Ash Wednesday Meditation

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

Have you ever noticed that, during election seasons, politicians never fail to remind us what committed Christians they are? In the 2000 presidential debates, candidates were asked about their favorite philosophers. After hearing the responses of his competitors, then-Governor George W. Bush answered, "Jesus Christ." Never mind that Jesus wouldn't have considered himself a philosopher (and no subsequent philosopher would either), Gov. Bush had seen a chance to show his piety in front of a national audience, and he took it. Then, in the 2004 election season, Howard Dean gushed about his "favorite" book of the Bible - Job - which he incorrectly located in the New Testament. Gov. Dean's own piety looked fairly flimsy at that gaffe.

When I heard those comments at the time they were made, I neither admired Bush nor felt sorry for Dean. I simply doubted both of them. The Bushes, Deans, and other luminaries of the political world would be more believable in their piety if the rest of their lives (especially their political lives) bore the fruits of an active faith. Call me cynical, but I think that great power and great faith are just hard to achieve together; we can pursue one or the other, but pursuing both is almost impossible.

"Power corrupts," the British nobleman Lord Acton wrote in an 1887 letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, "and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But don't take his word for it. The Bible has plenty to say about what worldly power does to the viability of faith.

The powers and principalities of the world are, in point of fact, regular bad guys in Scripture. Jesus tells his disciples that the faithful will be forced to "stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them" (Mark 13:9). The Apostle Paul fulfilled that prophecy just a few years later, in his recurring run-ins with earthly authorities. His own life is a testament to the conflict inherent in confessing the lordship of Jesus Christ over that of kings and governors, and not even his powerful preaching was able to make King Herod Agrippa or the Roman governor, Festus, convert to the Christian faith (see Acts 26). Nevertheless, in his letter to the Colossians, Paul tells the church that, through the cross, Jesus "disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15).

So why would both our Savior and our greatest missionary be so negative toward the rulers of this world? Why would they preach against earthly power instead of backing the candidate who most closely matches their own religious views?

Well, rulers are those who have power. They have say over how tax money gets spent, who gets preferential treatment from the government, and even who lives and dies. Power like that will go to your head. Rulers are apt to make decisions based on where their power comes from and whom they think they have to please. When they think they can get away with it, earthly rulers will even crucify the Son of God (see Pilate, Pontius).

But let's not throw stones. Our messy present is no more or less messy than the messiness of other times and places. Power will always be wielded in lots of ways. Governments will rule over their citizens - that's certainly one way. But power is also wielded in families, in relationships, and in the workplace. It simply won't do for Christians to go pointing out the specks in others' eyes while we have a forest of timber in our own. And so the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount can help to serve as a corrective to all our power relationships - whether we happen to be Barack the President or Joe the Plumber.

How should we practice our piety? On the street corners, or babbling with many words? With grandiose demonstrations and pronouncements? As a way to garner power or prestige in the public eye?

Jesus teaches us to practice our religion for the purpose of faith rather than status. He would have us seek humility rather than power - storing up treasures in heaven rather than on earth. And his sacrifice on our behalf shows us why: true status and true power come only from giving of oneself completely for others (Philippians 2). This is what it means to not be conformed by the ways of this world but rather to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12).

Moreover, our teacher is also our pattern. The one who shows us the way is the Way himself. And because of that, power and piety themselves are definitively recast. The world and its problems - in politics, in war, and in the economy - can tempt us to get depressed. But the real reason for depression comes when we start thinking that our ultimate hope is grounded in what party controls the White House or Congress. I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or something else - if you're betting that your party has the right plan for The Future, then you are betting on the wrong horse. If our hope is in those who wield great earthly power, or if our hope is in our own attempts to attain such power, then we are doomed.

"Happy are those ... whose hope is in the LORD their God" (Psalm 146:5). The Apostle Paul writes, "...[W]e have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people" (1 Timothy 4:10).

When our hope is in God, we have no need to act publicly pious, no need to impress others with superficial signs of our faith. We have only to be willing to follow Jesus and learn from him, all the way to his destination, which remains the cross at Calvary.

And that calls us to realize why we would come together as Christians on this one Wednesday of the year at all. Today we begin the season of Lent, when we will prepare for the joy of Easter by walking 40 difficult days with Jesus. He came into the world for us and for our salvation, but the path he took to bring us that gift required everything of him. It required a cross. And Lent calls us to look at the cross first as a symbol of mortality and death. The instrument of our salvation is also an instrument of execution. That should humble us.

Jesus' own example calls us to make our own sacrifices to God - sacrifices of love and discipleship. We do that during Lent, beginning today as we mark our repentance and commitment to him by receiving the ashes on our foreheads. We are all created out of dust, and to the dust we shall return. The only reason why hearing that message today is good news is because we have a Savior who conquered death by dying himself and rising again.

Let us remember that the way of the Christian is not health, wealth, and worldly success. It is being made to be like Christ, who laid down his life to save us. And his command to us is to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34). When we think about how far that love goes, it should humble us indeed. It is the greatest power the world has ever known.