Look to the Sky

Rev. Brian Weinberger

RCL Year B • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

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One of our favorite movies in our house is Mary Poppins. When you watch Mary Poppins, how can you not fall in love with Dick Van Dyke’s character, Bert? He always has a smile on his face, and is always willing to help someone out. As much as Bert is a wonderful character, he is also someone whom we can look and and learn a lot from.

Mary Poppins street performer wants attention to get money and recognition

That shouldn’t be what we do when we do God’s works.

One of the first times Bert is introduced is when he is entertaining people on the streets as a one-man-band. He’s got drums, and a harmonica, and cymbals, and who knows what else on him all playing at once to his movements. He is a street performer trying to get the attention of anyone and everyone. H wants people to notice him so that he can provide something that they might enjoy and in return he is hoping that they will provide hime with some monetary compensation. He more than simply wants people to pay attention to him, he wants people to pay him.

We see this happen in more places than movies. We see it happen in tourist places all over our country. In our personal travels we have seen street performers in Santa Monica, Seattle, and Key West to name a few. Men and women do whatever they can as performers, as actors, to grab your attention for a time so that they can wow you with what they are doing and in exchange for that entertainment, you will pay them for it. These street performers and actors need your time and attention so that they can make it worth their efforts.

I believe this whole idea of being a street performer is central to the different stories we hear from Jesus today. Jesus doesn’t want us to grab people’s attention when it comes to giving our money away, when we pray, when we fast. We should be focused instead on doing them quietly. Jesus doesn’t want us to be street performers when we are doing the things that we feel called to do for our faith.

Let’s take a look at each of these three practices and what are the ways Jesus is warning us to not do them and what may be healthy ways to practice them. Keep in mind that idea of a street performer, or more specifically Bert, from Mary Poppins when we talk about someone who is trying to grab attention in these lessons today.

Our first lesson is about almsgiving. Jesus is in no way, shape, or form, condemning the idea of giving to the synagogue or in our case giving to the church. He is warning about making a spectacle about it. There is a popular belief that the collection box used to collect people’s tithings was large and made out of metal. So a person could throw in a large sum of money, and remember it was all coins back then, and when they did, everyone would hear how loud it was and how long it lasted.

This is also significant about the woman who gave her last two copper coins. . No one took notice of her because it was two coins and they were worth almost nothing, But Jesus took notice because she wasn’t asking for attention and she gave because she was following God’s command, not out of abundance but out of obedience and sacrifice.

Almsgiving should be done, but it shouldn’t be about status or attention. It should be about following our hearts and our faith.

Praying. We should pray at all times and in all places without ceasing. In fact, there is a story about a monk who claimed he prayed without ceasing. He explained to someone that everything he did was an act of prayer or involved prayer. When he gardened he thanked God for the earth and his harvest. When he cooked he thanked God for his daily bread. He prayed over others and helped others and those were all part of his prayer life. He said that every aspect of his life was devoted to prayer. The man he was talking to then scoffed and told him there was no way that he could pray while he was sleeping. The monk then told him that it was at those times that he firmly believed that someone else was praying for him.

God and Jesus don’t discount or discourage prayer. In fact, there are even places in the Bible that tell us that we should have public prayer. But the people Jesus is criticizing are the people that do it for attention, that do it to try to look better than other people. They are the people that aren’t praying the Lord’s prayer, but instead praying to God, thanking God for how wealthy and healthy they are. God wants a right heart and a right mind when we pray, not one that is puffed up and full of pride.

Our final concern that Jesus brings up is about fasting. Fasting is something again, that God does say has it’s purposes and times. When someone has lost a loved one they can fast, when they are seeking God’s favor, when they are preparing for prayer, and when they are celebrating the Day of Atonement. These are all times and reasons that God has said in the Bible that people may fast. You can see that these are very serious and can be very personal times. Why then, do people want to do them as a public display?

The Old Testament reading from Isaiah actually addresses this very topic. In verses 3 and 4 you can see the people want to know why, when they fast that God doesn’t take notice. God responds by telling them that they are fasting for their own self interest and because of it they oppress other people by it and they quarrel and fight with one another. That is not what God intended by encouraging people to fast. It is about connecting with God, not about showing off and performing in the streets in front of other people.

God goes on to say that the type of fast God choose is one that loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the yoke, to let the oppressed go free. God wants us then to share our bread with hungry, and help the homeless and the poor, to cover up the naked.

It is through these acts of kindness that our lights shall be seen. Not because we light it for ourselves, but because, God who sees us doing these things in secret, then rewards us because then we do know and see and live out the idea that our treasures are the one’s in heaven and not the one’s we have here on this earth.

People can perform in the street all day long and clash their symbols to get the attention of others and get their reward, but God invites us to choose a different reward than that. God invites us to remember our mortality. On this Ash Wednesday we remind ourselves that we are here for only a short amount of time and no matter how many treasures we try to store up for ourselves it will never be enough and it will never satisfy. But, if we but trust in the Lord, if we look to the sky and not to our own doing, God rewards us with the greatest treasure ever known. God give us life eternal.

On this day of ashes, remember that you are dust and to dust your will return, but also remember that dust is only part of who you are and God knows and see the rest of it. God gives us and promises us an even greater reward than anything we can find by banging some drums and clashing some cymbals. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.