THE PRAYERS OF BABBLE


And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
(Matthew 6: 7-8 – NAS)
One would think that for a religious tradition that included rants to the Divinity, such as the Book of Job, there would be little danger of prayers with “meaningless repetition.” But Jesus takes a moment to address that matter. And if we consider that Jesus is God Incarnate, there is a certain humorous irritation in this statement from Him.

God, it seems, gets “tired” of our need to fill in the empty spaces with sound, especially sounds that are repeated endlessly without real meaning from us.

In meditation practices that have been influenced by Hinduism, there is the tradition of using the word “OM” for the purposes of focus, to shut out the distractions around the person meditating. The mantra "OM" is considered to be the name of God, the vibration of the Supreme. The Sanskrit name for the syllable is from a root word meaning "to shout, sound,” or "to make a humming or droning sound." (Thank you, Wikipedia.) What an amusing contrast to Jesus’ statement in these verses. The most popular meditative word simply means “to make a droning sound.” Talk about meaningless repetition!

And surely none of us fall into that practice in our prayers!

Well....

“Father God ... Great God ... Lord ... Father God ... Jehovah Jireh ... Father God ... Lord ... Lord ... Lord... Lord, Lord, Lord.”

I have from time to time been in small prayer circles where at least one person’s prayers are filled with such declarations. And though I believe their prayers are indeed lifted up in sincerity, I have often felt that the person praying that way includes names and titles for the Lord more like audible punctuation than direct address.

“Father God (address) help me Lord (punctuation-period) I need you so much Lord (punctuation-comma) for everything is going wrong. Oh Lord (address) be with my friends also Father God (punctuation-comma) especially Friend X Lord (punctuation-comma) who needs your healing Jehovah Jireh (punctuation-period) Lord (address) be with us every day Father God (punctuation-comma) wherever we go Father (punctuation-comma) whatever we do Lord (punctuation-period)”

When we speak to someone face-to-face, do we ever use that person’s name that much in conversation?

“Susan! I’ve really wanted to talk with you, Sue, about this event coming up, Susie. Ms. Bryant, you’re really important to the event, Sue, and Susan we just can’t do it without you. Susan Marie Bryant, we just have to have you on board for the event, Sue, because, Sue, you’re the only one who can make it work, Susan. So Ms. Bryant, please say yes, Sue, say you will be there on Saturday, Sue. Bless you, Susan.”

No. I don’t think we do talk that way to someone when we are face-to-face with them. Then why do we do it to God?

I think part of it comes from our enthusiasm in having the privilege of addressing God directly. One of the Ten Commandments declares “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.” This has led to the disapproval of using the name of God in cursing someone, certainly. But it was also intended to keep people from “name-dropping” without significance. The ancient Hebrews took this so very seriously that they would not speak the name of God at all, making it blasphemy to speak the Holy Name aloud in general public. As a result, they came up with a number of circumlocutions, creating titles for God that spoke to His various attributes instead of His whole being.

But Jesus has told us we can be intimate with God, that we can call him Abba, “Father.” Which brings us back to the matter of general “meaningless repetition” in prayer. He tells us, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” With that level of intimacy between us and the Lord, shouldn’t our prayers be as direct, immediate, and personal as possible?

This is not to say that repetition itself is out of place. God knows that sometimes our hearts are so full of some concern that we cannot stop ourselves from speaking of it over and over and over. There is nothing wrong with “Help me! Help me! Help me!” If it is the cry of our heart, our Father will answer it.

But let us not use repetition because we cannot think of anything else to say. Pray what you mean to pray, be it praise or thanks or petition. And then stop. And don’t sprinkle the Lord’s names and titles throughout as if they were garnishes or punctuation. Speak from the heart, clearly and briefly. Our Father who sees the secret places of our hearts knows our prayers intimately. What He wants is that intimate time with us.

OM ... or is that “Um”?

PUBLIC OR SECRET PRAYER


When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
(Matthew 6: 5-6)

Once again, Jesus points to our intentions behind our actions. What is it we are doing when we pray in public? What is it that we think we are doing?

It is worth considering, since even in this day where performing acts of worship in public, particularly if you happen to be Christian, is more and more discouraged – or at least criticized. Even though the “marketplace” is open and public, factions of society dislike the presence of public displays of worship. And prayer in public is one of the disapproved displays. Prayer at the beginning of meetings or events gets treated as an infringement of the rights of non-believers, even though it does them no harm beyond a few moments of listening to something they don’t believe in (which can hardly be considered unusual in our lives, since we all have to listen to politicians whose views do not match ours).

Even so, a distinction can be made between a “public prayer” (one a leader makes on behalf of those gathered) and “prayer in public” (standing on a corner and making personal prayers out loud in the hearing of others).

What is it that a person is after, when they make a show of praying in public? What are they trying to do? For as Jesus says, Our Father hears our most secret prayers, our small hidden voices. And if He can hear those prayers, He certainly has no problem hearing the prayers we might make in crowded noisy places. When someone makes a point of praying out loudly, whose ears are they really trying to reach?

I’m sure we’ve all seen occasions where someone has used the moment to pray in public to rebuke someone present and listening, to lecture someone in the disguise of giving God the details of a situation. Or heard someone round off a hostile encounter with a very heavy-handed “God bless you!” in a voice that is really asking for something other than a blessing.

What are we expecting on those occasions? Are we even really interested in what God’s plans for the other person are at that moment?

Any time we start praying in public to make a particular point to someone present, someone other than God, we “already have our reward.” The person we’re trying to lecture hears us, certainly. He hears us lecturing God about the whys and wherefores that God already knows. What the listener does not hear is genuine concern for his well-being.

When we are called to pray for each other, to pray for those we don’t know, to pray for those in governance over us, to pray for our enemies, we are called to be concerned about that other person’s well-being, not the punishments we think they deserve, not the wisdom we think they need. We’re supposed to be remembering that every person is precious to God, that He wants to touch and save each of His creatures. When someone else prays for our Loved Ones, we are deeply touched by the discovery that others love our Beloveds as much as we do. But when we hear someone praying a lecture at our Beloved, we don’t react as well.

What happens then, when we pray privately, in secret?

Well, at the least, Jesus assures us that God hears those prayers. There is no place we can go that God cannot hear us. That is a pretty wonderful thing, as well as challenging. We cannot hide from God.

But when we come before Him privately, we are very aware that it is a conversation between ourselves and Him. We are much more aware that God doesn’t need lectures about situations, about what we know about someone that He doesn’t know. Because of the intimacy of private prayer, we become much more honest about why we are praying for someone. Is it simply duty? Or do we feel the need to rant and complain about someone – instead of praying for that person and their relationship with God? We end up exposing our own feelings about the subject of the prayer, which is what God wants from us. Until we open our hearts to Him, He cannot touch us (or others through us).

There are legal fights going on in America these days over the issue of prayer in public, institutionalized prayer. Some are fighting for the right to stand on the street corners and pray aloud in public – and they treat opposition to this as if it meant that they would not be allowed to pray at all. Why is this important to them? What do they believe is being served in praying on the street corner or in front of a public civic meeting before it begins? I realize that there is wisdom and power in calling for God's presence at such occasions, but does God somehow “hear better” when we do it in public than when we do it “secretly”? If we pray privately before the beginning of such a meeting, asking God’s blessing on all attending, His guidence for the work to be done, are we somehow lessening His effectiveness by doing it quietly and not in public? He “who sees what is done in secret”?

The reward of prayer is the time we spend with the Lord. If anything we do diminishes that intimacy, we should consider why we are proceeding that way. What are we trying to accomplish? Because for that sort of prayer, we “already have our reward.” Did you get what you wanted out of it?

Let us strive to be intimate and personal in all our prayers.

SECRET GIVING

So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
(Matthew 6: 2-4 – NAS)

Jesus continues to address our impulse to make production numbers out of our actions, especially our giving to the poor. His description of a philanthropist walking down the streets with a trumpeter going before him playing a fanfare seems a bit over-the-top. That is, until we consider news stories where Billionaire Bigname donates a million dollars to some charity at a lavish event for the groundbreaking of the charity’s new headquarters. That is today’s street-walking trumpeter.

Jesus says that those who make those public displays already have their reward in full. And apparently that reward doesn’t have much to do with the kingdom of heaven, since He makes no mention of that.

Why is it that we do make production numbers of our giving?

I suppose some of it is our wanting the reassurance that we are good people and that others know this to be true. It is a curious thing that we often do what we know is right, often with absolute certainty, and yet after the act is done, we still want the reassurance that we made the right choice. It is as if we cannot let go of the act. By holding on to the action and making it public, we seem to continue to exert some ownership or control over the gift.

Which is contrary to the whole point of giving anything to anyone, of course. You cannot give something away and then continue to exert control of the gift, let alone make a big splash about the fact that the recipient has the gift. Which is why so very often people give large sums of money to charities and specify how the money is to be used. “Build this new wing here!” (whether or not the institution needs the new wing). We might even cover up the fact that we are giving the gift for self-aggrandizement by insisting that the new Whatever that will be built with the gift be named in memory of some Loved One Of Ours. Because, no, obviously we’re not doing it to draw attention to ourselves, but rather so everyone remembers the name of our parent, grandparent, uncle or other beloved mentor of ours.

Our motives in giving can be very mixed, especially when they are large-scale. Yes, it is good to do honor to the memory of someone who has inspired and guided us in our lives. We should indeed lift up examples of Good Living. But even if what we intended goes astray, we should let go of the gift.

Recently in the news there was the story of a major music star who was in contention with a hospital because a gift given to the hospital to honor the musician’s mother was not about to be used the way the musician understood it would be (a specific type of care facility). Because the gift was not going to be used the way he wanted and intended, he sued the hospital for the return of the gift. The jury agreed with him, and he was awarded a refund plus punitive damages against the hospital for an equal amount.

I read this story and felt there was so much wrong with it. Now, admittedly, the musician wanted to honor his mother with a facility that reflected her concerns and interests. Well and good. But this is a man who can earn a million dollars with very little effort on his part. And his gift to the hospital was $500,000 for the building of a hospital wing. I looked at that and wondered about it, because although I don’t know what hospital construction costs are, it seemed to me that a mere half a million dollars would barely cover the cost of the shell of a small clinic. It wouldn’t finish the building or equip it. But it certainly would help the hospital do something. Whatever the misunderstanding between the musician and the hospital, it seemed amazingly petty to request the money back. Short of out-and-out criminality on the part of the hospital (which was not the case, let us be clear), there was a self-centeredness in demanding the money back.

When I step back and look at it, I can see what Jesus was saying about the nature of the reward for those who have to make a production number of their giving. The musician looked for his reward in a certain type of construction, a particular end result. One that he did not get. And since he didn’t get his reward, he even took back the gift.

Jesus tells us to give in such a way that our left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Is this possible, we wonder? After all, it is one brain that makes the decisions, so how can one half of our being not know what the other half is doing?

I think the point is that Jesus wants us to be so easily open-handed in our giving that it happens without any more thought than we give to breathing. For the most part, we do not have to consciously expand our lungs to fill them with air: the body just does it. Our giving should be like that – that we can respond to need without weighing “worthiness” or whether anyone notices that we are giving.

Jesus also reminds us that the only one who needs to know about our giving is Our Father God. And God knows all the secret things anyway.

God gives to us in secret. He very rarely makes production numbers out of His gifts to us. I was thinking about this recently, as I was wrestling with anxiety about my circumstances. I had been praying that the Lord deliver a big answer to my troubles, a Big Miracle. But then it struck me that for the past five months, the Lord has met me at every corner and taken care of what was absolutely necessary. Time after time, in small ways from unexpected directions, He has moved providence into my hands, through both my own labor and through the hearts of those that care about me. Are these not miracles? They are. And so many of the gifts that have helped me have been given quietly, almost in secret. But I know they were given and indeed the Lord knows too!

I learned recently that someone I knew had practiced Secret Giving so very well, that even those closest to him did not know of his acts. I marveled at it, at the willingness to give and not even to think about needing acknowledgement from even the recipient. I admit, I have not quite achieved that degree of open-handedness yet. I can do it in fits and starts, but I still often want at least a little acknowledgement. There’ve been occasions where I wanted the recipient to know that I was the one who gifted them. But to learn of this example of someone who had practiced Jesus’ admonition so well, I feel ashamed. What a great reward my friend has with the Lord! It inspires me to want to do better at secret giving. Oh, to be able to let go that easily!

Do we really want to be one of those who already “have their reward in full” – being center stage in a public spectacle in this world? Or would we rather receive our reward from God Himself when we meet Him face-to-face?

LIVING A PRODUCTION NUMBER

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 6: 1)

So Jesus begins a new section of His Sermon by warning His followers not to make a production of their righteousness. This, just after he told them to “Be perfect.”

Is that fair, we ask. All that work and we don’t get to show it off?

I look at this warning and am aware of the irony of publishing my own meditations on the Sermon in public. That could come mighty close to “practicing my righteousness before others to be noticed by them.” It is very easy to cross the line between “I want to share this” into “Look at me doing this.” And I think that is what Jesus is warning us about doing.

Jesus speaks to our intentions here. If we’re going to make a show of our righteousness in public, why are we doing it? If we’re doing it in order to be noticed, God has no interest in that. “I’m good so that people will know that I am good!” That attitude does not fit in very well with what Jesus has already spoken about.

Also, Jesus is talking about us making a show of our righteousness. That is, our acting in accordance with divine law. There were those who loved to make a production of their religious observances back in Jesus’ day, and there are those who do it in our time. “Aren’t we good? Aren’t we righteous? Look at us holding our televised services every week without fail. Why we hardly take a week off, we’re so godly! And here’s this wonderful charity act we’re doing, getting it all on camera so you can see how much we really care!”

Oh, yes. Practicing our righteousness in front of others in order to be noticed remains with us.

Jesus says that God isn’t interested in rewarding that kind of behavior.

Why is that, we wonder? Even if it is in public with everyone watching and it really is righteous behavior, why would it matter to the Lord? Doesn’t He want us to do good at all times, to follow His laws?

Of course He does. And I have to believe that He does take pleasure in any Good Act, no matter how it is motivated.

But that’s not what Jesus says God is focusing on here. He doesn’t say that God would be displeased by righteous acts performed in public in order to show off before others. The Lord can make good of anything, after all. No, Jesus says that the Father will not reward such behavior.

Ah!

What sort of rewards does he mean? Because we can all point to religious leaders who make a big show of their preaching and outreach who have racked up huge fortunes with their ministry industries. But I don’t think he’s talking about worldly rewards. I think Jesus is talking about all those rewards mentioned in the Beatitudes.

Inheriting the earth, being called the Sons and Daughters of God, holding the kingdom of heaven in our hands – those rewards are the ones I think Jesus is referring to.

And when you think about it, you start to realize that everything that Jesus commended in the Beatitudes doesn’t go over so well if you make a big production about it.

Is it possible to make a production of being “poor in spirit”? Surely we can tell the difference between someone going around contentedly saying “Poor me! I feel so distant from God right now!” and someone who suddenly bursts out “Help me! I’m so alone!” That second person is not making a big show of their need. Usually they’ve been keeping their desperation hidden until they could not contain it any more.

What about mourning? That is inevitably a public expression, isn’t it? People cannot go through a great loss without it being seen. But I think there is a big difference between the open shared grief in a community that suffers a loss and someone constantly going about in a full on mourning outfit and expounding at length about why they are dressed all in black.

Can peacemaking be done in public? Is it possible to be sensitive to the feelings and concerns of both parties, when you are making them conduct all the stages of reconciliation in public? Making a show of it all? What purpose is served in that, other than making a public display of the “Peacemaker’s” negotiation skills?

Mercy bestowed as a show piece: can we call that being merciful? We make a spectacle of the person receiving the grace of the reprieve or whatever doom was about to fall upon them. How is that merciful? A public puppet serving as a stage prop for someone to show off how magnanimous they are?

In following verses, Jesus will speak further to our impulse to make displays in public. But here at the beginning of the section, He just puts it simply: God is not interested in rewarding displays of righteousness that are done for the purpose of public attention. That does not mean that He does not recognize righteousness even when performed in folly. It just means He will not reward it.

It’s very easy for us to get caught up in the need for doing something “in public.” We talk a lot about being “open and above board” and “being transparent.” It is even possible for us to work ourselves into a mindset where we honestly believe that the public display is righteous in the very best sense.

But Jesus warns us, if it is done “before men to be noticed by them,” we’re starting from the wrong place. I suppose if there were absolutely no other option than the public display, God would take that into account. He knows that when immediate action is necessary, it might sometimes be “out in the open.” What He is speaking to, however, seems to be those occasions when we “set the stage” for a public display.

If we plan something for public attention, then the Lord already knows that any other “reward”, even from Him, would be superfluous to our hearts. We weren’t doing it to please God, we were doing it to please ourselves.

Doing right, being righteous, will always please God. But He doesn’t need production numbers to get His attention. In fact, He’d rather we did it without all the bells and whistles.

THAT’S PERFECT!


Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
(Matthew 5: 48 – NAS)

So Jesus comes to a “pause moment” in the Sermon on the Mount, where the Gospel editors have chosen to break the text into a new chapter, letting this declaration stand as a wrap-up to what has gone before. And it is quite the capper, isn’t it? “Be perfect, just like God.”

Come on, it’s easy!

Isn’t it?

The problem for us is that we have such vague ideas as to what is meant by “perfect” when it comes to our own actions. We know that God is perfect in all things, and we are quite willing to concede that Jesus is so also. But how are we to be perfect, when we know – “perfectly well” – that we are not. We know that we make mistakes, we know that we often intentionally do things to poke and jab (if not outright hurt) others because of hurts we have received.

We have a tendency to regard “perfection” as being without sin in any of our thoughts or deeds. And certainly, what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon is intended to guide us toward that objective. But Jesus is talking about the here and now, not some future goal. “Be perfect now.”

When I look up the definition of “perfect” in the dictionary, I find something broader than “entirely without sin.”

Perfect: being entirely without fault or defect, flawless; satisfying all requirements; corresponding to an ideal standard or abstract concept; faithfully reproducing the original; legally valid; expert, proficient; total, pure; absolute, unequivocal; mature; certain, sure; contented, satisfied.

My Ryrie Study Bible suggests that here “perfect” is meant as “not without sin, but mature and complete in the likeness of God.”

When we look at these definitions we see a lot of possibilities. “Mature.” Okay, that’s not so difficult to strive for. I can easily choose not to react like a four-year-old or even a twelve-year-old. I can be “adult” about things. How about “contented and satisfied”? Can we be content in our actions, that we have done our best (whether it was completely successful or not)? Of course, that presumes that we have actually attempted to do everything Jesus has told us up to this point. But even that is within our reach.

So “perfect” is not so very far away from us, if we look at each action individually. Certainly, the object is to be perfect “like our Father” in all things at all times. But for now, we can strive to be perfect in this thing at this time. It does take practice.

I think this is where we let ourselves off the hook, or alternatively delude ourselves that we have indeed done everything possible.

We let ourselves off the hook by wrestling with the concept of achieving total perfection all at once and finding it impossible to do – at least all at once. We say to ourselves, “It can’t be done. I can’t be totally perfect, I’m only human! But God loves me anyway, so that’s enough, isn’t it?” When we get into this mindset, we stop trying to be perfect in individual actions and choices. If we get into a dispute with a fellow believer, and we feel that we are in the right, we stop. Well, after all, there’s Jesus’ recommendation to “let your no be no.” That’s enough, isn’t it? (We just overlook everything that was said about being merciful, peacemakers, and, oh yeah, not coming to the altar when we know a brother has something against us that we have not resolved.)

But it is also easy for us to stop really following through on what Jesus has taught us because we get frustrated, or conflicted, or uncertain about what to do next. “We did everything we could.” And so we stop. We know that the problem or the difficult situation remains, and yet because we’ve reached a seeming impasse, we tell ourselves that God can’t expect more from us. Because, after all, “we’re only human.”

“Only human.” But Jesus has already told us that we can be so very much more, that God wants us to be so much more: inheritors (that is rulers) of the earth, adopted as Sons and Daughters of God, given the authority of heaven to command. Is that “only human”? I think we ought to expect that a little more effort than being “merely human” is required.

I don’t think Jesus expects us to wake up one morning and know that we have mastered each of these skills and points. That sort of mastery may come after a lifetime of following Him. But I do think He expects us to wake up each morning and with this problem in front of us try to perfectly follow His guidelines for dealing with it. If we lapse in another area, He understands. But we’re not excused from trying.

“Be perfect.”

Nobody really wants to admit that they’re not perfect. “I’m only human” is our preferred way of expressing that. But Jesus sees what we could be, and He’s waiting for us to become that.