Good morning and welcome to Friday’s podcast. It’s the final day of the week so I hope that this is a good one to round off this section. Next week James Brown takes over and will journey with you through the next few chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.

REFLECTION:

Today we find ourselves deeper still in the Sermon on the Mount.  The reading for today is Matthew 6:1-18. Let’s focus on verse 1.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

This sums up what Jesus is going to discuss in today’s passage: don’t do stuff to make yourself look good in the eyes of other people. The areas that Jesus uses to highlight this principle are giving, praying and fasting.

Now, growing up, I loved to be on stage, I loved to perform. “Hey everyone, look at me!” I acted, I played bass guitar (really badly) and I even got the lead part in a musical in primary school – and you think my singing is bad now… it was terrible back then! I was the youngest of 3 brothers so any attention was good attention right!? I had to make a big effort to be noticed – so I did.

And reflecting on school, I know that the main factor in why I worked hard and got good grades was that I was keen to be seen to be doing well by my teachers. I wanted people to think well of me. I wanted people to see and say just how great I am!!!

But there is a great danger here… we don’t need to be on the stage to orientate our lives to make others think well of us. We all play to the crowd in some form or other, whether we have a paying audience or not. And we do this in all spheres of our lives… at work – playing up to the boss and spinning the figures; at home – with housemates or the wife and kids; and at church or cell group – making out that we are super spiritual, or super generous or that we know so much, or that we have got it all together. We can major on trying to make others like us or respect us by being seen to do the right thing, by having it all together.

NO! NO! NO! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!

Jesus says if we play the game for affirmation then affirmation is what we get – it’s ALL we get!

Instead, what we do when there is no-one around, who we are when there is no audience… when all is stripped away… That is what counts.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were naked and they felt no shame. They wore no clothes and they had no need of a mask. There were no aspects of their bodies that they were ashamed of… there were no aspects of their characters that they felt the need to cover up. And so they didn’t need to make themselves out to be someone that they were not.

Since the incident with the apple, the fall, where they did the one thing they were asked not to do, personal shame and fear of others’ reactions leads us to wear a mask – to make out that we are ok… better than ok.

Jesus is aware of how we operate and he wants to breakdown the walls that we surround ourselves with. He wants dispense with pretence and self promotion.

If we hide he has nothing to work with. He is all for truth… the reality of the situation. If we can be real with what is truly going on then he can help.

So… step one… the stuff that we might do so others will think we are awesome… only do those things in secret… lose the audience and we will discover so much about ourselves and God can work on our hearts.

Jesus gives the example… when you give, when you are generous… shhh… do it in secret – Step 1.

Jesus also indicates step two… Advanced generosity! Don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. This is the big leagues!! This smacks of the moment when we don’t even need to think about it giving. When our automatic response is generosity. When the discipline of giving has become a habit which has fashioned our hearts in such a way that generosity is who we h...