The Pillars of Lent
Our scripture lessons from Matthew that we read this morning are Christ's instructions to us on how to pray, how to fast, and how to give. And these three acts, prayer, fasting, and giving, are what are sometimes called the Pillars of Lent. And what they all have us doing is having us work on discipleship. On creating habits that guide us in our ways as we week to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
We're usually most familiar with the practice of fasting and associating that with Lent. Even if we don't necessarily fast ourselves, in a part of the state as Roman Catholic as this is, we likely know friends and neighbors who will give up some little luxury like chocolate or soda or coffee for these 40 days, and may abstain from meat on Fridays. That sort of thing.
But prayer and almsgiving are just as important to Lent (and throughout the whole year, really, but we emphasize them during this season).
Because this is a season of not only anticipation, but of preparation.
When we seek to prepare our bodies and our spirits for the agony of Christ's death, and for the celebration of his resurrection.
And too often, it seems that we rush those things together. In our hectic lives when mid-week church simply isn't a given anymore, Holy Week sort of becomes all Easter all the time, and it's all happy, happy, happy, and we miss the pain of it.
We gloss over the betrayal of Maundy Thursday.
We skip past the despair of Good Friday.
We don't give a thought to the uncertainty and the sorrow of Holy Saturday.
Easter is a joy and a celebration, because it is the resurrection of Jesus, the triumph of life over death... but we can't celebrate it without first going through death.
And even though we know the ending to this story, even though we've seen this movie before, it's still a time to reflect and to think about the depth of Christ's torment, and the scope of his sacrifice for us.
So yes, it's a season of anticipation, a countdown to Easter... but it's also a time to focus on our own souls. On our spiritual preparation to walk in the path of Jesus Christ. And that requires a lot of things. It requires courage and commitment, occasional good humor, it requires a community of faithful people to walk alongside us when we falter. And it requires us to be prayerful, fasting, and giving people.
This morning I want to spend just a little bit of time talking about what it means to be prayerful.
And the first thing I want to say is this: as long as your prayer is sincere, there is no right or wrong way to pray.
I grew up in liturgical churches. Whether in the Presbyterian-ish Congregational church I knew as a kid in Vermont, or in the Reformed churches I came to in New Jersey, I've always loved the beauty and the flow of the liturgy. How we move from the Approach to God, to hearing God's Word, to our Response to God... the way that music, word, and prayer all come together to create its own sort of language to speak to God. The way that each individual service uses a dozen different elements to reinforce a single message. It's all beautiful to me.
But I hated those unison prayers.
Any time I read somebody else's prayer off the bulletin, I hated it.
It felt forced, it felt contrived, it felt insincere.
I always thought that real prayer was spontaneous; it came out of the heart... I couldn't pray someone else's prayer and really mean it, the way I could my own.
It felt like I was praying wrong.
And to be honest, I still feel that way sometimes. There are times when it still feels stilted to pray off a piece of paper. Maybe some of you have felt that way sometimes too... and that's fine – we don't have to absolutely love 100% of what we do here to worship together.
But just because we pray in unison doesn't make that prayer insincere. It doesn't negate the prayer. Quite the opposite, I think.
Jesus tells to pray without ceasing. To pray throughout our day, every day. A prayer to God should be the first thing on our lips in the morning, and the last thing we say at night.
Which gives us quite a lot of alone time with God.
A whole lot of time to pray what we want, when we want, however we want.
Which is great.
But it's not the be-all and end-all of prayer.
There are times, such as on Sunday mornings, when it's good for us to get together with other people.. other Christians... other men and women who share the same faith in Jesus that we do... and to pray together.
And in those times, one hour a week for most of us, it can be good for us to raise our voices as one to our God. To pray as one church, rather than as a few separate voices.
It's not that God needs us to amplify our voices for him to hear us. But that when we pray together, it's a brief moment of beauty and of unity, that no matter what other differences we have, we are still able to come before our Lord together. It's a rare thing these days. In these times of polarization and fractured community and dwindling churches... it's a small act of defiance to get together in a church, something that's not terribly popular anymore... and to speak words of faith and love and thanksgiving to our God together.
Christ's direction to us regarding prayer is to remain prayerful, especially when no one is watching. God takes no pleasure in prayers that are made for the spectacle of being seen. It seems that God doesn't have a lot of patience for show-offs.
I'll be talking more about fasting and almsgiving in the coming weeks, but Jesus's intent in giving his directions on how to pray, how to fast, and how to give, is to make sure that we're doing those things for the right reasons.
They're not for our honor. Not to bring glory to ourselves. There is no heavenly reward to be gained by praying the loudest, or making a show of your fasting, or making a big production of your giving.
We do these things not to bring glory to ourselves, but to honor our God. The goal of discipleship is not to be the best disciple. But to bring each of us a little bit further along God's path.
We pray because God tells us to pray, and it is good for us to speak with our Lord.
We fast because God tells us to fast, and it is good for us to practice self-discipline.
We give because God tells us to give, and it is good for us to help others.
And we practice these together, as a community of faith. On our own we are weak. We are tempted. We fall by the wayside. We cheat.
When we come together, we learn to hold each other up in faith. To pray together with one voice. To be accountable in our disciplines. And to encourage each other in our giving. When we walk God's path, we walk it together, bringing each other along.
We've been praying this past year for health and fortitude through the Covid pandemic; for a spirit of peace and compassion in our country; we're praying for comfort in times of loss and sorrow in our own congregation and families. And during this Lenten season, we'll undoubtedly have further moments of sadness... whether on the scale of an international pandemic, or personal tragedies... Part of Lent is learning how to build up our spiritual armor to get through those times. Yes, it's about girding ourselves for the crucifixion of our Lord and making it through the sadness and the despair to get to the resurrection. But there's a real, practical application for these disciplines as well. Because we have more than enough sadness and despair and anxiety in our own world right around us.
And by coming together to pray. By coming together to be committed to something greater than ourselves.... by being together as a church that guides and supports each other, we stand a much better chance of getting through the dark times, and coming out into the light of God's goodness ahead. Amen.
Let us pray.
Holy Lord,
We pray to you this morning out of the sincerity of our hearts. Though the words might not be our own, we are earnest in our gratitude to you, and in our service to you. We live in an unpredictable world, where violence can strike us suddenly, and families can be dashed apart in an instant. Lord, we pray for your blessing. We ask for the strength that only you can give us. Fortify us against evil, and give us the tools we need to forge a way forward in your name. Create humble hearts in us, and help us to turn our prayers, our practices, and our gifts, to your will. We pray this in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our scripture lessons from Matthew that we read this morning are Christ's instructions to us on how to pray, how to fast, and how to give. And these three acts, prayer, fasting, and giving, are what are sometimes called the Pillars of Lent. And what they all have us doing is having us work on discipleship. On creating habits that guide us in our ways as we week to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
We're usually most familiar with the practice of fasting and associating that with Lent. Even if we don't necessarily fast ourselves, in a part of the state as Roman Catholic as this is, we likely know friends and neighbors who will give up some little luxury like chocolate or soda or coffee for these 40 days, and may abstain from meat on Fridays. That sort of thing.
But prayer and almsgiving are just as important to Lent (and throughout the whole year, really, but we emphasize them during this season).
Because this is a season of not only anticipation, but of preparation.
When we seek to prepare our bodies and our spirits for the agony of Christ's death, and for the celebration of his resurrection.
And too often, it seems that we rush those things together. In our hectic lives when mid-week church simply isn't a given anymore, Holy Week sort of becomes all Easter all the time, and it's all happy, happy, happy, and we miss the pain of it.
We gloss over the betrayal of Maundy Thursday.
We skip past the despair of Good Friday.
We don't give a thought to the uncertainty and the sorrow of Holy Saturday.
Easter is a joy and a celebration, because it is the resurrection of Jesus, the triumph of life over death... but we can't celebrate it without first going through death.
And even though we know the ending to this story, even though we've seen this movie before, it's still a time to reflect and to think about the depth of Christ's torment, and the scope of his sacrifice for us.
So yes, it's a season of anticipation, a countdown to Easter... but it's also a time to focus on our own souls. On our spiritual preparation to walk in the path of Jesus Christ. And that requires a lot of things. It requires courage and commitment, occasional good humor, it requires a community of faithful people to walk alongside us when we falter. And it requires us to be prayerful, fasting, and giving people.
This morning I want to spend just a little bit of time talking about what it means to be prayerful.
And the first thing I want to say is this: as long as your prayer is sincere, there is no right or wrong way to pray.
I grew up in liturgical churches. Whether in the Presbyterian-ish Congregational church I knew as a kid in Vermont, or in the Reformed churches I came to in New Jersey, I've always loved the beauty and the flow of the liturgy. How we move from the Approach to God, to hearing God's Word, to our Response to God... the way that music, word, and prayer all come together to create its own sort of language to speak to God. The way that each individual service uses a dozen different elements to reinforce a single message. It's all beautiful to me.
But I hated those unison prayers.
Any time I read somebody else's prayer off the bulletin, I hated it.
It felt forced, it felt contrived, it felt insincere.
I always thought that real prayer was spontaneous; it came out of the heart... I couldn't pray someone else's prayer and really mean it, the way I could my own.
It felt like I was praying wrong.
And to be honest, I still feel that way sometimes. There are times when it still feels stilted to pray off a piece of paper. Maybe some of you have felt that way sometimes too... and that's fine – we don't have to absolutely love 100% of what we do here to worship together.
But just because we pray in unison doesn't make that prayer insincere. It doesn't negate the prayer. Quite the opposite, I think.
Jesus tells to pray without ceasing. To pray throughout our day, every day. A prayer to God should be the first thing on our lips in the morning, and the last thing we say at night.
Which gives us quite a lot of alone time with God.
A whole lot of time to pray what we want, when we want, however we want.
Which is great.
But it's not the be-all and end-all of prayer.
There are times, such as on Sunday mornings, when it's good for us to get together with other people.. other Christians... other men and women who share the same faith in Jesus that we do... and to pray together.
And in those times, one hour a week for most of us, it can be good for us to raise our voices as one to our God. To pray as one church, rather than as a few separate voices.
It's not that God needs us to amplify our voices for him to hear us. But that when we pray together, it's a brief moment of beauty and of unity, that no matter what other differences we have, we are still able to come before our Lord together. It's a rare thing these days. In these times of polarization and fractured community and dwindling churches... it's a small act of defiance to get together in a church, something that's not terribly popular anymore... and to speak words of faith and love and thanksgiving to our God together.
Christ's direction to us regarding prayer is to remain prayerful, especially when no one is watching. God takes no pleasure in prayers that are made for the spectacle of being seen. It seems that God doesn't have a lot of patience for show-offs.
I'll be talking more about fasting and almsgiving in the coming weeks, but Jesus's intent in giving his directions on how to pray, how to fast, and how to give, is to make sure that we're doing those things for the right reasons.
They're not for our honor. Not to bring glory to ourselves. There is no heavenly reward to be gained by praying the loudest, or making a show of your fasting, or making a big production of your giving.
We do these things not to bring glory to ourselves, but to honor our God. The goal of discipleship is not to be the best disciple. But to bring each of us a little bit further along God's path.
We pray because God tells us to pray, and it is good for us to speak with our Lord.
We fast because God tells us to fast, and it is good for us to practice self-discipline.
We give because God tells us to give, and it is good for us to help others.
And we practice these together, as a community of faith. On our own we are weak. We are tempted. We fall by the wayside. We cheat.
When we come together, we learn to hold each other up in faith. To pray together with one voice. To be accountable in our disciplines. And to encourage each other in our giving. When we walk God's path, we walk it together, bringing each other along.
We've been praying this past year for health and fortitude through the Covid pandemic; for a spirit of peace and compassion in our country; we're praying for comfort in times of loss and sorrow in our own congregation and families. And during this Lenten season, we'll undoubtedly have further moments of sadness... whether on the scale of an international pandemic, or personal tragedies... Part of Lent is learning how to build up our spiritual armor to get through those times. Yes, it's about girding ourselves for the crucifixion of our Lord and making it through the sadness and the despair to get to the resurrection. But there's a real, practical application for these disciplines as well. Because we have more than enough sadness and despair and anxiety in our own world right around us.
And by coming together to pray. By coming together to be committed to something greater than ourselves.... by being together as a church that guides and supports each other, we stand a much better chance of getting through the dark times, and coming out into the light of God's goodness ahead. Amen.
Let us pray.
Holy Lord,
We pray to you this morning out of the sincerity of our hearts. Though the words might not be our own, we are earnest in our gratitude to you, and in our service to you. We live in an unpredictable world, where violence can strike us suddenly, and families can be dashed apart in an instant. Lord, we pray for your blessing. We ask for the strength that only you can give us. Fortify us against evil, and give us the tools we need to forge a way forward in your name. Create humble hearts in us, and help us to turn our prayers, our practices, and our gifts, to your will. We pray this in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.