Sermon - Ash Wednesday 2023

Heavenly Treasures

1. Forsaking this world, its treasures, and our sins

2. Returning to the Lord and treasuring His gifts

“When you fast...”Jesus assumes that we will fast. Fasting has become fairly popular lately as a health fad, which isn’t all bad. Christians have been fasting for thousands of years, it’s a good practice because fasting voluntarily foregoes earthly treasures in order to meditate upon our heavenly treasures. Lent has long been understood as a forty day fast, just like Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness. It’s somewhat common among Christians today to give up something for lent, maybe social media or pop or chocolate or coffee. These are good practices, and I commend them to you.

However, the primary scope of lent isn’t just giving up some random vice for 40 days, but it’s a time for reflection and to make some real changes in our lives. These changes are not only outward, but inward; to make a change of heart. Like the prophet Joel preached: ““Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

So the ultimate goal here is repentance, turning away from our sins and this world, and returning to God who is gladly quick to forgive us. It can be very helpful therefore to make physical changes in our lives. The physical and the spiritual are very closely connected. By making physical changes to our lives we do impact ourselves internally and spiritually. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” When we forego some of life’s pleasures, we are training ourselves to understand that those treasures are less important than what God gives us. It’s about making the first things first, and the secondary things second. 

Now, one thing needs to be made clear: for the Christian we don’t just fast, but we replace those earthly pleasures with God and His good gifts. Lent is not only a time to fast from worldly goods, but it’s a time to return to God and build better habits. St. Peter mentions this: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love… Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 

This is a good time to replace our bad habits with Godly virtue. St. Peter lists seven things: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. So let us grow in virtue, behaving in a more excellent way; let us increase in our knowledge of God; let us learn to control ourselves and be less impulsive; let us gain endurance and courage in our faith; let us grow in reverence to God; and let us love one another, caring for each other as the body of Christ.

By growing in these virtues we are giving our faith something to hold onto. Our faith, what we believe, isn’t just a collection of ideas we hold in our heads, but it entails a set of actions and behaviors we perform with our bodies. So when we give up our evil vices and start new and good habits, we can see God’s hand working in our lives, and we can be confident that God’s salvation is ours and Christ has earned us our entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What’s more is that by drawing away from this world and drawing closer to God, we learn to see our sins more clearly, and to trust in God’s abundant grace and favor which He so richly lavishes upon us in Christ.