Behind the Mask (5/11/14)

Behind the Mask

John Shuck

First Presbyterian Church

Elizabethton, Tennessee

May 11, 2014

A Permeable Life

Carrie Newcomer

I want to leave enough room in my heart

For the unexpected,

For the mistake that becomes knowing,

For knowing that becomes wonder,

For wonder that makes everything porous,

Allowing in and out

All available light.

An impermeable life is full to the edges,

But only to the edges.

It is a limited thing.

Like the pause at the center of the breath,

Neither releasing or inviting,

With no hollow spaces

For longing and possibility.

I would rather live unlocked,

And more often than not astonished,

Which is possible

If I am willing to surrender

What I already think I know.

So I will stay open

And companionably friendly,

With all that presses out from the heart

And comes in at a slant

And shimmers just below

The surface of things

Emmet Fox

The Sermon on the Mount

It is very significant that Jesus should call your consciousness the Secret Place.  He desires, as always, to impress us with the truth that it is the inner that causes the outer, and not the outer that brings about the condition of the inner.  Neither does one outer thing ever cause another outer thing.  Cause and effect are from the within to the without….

It is obvious from this that nothing is worthwhile; nothing has any real significance, but a change of policy in the Secret Place.  Think rightly, and sooner or later all will be well on the outside.

Matthew 6:1-18

Take care that you don’t flaunt your religion in public to be noticed by others.  Otherwise, you’ll have no reward from your Father in the heavens.  For example, when you give to charity, don’t bother to toot your own horn as some phonies do in synagogues and on the street.  They are seeking human recognition.  Let me tell you, they’ve already received their reward.  Instead, when you give to charity, don’t let your left hand in on what your right hand is up to, so your acts of charity will stay secret.  And your Father, who sees what happens in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray, don’t act like phonies.  They love to stand up and pray in synagogues and on street corners, so they can show off in public.  Le me tell you, they’ve already received their reward.  When you pray, go into a room by yourself and shut the door behind you.  Then pray to your Father, the hidden one.  And your Father, who sees what happens in secret, will reward you.  And when you pray, you should not babble on as the pagans do.   They imagine that the more they say, the more attention they get.  So don’t imitate them.  After all, your Father knows what you need before you ask.  Instead, you should pray like this:

Our Father in the heavens,

your name be revered.

Your empire be established,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Provide us with the bread we need for the day.

Forgive our debts

to the extent that we have forgiven those in debt to us.

And don’t make us face the test,

but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive the offenses of others, your heavenly Father will also forgive yours, and if you don’t forgive others, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your offenses.

When you fast, don’t make a spectacle of your remorse as the phonies do.  As you know they make their faces unrecognizable so their fasting may be publicly recognized.  Let me tell you, they’ve already received their reward.  When you fast, brush your hair and wash your face, so your fasting will not be noticed by others, but by your Father, the hidden one, and your Father, who sees what happens in secret, will reward you.

This passage raises a number of questions.   These questions include:

What is prayer?

What are we doing when we pray?

Are we trying to influence someone, something?

What is meant by the reward for what happens in secret?

In this section, Matthew’s Jesus is talking about three activities, charity, prayer, and fasting.    What did Jesus think about these acts of piety?  Thomas’s Jesus in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas has something to say about charity, prayer, and fasting.  This is saying 14:

Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits.”

What you find with the gospels is that the authors found something interesting about the historical Jesus and elaborated and exaggerated it.  They thought about what he said and tried to make sense of it.     What might have gone back to the historical Jesus was this admonition:

Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

That admonition is also found in Thomas.    Matthew applies it to charity.  Thomas applies it to the disclosing of mysteries.  

In this section on Matthew, the following might go back to Jesus:

When you give to charity, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

When you pray, go into a room by yourself and shut the door behind you. 

Our Father

Your name be revered.

Impose your imperial rule.

Provide us with bread we need for the day.

Forgive our debts to the extent that we have forgiven those in debt to us.

And please don’t subject us to test after test.

When you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.

If you are curious as to how the Jesus Seminar did this work, I recommend The Five Gospels.    I think it is all quite interesting.   

It seems to me that Matthew captured a certain spirit of the historical Jesus and elaborated on it.   Thomas did the same.  Thomas has Jesus say to forget all that piety stuff: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  He was saying, to paraphrase:  It is all fake.   It is all a show.  It is all external.  It is all illusory.  It is the outer husk of religion.  It will do nothing for your inner life. 

Matthew doesn’t go that far.   He has Jesus value these practices but only to the extent that they are private practices and secret practices.    Matthew’s Jesus talks about the Father watching you.  Matthew frames his ethics around reward and punishment from the all-seeing eye of a supernatural Father figure.   

I don’t think the historical Jesus was that literal regarding the Father watching you.   But the historical Jesus was critical of religious practices and saw how they can be abused.   If these practices really have value, then you should do them without anyone knowing about them.

Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting were expected of people.  This is what you were supposed to do.   But these things aren’t necessarily done automatically because you like to do them.    You have to be told to do these things.   They require discipline, practice, and training.

They are like all those charity hours college students need to rack up before graduation so they can put them on their resume.   I am not picking.  We all do this.  See, look at this list of good deeds.  I am good.  Hire me. 

I don’t know if the historical Jesus would say this, but I would.   Good deeds are good even if selfishly motivated.    Giving money to the church is still a good thing even if you do so for a tax break.    One might question if there is ever any deed done that is completely free of self-interest.    At some level, likely at a level of which we are not conscious, our good deeds and worthy practices do something for us.   

Even Matthew has Jesus appeal to self-interest, “The Father will reward you.”   He is shifted it from public reward to Father in heaven.    I don’t think Matthew did us any favors by emphasizing supernatural rewards and punishments.    I think the nuance was lost as well as subjecting people to spiritual abuse by authorities.    You know what I mean, “Do this or you are going to hell” kind of stuff. 

That said I think the impulse by Jesus was to make for a deeper sense of self.      The practices, in his view, had become cheapened, common, and were being used to serve the baser aspects of our lives.    

For instance, it would be hard to imagine the historical Jesus, or Thomas’s Jesus or Matthew’s Jesus attending the National Day of Prayer.   If you missed it, it was May 1^st.    It is hard for me to see it as anything but a cynical display of partisan politics, superstition, and exceptionalism.   I think Jesus would look at that spectacle and say, “Go pray in your closets, guys.”      

But who is the hypocrite?  I have prayed in public before.    I have used my clergy credentials to make public statements.   I have worn my collar and marched for peace and spoke publicly for gay rights and what all.  I have received my reward for it.  I hope it even did some good.   It was certainly in public to be seen.  Is that what Jesus was talking about?   Maybe, but I do think there is value in expressing ethics in terms of faith.   I am thinking of Martin Luther King or more recently, the Nuns on the Bus, calling the nation’s attention to racial and economic justice as moral issues.

I think the text says to me, if you have to be religious in public, do it, but know there is a limited value in it.   The reward fits the expression.   If you, John Shuck, want to receive spiritual value from the practices of charity, prayer, or fasting, you will need to go behind the mask, beneath the public expression to an interior expression. 

The word translated as hypocrite or phony is more precisely actor.   Actors on stage would put on masks to show the audience the person they are portraying.      The image Matthew is using is that public piety is like a stage play.   

Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting were expected of people.    Social pressure encouraged compliance.  A combination of positive and negative reinforcement was required for motivation.    If these practices were expected socially, the reward was also social.  I think I hear Jesus saying that if I want these practices to have inner transformative value, I need to bring them within my own self.   These things need to have value behind the mask.     I need to make these things part of my nature, not just something I need to do because it is expected.     

I think Emmet Fox has a helpful understanding of this passage, when he writes:

It is very significant that Jesus should call your consciousness the Secret Place.  He desires, as always, to impress us with the truth that it is the inner that causes the outer, and not the outer that brings about the condition of the inner.  Neither does one outer thing ever cause another outer thing.  Cause and effect are from the within to the without….

It is obvious from this that nothing is worthwhile; nothing has any real significance, but a change of policy in the Secret Place.  Think rightly, and sooner or later all will be well on the outside.

What are these practices?  Almsgiving is easy to understand.  It is an old-fashioned word but it has to do with giving money for food, shelter, and other the needs of the poor.    It is easy to see that is a good thing to do.   Creating a habit of giving, of generosity that comes from gratitude is its own reward.   It is especially so when it is done without concern with what others might think.

What about fasting?  What is fasting?  Muslims who fast during the period of Ramadan do not eat until sundown each day.   It is a prescribed discipline to feel hunger.   This practice can lead to increased awareness and attention that you might miss by not engaging in this practice.    Jesus is criticizing those who through their appearance say, “Hey, look at me, I am fasting!  Aren’t I spiritual?”   The point is that if you want to do something spiritual, make it spiritual.   Don’t let on that you are fasting.  The benefits seem lost if they are used for boasting.   

What about prayer?  What is prayer?   I think this question could lead to another sermon or series of sermons.   I think prayer is something people have a lot of questions about, but that is beyond the scope of today’s sermon.   Perhaps this summer a few sermons on prayer might be in order.  

In the context of today’s passage, I hear Jesus saying, “Take care regarding prayer.”  There is a sacredness, a holiness, an intimacy with self and God, however one conceives of God.   Prayer in the words of the poem by Carrie Newcomer is about “leaving room in the heart,” being “porous” and “permeable” and “open” and “unlocked” to that which “shimmers just below the surface of things.”

If prayer is something like that, then making speeches disguised as prayers is not that.   That is a closing rather than an opening.   That is speaking for God and on behalf of God rather than being spoken to by God.   

I hear this message from Jesus in today’s scripture reading:   bring your prayer, bring your fasting, bring your almsgiving into the sacred space of the heart.   In that space will you find the greatest reward.    

I have been reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor called Learning to Walk in the Dark.  It is beautifully written.  She ends the book with a prayer she keeps on her nightstand.    It is a prayer written by Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton.   I will close with it.    It is called Morning Prayer.  Let us pray:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think that I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this,

You will lead me by the right road.

Though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always

though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me.

And you will never leave me to face my struggles alone.

Amen.