Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 • Psalm 51:1-17 • 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 • Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
234617182021"[Jesus said to his disciples:] 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. 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. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 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. But 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. 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. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so 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. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
The investment was supposed to go according to plan. It was going to work out great: God was going to make an initial investment into shares of a company called “Human Beings & Creation”, HBC for short. This payment was supposed The potential of HBC according to Wall Street was sky high. God was very proud of this investment. God said, “It is good.”
Well, things didn’t quite go according to plan. The company went sour almost immediately. As much as God wanted and wished for HBC to succeed, the people who made up the company just did not perform well. Disagreement broke out between co-workers, excessive micromanaging increased stress between supervisors and their workers, and production lagged badly. As the sole shareholder in the company, God wanted to give up. Cashing in, and getting some kind of return on the investment seemed like the only reasonable thing to do.
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Does this sound like our relationship to God? Or perhaps, closer to our lives, does this sound like our relationship with one another? Don’t we often make an investment of time, energy or money, in God or in someone else, that doesn’t give us the kind of “return” we had hoped for? We say to God: “If I spend five hours in prayer each week, you will answer my prayers, right?” We say to our children and to our family: “I’m spending all this time with you; don’t you appreciate the sacrifice I’m making for you?” We say to our friends: “I’ve been friends with you for so long—why did you do this to me?” It seems like a natural law of human nature that we want to get just as much as we give. Equal reciprocity…fairness, right?
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Something had to be done. Seeing that employee morale at HBC was going down the tubes and the survival of Human Beings and Creation was at stake, God decided to hold a special emergency meeting with the company’s board of directors. The address was video-conferenced to all the employees of HBC. After a brief discussion with the board, God began the announcement: “I know this may not make sense. As your company’s sole investor, I hold you all dearly in my heart. It pains me to see you all wasting the gift that I’ve given you. It pains me to see how you treat each other. But I believe in you. I love you, HBC! So today, I want to announce that I am not going to stop investing in you, and I am not going to divest any of my shares in the company.” Instantaneously, wild applause erupted from everyone at HBC. “You see,” God continued, “you are all my treasure—moreso than you can imagine. Now, I have promoted my Son as your new CEO. I am very well pleased with him, and I know he will be a great example for you, and will teach you how to make HBC become a great company. With his help, I know that he will bring you all out of the depths that we’ve struggled with, and into a new beginning.”
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But why would God do so? Why would God endorse such a deal that provides no apparent benefit on God’s part? Maybe that is why God’s economics do not look like our economics. In God’s economics, God keeps providing an unending and sustainable in-come-ing stream of love for us that will never be cashed in, that will never take a dive, that will never plummet.
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But some of the workers didn’t always want what Jesus offered. They didn’t want him getting into their lives. They weren’t ready to get to know him, or just didn’t want someone else running the show. They wanted things to keep going the way they were—however imperfect they may be—because that’s what was familiar. Slowly, discontent with the new CEO’s practices and policies built among enough people that lies start to circulate about Jesus. Soon a group of the employees petitioned for his removal. On a day many referred to later as “Black Friday”, Jesus was escorted out of his office, and in effect his career seemed over.
Returning to God, Jesus complained: “What am I supposed to do?” God told him, “What HBC did you was a horrible thing. But you have no idea how many people in the company have written or spoken to me about how much you changed not just their jobs but their lives. The company is in shambles right now—they don’t know what to do without you! Even though some disliked you, you have no idea what hope and joy you brought HBC. I want you to go back. Even though they rejected you, I will never reject them.”
Jesus returned, and was cheered on with thousands of hugs and embraces by the employees who had thought that the savior of this business-turned-community had been kicked out for good. Instead, in his spirit of mercy and forgiveness, he had returned to once again give them new life.
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Today is Ash Wednesday, when we call to mind the reality that we are a broken investment. And today we also call upon God to remember once again God’s promise of mercy. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” (Matt 6:20) Who can we look to for these treasures—to ourselves, to the world? Neither. For there we will only find brokenness and imperfection. We can look to God in Christ Jesus. There, in Jesus, as the prophet Joel says, we can “return to the Lord [our] God, for [God] is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…” (2:16) It is in Jesus where we can store up and find an infinite treasure of mercy.
And so the lifeless ashes that we will have put on our foreheads in a few moments represent two things: the lifelessness of God’s broken investment in us, and the hope that we have in the cross. For it is to the cross where Jesus will take us during these forty days and nights of Lent to our place of deepest brokenness of all—mortality. And even there, when “Black Friday” seems to have bankrupted our enterprise, God’s mercy in Christ Jesus stands ready to bring Human Beings & Creation, back to new life. “Return to the Lord your God, for [God] is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Amen.
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