Perspectives on Permanence: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 - Ash Wednesday

[Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
  ²“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
  ⁵“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
  ¹⁶“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so 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.
  ¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

penance by Sarah Beth on flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0

Did you see the headline in the newspaper?

Lutherans are giving up plastic for Lent.

The Church in Society committee of our Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod is challenging the members of our 162 congregations to give up one specific kind of single-use plastic each week. These include shopping bags, drinking straws, water bottles, Styrofoam, and food wrappers. The idea is for us to be “more attentive to God our creator and all of God’s creation.”

My first thought was, “wow. This is really going to disrupt my life.” I even thought, “what will folks think about the church telling them how to live their lives?”

Single-use plastics are just as essential to modern life as cell phones, electricity, and running water—because their lightweight, cheap, and convenient. Nearly all our food and household cleaners come packaged in plastic. Good luck buying milk or frozen vegetables on week 5 (you’re going to need it).

To make matters worse, the age of recycling that we’ve come to know over the last three decades is over. China is no longer buying our recyclables—and there’s no market for them in this country. So most of it is ending up in the landfill or the incinerator.

For as much as we depend on single-use plastic, it’s slowly killing us and our planet. There’s enough plastic floating in the ocean to cover an entire continent. Nearly one-third of all fish have plastic particlesin them. What happens when we eat the fish containing the plastic particles? Will the water we drink be contaminated with plastic? Or the air we breathe?

In a few moments, you are going to receive the ashes, and hear the words: “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But that red Solo cup or plastic bag will continue to exist for hundreds, if not thousands of years—poisoning the environment and the living creatures dependent on it.

The cacophony of consumption and disposal demonstrates just how out-of-sync we are with the life God intends for us to live.

We are a throw-away society. Nothing is built to last anymore—because we all crave the next big thing. Even relationships are disposable. Communities are disposable. Marriages and families are disposable. Churches are disposable. Religions are disposable. The minute you’re unsatisfied, you toss it and replace it with something better. The disease of disposability has so overtaken us that we rarely give thought to that which is both long-lasting and life-giving.

But can you imagine where you’d be if you were disposable to God?

One of our biggest misconceptions about God is that God takes delight in disposing of peoples who don’t make the cut; who aren’t good enough; who don’t believe or fall short of his high standards.

If there’s any truth to be known from the cross, it is that you are NOT disposable. Neither is your neighbor, or even the people you wish God would dispose of. Our planet is not disposable. Our lives are not disposable. Your relationships are not disposable. All of these are life-giving and life-affirming gifts.

The gift of repentance, which we focus on during Lent, is the Holy Spirit’s work of aligning your priorities and your focus on that which gives life and creates new life, as opposed to consuming and disposing.

As Christians, we’re not giving up single-use plastics just to save the planet (even though that’s extremely important)! We do this in order that the rhythms of our daily lives may be aligned with God’s activity. We do this so that we don’t inadvertently discard something or someone that may bring us life.

At last Sunday’s pancake brunch, we stayed afterwards and washed dishes. And I heard folks saying they had fun—because we did this mundane task together. The number one reason for using disposable plates and utensils is to save time—and yet if we had done that, these joy-filled moments would have gone straight to the landfill.

Regardless of whether you decide to undertake this challenge or not, remember that God has something better in mind for your life than the way you’re living it today. If you dispose of that friendship or marriage because they’ve done you wrong, you’ll be throwing away part of yourself! Can you trust that for us much as you crave that shiny new thing, that God DEFINITELY has something greater in store for you?  That you can find greater joy not in what you get but in what you give away?

God didn’t create you to be a parasite. God created you for life and love. The joy of living is maximized by your being connected to that which both gives life and saves life—living in harmony with the human community and the natural world.

And even when life gets hard and people treat you as disposable, or you feel like garbage because of what’s happened to you—you can still “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” No matter how badly you fail, you can always pray for and receive forgiveness. You are not disposable. Your body is dust and to dust it shall return. But in Christ, you shall live forever.