Here is a synopsis of yesterday’s sermon on Matthew 6:1-18, which was completed at the last minute and at great expense. For the full (audio-ized) monty, check the Pearl Church’s site.
“AMERICAN JESUS.”
Last summer a few of us got together and watched some Jesus movies: we did this as a way to help us think about how Jesus and the church shows up in popular culture. In the American films that we watched, the message Jesus preached was about inward transformation: that was to be the essence of Christianity. How are we to be “set apart?” How are we to be seen as distinctive?
On Easter, Mike preached that we, as a people, as a church, are not only to be characterized by the Cross, but also by the Resurrection. Preaching from 1 Corinthians 15, Mike proclaimed that in light of Jesus’ resurrection, we are to be a People of Resurrection, a people characterized - not by sin - but by life.
That’s all well and good, but…what do we do now? How do we live as those who are “alive in Christ?”
What does it mean to be a “people of the resurrection?” We have been pursuing the answer to this question by working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. Starting us off, Tim challenged us to be Salt and Light. Tim challenged us to pursue the radically different life pictured in the beatitudes. Over the last few weeks we have organized our reading of Jesus sermon by focusing on the “you have heard it said…but I say to you” passages in Chapter 5. Jesus breaks open the Law and the prophets, insisting that they not function merely as a set of Rules for us to adhere to, but that they direct us in emulating the character of our Father. For example: Just as God has been utterly faithful to his people – even in the face of their whoring – we are to be radically faithful in our relationships. By our emulating the Father, and as we are shaped by His character, we will increasingly stand out in a world characterized by infidelity in relationships and in word. We will be Salt and Light.
Clarification: we don’t do these things because we will be seen by people, but we must recognize that our most profound expression of who we are in the world must be exemplified in how we treat each other. We are to be salt and light: to let our light shine. When people see that we are faithful to each other, faithful in our commitments, when people see that we are careful with our tongue, and that we do not bring harm on each other – physically or verbally – when we do these things we will exhibit the character of God for the world to see.
But when it comes to spirituality – specifically spiritual actions, prayer and fasting and so on – isn’t interesting that these things are to be done in secret. Jesus makes it clear: in secret, out of the view of others. That which sets us apart from the world, to the world, is not to be our piety, but our actions: our society.
Look with me at chapter at Matthew chapter 6.
• “Beware of Practicing you Piety before other in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your father in Heaven.”
Jesus directs our attention in these passages toward those actions that, we might say, are specifically religious. He chooses three examples: almsgiving (we usually use the word tithes, which isn’t exactly the same thing, but will do for now), prayer, and fasting. This, of course, isn’t an exhaustive list, nor is it a schematic of piety: they are examples.
For each of these examples, Jesus’ instruction is the same: we are to do them in secret. Look in v3 … and again in v6 … and finally, in v17. In each case, our pious acts are to be shielded from view. So, the question is:
• Why in Secret?
• And, why and how are our acts of piety different from our day-by-day action?
Lets think a bit about what sets these actions – our acts of piety – apart from our day-by-day actions. How is fasting, say, different from Jesus’ insistence that we be faithful in our relationships?
Well, first of all, unlike that faithfulness in word and relationship, and unlike the mandate to not seek revenge, or even to resist the person who is bent on doing us wrong or coercing us, our pious activity is not directed toward others. The passages in chapter 5 govern how we act toward others – toward people. Our acts of piety, on the other hand are actions that we direct toward God. We do them to cultivate a relationship – we are the people, after all, who call God “Father” – or we do our pious acts out of gratitude, or in supplication: These activities are done by us, and for God. There is to be no spin here, no posturing, these are not symbolic actions. They are, in reality, sacrifices of self: When we do them we are directing attention away from ourselves and toward God.
So why in secret? If, then, our doing them serves to feed our personality or direct attention to ourselves, we are undermining the very essence of the act. It is like, well, claiming to be humble. As soon as you do, you have proven that your not. When our pious acts are done for the benefit of others, they are no longer pious acts: they are political acts, or self promotion, or whatever.
Doesn’t this run opposite from our expectations? It seems that that Christians are increasingly encouraged and even expected to make our religiosity private – to make it only an affair of the heart. To some extent, we have allowed ourselves to be convinced of this. In the last few hundred years Christian faith has often been understood to be primarily about rejuvenating hearts: Like those Jesus movies we watched last summer that painted Jesus as a mystic or a spiritual guide, we have – too often - come to understand our distinctiveness in the would as being exemplified by our spirituality. But Jesus is here arguing that it is precisely our spiritual acts that are to be shielded from the world’s view.
Jesus is not saying that we should not pray and fast and give alms, nor is he saying that we cannot do these things corporately. Nor again is he saying that should someone catch us praying, our prayer becomes ineffectual. No. Rather, when the world looks to us, they should not see is first as a people of prayer or a people who fast or “do devotions,” but as a people who reflect the character of God.
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