Christ Church, 2 Oct 2005
6.00pm

Matthew 6:1-4

 For these last two Sundays, all our Bible readings and preaching have been centred around the issue of giving; especially giving to Christ Church. All this is of course linked to our Planned Giving campaign. Tonight’s reading has Jesus dealing specifically about almsgiving to the poor and needy, as part of a person’s ‘religious’ duty. I think, though, much of what he says applies to giving to the church. For the Jewish audience to whom he spoke, almsgiving along with prayer and fasting were part of their religious duty, of their piety. For 21^st Century Christians, giving to the church has really supplanted then ‘duty’ to give to the poor.

What Jesus is saying in these verses is more to do with how we give, in the sense of what is our motive in giving, than with the actual duty, or the matter of ‘how much’, which is, of course, very relevant for the upcoming weeks. But I would suggest that our motive is just as important, and, in fact, if we get the motive right and the basis for giving right, then the amount we give will look after itself.

If we turn now to our Lord’s words, we see that in verse 1 he says, Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. In the King James’ Bible for ‘acts of righteousness’ we actually have ‘almsgiving’  He goes on in verse 2 to elaborate on this by saying that it shouldn’t be with a public display, to be honoured by men. It was very easy for that to occur; very easy for anyone who wished to appear ‘pious’. Almsgiving was a duty; it was compulsory, and in Jerusalem, there would be a trumpet call summoning the people to the Temple Treasury. Now, if you wished to impress people, it was very easy to dash out into the street as soon as the trumpet blast was sounded and to be seen to be hurrying toward the Temple. That would be sure to impress.
 There’s a great temptation for religious people to make something of a show in their ‘religious acts’. It can become very important to see a correct fulfilment of religious duty as something necessary to ‘earn another “brownie point”’. What, after all, more important than to get these things right, and to do it in a way to be seen by others as the act of a pious person.

  Now in giving to the church there isn’t the same sort of danger, for we put our money in the collection bag, and without very ostentatiously placing say a £20 note in the bag, nobody’s going to know anyway. Except maybe we might like to impress our Giving Secretary. Maybe a word will slip out that so-and-so is very generous in his giving to Christ Church.

More subtly, Jesus speaks of ‘hypocrisy’, and the word ‘hypocrite’ has, in its origins, to do with a play-actor. It denotes something that is not from the heart, something just done for a show. Hypocrisy can be more subtle! And Jesus highlights this for us in verse 3 where he says, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. The right hand is the one which does things. And we should be giving in such a way that we’re hardly conscious of what we’re doing. It should come so much from the heart, that we don’t do it in a calculating sort of way.

  Yes, we do have to stop and think how much we are going to give, if only because we shall be asked to make a pledge, a promise, a plan of how much we are going to give to Christ Church. But the calculation should be a generous one. We may be tempted to impress ourselves, to feel satisfied- “Haven’t I given generously?”. That would be the left hand knowing what the right is doing. We might not be out to impress anyone else, but we can be out to impress ourselves, to have a ‘warm’ feeling inside about ourselves. But the bottom line is that ‘I’ should in no way, be at the focus of what ‘I’ give.

So now we come to the ‘bottom line’. What should be our motive, our driving force in giving. The last words Jesus spoke before dealing with our ‘acts of righteousness’ are Matthew 5:48
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The Christian life should be a transformed life, a life as Paul put it is being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18). Such a life has a relationship with our heavenly Father at its centre. It has as its prime desire, the desire from the heart to please our heavenly Father, and not to court approval from our fellow-man.
So then, Jesus says that the hypocrite, the pious person, does his religious duty before men, to be seen by them. Such, says Jesus, will have no reward from your Father in heaven. Pleasing man, and self-satisfaction will be the driving-force. And such giving will be done in a very calculating manner. “How much do I give to feel good about it? Give that much, and no more”
How different will be the person who has the desire to please God, to be transformed at heart. They will give purely and simple to please God. Giving will be secret, it will be calculated, but not calculating. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And the amount will take care of itself and be right. Our reward will be that we have pleased Him in whose name this church stands.