January 6, 2008 - The Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 6
General Comment: In Chapter 5 Jesus speaks of the
future happiness of those for whom life is characterized by poverty, deep
sorrow, persecution for their religious beliefs and high moral
character, as well as those who work for peace, gentle kindness in
dealings with others, and who strive to live God-directed lives. He speaks
of our call to be in and for the world - as symbols of covenant living - our
relationship to the Law (10 commandments) and to one another in all life
situations. even in that most difficult of situations when considering our
enemies, those we are urged to love - to care for and want the best for their
lives even as we would want for our own.
Matthew Chapter 6:1-16 - Living Before God
In Chapter 6, the middle chapter, we are at the
spiritual center of the Sermon on the Mount. Here we find the three
pillars of Jewish piety in Jesus' time, practices incorporated into early
church life: alms giving, personal prayer and fasting. These carry forward the
admonition of 5:20, that our righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and
Pharisees. These are the representative acts of that greater righteousness
(justice) beyond the Law.They are not commanded practices, rather
they spring naturally from the heart of one who turns one's
life toward God. Indeed, as Jesus implies, a lack of such practices
in our lives may be evidence enough that the seriousness of our dedication
to the cause of Christ needs further reflection. Yet, as practices, we also
know that there is no magic wand that when waved creates within us a fully
mature spiritual discipline. We are, after all, Methodists, and so we
understand with John Wesley that such discipline is nurtured and
encouraged by the grace of God - what Wesley called Sanctifying Grace,
God's Spirit working with us as we move closer to God. Discipline is learned
and honed through repetitive practice. Alms giving, prayer and fasting do not,
of course, constitute the sum total of spiritual discipline (fasting itself may
not be medically possible for some), and they may be understood as a starting
place for further growth. Can we do this perfectly? Of course not. We live
lives filled with distractions. It is only through practice that we will learn
to re-center ourselves on the goal, to grow spiritually, to be closer to
God.
Jesus frames these three practices within the maxim that
they are not for public display. The motivation in all of them is important. It
is not to draw attention to ourselves, but to strengthen our relationship with
God. They are private in the sense that they are for God. We are not trying to
prove anything to ourselves or anybody else. To use Thomas Moore's
observation in his book, Care of the Soul, such
practices nourish the soul, they add to our sense of wholeness as a
person. While private prayer and fasting lend themselves to privacy, alms
giving (charity on behalf of others) does create a minor conundrum. In this
age of form 1040A tax deductions, pledging, contribution statements and
other records of our giving transactions, we are hard pressed to
"...not let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing." We do not want to be too literal in our interpretation, but
neither do we want to "sound the trumpet" thereby saying,
"Look at me, how charitable I am." Remember, we do not fast, we
do not pray, we do not give to massage our egos. To do so is to shut God
out as we shut ourselves in.
Alms Giving: 6:1-4
We are bombarded from all sides to give. There are a host of
charities soliciting funds. But the word "alms" has a specific
meaning. It is providing for the poor, for those who for whatever reason are in
need of help just to make it from one day to another or to do things that they
cannot do for themselves. Such giving honors that second great commandment,
"...love your neighbor as yourself." with the clear understanding
from the parable of the "Good Samaritan" that our neighbor is anyone
in need of our help, not limited to family members or persons we know. The
church offers many opportunities for such giving, particularly in local and
foreign mission work, social agencies offering services, United Methodist
related work such as UMCOR. The list is almost endless. And it is not only with
money that Alms can be offered. Many church members give their time and skills
for the benefit of others. Think of the many hours of labor given by our youth
and adults for disaster relief work and building Habitat homes, ministering in
foreign lands. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. They are spread
around the world, the same world in which we as Christians have been called to
labor.
Prayer: 6:5-15
Prayer can be a difficult concept. Most of us have not
learned what prayer is. At its fundamental level prayer is allowing ourselves
to be open to the presence of God. Prayer can be silent meditation, losing
our self awareness to such a degree that we become aware of only that which is
beyond us. Surely silence is an important component of any prayer, for it is in
our attentive silence that God's still small voice approaches. We are not
likely to hear God's voice, but our soul will and through such a mystery
we will be enriched in more ways than we can understand. Spoken prayer has many
components: thanksgiving, petition for ourselves and intercession on
behalf of others. In such prayers we are bringing the other into our
consciousness, relating to that person's life situation, being drawn closer to
him or her. Some would say prayers are not answered but generally that is
understood in terms of what we think the answer should be. One of the truths I
learned in Seminary from the late Bishop John Owen Smith, when he was
talking about preaching, is that our (his students) calling was
to deliver the Gospel in the best way we knew how and to leave the rest
up to God. I think prayer is like that. We are all called to pray - for
ourselves and for others, indeed for institutions and governments, the
world itself - and to leave the rest to God.
Jesus has provided what is called the "Lord's
Prayer." It really is the Disciples' prayer, meant as a corporate prayer,
thus the opening words, "Our Father. Even when we pray this prayer (and we
should) by ourselves, it becomes a collective petition, for in praying we
gather into our spiritual sphere of understanding all of Christendom. We are
praying on behalf of the totality of the faithful, not just ourselves.
The prayer, in much the same way as the Beatitudes, looks to
the future fulfillment of the reign of God while holding within our
thoughts the concerns for the present. The first part tells us that God's reign
will begin when God's will is being done on Earth as it is in Heaven. It is
exciting to realize we play a significant role in bringing about the reign of
God, for it is to the degree to which you and I strive to live within
god's will, as defined in Jesus' teachings, that God's reign becomes a reality,
beginning in each of us. What a gift! Can others say of us that their best
glimpse of God was seen in us? If so, then God surely reigns in our lives.
We ask God for our daily bread - our bread for tomorrow, the
petition of the poor, but also the petition for greater understanding of God
since bread in religious language also means revelation, asking God to bring us
greater understanding of what it means to be a child of God.
We ask God to forgive our debts (our sins against god) to
the degree that we forgive the debts of others to us (the sins others have
committed against us). We should be careful with this prayer. One could
rephrase it correctly to be asking God to forgive us only to the degree that we
forgive others (see verses 14-15).
Fasting 6:16-18
Fasting seems rather old fashioned to us, a remnant of the
refrain during Lent that we give up something as a symbol of sacrifice.
Unfortunately, since Lent is a season of preparation moving toward Jesus'
crucifixion and death, our meager effort to give up coffee or chocolate for a
few weeks seems to fall short of the intent. In Jesus' and the early church's
time fasting was a twice a week occasion. Its intent was as a symbol of
contrition, a time for introspection and asking forgiveness for sins of
omission and commission, known and unknown. Fasting is meant to clear the mind,
to allow a focus on prayer, acts of service and worship. It can be a meaningful
expression of faith and realization of our own need for forgiveness and an aid
to the church community in times of great decisions. During certain seasons
such as Lent and Advent fasting can help us to focus on the meaning of these
great events in the life of the Church. However we understand fasting, it
is one more tool of discipline at our disposal as we seek to move ourselves,
offer up ourselves more and more to God.
The last part of Chapter 6 contains three short and
one longer exhortations: all four are meant to help us sort
out the relative value of material possessions and the danger in focusing our
energies on their acquisition and grasping after to the exclusion of other
treasures of a more meaningful kind, in this case "Treasures in Heaven."
In its setting here the teaching is not a call to either disavow one's
possessions, or think such material things are evil. But, it is a call to
be clear in our understanding that they are not simply ours for our own
personal use and enjoyment. The saying of verse 24, that we cannot serve two
masters, relates to our inability to honor God while at the same time expending
our best energies amassing material goods. There is a need to see
"with a sound eye" what we have as not just the product of our
labor, but as God's cooperative gift to us, the merging of our best
efforts with God's sustaining presence in our lives. When we make our valued
assets available in such ways as honor God and serve our neighbor, then we
have realized the truth in the admonition, return to God what is God's.
Perhaps that is what Jesus has in mind when he asked us to strive first for
God's reign in our lives and all the rest will fall into place. John Wesley, in
his sermon on this text said, "Earn all you can, save all
you can and give all you can." Not a bad rubric for our understanding on
the role of wealth in our lives.
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