This week’s Core Values:
Love God – Love Others
Serving People Is Serving God
Read Matthew 6:2-4
“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 others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is teaching both his disciples and a large crowd of listeners. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is flipping scripts and challenging paradigms. This section of the sermon is exactly that – a challenge to the normal approach to service and giving.
In this passage, Jesus is reminding his disciples that servanthood and humility are inseparable. In Jesus’ time (and, I would argue, in ours), many of the most generous givers liked to publicize their giving, seeking affirmation from those around them. Hidden beneath their philanthropy was false humility, a sin that may honestly be ‘worse’ than pride.
Jesus condemned their actions and presented an alternate command. Giving, he says, should be done in secret. Secrecy is not the same as privacy. Doing things secretly means we intentionally conceal them, so that there is no chance that anyone would ever find out what we are doing. This is a hard command, because it requires that we let go of our need to be loved, valued, and affirmed by the world around us. Take some time this week to reflect on what your giving and generosity look like from the inside and the outside.
Prayer: Lord, we are feeble, broken people, and we confess our desperate desire for attention from all the wrong things. We so easily turn inwards and fall prey to the temptations of pride and false humility. Lord, keep us rooted in the truth about who you say we are, and help us to release our need to be valued by the world. In you, Oh lord, is life and life alone!
