The Gospel Lesson appointed for today is from the portion of Saint Matthew’s Gospel which is known as The Sermon on the Mount.  The Sermon on the Mount is a coherent collection of dominical sayings which bear upon the Way of Blessedness (what we might call, today, the Christian Life).  The Sermon on the Mount is a dominical discourse on the Way that leads out of the spiritually fatal grasp of sin . . . into the safety of everlasting, divine felicity.  And so, Jesus begins His sermon by declaring to the Church; . . . by declaring to us that the Way of Blessedness is poverty of spirit:  “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus says, “for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”  And then Jesus teaches us that poverty of spirit is not a matter of keeping the Law, . . . but poverty of spirit involves becoming the Law; … it involves becoming the ineffable, holy love of God the Father.  . . . In the portion of Christ’s Sermon we have heard today, Jesus advises us that in order to attain to poverty of spirit we must “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them.”  Now, Piety, as you know, is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which each of us received from God at our Baptism.  And the purpose of Piety is to dispose us to desire to be so conformed to the Heart of God as to imitate, or manifest God’s goodness.  . . . Trouble is, you see, the goodness of God is so remarkable; . . . the goodness of God is so remarkable that people notice.  And if you are an agent of God’s goodness, people notice and say nice things about you.  . . . Now, it is a pleasurable thing to be thought well of.  It is so pleasurable to be thought well of that it is tempting to desire to manifest God’s goodness for the sake of being noticed and well thought of.  About which Jesus, our Lord and Saviour in Whom we have put our entire trust and love; . . . Jesus warns us to “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them.”  And then Christ goes on to tell us how to keep our piety simple.

    But while the appointed Ash Wednesday Gospel text relates to us Christ’s advice about the “how” of spiritual poverty so as not to fall into the snare of social admiration; . . . while the appointed Ash Wednesday Gospel text tells us what Jesus has to say about keeping Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting simple, . . . it omits the advice Jesus has to give us about the thing that makes our pious works sacred.  But I will read it to you now.  . . . Jesus says,

And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  . . . Pray then like this:  Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.

Jesus teaches us to pray that our Piety . . . our imitation of God’s goodness; . . . Jesus teaches us to pray that our Piety be like that of the angels, empowered not by fickle human approbation but by the Grace of God, . . . which we require daily . . . like bread.  And because God must provide, every day, the very thing that makes us worthy of Heaven, . . . we are indebted to Him.  The Greek word which Saint Matthew uses to articulate what Jesus has taught us to pray is opheilemata; . . . Saint Matthew says that Jesus teaches us to pray that God forgive us our opheilemata -- our “debts”; our “obligations”.

    Now, I know that the Lord’s Prayer, as most of you learned it from childhood; . . . I know that the Lord’s Prayer, as we shall read it from the Prayerbook tonight; . . . I know that the Lord’s Prayer says, “forgive us our trespasses.”  And I know that from your earliest days you have been taught that the word “trespass” means “sin”.  And it does.  But when Jesus taught the Church to pray what we call “The Lord’s Prayer,” Saint Matthew says that Jesus makes no mention of amartias . . . He makes no mention of sin.  Saint Matthew tells us that what Jesus talks about asking the Lord God Almighty to forgive are opheilemata:  a term which has less to do with sin and more to do with the minor obligations that are incurred as the consequence of intimacy!

    For example, . . . I was taught in Grammar School that if I write you a letter, . . . you are obligated -- it is your opheilemata -- to write a reply.  If I provide you with a match to light a fire or the burner on a stove or a candle, . . . then you are obligated -- it is your opheilemata -- to return a useable match to me or to compensate me with something of equal value to the match you have expended.  Or if I invite you to a dinner party, . . . you are obligated to invite me to a dinner of equal substance.  A note of thanks will not do.  It is of insufficient gravity to meet the debt -- the obligation; the opheilemata.  Do you see?  Christ is not talking about the forgiveness of willful, malicious “badness” in the prayer that He teaches us.  Jesus is speaking of the obligations which we incur as the consequence of our intimacy with God.  And so, we rightly ask our heavenly Father to provide us each day with His Grace, like bread, to sustain us.  But in doing so we become obligated to God for returning to Him a like service.  But here we have a substantial problem:  . . . whatever you have to give to God, He has already provided you.  It is not possible for you to discharge your debts -- your opheilemata -- to God!  . . . And so, Jesus says to us, “Here’s the deal, your heavenly Father will forgive your obligation owed to Him . . . if you forgive an obligation owed to you.”  In other words, because our merciful Father has sustained me for another day, . . . I will forget that you owe me a letter.  I will not resent it if you become too busy to write me, nor will I withhold further correspondence until you do.  I won’t even remember giving you a match or putting on a dinner, let alone expect to receive something in return.  I will forgive your obligation to me.

    So, having taught us to become the divine love by the simple practices of Piety; . . . having taught us to become the divine love by our Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting, . . . Jesus now teaches us to accomplish our becoming by participating in the divine mercy!  And it is rooted, Jesus says; . . . the divine mercy is rooted in the little things -- in the minor obligations incurred as the consequence of intimacy.  This is where Jesus wants us to live.  He doesn’t want us to forgive sin so much as prevent sin; . . . Jesus wants to teach us to prevent sin by participating in the divine mercy in these little things:  forgiveness of the tiny annoyances of intimacy so that they do not become sin by being nursed and massaged into resentments harbored, spiteful words, or moody grumbling.

    Moreover, Jesus urges us to pray that the Lord God Almighty “lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.”  Jesus urges us to pray that our heavenly Father not allow us to be tempted into the evil of forgetting that our participation in His divine mercy is not done without the assistance of divine Grace.  And that is the point of what Christ has to say about Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting.  They are all properly the ways in which we learn to live by Grace alone!  And so, following Christ’s advice, do, indeed, use this Lenten Season to be trained in the practice of giving gifts for the relief of the needy, . . . but don’t cast fretful glances at the gift so as to measure it out only according to your ability to afford it.  Give a merciful gift sufficient to the need, . . . and depend upon God’s grace and mercy for your own well-being.  Pray as well.  Use this Lenten Season to be trained to pray continually, as Saint Paul exhorts us.  But pray as Christ has taught us:  that by God’s grace you become the divine love by participating in the divine mercy.  And above all Fast during Lent.  Learn poverty of spirit by means of bodily simplicity, . . . but not by force of will.  Rather, keep your Fast by God’s grace, . . . cherishing and treasuring His merciful Will, . . . “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”