S9E29: Piety Practice (Gathered Up in Christ pt. 1)

Sermon #486

We are beginning a new series for the season of Lent called "Gathered Up in Christ."  We just spent the season after Epiphany examining what it means to be the body of Christ, so now we will look at what it means to put aside the differences that separate us and focus on the things that draw us together: our repentence, our faith, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So what is "Piety" anyway?  Other translations use the word "righteousness," but we are also often told that we have no righteousness in us apart from Christ.  Maybe that's the point.  But in this instance, acts of piety that Jesus describe are acts that express the agape love that we have been given from God, and a response to God's grace.  Yet Jesus warns us that there is a right and a wrong way to practice acts of piety.  He uses the word "when," as in "when you give, when you pray, when you fast," so there is a certain expectation that followers of Christ will do these things.  But what we see today is that we need to be aware of our motivations.  Are we doing them to be seen of others?  To be seen of God?  Or are they a natural response to the grace we have already been given?

Matthew 6:1-18

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on March 2, 2022 (Ash Wednesday)