Sermon on the Mount series
7.  Integrity – Matthew 6:1-18     March 30, 2008   Dennis Mullen

            I heard a story this week about a couple who bought a new house.  It cost more than they wanted, but it was exactly what they needed and they figured they could handle the payments.  Just a year or two later, everyone in their subdivision got a letter from an oil company saying that they believed there was oil and natural gas under their subdivision, and the oil company didn’t want to buy their property, they just wanted to pay the thousands of dollars for the right to drill under it from a mile away.  Do you think the original owners would have sold out for fair market value had they known that there was a better reward in the future?

            That’s pretty much what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6, where we pick up again with The Sermon on the Mount.  Today we’re going to look at 6:1-18 where one of Jesus’ themes is rewards.  That’s probably the lesser theme, though.  The greater one is integrity of a very specific kind:  Integrity to not just seem to do the right thing, but to actually do it.  Let’s face it.  It’s easier to SEEM to be a good person than it is to actually BE one.  If you’re content to SEEM, you just wait till someone is watching and the value of doing something right is high enough.  But to BE a good person is a 24-hour-a-day job, and the only audience you care about is God. 

            That’s all pretty obvious.    The unexpected part shows up in that secondary theme about rewards.  In Matthew 6, Jesus says that BEING a person of integrity may be tougher than just playing the part, but there is a huge payoff tied to it…if you’re wiling to have faith in God and wait.  Let’s get into Matthew 6…

¹ "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

² "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Reasons to give to the needy:

1.       They need it.  That’s why they’re called the needy.

2.       Tax breaks.  Of course you can’t give straight to the poor unless the poor have set up a proper 501(c)(3).

3.       Compassion.  You see their pain and you feel it too.

4.       Obedience to the words of Christ.   “Help the least of these”.  It’s possible to help without feeling their pain.  That’s not a bad thing.  Simple obedience regardless of feelings…

5.       To show off.  Someone will be impressed if I am public enough about who I help.  Maybe it’s those other parents from the Elementary School who you want to impress.  Maybe, young people, someone you’re interested in would think more highly of you if they saw your generosity.  Maybe it’s the people at church.

You know what?  No matter your motive, the poor are helped.  That’s a good thing.  Money you probably don’t need finds its way to someone who really needs it, even if you do it for selfish reasons.  Even if you give to show off, some good comes out of it, maybe a lot of good.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is you just traded the blessing of being rewarded by God for a reward that is far inferior.  God never forgets.  People rarely remember.  Someone who thought you were a jerk yesterday might be impressed with your generosity today and then go back to thinking you’re a jerk tomorrow, having forgotten your giving.  What Jesus is teaching here, what he teaches throughout the Sermon on the Mount and throughout his ministry is actually enlightened self-interest.  Listen to HIS words: “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  It’s a matter of taking a longer view, waiting for a better reward, practicing being the kind of person who cares only about what God thinks.   The picture Jesus paints is of someone who doesn’t even remember his own giving.  Self-forgetfulness is what the left hand right hand thing is all about.

Not long after I finished college, I ran into one of my professors.  He had a story that he thought would bless me.  He said he had visited with one of my classmates, a student from Poland (we called him Michael W. because no one could pronounce his last name).  My professor said that Michael had praised me profusely because one time I had done his laundry for him.  Now maybe this was a left hand right hand thing because I sure didn’t remember doing anything of the sort.  In fact I’m pretty sure that I would never do someone’s laundry for them!  I concluded that this was a case of mistaken identity, that Michael W. didn’t know my name any better than I knew his.

But that incident reminded me of what it might be like when we stand before God someday, and he says:  “That time you paid someone’s gas bill for them…”  I have a reward for you that you’re really going to like.  “That time you paid the medical bills of that single mom…there’s a reward for you for that…”  The more we become the kind of people Jesus was talking about, the more we might feel like I did talking to my professor:  “Are you sure that was me?  I can’t recall it.”  Not because we’re especially forgetful, but because we do many such things and we don’t make it a point of keeping score. 

It’s the same lesson when it comes to prayer. ⁵ And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The Jewish culture in the first century was soaked in religion, so it’s easy to imagine how praying in public would be a way to grab some good publicity for yourself.  It’s different now.  Most of us aren’t seriously tempted to show off by praying loudly in Wal-Mart, or while pumping gas.  But in a church service or in a small group or in Sunday School it might happen.  I, for example, do a lot of public praying – mostly here, sometimes for civic functions or gatherings of important preachers where I might want to make an impression for myself.  My temptations in public prayer are these:

1.       To make announcements:  “Lord please remind us as we leave to be mindful of the mowing list and to prove our faithfulness to you by signing up to mow, on a team at the appointed hour…”

2.       To preach.  Maybe I forgot to make a point in my sermon, so…:  “Lord, we know that when Moses went to the burning bush, you instructed him to take off his shoes, for this was holy ground.  And we know that we too need to occasionally take of our shoes, Lord, literally or metaphorically, when we approach you.  Lord, I am reminded of an article I read in Newsweek last month…”

3.       To show off.   If I by my prayer or you by yours can impress others with our vocabulary or the sharpness of our spiritual insight, or even how short we can keep it so everyone can start eating, then once again we manage to trade in an eternal reward from God for a pat on the back from someone who is probably just being polite anyway. 

Besides, with prayer the reward isn’t some heavenly treasure or an extra room in my eternal mansion but rather a friendship with God himself.   That makes prayer truly a discipline I practice alone with God much more than in public.  On the rare occasions in high school when I had a girlfriend, there was the pleasure of talking to her on the phone or at her house, just getting to know her.  Then there was the much more selfish pleasure of sitting with her in the upper lobby of our school, still talking to her but hopefully being seen by everyone who needed to know that I had a girlfriend!  Obviously a healthy relationship between two people doesn’t include impressing everyone else.  What more needs to be said about showing off in prayer?

Jesus does have a little more to say about prayer itself: 

  ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  I’d like to take that as an injunction against LONG prayers, but in fact, Jesus is talking about a particular practice not very common to us, where people who worshipped idols or magic or whatever thought they could sway the gods into action by repeating special words, much like someone reading magic words out of a book in a movie, except then they would repeat it again and again.  ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  You don’t have to force God to listen to you nor to persuade him of what you need.  He’s a Father.  He knows.  No, think of prayer more like conversation.  Like this:

            ⁹ "This, then, is how you should pray:

   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,

 ¹⁰ your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.

 ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

 ¹² Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.

 ¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.

            We call that The Lord’s Prayer, and whole books have been written on it.  In fact, it might seem strange that The Lord’s Prayer is only one part of this sermon and doesn’t get a sermon of its own.  It isn’t like I don’t someone hone in on just a few verses.  This is, after all, #7 in a four-part series.  Well there are good reasons to emphasize this passage, but I want us today to see it in the context of authenticity and integrity in which Jesus placed it.  Besides, in some ways I wonder what Jesus makes of all the attention given to this one section of the Sermon, sometimes to the neglect of “turn the other cheek” and “love your enemies”.  

What if I heard Jesus preach that day on the mountain, and I wrote down this short model prayer.  Then I caught up with him a year later and said:  “Lord, Lord!  I wrote a book on the Lord’s prayer!”  He asks me:  “Which one?”  “Which one what?”  “Which prayer?”  “Why, the Lord’s Prayer!  ‘Give us this day, our daily bread,’ and all that!  In fact, Lord, me and some other disciples in our town, we get together every evening and recite it together.”  And I picture Jesus scratching his head, and then looking at me like I’m some overzealous fan, and saying:  “Well, I just meant to show people that prayer should be loving conversation with a Father who cares, not a lot of babbling or reciting formulas.  Just tell him what you need!  Tell him about your worries about food and providing for your family.  Ask forgiveness for where you’ve sinned, and ask for his help in doing better the next day.  He’ll lead you away from temptation if you ask.  Just don’t make prayer so complicated.”

            Now, maybe Jesus would say that, or maybe I’m just jealous because I haven’t written a book on the Lord’s Prayer!  I certainly can’t argue with the elements of prayer that people like to point out here:  Reverence for God (Hallowed be your name); submission to his will (Your Kingdom come); daily needs, forgiveness.  I’m also struck by the complete absence of the things that tend to dominate our prayer lists (health, longer life).  And I do admit that this prayer is a bit more special than I’ve implied so far since, when the disciples said in Luke 11:1 “Lord, teach us to pray,” he came up with this same thing.  

            I guess all I’m saying is:  The Lord’s Prayer isn’t that complicated.  So go into your room or into your prayer closet or out on the new trail here, and pray.  And use this as a model to get you started.  But build the relationship that only prayer can build with God.  If you don’t pray, you are a functional atheist.  You’re living as if God didn’t exist, even if you believe he does.  So PRAY, and be careful not to do it for anyone but God.

            I said a moment ago that we often emphasize the Lord’s Prayer more than the rest of the Sermon.  Well for instance, why don’t we embroider the next two verses on banners? ¹⁴ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

            That’s pretty clear, and it is just.  It’s also very harsh (justice usually is).  Now I don’t believe in salvation by works, so I also don’t believe in damnation by failing to do works.  So what I read here is that when I fail to forgive, it shows that I somehow haven’t GOT IT – “it” being true faith based on true understanding of the forgiveness God had to give me.  Now I know that forgiveness is hard, sometimes incredibly so.  Even forgiving people sometimes struggle with it.  That’s because forgiveness is (as Philip Yancey says) an unnatural act.   It makes very little sense, and there is little evolutionary advantage in it.  But forgiveness is near the heart of salvation.  It’s the bridge we all must cross over, and if you destroy that bridge in your own relationships, what bridge will you cross for yourself?  The most serious part of this lesson today is found in these two verses, and it is a lesson that is repeated several times in Jesus’ teaching – the forgiveness we can expect to receive from God is constantly on display in the way we forgive others.  Or in the way we do not.  If you are an unforgiving person, take warning.  Release it.  Repent.  Find God’s strength to forgive and set yourself free.  And let your church family help you in the struggle.

Jesus reinforces the theme of integrity with one more example: ¹⁶ "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

It’s the same lesson we’ve heard already today, now applied to fasting.  Going on a fast seems to be a little more popular today than when I was a kid.  The 30 Hour Famine to raise money for the poor is one example.  Fasting can be valuable, especially when coupled with prayer.  It can focus you on God; or else it can reveal how much a slave you are to overeating.  Jesus doesn’t get into the value of fasting, but he assumes his disciples will do it sometimes, just as he assumes they will give to the poor and pray. 

Now fasting is hard.  Therefore, it’s tempting to brag a little about fasting, to let people know how tough you are or how serious you are about God.  But why would you deprive yourself of food and endure the physical pain of it for anything less than an eternal reward from God?  If you fast and pray for a week, I admit that I will be most impressed.  Today.  But tomorrow I’ll probably forget it, or at least tell myself that you’re just showing off (out of my own jealousy).  You’ll have your reward in full.  Is that all you want?  Why not keep it between you and God?  Many wise Christians have found fasting to be a tool for strengthening your relationship with God anyway.  It isn’t about anyone else.  So keep it between the two of you and let him reward you with something much better than any of us can give. 

            Today’s invitation is an invitation to BECOME.  Maybe you already SEEM like someone who follows Jesus.  You have your reward in full.  You have invested poorly, but maybe that’s what you want…the fleeting admiration of other people.  But if you are ready to claim the identity you were created for, and to serve the only One who will reward you with the love you need, then come to him today.

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