In the name of Jesus

 This coming weekend, I believe, is the Academy Awards.  With much fanfare and media attention, the movie industry will congratulate itself and hand out Oscars to those they believe have excelled in the craft of acting.  Now I enjoy movies and watch them fairly regularly, but I do think it is a sign of the decline of our culture that actors are considered to be among the most important people in society.  We pay all sorts of attention to people who are really good at faking like they're somebody they're not.  Our most popular form of entertainment is to watch accomplished pretenders, those who can give the illusion of reality, which then evaporates and is gone when the cameras are turned off.

 I bring this up not to bash Hollywood–that's like shooting fish in barrel.  Rather, I mention this because in today's Gospel Jesus warns us not to be like the hypocrites.  And the word for "hypocrite" literally means "actor" or "someone who impersonates another." What Jesus is saying is, "Don't be an actor or an impersonator when it comes to the faith.  You may be able to fool others with a show of piety, but God sees the way things truly are.  And He's the One you should be paying attention to."

 In ancient theater, actors would wear masks over their faces. These masks would hide the actor's true identity from the audience, and the attention would then be drawn to the character he was playing.  To this day many theaters will display two masks, one smiling, the other frowning as emblems of this past practice.  In our day to day life, we also often put on a mask, a pretend face that conceals the truth of who we are or what we're thinking and feeling.  Some are covering the pain of a failing relationship.  Others are masking some self-destructive addiction.  Still others hide the scars left by loved ones or by complete strangers.  All of us try to camouflage our sins and failings and imperfections.

  Jesus reminds us that in His church, there are to be no masks.  There is to be no faking like everything's going just perfectly, no pretending like you have no struggles with sin in your life.  Here, especially as Lent begins, the disguise comes off.  We can be honest in the presence of a merciful God, and before one another as His children.  Somehow people get the impression that going to church is about showing that you've got it all together spiritually.  The last thing you'd want to do is reveal your sins to your pastor.  Why, he might actually think you're a sinner who needs forgiveness (as if that would be shocking news).  Martin Luther once commented, "May God in His mercy save me from a Christian Church where there are only saints.  I want to be with that little company and in that Church where there are faint-hearted and weak people, the sick, and those who are aware of their sin, misery, and wretchedness and who feel it, who cry to God without ceasing and sigh unto Him for comfort and help." (Day by Day We Magnify Thee, p. 226)

 With our masks removed, then, let us consider Jesus' words.  He says,  "When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly."

 Christians do not horde worldly wealth.  For we know that God is the Giver of all good and perfect gifts; and we trust that He will always provide for us, even as He does the birds of the air.  By such faith we are freed to use our monetary resources in love towards others, to take what we have freely received from God's right hand and freely give it for the good of our neighbor in need.

 But even such good deeds can be perverted and twisted back in on the self.  And so Jesus exhorts us to do our charitable giving secretly, to the point that our left hand doesn't even know what our right hand is doing.  In this way the act can be entirely one of love, that is, one that receives no personal benefit such as worldly acclaim and glory, but one that is done solely for the sake of the neighbor and to please God alone.  To give in this way is to find one's satisfaction in the eternal praise of God and not the temporary praise of men.  Jesus Himself is our reward, who will indeed be shown openly to us on the Last Day.  He Himself is our wealth, as it is written, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

 Jesus also alerts us here to the wrong and the right way to pray.  "When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

 We are taught here to guard against making a show of our prayers, always making known to people how often we pray or whom we're praying for, to make ourselves look more spiritual in the eyes of others and to be honored by them.  Maybe you've been in group situations where it seemed as if the one praying was directing his words more toward the assembled people than to God.  True prayer doesn't care what others think, be it good or bad.  It trusts in the Lord and seeks only Him and His help.  The "reward" given to such prayerful faith is precisely that which it trusts in, namely, God Himself–to receive His gifts, to live in His presence, to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 Jesus finally speaks here of the wrong and the right way to fast.  "When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.  For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

 Christians fast and engage in other forms of self-denial not in order to be noticed by others.  For such notice will pass and fade away.  We do so rather in order to be purged of our worldly loves and worldly desires and to direct our hearts to the eternal Creator who said, "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."   Fasting is not done for any particular sort of personal gain, but simply so that we may learn to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ given in His words and sacraments.

 Jesus said, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you . . .  I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. . .  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. . .  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."  Fasting in regards to the world, Jesus invites us to feast on Him who died and rose for us, to believe in Him, to receive His true body and blood, so that we may be forgiven and share in His everlasting life, we in Him and He in us.

 That is what it means to lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.  For moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal this treasure which Christ has won for you.  Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  That is not only true of you, it is also true of Him.  You are God's treasure.  His heart is with you.  You are the focus of His love, love which sacrificed all to win you back through the hidden and secret means of the cross.  Hidden in secret beneath the goriness of the crucifixion is the glory of God and the love of God for you.  The Father sees in secret and honors His Son's work, and He now reveals openly the mystery of the cross through His Word.  Through the foolishness of the preaching of Christ crucified, He saves you who believe.

 So real and true is this that Jesus refers to God the Father here as "your Father."  Think about that!  The only One who can truly call God Father is Jesus, His eternal and only Son.  But Jesus here invites you to take His place and to come before the Father as if you were Jesus Himself.  This is no act; this is not just a mask you wear.  This is your true identity.  For you have been baptized into Christ, who took all your sins away through the shedding of His blood.  Therefore all that belongs to Christ belongs to you.  "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus," St. Paul writes (Galatians 3:27).  You have full access to the Father through Jesus, and all the treasures of heaven are yours in Him.  Clinging to Jesus, you are saved from the fatal love of worldly praise and worldly treasures, and you are reconciled to God.  Just as God turned away His fierce wrath from Nineveh, so also He has turned away His wrath from you for the sake of Christ, who bore that judgment for you in His body at Calvary.  As the Epistle said, "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, in that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

 Let us then be as the Ninevites.  Lay yourselves low in the ashes of repentance.  Turn away from your sin.  Return to the Lord, your God.  For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  Believe in that truth.  And trust that the Father who sees in secret, where there are no masks, will Himself give you openly the reward of Christ on the Last Day.

  In the name of Jesus