Yesterday, after work I went to church for our Ash Wednesday worship. Normally, Wednesday is reserved for our bible/book study. Doing my duty as this quarter's worship coordinator, I filled in for those positions that had not yet been filled by other volunteers. In addition to Opening Prayer and the Affirmation of Faith, I did the readings. Unfortunately, I didn't do my duty as well as I had hoped. Our worship leader changed the order of worship for the night, so after the opening prayer, I lead the Affirmation of Faith, only it had become "The Call to Worship"... not too bad; then I launched into our readings (very interesting, as the worship leader had chosen "The Message" as the version for last night.) That was where I messed up. Seems the worship leader had moved the "Confession" from after the sermon to before the readings... oops. Oh, well.
All this is, however, incidental to what I intend to comment on. The Gospel last night was from Matthew 6:1-21. Here's a sample from the first verse: "Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them."
This whole pericope from scripture, Matthew 6:1-21, is about not showing off our faith for the sake of appearance.
By about the 5th verse, I was beginning to feel a major case of giggles coming on. It was rather funny, I thought, indeed quite ironic that we were gathered for Ash Wednesday worship, listening to "do not do your acts of rightiousness before others", and cautions to do our praying in private, and yet, by the time we left, we were all going to be wearing our little signs of the cross in ash spread on our foreheads!
It was all I could do for a while, to hold my guffaws, especially when this message of private acts of prayer and righteousness continued into the sermon. Had I failed, had the guffaws burst out, I'm sure the worship leader would have scewered me... and that would be terrible... the worship leader was my partner, Scott!
Why is it that we do that? This Ash Wednesday observance? I know from my history of christianity classes that today's little cross of ash is the descendant of earlier times, times when the day was marked, not by a tiny cross of ash, but by pouring handfuls of ash upon ones head.
But, why? Jesus himself said "Don't do that! Don't show off your devotions and your 'holiness'. It doesn't mean a thing to God, and you receive your rewards from your peers and those about you. I ain't gonna reward you for it!" And really, it's nothing new... Isaiah, too, preached these outward signs were meaningless. Hear Isaiah on the topic:
"Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don't you think I've had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats? When you come before me, who ever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing this and that--all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship? "Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings--meetings, meetings, meetings--I can't stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!I can just hear Him now. Both of them, Jesus and our Creator. "No, no, no, no! Why aren't you listening?" Dang, we're a hard-headed people!
You've worn me out! I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I'll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down--and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless." (From "The Message" (MSG) © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
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