Clean Out Your Closet! Matthew 6:1-6, Dad sent his 7-year-old daughter to clean up her room.

Transcription

1 1 Clean Out Your Closet! Matthew 6:1-6, [A sermon preached by the Rev. Stan Gockel on Ash Wednesday at the Bellbrook United Methodist Church, February 22, 2012] I Here is a story every parent can relate to: It was Saturday morning family chore time. Dad sent his 7-year-old daughter to clean up her room. She emerged from her room five minutes later and announced, I m done. Can I watch TV? Suspicious, the father went to investigate. Her room looked clean and pristine. But then he opened the closet door and was almost buried in the avalanche. He got a book and sat on a stool and read it in her room while she cleaned her closet. With Dad present, she got in gear and almost happily cleaned her closet, putting toys on shelves, clean clothes in drawers and on hangers, and dirty clothes and wet towels in the hamper. When she was done she came and hugged her father and said, You re the best dad in the whole world.

2 2 II Sisters and brothers, this is more than just a sweet story. It s a story that points to our task during Lent and God s presence with us in it. Our task in Lent is to clean out our closets before we clean up our room. It is to look to our inner motivations and desires before we get preoccupied with how we are coming across to others. Sometimes our closets are cluttered with old resentments, bitterness, anger, guilt, insecurity, and shame. Sometimes in the back of our closet is the moldy residue of relationships gone sour, opportunities missed, and resources squandered. We all like to present a tidy appearance to the world, but we all have our closets. Lent is a time to clean out our closets, our inner selves, so that there can be room for God. III Jesus said, Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them. (Matthew 6:1) The word translated piety is literally the word for righteousness. Righteousness is the key theme that runs like a powerful electrical current through the entire Sermon on the Mount.

3 3 Matthew calls Jews and Gentiles alike to a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Righteousness is not rote obedience to an outward set of rules, or resting on the laurels of one s religious heritage. Righteousness is an inward faithfulness. It is obedience to the spirit of God s law. Righteousness, understood rightly, is love for God and love for one s neighbor. It is important to note that righteousness is not the possession only of the spiritual elite. It is a quality that all Christians should strive to possess. Inner purity must always be linked with a passion for justice toward others. Matthew s vision of ethical living applies both to our private lives and to the life of our churches. During the season of Lent we should seek to clean out our closets, not just present a scrubbed and smiling face to the world. IV This contrast between inward and outward motivation runs through the three acts of piety that Jesus describes in our gospel reading: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus uses the word hypocrite, which in the original Greek described actors playing a part. Don t make a performance out of doing good for others, says Jesus.

4 4 Don t call attention to yourself or trumpet your generosity before the world. When you give alms, do so quietly. Don t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Likewise, when you come before God in prayer, don t make a theatrical production out of it. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 5: All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? Rather, when you pray Find a quiet, secluded place so that you won t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there, says Jesus, as simply and honestly as you can manage. When the focus is on God, not you, you will begin to sense God s grace. Likewise, when you fast, don t make a huge production out of it. If you go into training inwardly, act normal outwardly. One New Testament scholar suggests that anointing your head and washing your face when you fast is "to act as if you are going to a feast." In other words, go about it in disguise We are to go about prayer and almsgiving and self-denial as though we were enlisted in the divine Secret Service.

5 5 God won t overlook what you are doing and will reward you. V Jesus concern in each of these examples is that our actions would truly be an expression of our inner communion with God. Is our motivation loyalty and love for God or the desire for the good opinion of others? How we present ourselves on the outside should reflect who we are on the inside. David Day is a British pastor and author. In his book Preaching with All You ve Got, he says a preacher should be able to stand before his or her congregation and say, I am who I appear to be. Of course, there are things we don t share with others for a variety of good reasons. But being able to say, I am who I appear to be is a good goal for every Christian. We are in an election year, when politicians are campaigning for our votes. Politicians expend a lot of energy trying to appear to be someone or something they may or may not be. That s why being a politician is so exhausting. Today put on jeans and a bomber jacket and be an average Joe. Tomorrow don camos and pretend to like hunting. The next day parade my family up to the podium and be the embodiment of a faithful husband and father.

6 6 Look, I m praying look, I m fasting look, I m giving alms. Now vote for me! No wonder politicians fall from grace almost as often as preachers do! Are any of our closets completely free of moldy motives and odiferous desires? Whose closets are stocked with righteousness? Not the Pharisees! Their closets are full of faith in their descent from Abraham as guarantee of their salvation. Not the scribes! Their inner motivation is material comfort and religious prestige. Not Herod or Pilate. Their closets are full of the desire for wealth and political power. What is in your closet that needs to be cleaned out? Lent is our 40-day opportunity to go beyond spring cleaning. It is the time when we are called by God to give a thorough cleaning to our hearts and to our souls. As the prophet Joel writes:

7 7 Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. (Joel 2:12-13) VI Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, How blessed are those who know their need of God. Friends, Jesus invites us during Lent to once again realize our need for God, and then to act on that need by cleaning out the closets of our hearts so that there is room for a closer walk with God. Just a closer walk with thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea, Daily walking close to thee: Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. When we realize our need for God and commit to growing in faith during the season of Lent and beyond, we can be assured that God our heavenly Father will pull up a chair and keep us company while we clean out our closets. Amen. Sources: Alyce M. McKenzie, Clean Out Your Closet! Reflections on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, retrieved from Eugene Peterson, The Message.