annual Easter
was fixed to the weekly celebration
of the resurrection each Sunday.
The fast before it was gradually extended,
becoming forty days
under the influence of the gospel account
of Jesus’s fast and temptation after his baptism,
a story we will hear next Sunday.
Now in a little while
we will all be invited
to begin Lent
by being marked with an ashen cross on our forehead.
And yet we have just heard
what Jesus has to say on the topic of fasting.
Let me read those words to you again …
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
“Put oil on your head and wash your face”
Jesus tells us –
and oil here is both a soap and a perfume,
cleansing and giving a pleasant fragrance.
Jesus, it seems to me,
doesn’t want us to parade our faith,
or at least, not this aspect of our faith.
What are we to make of this?
Well, first we should remember
that Jesus is a master of public speaking,
of oratory or rhetoric.
And one of his favourite rhetorical devices
is hyperbole – the art of exaggeration.
Jesus just seems to love to exaggerate for effect.
And we see that clearly
in the first part of today’s gospel reading.
Remember the bit where Jesus talked about
not letting “your left hand
know what your right hand is doing”?!
So we should always take into account
that Jesus is speaking
to a particular group of people
in a particular time and place,
and we cannot tell if he had a grin on his face
or the way in which he told a story.
And let’s also look for a moment
at our first reading this evening,
from the prophet Isaiah.
Perhaps it can give us a bit of a clue as well.
Here are a couple of verses
from the middle of that reading,
verses 6 and 7 from Isaiah chapter 58
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
That really does give it to us pretty straight, doesn’t it?
Isaiah tells us
that the sort of fasting God wants
is to help those
who are caught up
in the injustice and unfairness of this world.
The hungry and homeless,
those without a stitch to their name.
And then there’s that bit at the end
about not hiding yourself from your own kin –
what on earth is that about?
It’s not, I think,
about ignoring the phone
when a relative you don’t want to speak to telephones.
Rather it refers to the system of obligations
that Israelite society placed on family members
to support each other in hard times.
Don’t find excuses,
God says through Isaiah,
don’t make excuses not to help them.
Well, Isaiah is not alone among the prophets in proclaiming
that this is what God wants the people of Israel to do.
And we see the same theme
carried directly through into Jesus’s ministry –
one reason why he was described
by his contemporaries
as a prophet.
For example,
we read in Luke’s gospel
the story of Jesus coming to Nazareth
at the start of his ministry
and reading the passage where Isaiah says
“[God] has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free.”
And now we can see
the hypocrisy that Jesus refers to.
Jesus warns each one of us against hypocrisy –
the hypocrisy of making it look
as if we are being pious and holy,
but not actually doing
the things that Jesus
(along with the prophets)
reminds us that we should be doing.
So let us use these coming weeks of Lent
to review our daily life
and our Christian discipleship.
It’s not about giving up chocolate or going on a diet –
well maybe we should do those things anyway
and try and live more healthily,
more ethically and more responsibly.
But more than that
it is an opportunity for each one of us,
you and me,
to review our response
to the good news that Jesus proclaims,
the good news
that all of us are made in God’s image
and all of us are loved by God.
All of us –
not just you and me,
but all people across the world,
those we know and those we don’t know,
those we like and even those we don’t like,
whether individually or as groups.
All are made in God’s image
and are loved by God.
And our response to that
must be
to work for
the loosening of the bonds of injustice,
to work for
the care of the poor and hungry and the oppressed,
that those people too
may live lives made in the image of God
and the love of God.
May you have a holy and blessed Lent!