Sermon for Ash Wednesday

“Where your treasure is. . .” Matthew 6:21

Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). This is our text.

Our practice of Lent: the extra church services, the Lent Hymns, prayers, the Psalms and other readings are healthy for the soul. They lead to Christ, crucified – for our salvation and our eternal life.

They are also good for our training in righteousness. We learn and grow in our repentance and faith with the help of the words and actions of Lent. Specifically, in Lent we learn how to repent of our sins, and which sins we should repent of.

Some sins are so obvious, one doesn’t need any outside instruction to recognize them. We each have a conscience and it works to point out to us what we have done wrong. For example, if there is someone that you would love as a Valentine, but you say or do something that saddens them and brings them to tears, your conscience ought to sting.

But other sins are not so easily noticed or even recognized as being sin.  For these we need the word of our Lord to convict us of our wrong, to teach us and train us in righteousness.  

Jesus does just that in tonight’s Gospel reading. He says, “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:16).

Jesus describes hypocrites as being very proud of their religious acts. Let’s let His words instruct us and guide our consciences. Let’s think about this carefully, do we ever wear our own goodness like a medal of honor. Do we ever do something that is nice, good and proper, admirable even, but while we are doing it, we desire to get some recognition for it.  It's like we’re saying, “Hey did y’all see what I just did there?”

This is the way the self-centered mind will work. It gets busy feeling so proud of yourself. Proud of your own spiritual endeavors. Convincing yourself that you deserve others to acknowledge and admire all that’s good about you.

It’s tricky here because you can trick your conscience with situations like this. You say to yourself, “I’m doing a good thing. Nothing wrong with it.” But the Lord is teaching you that your motivation, your love is aimed at the wrong thing.

Jesus says that those who think and act like that, “have received their reward.” That implies that the reward is in this time and in this world, not forever, not in heaven. It can be rewarding to be noticed. It is a pleasure to be well thought of by others. But such feelings, such treasure won’t last. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

There is an old saying used on Ash Wednesday, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That reminder shows that we can’t take much credit for anything that lasts. What treasure can we find within ourself and our own spiritual works? The kind of treasure that turns again to dust.

The treasure to be desired, must be beyond ourselves, namely, in Christ crucified. He is your Treasure. You have this treasure when He comes to you with His Word and with His body and blood. You have this Treasure that will not be corrupted over time, or stolen by anyone or anything. 

Christ crucified rescued you from all sin. Daily He draws you out of sin, teaching you how to repent of all sins and believe in His forgiveness.  All sins – Those obvious ones that your conscience will so easily recognize, and those trickier sins, like thinking too much of yourself, with pride like the hypocrites.

So this Ash Wednesday let’s begin Lent repenting of any self-centeredness. Repent of the love of self. Repent of the temptation to trust your own good spiritual acts. Learn from the Lord to Love Him, not yourself, to trust Him, not yourself, to treasure Him, not yourself.

Let’s keep learning from the Lord. Let’s have Him train us in His righteousness.

When you come for Individual Confession and Absolution, we usually use the order of service for it, that is in the hymnal. And in there after you’ve confessed your sins, you have this line to say, “I am sorry for all of this and ask for grace. I want to do better.” That’s just how it goes, when you’re sorry for having done wrong in the past, you want to do better in the future.

Here's how we will strive to do better with our Lent actions and prayers and with our heart and attitude. We will look beyond ourselves and the dusty treasures we too often hold on to. We will look to Christ crucified and trust Him to be our treasure that will last now and forever. Amen.