Whose It All About, Alfie?
**This post returns to my exploration of the Sermon on the Mount as found in Matthew 5-7. Before we begin, though, I want to acknowledge the deep sorrow this nation has experienced over the past weekend first with the final passage of the Big Ugly Budget Bill and then, even more immediately profound, from the deaths of so many, including a campground filled with little girls, due to the flash flooding in Texas. And now, many of my fellow North Carolinians are dealing with flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal. Our hearts break from the weight of so much sorrow.**
I know I’m showing my age here by referring to a song from the 1960s (“Alfie”).
What can I say? It was an era of amazing music! That song begins with the line “What’s it all about, Alfie?”
The song itself (click HERE for the lyrics) speaks to the main message of The Sermon on the Mount—that message being the importance of loving one another in this crazy, mixed-up world. I’ve just changed the first word to reflect the specific message of Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18.1
After telling us the what (love others, including our enemies) and the why (because it’s what God does and we are to be like God), Yeshua now points us to the who. For whose glory are we doing these things, ours or God’s?
To answer that question, we need to examine our motivations. What is my goal in doing these acts of love and devotion? The three acts he lists are giving, prayer, and fasting. These acts are meant to grow us as disciples of Christ, yet if we do them for the wrong reasons, they will backfire on us.
So it is that Yeshua begins this section of the sermon with these cautionary words, “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.”
In other words, our giving, praying, and fasting should not be about looking good but about doing good.
Altruism—”the quality of being unselfishly concerned for the welfare of others"2—is similar to humility in that the very fact of thinking that we are exhibiting those qualities immediately removes the possibility that we are.
Altruism is basically impossible. Let’s face it—doing good unto others makes us feel good. Honestly, though, I think it’s supposed to and so I don’t believe that’s what Yeshua is getting at here.
However, if we do good things in order to win the praise of others, we have missed the point of doing good.
If we give so others will think well of us, we are not acting out of love but out of ego.
If we pray so that others will be impressed by our piety and our flowery language, we are not aiming for the ears of Creator but for the ears of those around us.
If we fast so that others will praise us for our self-discipline and religiosity, we are not emptying ourselves in order to be filled by Spirit. Rather, we are filling ourselves with self and so leaving no room for Spirit to abide in us.
Creator isn’t interested in our outer appearances. Creator is trying to grow our inner self—that part of us that reflects the image of Creator. Giving, prayer, and fasting are means to that end.
Let’s take a look at each of those three disciplines.
Giving includes our time as well as our money. Consider the ways you spend both. When you give to a cause, what is the purpose of the cause and of your giving? Do you give to causes that reflect the concerns of Creator—things like justice, compassion, beauty, and truth? When our giving reflects the things of Creator, we grow in our likeness of Creator.
Prayer is how we communicate with Creator—and it is meant to be a two-way communication. How much time to you spend listening for Spirit to speak? How much time to you spend simply seeking Creator’s presence without asking Creator for something? Do you only pray when things aren’t going well? When we pray in order to deepen our relationship with Creator, we are truly seeking the kin-dom of heaven.
Fasting—now that’s something we rarely talk about these days. During the season of Lent (the six weeks prior to Holy Week and Easter), we will sometimes “give up” something like chocolate or coffee or Facebook or video games. But is that really fasting? The purpose of fasting is to empty ourselves of ego and so allow space for Spirit to work within us. Fasting both teaches us self-control and opens us up to hearing the voice of Spirit more clearly. Perhaps that is why we avoid it. We’re afraid of what we might hear! When we fast in order to be more open to Spirit, we become more attuned to Spirit’s voice and less afraid of where Spirit might lead us.
How might you grow in these disciplines of giving, prayer, and fasting? And how might Creator grow you through them? You’ll never know if you don’t practice them—and practice them for the right reasons!
I wrote on verses 9-15 in earlier posts. That section is on the Lord’s Prayer.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/altruism