Lectio: Matt 6:1-6
February 12, 2010
Matthew 6:1-6
The World Is Not a Stage
1 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. 2-4“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—’playactors’ I call them— treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
Pray with Simplicity
5“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?6“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
- Matthew 6:1-6, The Message
“When you’re trying to be good”
“When you do something for somebody else”
It seems clear, on first read, that Jesus’ starting point for this reminder is that he assumes that we are trying to live our faith, to wrestle with the implications of grace and of our engagement in the mission of God. But there’s a subtle element at play here: ”acting compassionate”, not “being compassionate”. ”Playing to the crowds”, rather than being content with our task.
“Just do it - quietly and unobtrusively”. Do it, but do it without fanfare - whatever the “it” of “trying to do good” is.
I’m writing this in a coffeeshop after visiting a nonprofit organization that I volunteer time with. I’m helping them use social networks to spread the word about the agencies they’re partnering with to help eradicate global poverty. I’m proud of their work, and I’m happy to be able to help. In fact, because I’m heading to a concert tonight, I’m wearing their logo t-shirt and hoping that other concertgoers notice the logo and I can share the story. I’m not quiet or unobtrusive, at least in my t-shirt choice.
And so I wonder, isn’t it good to tell people what we’re doing to help the less fortunate in our world? To give our friends opportunities to reach out beyond themselves?
If Jesus is consistent in His message - and I hope that He is - this is the same thing he’s saying when he says that murder is sin as much as being angry is. The attitude of my inner life matters as much as my actions; the meaning matters.
How I do what I do matters as much as what I do. And so, my life must be a constant purging of inappropriate behaviors and motivations, an ongoing challenge to center myself in my identity in Christ rather than my identity that I construct from my activities.
So, I must be in constant prayer, with a heart open to pruning and reshaping and corrective action. I must pray, simply and honestly, so that I may grow to be simple and honest.
The focus of my prayer must move from me (and my words) to my God, so that the focus of my life may move from me (and my actions) to my God.
“Just be there, as simply and as honestly as you can manage.” In my prayer, and in my actions.
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