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At the end of my time in Clinical Pastoral Education, or CPE, in Alaska, we had a little graduation ceremony. It seemed silly to do this, especially as many, like myself, were only just starting our theological training, but we all did it anyways.
The mentor for the program, a Reverend Doctor who it will give me no pleasure to name, was the leader of ceremonies. It was a long ordeal, yet I don’t remember the word “God” being mentioned once. Yes, it was an interfaith group, but an interfaith group made up primarily of Christians and one Jewish rabbinic student. We all would have been okay to hear the word “God”, or at least “Lord”. Yet the closest the ceremony came to that was a slip of the word “Divine”, and even that was uttered as if only by mistake.
The ceremony had little to do with the faith that had brought us to a summer of ministering to the sick in the hospital and trying best to meet their needs. Having done CPE again, I don’t recall seeing another graduation ceremony like this. No, this ceremony was done merely to stroke the head of the program’s ego.
Ceremony with only ourselves, with nothing of God behind it, just comes out as a waste of time, nothing but purposeless noise really.
That’s what our Gospel from Matthew is really about. We gain nothing when we make ritual about ourselves. We gain everything when it is about God.
For that reason, we aren’t called to make a spectacle. We’re merely called to do the work: to pray. It’s not about us. It’s about our connection to God.
It’s so easy to make Lent about the outer signs. It’s so easy to let it devolve into what we are giving up or even into what we are doing. It’s easy to leave this service with a sign marked on our heads to show people how pious we are. That’s not what this day, or this season, is about.
Lent is about preparing ourselves so that we can fully celebrate the death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, His principle act in this world and the very foundation of our Faith. It’s about renewing and restoring our relationship with God. It’s about connecting to our Lord in a deep and powerful way.
Is that relationship what your worship is about? Do you have a more self-indulgent reason instead? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves in Lent. Why am I doing what I’m doing? Is it the right thing to do? Is it helping me move much closer to God?