18 June 2014 - lightsource

18 June 2014 - lightsource 

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
 
The point is not necessarily to conceal the good we do.  We are called to be a city on a hill and a lamp which is not covered by a bushel basket.  The point is our motivation.  We don't perform these righteous deeds because we want to be seen.  We need to check this impulse.  This certainly means that at times we should do good and receive no recognition whatsoever.  This will be a litmus test for us as to our progress.  It will reveal our true intentions.  Are we actually growing in love for God and neighbor?  Or are we instead just more and more intently striving to present a certain image of ourselves as good people?

Again, we are called to be light.  We are called to let our light shine before men that they may see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father (cf. Mat 5:14-16).  But the world is really good as spotting hypocrisy.  We have to purify the superficial motives.  We have to purify ourselves "by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love" so that we can "love one another intensely from a pure heart" (cf. 1 Pet 1:22).  As Paul insists, we must "Let love be sincere" (cf. Rom. 12:9).

With spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting we must be especially careful.  We really need to be cautious that we aren't Christians for a self-image boost.  The world has a nose for hypocrisy, as we said.  If we want to tell them about a great and fulfilling relationship by which they can be saved it can't be a relationship with ourselves.  Christianity's power is precisely to liberate us from our selfishness.  Without Jesus we are chained within ourselves.  We can scarcely shift our gaze to the windows of our soul to realize that there is a world outside.  Jesus frees us from this.  Within the very center of our soul we find not ourselves but him.  And he empowers us to go out with love to others.  They will know that we are Christians by our love precisely because this love is qualitatively different from the love of the world.  On the other hand, when we pray and fast to be seen we are effectively taking credit due to God.  He empowers any meaning our prayer and fasting can have.  Even the impulse to do these things is from him.  From the beginning to the end the praise should be his.  Being seen as a people of prayer is wonderful.  Praying to be seen is a disastrous trap.

Even Elijah's assumption, intensely spiritual, personal, and individual is seen by Elisha.  We imagine that if we ourselves were so fortunate that it would be easy to be immensely prideful to be seen ascending in fiery chariots.  Elijah leaves the ball in God's court.  He is not insistent that this be visible.  Such insistence would likely be pride.  Yet he knows that to see it can be a blessing to Elisha.  It can be for him "a double portion" of Elijah's spirit.  And, at least in part because of the humility of Elijah, it comes to pass.

This is very difficult teaching.  We must realize that if we are left to our own strength we quickly become hypocrites.  Let us go to our inner rooms, close the door, and pray to our Father in secret.  In the depths of our souls, safe from all false incentives, his presence fills us with the strength to be light in the darkness.

You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
from the strife of tongues.

He "more than requites those who act proudly."  But if our hope is in him and not in ourselves we find comfort and peace.