Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103:8-14
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
My father was proficient at many things in his life. Buffoonery was one of them. He was a jokester, pulled pranks on everybody, and said some of the silliest little quips you’ve ever heard. Some of them aren’t fit to be shared but if you can bear a little buffoonery on Ash Wednesday, here’s one of them: Whenever my father saw a car or a boat or some material thing he really wanted to have but couldn’t afford to buy for himself, he’d say, “I wish I had that and that fellow had a wart on his nose growing a foot a minute and I was getting a dollar an inch to cut it off for him.” He said stuff like that lightheartedly. How else could you say something that silly? When I remembered him saying that I realized that silly little saying is about the best description of the sin of covetousness that I’ve ever heard.
Coveting is not to seeing something someone else has and wanting one like it for yourself. It’s wanting for yourself what belongs to someone else and wanting that person not to have it. Covetousness is a sin that runs deep. It’s a sin that begets other sins. It’s the tenth of the Ten Commandments, “Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.” The rabbis say if you keep the tenth commandment, you will keep all the commandments. You will not turn away from God because you will be managing your heart well. Covetousness is a sin that infects our hearts.
As God’s mouthpiece speaking for God, the Prophet Isaiah says to Israel, I don’t much care if you keep the fast, bow your head in prayer, and sit around all day in sackcloth and ashes as long as you share your bread with the hungry; break every yoke you can get your hands on to free the oppressed; help the homeless find shelter from the piercing cold of winter and the scorching heat of summer; and put clothes on the backs of those who have none. Then, said Isaiah, when you cry to the Lord for help, the Lord will say to you, “Here I am.”
Covetousness is not even easy to say, much less to ponder as the grievous sin of the heart that it is. But I believe the rampant consumerism present in our culture today that causes us to over-consume, overuse, and overspend has to do with wanting what we do not have and wanting more of what we do have. Those desires lead to covetousness soon enough.
The people of God have always kept penitential observances of one sort or another as we are doing today. We are the people that Isaiah and Jesus are speaking to. We set aside a day for fasting and prayer. We spend an hour or so in church, much of it on our knees. We leave with ashes on our heads and good intentions in our hearts. In all sincerity we mean to do better. That lasts as long it lasts, maybe forty days, maybe not. At some point we’ll go right back to doing what we’re sorry for today because we have not managed our hearts well. Covetousness or one of its many offsprings will gain strength and eventually overtake our good intentions. That’s what it means to be human. But we do have a forty day season. That’s enough time to tend to our hearts and get rid of the sin we find there.
For some of us, it seems like God deals with us directly in our hearts, just reaches in and pulls out evil thoughts and intentions. In the bare spot God leaves a passion for the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and the oppressed. Then we’re ready and willing to do the good things Isaiah spoke about to Israel, the things that really matter to God. And for some of us, we go ahead and do the things Isaiah said to do no matter whether we feel like it or not because those things matter to God. It is important to us to be obedient and we want to do the right thing. The change of heart comes through doing the good. Either way works. One is not any better than the other. We’re not all alike. We don’t all approach Lent the same way.
Some of us will be moved by the prayers we pray today. Our hearts will be filled with compassion toward the weak and vulnerable Isaiah spoke of and we’ll feel compelled from our hearts to respond generously to their needs with our time, our money, and our prayers. Some of us will take on extra ministry projects. We’ll work, pray, and give to bring relief to the people Isaiah spoke of because that’s what we’re supposed to do in Lent and we like to do what we’re supposed to do. Then by doing those things and interacting with the vulnerable and oppressed, our hearts are changed. And that’s the point. The whole purpose of Lent is to change our hearts; to soften them; to rid them of covetousness and all infectious sins that cause us to love ourselves more than we love God and each other; to put our own desires and the pursuit of them above even the basic needs of others.
Forty days is long enough to kick a bad habit or change bad behavior, but if your heart doesn’t change in the process, why bother?
