3 times in the reading from Matthew tonight, Jesus talks about the Father who sees in secret
And I got to thinking – the Father who sees in secret – is that good news, or bad news
I mean, we all have secrets
We all have things we don’t like to talk about
We all have things we’re not proud of
We all have said things, thought things, felt things, desired things, done things, not done things, that we want to keep secret
We don’t want someone, anyone, to know everything about us
We like the acts we put on, the masks we wear, the illusions we create, the delusions we maintain
We deny all kinds of things about ourselves, to others, and to ourselves
We like the walls we build around ourselves, around our feelings, around our attitudes, around are lives
We like the divisions we maintain
We like the distance we can keep
Is it really good news, then, that God sees in secret?
That God sees past all our barriers, and all our walls, and all our illusions, and all our lies, and all our deceptions
Is it really good news that God already knows all the things we try to keep hidden, all the things we don’t want others to know
Is it really good news that God sees us as we really are?
Is it really good news that God knows us fully and completely
Is it really good news that God already knows all our sins, and all our failures, and all our mistakes
Is it really good news that God already knows all our hurts, and all our sorrows, and all our regrets, and all our hatreds, and all our lies
Is it really good news that the Father sees in secret – sees our secrets
The answers is – yes, it is good news
It is the best possible news
God knows us fully and completely
God sees us as we truly are, warts and all, sins and all, and loves us
This is the beginning of repentance, and this is the beginning of hope, and this is the beginning of redemption
God knows, and God loves, and God forgives, and God forgets, and God grants new beginnings, and God holds on to us tightly and never, ever lets us go
God knows, and in that knowing, there is love
Divine love, healing love, forgiving love, saving love
Because God sees in secret, because God sees our secrets, and because God still unconditionally loves us, we are free
We are free to let go of all that we hold within us
We are free to let go of secrets
We are free to empty ourselves of all that is within us that binds us, hurts us, oppresses us, torments us, limits us
We are free to let God break down our walls, take away our fears and hatreds, shine healing light into our darkest places
We are free to embrace God’s new beginning, live in God’s new hope, rejoice in God’s new life
Lent is a time to embrace that freedom
Lent is a time to think about who we are, what we are
Lent is a time to see our secrets, look at our fears, our walls, our lies, our hurts, our hates
Lent is a time to say – enough of all of this
I am a baptized child of God
Yes, I am dust, and yes I will return to dust, but God loves me in my dustiness
God has freed from dust, marked me with the cross of love, redeemed me from my sin and from my secrets
Lent is a time to reconnect our lives with God’s love
Lent is a time to repent, turn back to God, re think who we are and how we live
Lent is a time to open ourselves up to God, acknowledge the secrets and the sins and the shame, and then say to God, here I am
Here is all I am, good and bad, strong and weak, saint and sinner – I give it all to you
Make me new
Make me whole again
Free me, redeem me, redirect me, empower me
Lent is the time to ask God to help us empty ourselves of all that keeps us from God
And Lent is a time to ask God to fill us with his love
Shane Claiborne shares a story about a priest who asked his congregation what the difference was between a stick and a flute
He said, the stick is filled with itself and cannot be filled with anything else
The flute has emptied itself so that it can be filled with music
The Lent, ask God to help you to empty yourself of all that is secret, so that you can be filled with the music of God’s love.
Amen.