Hiddenness

Matthew 6: 1- 6, 16- 18

Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them...

so that it will not be obvious to men ....but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

This morning, I made another trip to PJ New Town as I had banking errands to do. As usual, I had breakfast at the prawn mee stall near UOB bank. And who should drop by but the man selling ball point pens! This time I decided to have a chat with him. Yes, he is a 'mental patient' (his own words) who has been on medication for many years. He lives in Section 5 with his siblings, some of whom also have this illness. He told me that he now takes medication regularly, and monthly injections at the hospital. He said that he was once going to get married, but he stopped medication, had a relapse and his girlfriend left him. He sighed as he said that if he had got married then, his children would be grown up by now. I told him I have bought pens from him before and still have them, but I would buy another packet from him. It felt good to chat with this man, someone so open and honest about his needy situation, and not ashamed to ask for help. I observed how others responded to him. The usual story is that they already have many pens. But not far from me, there was a lady who just bought a packet of pens without hesitation, unselfishly performing a simple act of kindness.

These days we Christians are so busy with our 'acts of righteousness' that I wonder whether we have time to reflect on our motivation. I notice that we just rush about doing things, every church taking on projects that require much commitment and then giving the members a 'push' to get going. Do our 'acts of righteousness', be it social outreach ministry or even prayer and fasting flow from our devotion to God, from sincerely grateful hearts? Why people do religious acts is an important matter for Jesus. We can zealously do many things 'for the Lord' (and aren't we are good at religious jargon) but we may rarely stop to ask ourselves why we do so. When we begin to do things automatically, there is a danger that our heart condition does not really follow along with the acts. And this is a form of hypocrisy, even though it may not be as blatant as that demonstrated by the Pharisees.

I was brought up as a Taoist -Buddhist. All through my childhood, I observed how offerings were made in order to appease the gods and receive favors. None of this required any heart involvement. A person's heart was not a condition for his offering to be pleasing to the gods. it almost seemed like a form of bribery. But our Father in heaven does not operate this way. He has called us by name, we are his and he is truly concerned about our heart condition. I suppose it is the same for those of us who love our children. We would not want them to put on a show of affection in front of us, in order to 'please' us, unless it really came from their hearts.

I believe the real test of all this is whether we would continue to perform our acts of piety in hiddenness, for the audience of One. I am often tempted when people ask me what I am doing these days, to try to justify my time and tell them what I do.....why do I do this? I suppose I need to seek affirmation that I am 'serving the Lord', being busy about his work. Well, when I can, I catch myself in time and stop trying to justify myself. I need to leave it to the Lord to see whether I am using 'his time' well. It may not seem to others that we are 'doing much' (especially compared to the many busy Christians out there!) but each of us needs to remember why we serve and Who we serve. The only one we have to give an account to is our loving Father, who desires service that flows from our devotion to him.