The Lord’s Prayer and Works of Mercy

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-14) has been, since my college days, an almost constant companion.  As I have prayed it, it has challenged me, guided me, and comforted me.  It has provided structure and given direction for prayer times both private and corporate.  So, the youth group which I lead will be taking the next few weeks to study and pray the Lord’s Prayer together.  In our group times, we will take the Prayer phrase by phrase, seeking to understand just what Jesus was saying and doing when he taught his disciples to pray those words.  Individually, we will be challenged to pray the Lord’s Prayer in a different way each day of the week.  For instance, one day we will pray, “And give us our daily bread….” Our prayers offered that day will center on being thankful for what we do have while seeking to be content with that and seeking not to worry about what we don’t have.  It’s my hope that by praying and studying the Lord ’s Prayer that we might actually begin to believe it and mean what we pray, that we might truly believe that God is our Father, that we might truly want to do God’s will, and that we might participate in helping to bring God’s Kingdom here. 

So, for the next few weeks, I’ll try to post here the thoughts and insights we learn from praying and studying the Lord’s Prayer.  I’ll also post, when it is finished, the prayer guide we will be using for the Lord’s Prayer.  Perhaps you will pray along with us.  My guides for this journey have and will be N.T. Wright’s book The Lord and His Prayer, as well as John Wesley, especially his sermon Upon the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount: Discourse 6 (Sermon #26).  

It was while I was beginning to prepare for our study of the Lord’s Prayer that I came across Wesley’s comments on the verses immediately before the Lord’s Prayer.  Here’s what Jesus says in Matthew 6:1-4:

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. 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.

To be sure, there is some context that helps us understand the passage better.  According to Wesley, the sounding of trumpets before a work of mercy was to call the poor to receive whatever the rich person was giving out.  The real intentions, however, were for others to see the good work that was being done.  Jesus is condemning this kind of tactic in favor of a more discrete method.  Here’s what Wesley says about the passage:

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.” — The thing which is here forbidden, is not barely the doing good in the sight of men; this circumstance alone, that others see what we do, makes the action neither worse nor better; but the doing it before men, “to be seen of them,” with this view from this intention only. I say, from this intention only; for this may, in some cases, be a part of our intention; we may design that some of our actions should be seen, and yet they may be acceptable to God. We may intend that our light should shine before men, when our conscience bears us witness in the Holy Ghost, that our ultimate end in designing they should see our good works, is, “that they may glorify our Father which is in heaven.” But take heed that ye do not the least thing with a view to your own glory: Take heed that a regard to the praise of men have no place at all in your works of mercy. If ye seek your own glory, if you have any design to gain the honour that cometh of men whatever is done with this view is nothing worth; it is not done unto the Lord; he accepteth it not; “ye have no reward” for this“ of our Father which is in heaven…. Use no ostentation in doing good. Aim at the honour which cometh of God only. They who seek the praise of men have their reward: They shall have no praise of God.

I think these words from Jesus and John Wesley are important for us today because the church in America loves to use works of mercy and compassion as a marketing tool.  To be fair, this isn’t always the case.  There are many churches and organizations that are doing great work in helping the poor, sick, imprisoned, widowed, and orphaned.  But the line between doing works of mercy and compassion to draw attention to ourselves as opposed to giving glory to God is a fine one.  

When it comes down to it, Jesus’ words here – also applied to prayer in the next verses – can be applied to almost anything the church does.  Everything from great worship services with a band and lights and smoke to a rocking youth or children’s ministry are subject to the same test: Are we doing them because we want to do things well?  Or are we doing these things because it looks good and may attract others to join us?  Or are we doing these things because it looks good?  And what looks good might attract others to join us.  If we are serving people just because it might get us some positive attention, then we aren’t serving and bringing glory to God.