Father Riley's homily from Ash Wednesday, March 6, 2019

CEC Breaking News !

…  Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist Sundays March 10, 17, 31.  We will have Morning Prayer March 24.   

…  Our Lenten early morning (9am) Sunday School with Father Riley will begin this Sunday, March 10th.  The theme this year is to seek guidance from Father Riley on topics from the Bible and Prayer Book which we may not fully understand.  Start making a list of your questions.

…  Daylight Savings Time begins this Sunday: turn your clocks ahead one hour...or be late!

…  Faye & Sam Corson will be attending the diocesan convention for our congregation Saturday, March 9th.

…  We will soon be starting our 2019 Capital Campaign for raising funds to repair and paint the exterior of our beautiful church.  We expect to have final proposals from contractors this week.  Some of you have already contributed to this needed activity and we greatly appreciate your support and love of our congregation.  Stay tuned for more updates.

ASH WEDNESDAY - C - 19                MATTHEW 6. 1-6, 16-21

Our Lenten journey with Christ to Jerusalem and the cross begins for us again this morning. The Lenten readings for the day set the tone for our journey. Both the Old Testament lesson and the gospel begin with a warning.

The prophet Joel warns the people that the Day of the Lord is coming and is near…and who can endure it? The answer is those who return to the Lord who rend their hearts and not their garments. Outward repentance is no good unless it is matched by an inward repentance.

Likewise, Jesus begins today’s gospel with a warning. “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them…” He goes on to list the three disciplines that relate directly to God’s righteousness: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting that have become hallmarks of Lent.

For many of us, however, the first is done merely out of a sense of obligation. The second, being that of prayer, occurs mostly in time of need or personal crisis, and the third, rarely, if ever. The rewards Jesus speaks of that accompany true piety are heavenly not earthly ones. The kind of riches we cannot begin to imagine for we have nothing to compare them too.

If we choose to practice any of the disciplines above, we need to ask ourselves what is our intent for doing so. Is it to please God or men? God is not impressed with what others think of us, nor by what we think of ourselves. God will reward good deeds when they are based on pure motives of the heart.

To pray for all the wrong reasons is to miss the “spirit of prayer,” which is intimate personal communication with God that leads to the vision of his glory (1 Cor. 2-9). True prayer is not telling God what he already knows, and what to do about it, nor is it appearing pious in front of others. True prayer is humble, personal, and sincere.

Fasting is not merely the absence of food, but consists of self-denial in all areas of life in order to escape the control of the passions. By attaching our selves to earthly treasures, we cut our selves off from heavenly ones.

The heart of discipleship lies in disentangling our selves from the chains of earthly things, and attaching our selves to God, the true treasure.

What matters is motive. The outer appearance needs to be matched by the inner reality. What we do in the name of God is for God’s eyes only. Other eyes will be watching from time to time and we have to be careful not to fall into the trap of performing for them rather than for God.

“When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…” The reward is God’s to give whatever form that may take in this life and or may be waiting for us in heaven. What Jesus is inviting us to is to live a life that matches inside and out because both are focused, or should be, on God who sees in secret.

Today’s readings are consistent in this message. The prophet Joel calls us to return, to turn again our hearts to the Lord. Paul instructs the citizens at Corinth that Jesus himself, though innocent, immersed himself in the ashes of our sinfulness so that he might free us from sin and death and lead us into all holiness.

Moreover, Matthew reminds us that our efforts can so easily be turned into hypocrisy. Even the ashes we will wear today as our badge of membership in a community of sin can become an empty sign. We must pray for the grace to realize this Lent is an “acceptable time” for decision and action, to renew a right spirit within us, to turn our hearts to God.

In 2004, while still in the Army, I had the privilege to travel to the Ukraine, particularly to the capitol city of Kiev. Each of us was assigned a Ukrainian counterpart who stuck to us like glue. After several days of seeing what they wanted us to see, we were asked on our final day if there was anything in particular we wished to see.

Being a group of Chaplains, we agreed we would like to see some of their churches. Few have survived the Communist rule. Those that had were turned into warehouses for the military. Twelfth and Thirteenth century frescoes that once adorned the walls and ceilings of these churches depicting saints, angels and the face of Christ had been whitewashed over.

Now that the Church has immerged from under ground and is once again the official religion of the country, these few remaining churches are being restored and used for worship. To enter one was to see scaffolding in place with workmen painstakingly removing the whitewash that for decades had hidden the treasures beneath. Or being present to witness an elderly grandmother returning an icon or an altar cross that had been hidden.

I visited several such churches. However, the most impressed, or I should say, the most humbling experience was my visit to the Cathedral compound that contained more than one church being resorted. The Metropolitan met us there and conducted our tour around the Cathedral grounds. He had previously been a former Soviet fighter pilot serving in Afghanistan.

As we approached the entrance to the Cathedral itself, we noticed a queue of hundreds of people of various ages. There were old men and women, young men and mothers holding their children by the hand and others with infants in arms. They were waiting patiently for their turn to enter the church. I asked the Bishop why so many people were here on a weekday. He said they were here to be baptized.

Inside the Cathedral was a team of priests who took turns baptizing by the dozens those who had come to receive the sacrament of new birth. They were not there to be seen by us, or anyone else for that matter. They were waiting for their turn to be buried with Christ and raised to new life in Him. They had waited patiently for decades under Communist rule for the “acceptable time.” What they were doing was for God’s eyes only.

Our Lenten journey takes us from the mystical experience of the transfiguration atop the holy mountain, to the cross and the surprise of the empty tomb, the greatest victory of life over death. So what shall we resolve as we move from the sacraments of bread and wine, and the ashes of our mortality as we begin the journey once again?

That is the Lenten question we all have to answer for ourselves. Lent is the “acceptable time.” Whatever we decide to do, whatever actions we take in terms of our piety, should be for God’s eyes only and in thankful response to His Love and Grace that enables us to turn our hearts to Him and live the life we have been invited to live through Him who died and rose again, even Jesus Christ, Our Lord. AMEN+