19th October 2008- The sermon on the Mount. Matt 6: 1-8 & 16-21

The other day we played the game of ‘Do this, do that,’ with the children who are being prepared to receive Holy Communion.  It was great fun and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We got to the end and the little girl who had won asked what her prize was to be?  We smiled and said there is no prize.  She seemed a little surprised but took it in good part.  Perhaps children nowadays only play games like that at parties where they always get a little reward for winning.

The reward motive: it's very powerful in all of us and in today's gospel Jesus addresses our hunger for reward.  As we move into chapter 6 of Matthew's gospel and continue with Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount,  Jesus carries o with his teaching about the character of a true disciple, a true apprentice and the reward that is awaiting his followers.

Jesus introduces four of the Christian disciplines in the first 19 verses of Matthew 6.  These are giving in verses 2 to 4, prayer in verses 5 to 15 and fasting in verses 16 to 19.    Please note Jesus seems to presume that those listening to him will give, will pray, will fast.  It is the way in which they do these things that Jesus is most interested in.  Here is reward motive.  Who are they trying to please when they gave, pray and fast?  Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse 20, ‘Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven .’

The reward for the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law and the reward for many of us, if only we are honest enough to admit it, is respect or reputation.  The Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus pointed out, do everything they do with the aim of being noticed by others.  They would enlarge the religious symbols in their clothing or have the most prominent seats at parties or in the synagogue.  They like to be called teacher, master, Sir.

But were they so different from us?  We live in a culture that loves titles and awards those in public life.  Those of us with degrees love to wear our ‘brains on our backs’ (i.e. wear our degree hoods) when circumstances allow.  But Jesus said, ‘Don't seek to be called Doctor, Professor, Father or even leader.  We have only one Father in heaven, and one teacher, God.

St Paul invented a word for this desire we have for public acclamation.  The word in Greek is ophthalmodoulia and its literal translation is ‘eye service’.  He uses this word in his letters to both the Colossians and Ephesians.  Eye service is the pleasure we get, the reward we receive, when all eyes are on us.

There is one other discipline, a spiritual discipline, which we have not yet mentioned.  It is in verses 1 to 8 and 16 to 19 of Matthew 6.  One word is mentioned twice, in verses 4 and 18, the word ‘secret.’   I wonder if you have ever heard of secrecy being a Christian discipline?  Well, it is.

Jesus says, whenever you give alms, whenever you pray, whenever you fast (and he presumes, we will do all three) do them for an audience of one, your Father in heaven.  And he says, quite categorically in chapter 6 verse 1, that if we do good actions to be thought of well by other people, we will have no reward, please note.  no reward, from our Father in heaven.

The important thing to note here, as I mentioned last week, is that this is about our inner attitude, our hearts and minds.  Jesus does not tell us to hide our good deeds, although that might be appropriate sometimes.  There is nothing inherently wrong with them being known about.  It is whether our actions are born of a desire for eye service, a desire not to please God, but to get affirmation from others.  We can't keep all our acts totally secret anyway.  If you write a cheque for Christian Aid and put it to the church accounts, you know that at least two people will have to know that you have done it, the people who count the money.  That's fine.  But if you give a hefty amount of money to the church and do it rather publicly, perhaps you need to ask yourself, did so many people need to know?  Was I perhaps seeking eye service?  Your hearts will know.

It's important that we take on board that when Jesus tells us to do these good things in secret, he is not telling us to hide them, because otherwise we can't make sense of his earlier statement in the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5 verse 16, when he says,’Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.  That might sound like a contradiction, but it really isn't.  The point 5: 16 makes is that when God is truly at work in us, his light that is in us will be expressed naturally in our whole lives and will make peoples’ eyes travel past us to praise God in Heaven who has done this amazing work in us.  As someone once said, a true saint is like a stained-glass window through which the light of God passing.  We know that we see the beauty of the coloured glass because of the light pouring through it.  No light, no colour, no beauty.

The other point, we can draw from chapter 6 verse 1 is that our desire is determined by what we want and expect from our actions.  When we do good deeds to be seen by human beings that is because what we are looking for is something that comes from human beings.  God responds to desires accordingly.  When we want human approval and esteem, and do what we do for the sake of it, God politely stands aside because, by our wish, it is not concern him.

So Jesus gives us three illustrations.  First he speaks of almsgiving, or giving to charity.  When you do these things, he says, don't be likely hypocrites (chapter 6 verse 2).  In fact, Jesus says, they have received their reward in full.  What they wanted, they got.  They wanted people to recognize their good deeds and people did.  'Tthe ego is bloated and the soul shrivels.  '

In contrast to the behaviour of the hypocrite, Jesus’ teaching is that when we give, the left hand should not know what right hand is doing.  He doesn't mean it literally of course!  The best way of understanding this wonderful illustration is to think about driving a car or playing a piano.  When you start to drive or play you have to be very conscious of both hands, and it's very difficult; but once you've learnt to drive or play a particular piano piece, your right hand and your left hand work together without your having to think about it.  It has become natural, second nature.  In the same way giving to others should become so natural that we don't even think about it, in fact, when questioned, we might barely think we give anything at all.

Similarly, with prayer, the hypocrites pray in order to be seen by others.  The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word for actor.  Jesus was in fact, the source of the meaning that we have for the word hypocrite today.  But Jesus' first audience would have heard him talking about actors.  Actors in the theatre of the day wore masks so jesus is saying,  'don't be like actors wearing a mask and hiding their real faces.'  Again, these people who pray so publicly are doing so to be seen by other people and they get their reward.  But because their prayer has not involved God, he does not intrude.  ' their egos swells and their soul shrivels.'

Jesus says that if we are to be Children of the Kingdom.  We are to go into a private room, close the door, and pray to our Father quietly there; and please note something very profound in verse 6.  Jesus says, not only that God sees in secret, but that God is in secret.  The secret place, the very personal, the very intimate, the mysterious place is where God is.  This reminded me of the verse in Revelation, where we are told that each one of us has a name written on a white stone, our true identity if you like, known only to God (Rev 2:17).  Verse 6 goes on, ' the father who sees in secret will reward you.  '

There is so much we could say about prayer here and of course this chapter then goes on to give us the Lord's Prayer.  But we will leave that for another day.

The last discipline described here, fasting, emphasises as with giving and prayer that we should do what we do for the sake of our relationship with God.  Not so that we can boast about it and get applause.

In writing the sermon I have realised that it would be very good for us one day to do a sermon series on the spiritual disciplines.  But for today, I would like us to take this point away.  Jesus cared very little for outward appearances.  He looked into the mind and into the heart.  Who are you trying to impress by your outward spiritual life?  Who are you trying to impress by the choices you make in your life?  Are you serving God, or your own ego?  Who are you really trying to please?  Remember the God who sees in secret, who is in secret, sees who we really are.