Spiritual Hiccups - What Really Matters

So it's Ash Wednesday.  I was well into my 30s before I attended my first Ash Wednesday service, but they have become very meaningful to me.  Yet, I still find something a bit humorous about hearing Jesus tell us to practice our piety in private followed by scores of worshipers going out in public with a mark on their foreheads advertising their Christianity for all to see.  (Some churches do encourage their members to wash off the cross before going out in public.)

Despite this, I like the way Ash Wednesday and Lent call us to take stock, to examine ourselves and see whether our lives are properly aligned and oriented with regards to what is truly important.  For those who call themselves "Christian," who claim an identity in some way rooted in the person of Jesus, this self examination asks if our priorities look like his.

Jesus' critique of public piety and his call to store up treasure in heaven rather than here on earth calls us to examine our core motivations.  Are we motivated primarily by what's in it for us, or are we motivated primarily by the ways of the Kingdom, of God's will over my wants? 

It is possible to hear Jesus' words as nothing more than a longer range version of "what's in it for us?"  Don't seek short term gains on earth, but go for the long term rewards of eternal life.  But I don't think that is what Jesus means at all.  Jesus is the embodiment of what he teaches, and Jesus seems totally unmotivated by the hope of some reward.  Rather he is motivated by the ways of heaven, which, according to his model prayer, is where God's will is done.  Living a life motivated by the ways of heaven means working for the world to become a place where God's will is done as well.

"Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  These words remind us that all our schemes and plans are transitory, but Jesus has invited to become a part of something new and permanent, that coming day where God's will is done here on earth as it is in heaven.  Ash Wednesday asks us if we have ordered our lives around the self serving patterns of this world, patterns that are passing away, or if we have ordered our lives around what really matters.

Click to learn more about the Daily Lectionary.