Jesus said: “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And 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; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
My sermon from Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2025) on Matthew 6:1-6,16-21.
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Dr. Vivek Murthy recently stepped down after serving as the U.S. Surgeon General for the second time. His work across three different administrations included combating the opioid epidemic, inviting everyone to see prevention as vital to our well-being, and challenging all the misinformation often associated with caring for our bodies. Dr. Murthy traveled all over the country meeting with doctors, health professionals, and patients while engaging with some of the health crises that define our time. Yet through it all, he noticed a different kind of crisis impacting everyone. What he saw and witnessed was a rise in suffering caused by social isolation and loneliness. Being alone does more than simply impact our emotional and mental state. When we’re lonely, our physical health suffers too. Loneliness increases the risks associated with heart disease, stroke, and dementia. Making friends, especially when we’re older, is hard. And the communities that created opportunities for us to create relationships with one another are slowly fading away. The communities we build are often limited to folks who we’re either related to or that we only plan to be part of for a short time. Having places where we can learn, grow, care for others, and be cared for by others can be very hard to find. The reasons why we’re lonely are very personal and associated with what our culture deems as the people who are worth getting to know in the first place. Dr. Murthy, when he visited young people in high schools and on college campuses would often ask them: “How do you define success?” Now this is a bit of a trick question because what he was really wondering was what all of us – our society – showed them what a successful life looks like. And their answers to that question were the sort of things we might expect. Success was defined in terms of wealth, importance, and even being famous. This success, though, couldn’t only be defined by themselves. Success also meant that others would choose to post, share, and write down their entire story. Being successful wasn’t merely having enough or feeling good about their lives. Success also meant they had to be noticed and seen. But the more they talked, the more Dr. Murthy noticed a little doubt in their words. The youth wondered if all this success would really make them happy. And while they had heard the stories we like to tell about integrity, character, and self-worth, they also didn’t want to be left behind while all their friends chased after the success that only a few could ever get. This success would give them a sense of purpose, identity, and the opportunity to never be lonely. When we’re seen and when others know us, we’re finally told that we truly matter. But what if there was another, another voice, we could listen to instead?
Tonight’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew is a short selection from the middle of his sermon on the mount. Jesus, after getting known as someone who shows what happens when God’s kingdom comes near, invited his disciples and a gigantic crowd to take a seat on the side of a mountain. It might seem a little off to ask a community of people who wanted to be healed to wait and listen to a few words. Yet Jesus’ actions were also about letting this mixed community of all genders, all ages, all abilities, as well as the sick, the poor, the rich, the hungry, those with faith, and those with none to already see themselves as a disciple. Being invited to sit at a religious teacher’s feet was typically only open to those society thought worthy of being one. Jesus, though, on a side of a mountain, declared who was already a part of His holy family. It wasn’t those who knew the right words, prayed the right prayers, or who seemed like the kind of people who a successful religious teacher would invite into their clan. God’s story, God’s community, and what God was up to would include those who never saw themselves as a follower in the first place. As Jesus talked, he kept returning to the idea that our rule’s aren’t God’s rules and our limits on who is loved will not limit what God will do. What we’ve been taught or learned or even assume is simply “common sense” might not be the same thing as the word of God. We have agency and the opportunity to pay attention to how we talk, how we listen, and how we show care. Doing this, though, isn’t always easy because we don’t often realize how often we give permission to various traditions, voices, opinions, interpreters, and authorities to tell us what we should do. And we assume we already know what it means to be faithful; to be good; to be happy and successful. Success, even today, looks a lot like those Jesus called out in this part of the sermon on the mount. The people he described giving alms, praying in the middle of the community, looking completely sombre when they fast, and hoarding wealth for themselves and no one else – they needed to be noticed while doing it. It wasn’t enough to have, to give, or to be; they needed others to see them too. There are times in our lives when we wish we had the wealth, the opportunity, and the ability to be so generous we could get other people’s attention. Yet success as described in this text – and taught to our kids – doesn’t exist unless it is known. This kind of attention, then, is how we imagine we’ll never be lost in a crowd since we act as if our purpose and identity are rooted in what other people say, and think, about us. We do, however, like to tell a lot of other stories claiming that success is really about things like having integrity, making a positive difference, service, and cultivating a sense of personal wealth and self-esteem. But the other vision of success that relies on the attention other people give has already convinced us that none of that is true.
Letting those around us define our sense of fulfillment, purpose, and identity is a word that doesn’t last. Any successful life that depends on others is a vision of success that is fickle, dependent, and prone to causing harm for ourselves and others. Some can gather wealth, attention, and fame in this way and we watch them gain this kind of success through the various social media apps on our phone. Yet the road to this kind of success is full of everyone else who failed. What we need is, I think, a different kind of word that is a bit more permanent, a bit less fickle, and one that doesn’t act as if being noticed and being known are the exact same thing. You, as you are, have value. You, in this life you’re actually living, truly matter. You are not defined by your success or failures or only by what you have done or by what has happened to you. And God has not deemed you, through baptism and faith, as necessary for what God is doing in the world because of all the success you’ve found in life. No, you are loved and the life God created for us can be more than chasing after the kind of success that will never love us back in the end. Success shouldn’t be the goal because it ends up limiting just how fulfilling, generous, rooted, and loving life can be. And if God is willing to love, care, and be with us no matter the number of failures that come, we can be the kind of people who love just like Jesus does. That is one of the ways we break through our loneliness by being individuals and a community that chooses to be for – and with – one another. We won’t always get this right and we will still sometimes act as if success should determine who we should pay attention to. Yet we have a God who has decided that out of everything in the universe, you are worth being known. And if you’re worth being known, we’re worth getting to know each other as the real human beings God made us to be.
Amen.