Mortality, Treasure, Heart: my Ash Wednesday sermon

Mortality…Treasure…Heart.  Where and how can we mortals find our treasure and heart this Lenten season…

Mortality.  One year ago, on Ash Wednesday, I wrote my Ember Day letter to the bishop.  Once I became a “Postulant” for ordination to the diaconate, I was required to write a letter to the bishop on each of four “Ember” Days in the church year.  Ash Wednesday is an Ember Day, so is Pentecost.  So one year ago this day I wrote the bishop.  The only reason I remember writing the letter was that I found it a few months later as I prepared my Pentecost letter.  That’s because last year, the day after Ash Wednesday, Kathie and I flew to Chicago for our granddaughter’s State Basketball Tournament; and I suffered a cardiac arrest.  I have no memory of flying to Chicago that day.  I have no memory of Ash Wednesday last year.  But I do have a much greater sense of my mortality today, on this Ash Wednesday.  Don’t we all have our own story that grounds us in our mortality?

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of our 40 days of preparation for Easter; and the ashes we will receive, are, according to the Book of Common Prayer, a “sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality.”  In the book of Genesis (19) we are told: …By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  And as we just heard in Psalm 103: For God knows how we were made; God remembers that we are dust.  On this Ash Wednesday we remember, and we will be marked with ashes, by our mortality.

Treasure.  In today’s Gospel Matthew tells us:  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.  We hear on the news every day about “break-ins” and other crimes. Well, we have breaking news for you; you’re in the Situation Room with Wolf, whoops, not Wolf Blitzer, but with St. Cyprian.

St. Cyprian was a bishop and martyr just 250 years after the death of Jesus Christ –and I’ve just been handed a great piece of reporting from him.

The true state of affairs is this.  (The Emperor) Valerian has issued an edict to the Senate to the effect that bishops, presbyters and deacons shall suffer the death penalty without delay.

Saint Sixtus II, bishop of the Church of Rome (the Pope), was arrested while celebrating the sacred liturgy in the year 257 by order of the Emperor.   He was put to death with four deacons.  And four days later, another deacon, Saint Lawrence, became a martyr of the same persecution.  (My middle name is Lawrence.)

But Valerian wasn’t just after bishops, presbyters and deacons.  He was after Christian Senators, distinguished men and members of the equestrian class, Ladies of the upper class, even members of the imperial staff.  St. Cyprian’s message in the midst of all this?  Let all our people (all Christians…you) fix their minds not on death but rather on immortality; let them commit themselves to the Lord in complete faith and unflinching courage and make their confession with joy rather than in fear, knowing that in this contest the soldiers of God and Christ are not slain but rather win their crowns.

Now St. Lawrence was one of seven deacons in charge of the “purse” from which they took care of the poor, the sick, and the needy.  It is said that after the death of the Pope, Lawrence gave them the rest of the money in the “purse.”  He even sold expensive vessels in order to give more money away.  When ordered by the Prefect of Rome, a greedy pagan, to deliver the church’s treasure, he gathered together the city’s poor, needy and sick and presented them to the Prefect.  Deacon Lawrence said: This is the Church’s treasure!

For this, Lawrence suffered a slow, agonizing death – he was slowly roasted on an iron grill over a fire.

So how do we store treasures in heaven?  For St. Lawrence, it was selling all of the churches worldly goods and distributing all the money to those in need – talk about redistributing wealth.

For us, we may hear a call to a greater piety, perhaps to give alms, pray, and fast.  In today’s Gospel, though, Matthew is more concerned with how we practice our “piety”.  He tells us: …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.  So do it, but don’t look like you’re doing it.

Psalm 103 mentions a few of the “rewards” or “benefits” – treasures – God wants to give us as we secretly practice our piety:  justice, mercy, healing, redemption, compassion, kindness – but we can’t tell anybody how we got them!    Most important?  God removes our sins as far as the (which way is east?) east is from the west.    So all of our “rewards” and “benefits” from God, are the kinds of “treasure” Matthew advises us to store in heaven.  Certainly they aren’t the kind of treasure that can be consumed by moths or rust, nor can a thief break in and steal them.

Heart.  Perhaps the most important thing is now that we’ve found our treasure…we’ve also found our heart.  As Matthew says today, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Which brings us back to the Old Testament reading from the Prophet Joel: “…even now, says the lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; rend your hearts not your clothing.

Here’s what Fr. Richard Rohr says about Joel:

The prophet Joel poetically and dramatically tells us “to rend our hearts and not our garments,” revealing an early Jewish movement toward interiority and purification of one’s real motivation (Repeat).   No one will ever be able to ask such an enlightened people, “Where is their God?” Such a God will be obvious and victorious—through and in peoples’ changed hearts and lives.

“Enlightened people,” this God who created you mortal, who provides you with rewards, benefits –treasure, this God whom you rend your heart to  this Lenten season is “obvious and victorious”… precisely in you.

In today’s reading from 2 Corinthians, we find more treasure: Paul speaks of ⁶purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love…  As you prepare to receive your ashes, and more importantly, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I offer treasure from Paul, found in his letter to the Philippians – a few more things you might consider offering the Lord this Lenten season.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  ⁸ Finally, sisters and brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

These too are treasures we mortals can store in heaven – and “Yes,” there we will find our heart.  Amen.