Jesus has been telling those who want to be his followers about the sort of life they are to live.  He has been telling them about the disposition of the heart in which the Spirit of the Living God has written His Law.  Following the Jesus way will not make anyone a success as the world defines success.  Following the Jesus way will not make anyone wealthy as the world recognizes wealth.  The Jesus way will not restore lost youth or broken physical health.  If we follow the Jesus way at all, it is because Jesus has taught, and we have believed, that this way is blessed and most pleasing in God’s sight.  The Father is visible in His children.  The Jesus way reflects the heart of God.  The Jesus way puts the character of God on brighter display and causes that same character to be formed more and more in those who make that character their daily, intentional, conscientious practice.  That’s something about which we can pray.

Scripture does speak of reward and punishments.  Like our pets and our children, we also respond to both.  We seek reward.  We want to avoid punishment.  Now, different people find different things rewarding.  Jesus instructs his followers to seek the reward of God, rather than any substitute rewards being offered in this world.  When does this reward of God arrive?  Delayed gratification can make some hard demands upon us.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (6:1).  I don’t set myself to live as a faithful disciple in the expectation of applause from anyone.  I’m fully aware of what I deserve from God.  I’m fully aware that, because of Jesus, I am not getting what I deserve, thank God!  To the extent that I do live by and for Christ, it is because of Christ in me, God’s gift.  All praise to God.

The world will be the last to sing God’s praises.  Jesus has been clear, and the story of his life here on earth makes clear, that following his way will bring punishment more often than reward: resistance, rejection, ridicule.  Why live this way if it gets us treated like that?  No, no—to get along, go along.  Just consider all that can be yours, if only you’d think, act, and desire as the world tells you.  The only one preventing us from heeding that terrible advice is the Holy Spirit, writing the Law of the Living God upon our hearts, and the Law is Jesus, and the Law is love.

Love gives.  Love also has expectations.  Love looks like something.  For the Jews in the days of Jesus, almsgiving, charity, was the premier sign of righteousness.  In Islam, one of the five pillars of the faith is charity: Muslims are expected, even required, to be charitable givers.  Charity is certainly important for Christians: most of the biggest, oldest charities began as Christian ministries, not to mention hospitals and schools.  Bethel dedicates a portion of our annual budget to charitable giving.  We give in many other ways, too.  It feels good to give, and I exhort you, many Sundays, in the words of St. Paul, to “give as you are able, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  He loves a cheerful giver because that is exactly how God gives.

Yes, let us also give, joyfully.  Not all of us have the financial wherewithal to give large amounts.  The amount is not the most important thing.  What matters most is the spirit in which the gift is given.  That we give as we are able is what counts.  We shall not lose God’s reward, as we give in a way that reflects the character of God.

Jesus is criticizing those who are hungrier for the praise of people than the approval of God.  How could anyone be like that?  A person can be like that because he or she doesn’t really know God, doesn’t value God and isn’t all that interested in God.  I’m sorry to say there are more than enough people like that in the world.  It seems there always have been.  These are the ones who are not spiritual.  Perhaps their focus is on the physical—bodies, objects, things, experiences.  Perhaps their focus is on the mind—intellect, theory, data, formula, abstraction.  The thought of God makes little to no impression, there.

We’ve learned to pay attention to polling numbers; we experience how influential such information is—even when it ends up being ludicrously wrong.  You’ve resisted screens here at Bethel, though not all of you are adamantly opposed.  You also know the big churches, the popular churches, have screens.  You know that the big churches, the popular churches, sing a slew of mostly contemporary praise songs: the KSBJ playlist.  There’s no organ to be heard in those churches.  You know that (unlike here) at the big churches, the popular churches, the preachers preach a positive, uplifting message—whatever that may mean.  The Bible is the most positive, most uplifting message of all!  And Scripture sets that most uplifting message within the very candid account of our many unhappy, discouraging words, choices, and actions.  We’re a hot mess, and God cleans us up and straightens us out: that’s an uplifting message!

We know we aren’t to seek the praise of others or popularity, nice as it may seem to have that.  Still, the desire to be popular, liked, or at least not actively disliked, is a huge motivator.  We see this in school all the time: if I want to have friends, I have to do what the other kids do, talk the way they talk, dress the way they dress, like the things they like!  Advancement seems to have a strong correlation to the praise and acceptance of others.  Those looking for the reward of their heavenly Father are called to practice their faith without regard to the approval or disapproval of others but according to the Word of God, Spirit-written upon the heart, in the secret place, the place we rarely allow others to see but that God sees all the time.

God has His eyes upon each of us every day.  He is looking to see some signs of His reflection in our lives, that we are living more and more, even if only incrementally, as His children.  We see the parent in the children.

At this point in his teaching, Jesus turns to the subject of prayer.  That is a subject we wrestle with.  What is prayer?  What is it for?  Does it do any good?  Pastor says God listens and delights to hear, but some of us have been faithfully praying about one or two heart-wrenching things for years, and it doesn’t seem God has done much of anything about any of it.  There are some things about which we don’t pray anymore.  One day, we just didn’t and haven’t since.  We know prayer really isn’t about our shopping list of things we want from God-Mart, and there are things we feel we deeply need from God: strength, patience, peace, hope, health.  And we don’t pray just for ourselves—we’re not that selfish!

We bring our needs before God, knowing, just as Jesus also tells us, that God knows all our need even before we ask.  What is our biggest, deepest, most ongoing need?  If we would listen to the whole of Scripture, it is to know and love the Lord our God, to become more like our Father in heaven, in outlook and action.  We come to God in prayer, and, through prayer, God teaches us about Himself, who He is, what He asks of us, what He does for us in order that we become more like Him, reflect Him more brightly and clearly in our daily living, in our desiring, thinking, choosing, and our actions.

Jesus prayed, often.  Why?  If there was anyone who really didn’t need to pray, surely it was Jesus.  And when he prayed, at least in those prayers he shared with his disciples, what did he ask of his Father?  Often, it seems, Jesus asks God into his life, asks that God would keep him open to God’s will, keep him willing to offer everything to God, keep him willing to sacrifice his own will on the altar of God’s will, a fragrant, most acceptable offering.  Our prayer, then, might go something like this: “Change my heart, O God; make it ever true.  Change my heart, O God; may I be like You.”

Prayer, then, is never a public display or performance, aiming to broadcast just how devout and holy you are: hey everybody, can’t you just see how I love God and whatnot!  We don’t encounter a lot of that, but even within the churches, we can encounter those who very much want others to understand just how intense he or she is about faith: you’ve got to admit that I, for one, am a Very Serious Christian—unlike so many of you here.  That self-congratulation is their reward.  “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full” (6:5).

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (6:6).  Not if you pray but when.  Some people pray once a day, others twice, others at mealtimes, and others whenever, wherever, and however the Spirit moves them.  At this point, I’m not so concerned with the frequency as I am with the quality.  Prayer is never a throwaway.  Prayer is also very much a matter between you and God, an intensely personal connection.  Open all your heart to God and God’s light.  Let God, by His light, point out those places in your heart that need His and your special attention, in partnership, in communion.  This is the reward of God: He will help you where He knows you need particular help.  That’s not always the same place you and I are convinced we most need help.

“[Y]our Father knows what you need before you ask him” (6:8).  Uh, so, why am I even asking, then?  Because what you think you need and what God knows you need do not always align perfectly, and God wants not only to give you what you most need but also wants you to know and accept that what He wants to give you is indeed what you need most.  Prayer is a means God gives, by which the Spirit reshapes us, opens the eyes of our heart.  Prayer teaches us about our needs.  In prayer, we take our needs to God, whether we realize it or not.  God then shows us what our deep-most needs have been, all along, and He does something about it.

And to Jesus Christ, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests of his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.