Scripture Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
“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. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“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. 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…
”… And whenever you fast, do not look somber, like the hypocrites, for they mark their faces to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 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. “
Meditation “Fast, Pray, Love”
The passage we’ve just heard is usually read on Ash Wednesday, to set the tone for Lent. But, if you think about it, there was no such thing as Lent when Jesus was preaching his Sermon on the Mount, was there? In fact, the people he was preaching to were overwhelmingly poor, people who were likely to be malnourished, suffering from disease, overwork, taxation and exploitation. (There’s a reason Jesus’ primary form of ministry was healing people. They were badly in need of healing.)[i]
So, if Jesus is not preaching a sermon on best practices for Lent, and if the people Jesus is preaching to are not likely to need to fast, and may not even have any money to give away to help others, what is the purpose of these words? What is the point of this passage? The point is in that very first sentence. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Jesus is talking about ways of doing good that can actually do damage—damage to us, to our souls. He is talking about how we live out our faith in community. In a very real sense, he is talking to us.
So, this complicates things, right? Because here we are together, and we’re having a simple supper, we’re singing our praises to God—and in both instances, we can all see each other doing these things. In a little bit I’ll be the religious leader who gets up in front of everybody and prays, and you’ll see and hear me doing it. I might even throw a tidbit into my meditation about my prayer practice at home—Oops, just mentioned it, so now you know about it. And in a few weeks, it’s my hope and prayer that a hundred or more people will crowd into this sanctuary for our One Great Hour of Sharing Cabaret—but, oh, no, then we will all see one another writing checks or dropping cash into the plate or just being there supportively, to help out Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Presbyterian Hunger Program, and the Self-Development of People program.
If we are members of a faith community who get together to sing, and praise God, and highlight the ways we try to help others in the world, does this mean we should stop doing these things? How are we supposed to do these good things if Jesus is telling us the only way we can is to keep it all on the down low, which sounds like, just hiding from each other?
I think Jesus is using a literary device. I think he’s using hyperbole to think about all these practices—don’t blow a trumpet when you’re giving to charity. That’s hyperbole. Nobody does that, and there’s no record of anyone doing it Galilee or in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing—unless you have severed the hemispheres of your brain, a complete impossibility. Hyperbole. When you’re fasting, don’t put on makeup to help you to look all pale and sickly. Again, hyperbole. All this hyperbole is in service of that first point. Beware. Beware of using your spiritual practices to somehow try to gain the admiration of other people.
So what are we to do? We go back to the beginning. What is the point of these practices to begin with? The point is love.
The point of prayer is to lift our hearts to God and bring the whole world to God’s attention, because God loves the world, and we do too. We pray for an end to war, because war is terrible and it harms innocents and combatants alike, and we know that a God who loves us doesn’t want that for our world. We pray for those who are sick and in pain, because we love them, or if we don’t, someone else loves them. We pray for those who have anxiety, because in our compassion, we don’t want people to suffer mentally or emotionally. We love one another. So we pray for one another. We pray.
The point of almsgiving is that no one should go without enough to eat, or without warm clothes in the winter, or without medications they need to live. We may or may not know who we are giving that money to, but we give it because, in our hearts, we know that it is the loving thing to do. We love the people who will benefit from these gifts, whether we know them or not.
The point of fasting—and by that term, I mean anything we decide to limit, whether it’s our screen time or our consumption of fossil fuels or our consumption of sugar—the point of it is so that we can be more expansive in our thoughts and experience God’s presence in the space opened up in our lives by making that other thing smaller. One scholar summarized, The true test of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting is not the degree to which they are secret but the degree to which they enhance the community’s faithful witness. [ii]
I love Jesus’ summary even better. In the verses that follow our passage, Jesus preaches,
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… and each one of us knows what he’s referring to, because they’re probably different for each of us. For me, it would be people admiring me, or thinking I’m a good person. Jesus goes on, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… and here, I truly believe Jesus means the extent to which we have let ourselves be guided and led by love. For, Jesus continues, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [Matt. 6:19-21]
I believe that treasure in our heart is our love for one another, even our love for those we will never know. If that is the purpose of the things we do, we can go on doing them as publicly as we like, because our treasure will never rust or be moth-eaten. It will remain beautiful, fragrant, fresh, life-giving, glorious.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] Melinda Quivik, “Commentary on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21,” February 26, 2020, Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ash-wednesday/commentary-on-matthew-61-6-16-21-12.
[ii] Ronald J. Allen, “Commentary on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, February 22, 2023, Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ash-wednesday/commentary-on-matthew-61-6-16-21-15.