Sermon on the Mount III
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“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.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 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. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Fasting
16 “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
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Prayer is at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount and it should be at the centre of our own practice and behaviour as Christians. When the disciples asked Jesus, ‘teach us to pray’ he did not respond with a ‘how to pray’ lecture. He responded with the Lord’s prayer – starting with these intimate words ‘our father’ followed by how He should be revered – ‘Hallowed be your name.’
Prayer is one of those subjects that we all know about but if we’re honest we are not really sure when we pray if we are doing it right or even if we are getting through.
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“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.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 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. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Fasting
16 “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
If you are inclined to freeze, like a rabbit in headlights, at the suggestion of praying aloud or praying in company, it could boil down to two issues: Can I pray as well as others? and secondly, how do I know I am even getting through to God?
Let me say at the outset, these are not issues the Lord wants us to labour over.
‘But as for you, when you pray....’
I would like to begin with a simple little story that I hope helps us to learn that prayer is not just about me asking about my urgent needs. Prayer is about getting to know God a bit better each time we talk to Him. It is about developing that bond between father and child of God, developing that bond between Jesus and us the adopted children of God.
With Jesus it seemed to be such a natural thing, he always seemed to begin every day, every challenge, every encounter with prayer.
Let us ask three questions that arise from Matthew 6, the prayer section of the Sermon on the Mount
How to do it
What it is
How it works
“Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them.” — Matthew 6:1
How to do it
Five people: Shelly, Bob, Helen, Trevor and Dave get lost on a mountain hike and it’s getting dark and cold, eerie animal and bird noises screech. All five walkers are gripped by fear and all decide to pray. Here is how it goes.
Showy Shelly ‘Almighty God, thank you for this wonderful opportunity to spend extra time on this mountain beholding the beauty of your creation…’
Babbling Bob ‘Oh Lord we’re in a mess, O Lord we don’t know what to do, O Lord…’
Honest Helen Finds a quiet place and sits and prays in silence.
Trusting Trevor Prays calmly and simply, ‘Lord you know everything, you are stronger than our greatest fears, help us to trust you now to get us out of here.’
Doubting Dave … ‘doesn’t pray because he doesn’t believe it will help.’
Want to know what happens?
Trusting Trevor takes out his phone and dials 999 and Mountain Rescue sends a helicopter to rescue them.
Doubting Dave Doubts if God is involved in the dilemma
Showy Shelly is a type of Matthew 6:5 person. Seeking to impress others (we do meet her in some prayer meetings). Thinking how good I am at praying. Was her prayer about drawing attention to herself?
Honest Helen is a type of Matthew 6:6 person, praying in private, honestly, face to face with God in the confidence that he knows everything. Did her prayer bring a helicopter? Who knows? Did her prayer bring her closer to God… I believe so.
Babbling Bob is a type of Matthew 6:7 person, thinking we have to plead in a particular way, thinking it will make God listen to us more. The point he was missing was his heavenly father knew his need before he prayed (Matthew 6:8).And what about Trusting Trevor? Well, he tried to keep it simple and direct, believed God loved them completely and was God trustworthy. Then he was practical and Trevor became part of the answer also… he made a phone call.
A simple little story that I hope helps us to learn that prayer is not just about me asking about my urgent needs.
Prayer is about getting to know God a bit better each time we talk to Him. Every time we pray we are seeing more clearly that God hears us, loves us and knows us completely.
Prayer cannot be reduced to principles in a ‘How to’ manual. When asked ‘how to’ Jesus gave his followers an example not a lecture, we know it as ‘the Lord’s prayer.’
What it is
““Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father….” — Matthew 6:9
Jesus introduces his ‘Prayer section’ of the Sermon on the Mount with a contrast of people who do ‘ show-case prayers’ and those who do ‘closed-door prayers’ (Matthew 6:5-6). He teaches that our Heavenly Father is as present in the quiet space as he is in the desperate place. He reads your thoughts and hears your words and knows your needs. He even understands the things you can’t express in words. Basically, on the subject of prayer, – God is ahead of you all the time.
The Lords prayer is given to us not for vain repetition or as a guaranteed success formula.
It is an intimate, simple, profound, balanced conversation with our Father in Heaven.
The child can learn it from an early age, the person with special needs can own it and cherish it, the older person with forgetfulness remembers it. The Lord’s Prayer’s familiarity does not breed contempt but weaves strands that plaits heaven and earth into the here and now.
The Lord’s Prayer’s weaves strands that plaits heaven and earth into the here and now.
The Lord’s Prayer says it all, brings us into God’s presence as sure as those disciples were in Jesus’ presence on that Sermon on the Mount. We can pray with confidence certain that God hears and answers. Not "Father, harrowed by thy name" but ‘Hallowed be thy name,’ he is awesome, holy and great but he wants me to call him - ‘dad’ - Abba. It is an insight into the nature of God—Father, not a formal fearsome higher power. Jesus showed them a relationship with Abba which was intimate, intense and unconditionally loving. Love that a loving parent gives to a beloved child. Greater than a friendship love.
The prayer (Lords prayer) gives us everything we need for our well being. Longing and yearning draw us closer to our father in heaven. When we are in hospital or in life’s struggles or trials we may think our prayers have not been heard or that God is not answering but Jesus teaches that the asking, seeking and knocking is just as important and the answer because it is drawing us into Abba fathers presence.
A War veteran I met on a ward round told me he had been in the Navy in WW2 and an enemy U-Boat torpedoed his ship and it went down. He told me, in the water, trying to survive all he could think of was saying the Lord’s prayer over and over and over again. He was rescued.
In our vulnerability we find God because our yearning is truly sincere and at times like that we are given the Lord’s Prayer, not as crafted prose but a child-like relationship, rooted in Christ, a relationship with Abba father.
The disciples were looking for teaching and tips on prayer and Jesus gave them so much more.
How it works
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” — Matthew 5:17
If you have children I want you to think of each of them when they were young. If not I want you to think of a time when you were young and speaking to a parent. Let me ask you a question. Did all your children speak to you in the same way? No. Did you always speak to your dad in the same way as another sibling? No.
What I am trying to do, is to get us to realise that when we pray and talk to our heavenly father, each of us is a unique child of God and each of us prays in our own way (your way is different to mine). Each of us expresses our relationship with our heavenly father in a way that seems right for us.
Like Doubting Dave in our simple story, fears and doubts cause us to freeze and it stops us from ‘having a go’ in prayer. And because we don’t have a go at it we get all hung up in the "how-to" part, feeling inadequate for the task, embarrassed by the idea of talking to God, especially in front of someone…. many of us simply don't speak it out. We should never feel inadequate in prayer. Let me illustrate it with this true family story.
When my youngest daughter (now age 24) was one year old and beginning to talk. She just wanted to talk, no more than making a sound. Sometimes she would say ‘da’ and that’s all. Jenn and I did not think any less of her for those few stumbling words, she was just starting out – we loved it.
A year later when she was about two, she would come up to me to distract my sermon preparation and say ‘dad?’
I would look up but she didn’t have anything more to say, just ‘dad?’ She was at the limits of her vocabulary but she just wanted to talk. She was really saying … ‘I just want to be with you, I want to be near you, I want to hear you, I want your attention…I love you.’ All of the above in one dreamy word ‘dad.’When she was three years old she loved a children’s chorus that we sang at The Ark - a children’s church. It went like this; ‘we have a father he’s gonna bless us all.’ However, I noticed Ellie was singing, ‘we have a Father we call him Bethany…’ No amount of parental correction could get her to believe those were not the correct words!
My point is this, God doesn’t think any less of her because her words do not come out right. I am sure God was just thrilled that she had a go at it. In having a go can you see that she was saying louder than any words:
‘I just want to be with you, I want to be near you, I want to hear you…I love you ….God.’
I believe our heavenly father treasures our stumbling, stuttering prayers. After all, He knows our needs before we pray – Matthew 6:8 - we don’t need to say the right words. The main thing is to talk with God, not for a showy display to those around us. But to get to know God personally and we do that by talking to him – personally. It begins by inviting him into our lives. Whether we are young or old we must come to a place where you choose for yourself (personally) to invite Jesus into your life. No one else can do that for you.
How fantastic would that be if today was that day? The first day of the rest of your life. A life transformed by Jesus. A life of growing in prayer, using the Lord’s prayer and adding our own prayers as we get to know God more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more nearly day by day by day by day.
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Amen.
St Richard of Chichester
