Preparation
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Washington College of Law & Kay Spiritual Life Center
Wednesday, March 5, 2003—Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The first case I ever litigated on my own was in New York State. I had no idea what I was doing. New York, being one of the older states in the Union, has a lot of peculiar and idiosyncratic rules in its jurisprudence. The pre-trial conference was the most different. I had attended a number of such hearings here in the District. Here in D.C. there’s a judge who asks what the case is about, what discovery schedule you’d like to be on, and then sets the schedule accordingly. Not so in New York. There the attorneys meet in a big room around a table, fill out a form together in which they decide their own schedule, after which they drop off the form with the clerk. A couple of days later you receive the form in the mail with the judge’s signature on it. My only preparation was the advice of a friend who gave me the helpful instruction: “It’s no problem, you go there, fill out the form—it’s no big deal.”
Well, it turned out that I got to the court house about 20 minutes before my opposing counsel. I grabbed one of these pre-trial forms and sat down at the big table. I sat and watched the other lawyers in the room doing what they were doing. When the opposing counsel showed up I noticed that he had brought a witness with him. I began to suspect that he wasn’t particularly familiar with the pre-trial process in New York either. In fact it became clear that the only lawyer in the room who knew less about NY pre-trial procedure was my opposing counsel. With a combination of bravado and my 20-minute head start, I was able to guide that particular conference in a way that was ultimately favorable to my client and was helpful in a favorable settlement. I learned an important lesson: preparation is everything.
Preparation is what is at the heart of Lent. During the coming six weeks, we Christians will be preparing ourselves for Easter. As the Children of Israel dwelled 40 years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land, we too spend our 40 days in the wilderness before entering into the promised land of the Resurrection. The time in the wilderness is our time of preparation.
And how have we traditionally understood how we prepare? Tradition tells us three ways: prayer, fasting (or abstinence), and giving alms to the poor. We engage in special prayers and devotions, we abstain from certain food or drink, and we make a concerted effort to provide charity.
Now what’s really interesting here is that in the Scripture lessons we read for today, we seemed to be cautioned against doing exactly the kind of thing we’re about to do for the next 40 days—especially today. Jesus says not to pray publicly but privately—and here we are. Jesus says not to make a show of our fasting and penitence, and we’re about to put ashes on our foreheads for all the world to see. Is the church blind—or are we just choosing to ignore these teachings? Of course, we wouldn’t be the first. We read in Acts that the disciples themselves continued to worship in the Temple after Jesus’ ascension. We know the early Christians fasted. If he was really teaching them not to pray publicly or fast, then that’s a lesson that they disciples forgot pretty quickly. The key lies in the phrase “do not be like the hypocrites.” We tend to think of a hypocrite as one who acts in contravention to their professed ideals. But its usage in the New Testament is a little different and the Greek has a different meaning. It was a dramatic term and should probably be better translated as “play actor”—one who is putting on a show. Jesus isn’t saying don’t pray in public or don’t fast. He is saying don’t pray for the purpose of being seen. Don’t give alms for the purpose of being praised. Don’t fast for the purpose of gaining sympathy. Adopt these disciplines sincerely and thoroughly. To use another legal ‘translation’: do not adopt procedural holiness alone—but substantive holiness, too.
Because there’s more going on here than simply a particular set of traditions and practices. For our Lenten disciplines are preparations. But what is it we are preparing for exactly? Easter is not simply an event 2000 years ago—Easter is a reality. A foretaste of God’s victory in our world. It is a glimpse of the Kingdom of God that God will one day bring to us here on Earth. Now, it’s a fair thing to say that if it makes sense to prepare before going to the State of New York, it certainly makes sense to prepare for embracing the Kingdom of God. And as we would with the State of New York, we look to understand the ‘rules’ of the Kingdom. And what do we see?
The Kingdom is a reign of vindication for the poor and the liberation for the oppressed. And so we prepare by giving alms to the poor and setting our hearts toward God’s mercy. The Kingdom is the fulfillment of our every want and lack. And so we fast, to remind ourselves of our dependency on God. The Kingdom is a state of living in communion with God, and so we pray to incline our hearts toward that communion. And finally, the Kingdom is life from death—the conquering of our mortality through the Resurrection of the Dead, when we are restored to new life in bodies that are incorruptible, and so we places ashes on our foreheads and remind ourselves of our utter mortality by uttering the words “Remember O Mortal, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
At the other end of our Lenten wilderness is the Promised Land of the Resurrection. Let us prepare our hearts for the journey together. Repent and believe in the Good News!
