On the Way to Wonder

^{“ 34…} ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:24-34)”

This last part of chapter 6 in Matthew, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount talks about worry, specifically about what we wear and how we look.  It ends with the above summary statement.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  Luke the Evangelist put it this way, “Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.” 

         This verse challenges me.  My doubts and my control issues confront me.  My husband is in a nursing home with a terminal diagnosis and the potential situation I face everyday as I go to visit is often foreboding.  It is easy to ponder what the terminal event will be and when.  There is of course the question of paying bills.  That does not include thoughts of keeping the family informed with their varying relationships with him, with us, with each other and with the grandkids.  Yes, I worry.

         This verse confronts my control issues.  Tomorrow has not happened and I cannot control how this will all unfold.  Likewise I cannot control how God will choose to show himself present.  I forget to factor in the kind aides that happen to find my husband and care for him when he can’t care for himself.  I forget the kind administrators who navigate finances with me.  And I underestimate my family support.  Oh yes, and I have friends loving me.  God is active and present in so many ways that I often forget.

         This verse confirms that yesterday’s mistakes are issues of forgiveness and that rests in God’s hands also.  I must trust that others and God forgive me even as I forgive them when they are weak and perhaps wrong.  Friendship is like that and I forget.  Yesterday is in God’s hands too.

         So as I sit with this verse today, I am reminded that yesterday’s issues have happened and can best be resolved by God’s guidelines and not by my guilt or wishes.  Today is a gift that will unfold as God works with all the moving parts.  Tomorrow is like a shadow of fears that may never materialize and blessings that I cannot anticipate or touch now.

         I do not know what worries you but I do know there is a God who is faithful to walk through our past, present and future with us.  Blessings.

^“24 ‘No one can serve two masters;

for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,

 or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Matthew 6:24

This verse calls me to true confessions.  I am the oldest child and do not have experiences with older siblings ordering me around.  I am not a master gardener.  I pity the plants in my garden.  I would not claim to be the master of any talent.  I cannot see the notes on the paper to master the recorder I have loved since second grade!  Ah, I do have a “masters degree” from University but my kids remind me I went to the senior prom in the last century and times have changed!  Jesus skips all these modern day meanings of master and goes to the core question of what sets the direction of our hearts, God or wealth. 

         Wealth, like masters, takes many forms.  So these verses in some translations of the Bible are connected with the previous paragraph that asks us to ponder where our treasures are kept.  So perhaps the question is what we treasure in our hearts and seek to please by perfecting.  The question, “Whom do I seek to please?” is something I can get my mind around.  As I go through the day, what voices am I answering to in my mind?  Perhaps I am not a “slave” as in olden days but I do answer to those things important to me.  So am I seeking to please God or am I seeking to improve self?

         As we go through today may we be more aware of whom we are seeking to please.  Are the voices in my heart leading me to do well and leading me to God or are they condemning and encouraging my eyes to face the values of culture.  Even as we tune our radio or TV station, may we tune to those voices that come from God today.  Blessings.

^“22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 

²³ but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

(Matthew 6:22-23)

Many would consider Fanny J. Crosby one of the most prolific hymnists ever.  She wrote over 8,000 hymns.  She became blind at 6 months old!  Surely Jesus does not mean to be talking about our physical ability to see, our physical eyes.  One of the keys to this passage must lie in pondering the nature of “lamps.”  Physical eyes are the lamps to our bodies and our spiritual eyes are the lamps to our soul.  We lived in a famine relief camp in Kenya for five years and one night as we ate dinner by lamplight, I set my young son on the floor to play and did not see the scorpion.  Lesson learned!

         The problem is that we almost always think we are right if the other would just listen to our point of view.  Proverbs 16:2 tells us, “All one’s ways may be pure in one’s own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.”  Unfortunately wars erupt because people see their actions as justified.   Each side sees themselves as right.  Abuse happens because people are right in their own eyes.  We are not good people to evaluate our own actions and our friends that we discuss the issue with, may be bias also because they love us.  “Love is blind.”  The court system is based on “outside eyes” evaluating our case and passing an impartial verdict.

         Where does that leave us today?  God who created us, understands us, understands all the circumstances, understands the other with equal love and he is the only being truly able to see and judge impartially.  He is the best lamp.

         Let us just spend a moment now listening to this song prayer asking God to open our eyes that we might see.

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TCozLTEqKUkxYPSSzi9IzVPIrVRIrUwtVijJSCxRyFTITaxUKE5NBQA5vQ6A&q=open+my+eyes+that+i+may+see&oq=open+my+eyes&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j46i433i512j46i512j0i512l4j69i61.6587j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c5e2e651,vid:uFjo6E6KU4c

^“19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 

²⁰ but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

         One of the movies “trending” on Netflix right now is “Leap Year.”  It is one of my favorites.  A young woman trying so hard to be mature and capable decides to follow her family Irish tradition of following her boy friend to Dublin to propose to him on Leap Year, February 29.  The young local guy who drives her through adventures to get to Dublin, asks her a question.  “If your house was burning and you had 60 seconds, what would you take?”

https://www.google.com/search?q=Leap+Year+movie%2C+if+you+had+to+choose+one+thing+to+rescue&oq=Leap+Year+movie%2C+if+you+had+to+choose+one+thing+to+rescue&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160.53520j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:940ab854,vid:z9ELvOaoHR4

She can’t answer him because she does not know what her “treasure” is.  At the end of the movie she ends up leaving the cardiologist she wanted to marry and returns to the guy whom she had grown to love because she realized she had everything materially that she wanted but not what she needed, his love.

         Jesus does not specify what treasures we might lay up in heaven.  But he does challenge us to distinguish between temporal treasures and eternal treasures.  He does say that in eternity, those “things” we value cannot be taken from us.  Let us take a moment right now and thank God for some of the things we treasure, perhaps people that warm our heart or experiences that give us a glimpse of eternity.  Let us decide to try to focus this year on that which builds towards eternity. Blessings.

            ^“16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your          Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18)”

In elementary school one of the trick questions was to ask if God could create a rock too big for him to lift.  If he couldn’t lift it or couldn’t create it, then he wasn’t God.  When I took calculus in college, the word was “limits.”  Numbers can be infinitely small and infinitely big.  Now we use the word “boundaries.”  People might talk about having the “DTR” talk, defining the relationship boundaries.  Another way to put it, is knowing what is private and what is publicly appropriate. 

God seems to be concerned about boundaries too.  Today’s text that we are thinking about is the third time Jesus talks about making public that which is secret.  He talked about publicly showing off donations that bring self fame v.s. giving in secret because God sees.  He talked about publicly showing off in prayer, using big words and fancy phrases v.s. praying is secret because God hears.  Today’s passage talks about the spiritual discipline of fasting.  Again Jesus impresses on us the need to self reflect on whom we are trying to impress.  Fasting to draw closer to God is between God and the person, not an opportunity to draw the attention of friends or the public.  Jesus continues to point out that the God we are worshiping is not a dictator in the sky who eventually passes out rewards for good behavior but is a God who walks with us and partners with us and knows us…and cares!

Let’s make an acrostic of “secret” today and thank God for aspects of our personal relationship with him that are not up for public debate.

Thank you, Lord, for s______, 

Thank you, Lord for e_______,

Thank you Lord, for c_________,

Thank you Lord, for r_________,

Thank you Lord, for e_______, 

Thank you Lord for t_____________.

First Reading: Isaiah 9:1-4

¹There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time [the Lord] brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
 ²The people who walked in darkness
  have seen a great light;
 those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
  on them light has shined.
 ³You have multiplied the nation,
  you have increased its joy;
 they rejoice before you
  as with joy at the harvest,
  as people exult when dividing plunder.
 ⁴For the yoke of their burden,
  and the bar across their shoulders,
  the rod of their oppressor,
  you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 4-9

The Lord is my light and my salvation. (Ps. 27:1)

 ¹The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?
  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
 ⁴One thing I ask of the Lord; one thing I seek;
  that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to

      gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek God in the temple.
 ⁵For in the day of trouble God will give me shelter,
  hide me in the hidden places of the sanctuary, and raise me high up-  on a rock.
 ⁶Even now my head is lifted up above my enemies who surround

         me.  Therefore I will offer sacrifice in the sanctuary, sacrifices of   rejoicing; I will sing and make music to the Lord.
 ⁷Hear my voice, O Lord, when I call;
  have mercy on me and answer me.
 ⁸My heart speaks your message— “Seek my face.”
  Your face, O Lord, I will seek.
 ⁹Hide not your face from me, turn not away from your servant in anger.
  Cast me not away—you have been my helper; forsake me not, O God          of my salvation.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

¹⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. ¹²What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” ¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

 ¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
 ¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
  on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
 ¹⁶the people who sat in darkness
  have seen a great light,
 and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
  light has dawned.”
¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

 ¹⁸As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

 ²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Children’s Sermon:  Turn to your neighbor and share a difference or two between Indianapolis and Greenwood or another smaller city/town you are familiar with..

Let us pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

         Last week we were confronted with two questions in oue gospel reading from John, “Who do you seek?” and “Where can we find him?”  Jesus invited John’s disciples, “Come and see.”  Andrew went and then ran home and told his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah!”  He took Peter to meet Jesus.  This week we return to the Gospel of Matthew and pick up this narrative.

           We likened the Season of Epiphany to the investigation Little Red Riding Hood went through to decide if the person in the bed was truly her grandmother.  She looked closely and asked questions.  During Epiphany this year, we will be pondering if Jesus is truly the Son of God as reported at his baptism or just another self appointed Messiah or deliverer.  Epiphany is a time when we dig deeper to understand who our God is.  Next week we will start looking at the Sermon on the Mount, called by some Jesus’ “State of the Union Address” where he describes the kingdom he represents and is in-fact ushering in.  In our daily devotions we will dwell more on how he “walked the talk” after he finished his address.  That’s the overview.  The overarching quest is discovering what sort of God this Jesus is and where do we find him in our down to earth lives.  So let’s start.

         Today’s Gospel reading opens with John the Baptist being imprisoned.  His time on the stage of life is coming to a close and Jesus is stepping into the lime-light.  Jesus becomes the focus of our questions.  Of note is that Jesus does not stay in his childhood town of Nazareth but travels about 50 km or 30 miles NE to the town of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee and this becomes his “central command base.” 

         This was a strategic move for several reasons.  It fulfilled prophecy as stated in our text by Isaiah during the Assryian Exile. Zebulun and Naphtali will see “a great light.”  These areas often referred to as Galilee, and were multicultural, multilingual areas under the Romans and not in Jerusalem’s backyard. Jesus goes to Capernaum, by the Sea of Galilee to set up shop in northern Israel.

         Jerusalem, the city of David, was central to the Jewish faith and is fought over even today by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  All claim sacred events in Jerusalem.  But it would seem a new center of spiritual events is forming in a much more secular setting, a setting like our lives today.  Our faith is lived out in the kingdom of this world and we represent the kingdom of God.  We probably identify more with Caperaum than Jerusalem.  A major spiritual shift is beginning to occur.  God is stepping into our world in a new way!

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim,

 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

         These words of Jesus sound terribly familiar.  In chapter 3, Matthew reports John the Baptist saying at the Jordon, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. (v.2)”`  The scenery and messenger have shifted but the message is the same.  Our journey to finding the God we are seeking starts with “repent.”  Let me put this in our Little Red Riding Hood example.  To know if the person is Grandma, Little Red Riding Hood first asks questions or we could say she takes a closer look.  She puts on her glasses.  As we hear about the kingdom of heaven, it will sound not quite right.  Like Grandma’s eyes that are too big and ears too long and teeth too sharp.  Being told to love our enemies or turn the other cheek or go the extra mile for someone who has offended us feels counter intuitive.  God’s way is not the world’s way and we must decide if we want Grandma or the wolf.  We must ask questions to decide if we are seeing the world and chasing its values or are we looking with eyes that focus on pleasing God as we experience him in Jesus. 

         When we repent, we “come clean,” admit that we have done things in a backward way that has not gotten us closer to God or our neighbor.  We’ve been wrong.  We call it sin.  We admit it.  We realize that we cannot get things right all the time.  Our glasses are dirty!  For some people that sounds like a huge emotional event where a person goes to pieces in guilt.  For some it is a daily process of admitting need to clean our glasses and daily checking in with God to make sure we are on the right track.  Communion is a time when we kneel at the altar and yet again confess we need our glasses cleaned by God.  We want to see life his way.  We repent of our self-centeredness and turn to him.  Baptism is a sacrament when we present our children or ourselves and acknowledge that they are in the kingdom of this world and ask the Holy Spirit to live in them and help them to see life clearly and make godly decisions with their lives.  Sponsors and congregations pledge to be truthful mirrors to the baptized, reflecting God’s way to the others and journeying with them.

         The kingdom of heaven is near but life is not perfected yet. Jesus is ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven but it has not totally arrived.  Our journey starts with repentance and is a journey.  So we are back to our question, “Who are you looking for?”  Step one, make sure you have the right glasses on that help you focus on the Kingdom of Heaven. 

²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

         Jesus then calls Andrew and Peter, James and John to follow him.  Unlike today, Rabbis invited students to follow them.  People did not apply to be disciples or followers.  Disciples were called.  When called, their task changed from fishing for self-gratification, fish to eat, to focus on the other person and not on self, be fishers of men.  Those four men left fishing for food to fish for men.  Not all of us are evangelists, though. So, choose an idiom that works for you.  I am no longer a teacher of a math curriculum but a discipler of young minds.  I am no longer someone who keeps house but I am building a home, a haven for my children and grandchildren and friends.  When our glasses are clean and we are clear about who we are following, our vision “immediately” changes from self to other.

         “Where do we find you?” broadens our vision to the whole setting of our lives.   We find Jesus all around us in our secular everyday lives.  God speaks and acts into our lives daily.  We no longer labor alone but join a journey with Jesus.  We are still in this Kingdom of the World but as we repent and put on God’s glasses, we are more able to see the Kingdom of Heaven he is ushering in.  That enemy who offends us is also his child and deserves to be treated respectfully.  That mistake we made needs to be followed with making things right.  Those goods we have been blessed with can be shared with those in need.  We no longer need to go to Jerusalem to offer our sacrifices and to get right with God.  We begin to see him active in our secular world and understand how we can use our talents to be his representative.

“…proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and

curing every disease and every sickness among the people”

         So, “Where do we find him?”  Where do we find Jesus?  Must we travel to Jerusalem or do we find him here in secular life, walking along side us, calling to us to follow, and enabeling us to help him build a kingdom.  Our Gospel tells us that we are invited to folllow Jesus. We follow a God who cares enough about us to incarnate, to proclaim good news and to cure disease and illness

         Often we use the logo “good news” as short hand for our belief in full forgiveness for our sins by believing in Jesus, the Savior, who died on the cross.  We point to that pivotal moment in history.  That is true good news but the text doesn’t stop at “good news.”  It continues to say “good news of the kingdom.”  Jesus did die for sin to bridge the gap between God and his creation.  But I think he is talking about more than our separation from God and each other.  He is talking about a kingdom that unlike the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood who sought to devour the little girl, is a kingdom where we are all invited to be disciples and follow him.  It is a kingdom where illness and disease are cured.  It is different from the kingdom of this world.

         This is where we put on our spiritual glasses.  We look at our world and see problems, a wolf disguising himself as Grandma.  People still die.  Poverty, mental illness, addictions and evil still cripple us.  There is war in Ukraine.  There is political debate in Washington.  Environmental catastrophies affect many.  That is the kingdom of this world that is passing away.  Evil will not win.

         Jesus calls disciples to partner with him.  His kingdom is not dictated and ruled from a power above but is an invitation to join.  In the 60s we spent a lot of time and energy presenting theories on just how this kingdom would arrive, “end times.”  I suspect those details are not for us to micromanage.  Our call is to follow Jesus.  And where do we find Jesus?   We find him active in Capernaum, our everyday life.  He’s calling to you and to me today to follow him.   Are we listening?

         Who is it that we are seeking?

           A God who works in Caperaum, our secular, eveyday lives.

         Who is it that we are seeking?

            A God who calls and partners with disciples to build a kingdom.

         Where do we find this God?

            In Capernaum, everyday places, walking with us.

         Where do we find this God?

            Proclaiming good news.

            Curing diseases and every sickness!

Lord, help me wear your glasses and see through your eyes this week!

Let the people of God say “Amen.”

         I was shocked to learn that the musical version of the Lord’s Prayer sang in this clip by Andrea Bocelli, one of my favorite singers, was actually written in 1976 according to the Internet.  It was sung at my wedding in 1976!  Albert Hay Malotte set the prayer to music even though that had been done many times before.  His version is the one most of us identify today.  Mr. Malotte was born in Philadelphia in a musical family as his father was a choirmaster.  He loved the organ.  I was also surprised to learn that Mr. Malotte wrote the ballet music for Little Red Riding Hood which brought him to the attention of Walt Disney.  As a youth he was a prizefighter and boasted he had actually fought Jack Dempsey.  But music was his talent.  He wrote the music for “The Big Fisherman” and “Lady and the Tramp.”  Listening to Bocelli sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a treat.  Listen to the words.  What jumps out to you?  Meditate on it.  Blessings.

Matthew 6: 9-15

“⁹ ‘Pray then in this way:

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 this day our daily bread.
¹²     And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³     And do not bring us to the time of trial,
        but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

         The Lord’s Prayer is one of those famous prayers that we are taught when we are young.  I started with my kids right after they had mastered “Now I lay me down to sleep.”  I would drop a word here and there and gradually drop phrases and pretty soon they too could say it with me.  Liturgical churches say it every Sunday.  It is no more special than our spontaneous prayers but it is the model Jesus gave us and sometimes when our souls are despair, those things that we learned that are deep in our soul, rise up to give words to feelings too complicated to express.

         Many find great comfort in being invited to address the God of the universe as Father.  Those with painful memories of their father may find it difficult and go to another word like Mother or Lord.  More important than the title is the invitation into an intimate relationship of family.  God’s kingdom is not like our world and we need to remind ourselves that we desire to live God’s way and not the world’s.  Daily bread pulls our hearts into the present and encourages us to shove those fears about tomorrow into God’s hands. 

         Forgiveness is a tricky one.  Jesus reiterates it at the end of the prayer.  Just saying, “I forgive you,” does not resolve deep pain and betrayal.  But then as we have seen, vengeance does not either.  Sometimes we need to put things that irritate us into God’s hands and do it many times.  Forgiveness is hard work.  But we do want God to forgive us.  So if there is some grudge or point of anger still brewing in your heart today, take it to the Lord.  He understands betrayal, fair weather friends, and hypocrisy.  One of the meanings of the incarnation of Jesus is that God understands those things that hurt us so much and he knows far better than we how to deal with it.  That give me comfort and I hope it helps you too.  Blessings as you work on forgiveness!

Yesterday we pondered our motivations for making donations.  We may donate to thrift shops to help the poor.  But missionaries have stories of receiving donations of used tea bags!  In Kenya we shopped at “the bend down market.”  Bags of used clothes that could not be sold in the USA were sent abroad and laid out along the road with flip-flops scavenged from the beach.  Sharing with the poor is not wrong but the motive behind sharing becomes the problem.  God knows our hearts and so doing deeds from selfish motives while impressing others, does not impress God.  God sees our hearts and secret motives and desires.

         Today Jesus continues in the same vain of speaking to the secrets of our hearts. He addresses prayer.

^“5 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.^[b]

⁷ ‘When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6: 5-8)”

Again Jesus confronts us with the motives of our hearts that only God can see.  Prayer is an outward symptom of an inner relationship.  Are we hypocrites?  Are our motives selfish because we want relief for ourselves for a given concern or do we genuinely care about the issue we are discussing with God.  Tomorrow we will look at what is known as “The Lord’s Prayer.”  Today let us ask God to help us be honest with ourselves and that he would reveal any hypocrisy in our hearts.  Lord, we want our prayers to be genuine and pleasing to you!  Blessings.

         This paragraph near the end of Jesus’ State of the Union address is a bit tricky.  Fund raising is a very real part of our culture.  Radio programs seem to have a week twice a year when they ask people to pledge and offer incentives and rewards.  The rich offer to match donations to a certain limit.  Mugs with logos might be given for gifts of a certain amount.  Likewise we have plagues on walls in hospitals and colleges acknowledging the big donors.  Politics offer tax breaks if we give money for campaigns or parties.  We want to be seen as kind and sharing of our wealth.  Helping those less fortunate than our self is a deep value for many.  So understanding the next section is challenging.

“6 ‘Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

² ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.(Matthew 6:1-4)”

         I would suggest that the problem is not the publicity of our gifts but the motives of our hearts.  If we give to get…praise, prizes, popularity or whatever then we are living in that “tit for tat” world Jesus has been talking about.  Giving money to get praise and love is the flip side of the coin of giving revenge to get even for wrongs suffered.  That coin is temporary satisfaction whether it is money or hate.  Good deeds done in secret are seen by God who sees our secrets.

         So perhaps we have secrets in our heart that we think no one sees.  Our public persona, our face the world sees, may be covering secret scars, secret desires, and secret generosity.  We may think no one notices us but God sees, the good and the ugly.  And God rewards.  That is a promise that is worth remembering as we enter 2023!  Blessings on your secret life!