Masks and Ash Crosses: A Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Sermon Ash Wednesday 2020

Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

          I learned something this week, I learned what a hypocrite was. The usage now is usually someone who says one thing, but does another. They say people need to behave in a certain way, but then they don’t behave that way themselves.

          The original people called Hypocrites though were actually theater actors, the word refers to the people who would put masks on to act in plays, traditionally the happy and sad masks, you’ve probably even seen them, it’s the two faces we see above theaters often times. They would put the mask on to show the audience what their supposed emotion was. It would be as if they had a mask hiding who they actually were.

          Jesus uses the word to complain about the people who pretend to do things so that people will focus on them. To say that they are people putting masks on in public, acting different than who they really are. He gives examples of those who would make sure that everyone knew how much money they were putting in the temple coffers as they gave. Or others who would stand right in the midst of the crowd to wail about the ailments and prayers they were so concerned about, not to share with God their concerns, but to be seen by those around. Or those who when they fasted, they’d make sure you’d know, rubbing ashes on themselves to accent how much this fasting is making them suffer.

          This sort of things happens all the time still. Today it’s often referred to as virtue signaling. Making sure everyone around you knows how virtuous you are, how righteous and moral you are. The example was electric cars. People who wanted to buy an electric car were more apt to buy one if it had electric car written on it, or if it was very obvious that it was an electric car. So that everyone around them would know that somehow they were making some kind of difference. Or if you were given the option of sharing on social media, like Facebook or twitter, about a charitable gift, people were more likely to give, simply because then others would know that you gave. Of course, some of this is not terrible or horrific, if sharing on social media gets you to give, and then also gets someone else to give, it helps, doesn’t it.

But, what about when that becomes the focus. To simply have everyone think that’s who we are? Or to think that everyone else is like that. In this age of social media it is especially easy to think that everyone else around us has it all together, because most of what we actually share is our best face, isn’t it? We don’t put the mean moments, or the failing moments up. We don’t share our weak moments. We take multiple selfies to make sure we look our best before posting.

          And then we look at everyone else, and think, oh man, look at what their sharing, they have it together, they don’t have any problems.

          We all put on masks for each other, we very rarely show what’s actually going on. We are hypocrites. We hide who we are, all while searching for who we are.

          What’s what tonight and Lent are for. It’s the time where God shows us that we don’t have to hide behind a mask, Lent is this time where we walk along with Christ to the cross, but at the same time, it’s the time when Christ walks with us as we work to discover who and whose we are.

          To use the line from Psalm 23, Lent is the time where we walk in the darkest valley, with Christ, our Good Shepherd, right with us. It is the time where we do in fact consider our mortality, we will die, and at the same time we consider our eternal life, through Christ we live.

          We put crosses on our foreheads, we see in them the ashes of death, the cross of death, and we see in them the love of Christ which gives life. We see in them that we often deny who we are to the world, we think of the masks we use to hide ourselves, and at the same time, we see that they are on us.

          These crosses, they go right on us. They don’t go on some mask, they are on us. They are on who we actually are, on who God made us to be. They help us to see beyond the masks, to see we are beloved people who were marked by the same cross in our baptisms, who have been so deeply claimed and loved by God, not as our masks show, but as we are.

          Lent is a time of confession and forgiveness. It is a time to look at the ways we fail, the ways we go wrong.

          But, often the biggest failure we make is in not seeing ourselves as the beloved children of God that we are.

          Tonight, people of God, as you leave look at the crosses on each other’s heads, and when you get home and you look in the mirror, know that that cross is a sign that you are loved and that this time of Lent is not about seeing all the ways you are wrong, but seeing that we are loved by a God who will do anything for us, even death.