April 11, 2010 Sermon

Humble Christianity
Matthew 6:1-18

A member of our church spoke to me in some distress.  Her hairdresser had spent her entire appointment singing the praises of her church.  She seemed to be following a script, “talking points like they use on TV when they argue”, our member said.  It upset her.  (She was literally “distressed”, as that word originally meant losing one's tresses or hair.)  The presentation came across as aggressive, boastful.  Though the hairdresser knew our member belonged to a church that seemed only to move her to bigger talk about hers.

We used to host the TC West football team for its pre-game dinners.  Usually I spoke.  I did not hesitate to mention Jesus, but kept the messages focused on character lessons.  Occasionally a team member would invite his minister.  I will never forget the time the head pastor for one of the larger and newer congregations in our area spoke.  He opened with an account of how much money they had raised on a recent “Miracle Sunday”.  He continued with a lengthy explanation of why his congregation was the only local one that “had it right” and how important it was for the boys to get their families to visit them.  This happened in this very room.

We follow Jesus.  Jesus strongly urged humble Christianity.  It follows that we should follow him humbly.  But we have a problem.  Jesus also called us to make others into followers of him.  How can we act humbly and make more followers of Jesus at the same time?  Fortunately, the answer is both simple and powerful.  Live your Christianity and people will follow Jesus.  Say one thing but do another and sooner or later they will become cynical, disgusted even, and walk away.  Walk with Christ and they will, too.  Humble Christians make more Christians.

“Beware of practicing your piety before others,” Jesus preached in his Sermon on the Mount, “in order to be seen by them” (emphasis added).  “Practicing piety” means doing spiritual things.  It means praying, worshiping, reading the Bible, visiting the sick and so forth.  Do not behave spiritually in front of witnesses, Jesus said, just do they can see you doing it.  Last summer our youth group of thirty-plus descended on Pickford, a small town in the eastern Upper Peninsula.  Within hours the whole community knew we were there.  In the middle of the week a woman for whom we stacked an entire winter's worth of firewood asked why we did not wear church t-shirts or put up signs at the work sites that had our church logo or at least a cross.  The answer, at least for me, was that I had never thought of it.  One of our youngest youth chimed in, “Doesn't it mean more if people see us working and ask why?”  Jesus warned us not to talk big but walk little.  This young man in our group turned it around and asked, “Does it not work better to walk big and talk little?”

Do not have trumpets herald you dropping your dimes in the offering basket.  Do not pray on a street corner.  Give and pray, by all means.  Give and pray quietly, secretly even, as Jesus said.  Do not fall into the hypocrite trap.  We know that the world surrounding us has an acute hypocrisy detector.  From this passage we know that God does, too.  Give and pray for the right reasons.  Give and pray to become a closer follower of Jesus.  Give and pray to empower others to follow Jesus.

Jesus gave his life for us.  We can and should give in return.  We give money, of course, but we give even more precious things: time, compassion, love.  When we give quietly people come to know Jesus through our works.  This is not hypocrisy.  This is not arrogance.  We do these works only by the power of the Holy Spirit, so it is not as though even secret giving is a trick.  Giving matters.  Sometimes we wonder whether it does.  Sometimes we wonder whether anybody knows what we do.  Jesus might say, “Good!  If nobody sees you give and you keep giving, you are giving for the right reasons!”  Besides, giving rightly does in fact help others follow Jesus.

Presbyterian minister Brad Munroe tells of a man who told a church meeting, “I'm a millionaire and I attribute it all to God.  I remember the turning point in my faith.  I had just earned my first dollar and I went to a church meeting.  The speaker was a missionary.  I knew that I only had a dollar and had to either give it all to God’s work or nothing at all.  So I decided to give my whole dollar to God.  I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a rich man today.”  As he sat down a little old lady sitting in the same pew leaned over and whispered: “I dare you to do it again.”  She saw right through him.  She saw his insecurity and his hypocrisy.  But she also gave him the chance to do the right thing.  And she did it quietly.

I could cite examples of secret giving but using names would reveal the secret.  Yet knowing how others give secretly can show us the way.  And through giving secretly we can help others follow Jesus.  So I will speak of the young Associate Pastor who spent hours sitting with my family in my father's hospital room as he lay dying.  Her quiet presence there spoke volumes about her faith in Jesus to my brothers, who struggle to believe. 

I will speak of people who polish church door handles in the early morning hours when nobody sees them working, just so the building will look like its occupants care.  I will speak of people who worked hundreds of hours to build our new building and then resisted being thanked publicly at the dedication.  I will speak of people who hand me checks when nobody is looking and murmur, “Just put it to the best use you can think of.”  I will speak of people who while teaching Sunday school behind the movable doors get down on their knees to look children in the eye, all the better to listen to them pour out their feelings about God.  I will speak of people who drop off clothes at the Goodwill without asking for a receipt, who spend Saturdays walking dogs at the animal shelter, who pray in the quiet of their homes for me, for our elders and deacons, for our programs.  

Jesus sees us give.  The world sees Jesus in secret giving much more clearly than we may think.  Give humbly.  People will follow Jesus when you do.  Humble Christians make more Christians.

And pray.  Pray secretly but pray regularly.  Jesus gave us prayer advice in this Sermon on the Mount.  “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”  (For Jews like Jesus, “Gentiles” meant all non-Jews.)  But regardless of the religion some folks do seem to pray at greater length than God might consider necessary.  I belonged to a Christian group in St. Louis that held dinners and conferences.  One of its board members, a pastor, usually volunteered to lead the prayers at these events.  But we all dreaded his prayers.  They went on and on and often, just when we thought he was winding up to a close he would launch into a whole new paragraph.  The Director once told me, under pain of death if I related his comment, “Our friend seems to think God will pay him by the word when he prays.”

Pray to the point.  Pray sincerely.  Pray for others at least as much as you pray for yourself.  Pray quietly.  Pray like this and God will “reward” you, as Jesus said.  God will make you into a closer follower of Jesus.  Through the work of your prayers, God will make others into closer followers of Jesus.  The world is full of people who pray as Jesus told us to pray.  Their work matters.  Every once in a while somebody will shyly tell me they have been praying for me.  I cannot think of a more powerful repeated experience.  Other moments may exceed it in spiritual force, but they tend to be one-time deals, unique.  These quiet, faithful prayers support the whole ministry of the church and its people.  Praise God for them.

Sociologists and Christian writers are building an unassailable case that the biggest challenge we face in helping people follow Jesus today is that the world out there perceives those of us trying to follow Jesus as hypocrites.  We may disagree.  We may resent their attitude.  This does not matter.  What matters is that people who may wish to follow Jesus with us question our walk with him.  What can we do?   We can only give and pray without asking for recognition.  Do this long enough and people will see that we mean what we say.  We will fail from time to time, but even our failure will make us more believable—so long as we really are giving and praying.

I mentioned that young Associate Pastor who stayed with us in my father's hospital room.  One of my brothers told her how much he appreciated her being there.  She answered that she had nothing more important to do with her time.  He reminded her that earlier she had spoken of her concern that her dog, a puppy, was cooped up in her house.  He might be chewing on things and leaving unwanted “presents” on the rug.  She repeated that she had nothing more important to do with her time.  She spoke modestly but genuinely.  Later he said, “I am impressed with her.  She really means it.”