The street-corner show-off.

Matthew 6.5.

Since I’m going through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and these next passages have to do with prayer, I’m gonna discuss them in lieu of my usual posts on prayer. Beginning with the first of Jesus’s teachings on the topic, in chapter 6:

Matthew 6.5 KWL

“And whenever you² pray,

you’ll² not be like the hypocrites,

because they love standing up to pray

in synagogues and street corners

so they might be seen by people.

Amen! I promise you² this

is the compensation they receive.”

Throughout history, people have prayed publicly for various reasons. Some noble, some not. Today, Jesus gets into the not. They’re not legitimately trying to speak with God, nor publicly calling upon him for help and inviting everyone else to join their prayers. (And even these prayers can be done hypocritically.) This is purely so they can be seen praying. They wanna look religious. Usually more religious than they actually are.

Nothing annoys Jesus like hypocrisy, which is why he tries to discourage his followers from doing anything which smacks of hypocrisy. But you know some of us do this anyway.

Now the way the ancient prayed, typically, was standing up, heads and eyes and arms and hands raised to the sky, and praying aloud. They didn’t kneel, bow their heads, fold their hands, and pray mentally but not audibly. That practice arose in the middle ages. That was the posture European kings demanded of those who approached them—and since Jesus is King, people figured it’s appropriate. But the ancients faced the sky where they imagined God is, lifted their hands to get his attention, and spoke with him. This posture made it really obvious they were praying. Don’t need to get loud; just assume the position.

Jesus singles out the people who prayed in really public places. Like synagogue. Which is not a Jewish church like it is nowadays; it’s a Pharisee school. You went there to hear rabbis teach, and ask ’em questions. Prayer times took place throughout—before, after, and during the lesson—and they’d be short. But often people would stand right outside the building and make a public display of prayer, “getting right with God” before they went in. Or similarly praying this way after the lesson, ostensibly to thank God for the wisdom they just received… or maybe to ask him to straighten out some wayward rabbi. Whatever; the point was they were making it nice ’n obvious they talked with God. Presumably a lot.

Jesus also brings up ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν/tes yoníës ton plateión, “the corners of the [wide] streets,” the most important busy intersections in town. Plenty of people walking past; plenty of people to witness you praying, nice and loud so God could hear you over all the other noise. (As if he’s in any way hard of hearing.)

In both cases, people might not have had the time, nor interest, to listen to the petitioner with his hands in the air. That wasn’t the point anyway. It’s not about being heard—not even by God!—but seen.

The way Christians pray nowadays, typically doesn’t assume the ancient posture. Usually our heads are bowed, eyes closed. Sometimes hands get raised, if the folks in the group have any Pentecostal influences in their background. But generally we’re not as noticeable when we pray. Unless we get loud… or unless there are a lot of us, like when a bunch of people pray in front of public buildings, around a flagpole, or in Congress.

But in these places, same as with the people Jesus critiqued, the point was to be seen and noticed by other people. Not so much God. And that’s what Jesus objects to.

For whom are you doing charity?

Matthew 6.1-4.

The second chapter of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount begins with this teaching, only found in Matthew:

Matthew 6.1-4 KWL

1“Be careful to not do your² righteous deeds

in front of people for them to see.

Otherwise you² certainly get no compensation

from your² heavenly Father.

2“So whenever you¹ do for the needy,

you¹ ought not trumpet it out before you¹,

same as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets

so they might be praised by people.

Amen! I promise you² this

is the compensation they receive.

3Now when you¹ do for the needy,

don’t let your¹ left hand know

what your¹ right does,

4so your¹ works for the needy

might be private.

And your¹ Father, who sees what’s done in private,

will pay you¹ back {in the open}.”

“In the open” in verse 4 was added to the text in the fourth century, and found in the Codex Washingtonianus and the Textus Receptus. It’s not in the oldest copies. Yet since Jesus is described as bringing us our compensation at his return, Rv 22.12 he may very well repay us in the open.

Superficially, Jesus’s teaching appears to contradict what he said about us being the world’s light—“that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Mt 5.16 KJV But the obvious difference between that and this, is motive. As Jesus says in verse 1, watch out lest your good deeds are “in front of people for them to see,” i.e. done for public acclaim, not out of goodness, and definitely not for God. Done out of hypocrisy, not actual devotion. If you’re doing ’em for public praise, bad Christian!—human praise is all the compensation you get. That’s the context.

Jesus’s word “compensation” (Greek μισθὸν/misthón) means something we earned; “the worker is worthy of his misthú/wages.” 1Ti 5.18 Yet lots of bibles, following the KJV, translate it “reward,” which’ll give people the false idea this is something we didn’t actually merit, like when we get a reward for finding a lost item or missing person. When the King James was published in 1611, “reward” still meant compensation for your troubles. Workers don’t win their wages; they earn ’em.

Various stingy Christians claim God owes us nothing when we do good deeds. ’Cause we should be doing ’em anyway, right? And yeah, we should. True. But they’ve got a really lousy attitude about how God’s grace, and therefore our grace, should work. We’re not just God’s kids, who work for him for free. We inherit his kingdom. We have a stake in it; it’s also our kingdom. We should want to see it succeed, and the only way for that to happen is for us to follow the Boss’s vision. And God doesn’t skimp on our wages.

Unless of course we’re not working for God, but for our own gain. Unless we’re not making him any profit, but swiping all that profit for ourselves. This is what Jesus addresses in this lesson: Hypocrites who only do good deeds to make themselves look good. Ostensibly they work for God, but really they’re growing their own little fiefdoms instead of his kingdom.

There are three hypocritical practices Jesus objects to in the Sermon: Self-serving public charity, self-serving public prayer, and self-serving public fasting. Today I deal with the charity.

Civic idolatry.

CIVIC IDOLATRY 'sɪv.ɪk aɪ'dɑl.ə.tri noun. Worship of one’s homeland, its constitution, its government, or its leaders.

[Civically idolatrous 'sɪv.ɪk.(ə.)li aɪ'dɑl.ə.trəs adjective, civic idolater 'sɪv.ɪk aɪ'dɑl.ə.tər noun.]

In 1776 the Parliament of the United Kingdom, insisting they had every right to tax the British colonies of North America to fund the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), violated the colonies’ charters which had guaranteed them self-governance under a common king—much like the British Commonweath nowadays. It’s as if the UK Parliament of today taxed Canada, Jamaica, or the Bahamas.

By that point, after the Glorious Revolution, the British kings were largely ceremonial, same as today. King George Hanover 3 didn’t have the political might to do a thing about the situation. So he of course sided with his Parliament; but he went further and declared the colonies outside his protection. The Americans’ Continental Congress, colonial delegates representing 13 of the colonies which later became the United States, interpreted this to mean they were now independent states. On 4 July (or 2 July, depending on which founder you talk to) they officially declared themselves independent.

So today’s Independence Day in the United States. This week, Americans are gonna set off tons of fireworks, eat a lot of barbecue, and express a whole lot of patriotism. American Christians included. As we should.

However, many American Christians regularly cross a line between the proper familial love of one’s homeland, and descend into outright worship of the United States. Yep, full-on idolatry. We also call it civic idolatry. It’s when love for our country stops being reasonable and fair-minded: We treat it, its symbols, its values, and its institutions as sacred and holy. It’s when we treat contempt for it, or even fair-minded constructive criticism of it, as heresy and blasphemy. Civic idolaters might call it other things, like “unpatriotic” or “subversive” or “seditious” or “treasonous” or “traitorous,” but yeah, they mean blasphemy. ’Cause how dare we speak poorly of the United States?

Civic idolaters are also gonna do their darnedest to say they worship God, and God alone; not the United States. But y’notice they too often confound God and country, and blend ’em together as if they’re the same thing.

• When we attribute things to the United States which are only legitimately true of God, we got idolatry.
• When we claim things about our country which are only legitimately true of God’s kingdom (“This is a Christian nation!” or “Jesus reigns over this land, and American laws should reflect this!”) we got idolatry.
• When our nation or our politics take precedence over the actual growth of God’s kingdom, we got idolatry.
• When our political principles actually defy Jesus’s teachings, we got idolatry.

Hey, sometimes in our dual citizenship with God’s kingdom and the world, we gotta pick a side. But every time we choose the world, it’s idolatry.

Special revelation: God’s gotta tell us about himself.

Last week I posted a piece on general revelation, the idea we can deduce God, and what he’s like, by looking at his creation. And, of course, why that’s largely rubbish: Every religion tries to deduce a bit of what God’s like by looking at nature. In so doing, every religion gets God wrong. In a thousand different ways.

Yeah, I know, “The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. Ps 19.1 might be one of your very favorite verses. You’ve got framed posters of photos from the Hubble or Webb telescopes on your wall, captioned with that very memory verse. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy about how you can love both science and God. And… big whoop. The glory of the heavens suggest the glory of their Creator… and that’s all.

Nothing about the Creator’s motives. Nor his character. Nor his love. Nor whether the mighty power he used to make the Big Bang go bang, has any limits on it. Obviously it’s vast, but how vast? Many a Christian will insist the infinity of space clearly reveals an infinite God, but… does it? ’Cause it’s empty infinite space; the Creator apparently didn’t put anything in it! Does empty space—truly empty, containing nothing whatsoever—even properly count as a thing God created?

True, the heavens declare a mighty Creator. Yet more than one pagan myth actually claims the Creator expended all his energy in the act of creation, and completely burned himself out. He created the universe… then ceased to be. Faded away. Is no more. Leaving behind his creatures; the mightiest of which, whom the pagans called gods, warred over who might rule everything the Creator left behind. Again, in these myths, nothing about the Creator’s motives for creating. Nor character, love, anything. His only purpose in these stories is to make the cosmos, then vanish.

Or, according to the 18th-century deists, God made the cosmos, then went away. Didn’t die… but he’s not around anymore, for he’s chosen not to interact with humanity (or at least they’ve rejected all the testimonies of those who had God-experiences). We might encounter him in the afterlife, but they were entirely sure we oughtn’t expect to in this life.

Bluntly, creation tells us what God made, but we know no more about his person than we know about Thomas Edison from incandescent light bulbs. So how are we to learn about God?

Duh—he’s gotta tell us.

And that’s what we Christian theologians mean by special revelation—the stuff God deliberately, personally reveals to humanity. What we know about God does not primarily come from looking at his handiwork and making (really, jumping to) conclusions. It comes from God himself.

Amillennialism: You’re in the millennium right now.

AMILLENNIALISM 'eɪ.mɪ'lɛn.i.əl.ɪz.əm noun. Belief there will be no thousand-year reign of Christ Jesus and his saints on earth.

[Amillenarism 'eɪ.mɪ'lɛn.ər.ɪz.əm noun, amillennial 'eɪ.mɪ'lɛn.i.əl adjective.]

All my life I’ve attended Evangelical churches, and all these churches have been premillenial—they believe Jesus is coming back to rule the world. Some of them believe the Darbyist interpretation of the End Times, and some don’t; it all depends on how hard the pastor or church leadership wants to preach Darbyism. But all of ’em figure after Jesus comes back, the thousand years after that is gonna be a time where Jesus finally sets things right, and it’s gonna be awesome.

And it just dumbfounds my fellow churchgoers when I tell ’em most Christians don’t believe this. Usually because every Christian they know is premillennial; they don’t know anybody who believes otherwise.

They actually do, but they’re not aware they do. I’ve found amillennials usually don’t talk about the End Times. They talk about heaven. ’Cause that’s what they think Jesus is gonna do when he returns: He’s gonna destroy the world, then take us to heaven. Earth doesn’t get an extra thousand years to straighten up; humanity doesn’t get an extra thousand years to repent. This is the time for you to repent; the current era is your last chance. Jesus’s return is the end of history, the end of time, the end of the world.

2 Peter 3.8-13 NRSVue

8But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be destroyed with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

11Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and destroyed and the elements will melt with fire? 13But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Simon Peter’s description of the End does refer to a millennium—in verse 8 he says a millennium and a day are all the same to Jesus. Otherwise there’s nothing about a millennial reign. Jesus returns in the “day of the Lord,” and then boom, the heavens are gone, the elements burn up, and off we go with Jesus to New Heaven.

Like I said, most Christians believe this is how things’ll turn out. Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Ethiopians, most of the mainline churches, and even a number of the Evangelical churches: They don’t bother to make lessons or form doctrines about the millennium. Because it’s in Revelation, and Revelation is a bunch of apocalypses which aren’t meant to be interpreted literally. Any “prophecy scholars” who do so, are irresponsible scholars who have no idea what they’re doing. Forming doctrines based on apocalypses?—which Jesus deliberately obscures because they aren’t meant to be interpreted until they happen? That’s not biblical interpretation; that’s projecting your own paranoid fears upon the scriptures, and proclaiming that instead of God’s kingdom.

Whereas Peter wasn’t describing an apocalypse. He was telling his readers how things are definitely gonna unfold. Our Lord returns, boom, New Heaven.

Praying the scriptures.

It’s a popular Christian practice to drop little bits of bible into our prayers. Kinda like so.

Father, we come to you because you tell us “if my people, who are called by my name, seek my face, I will hear from heaven,” and we recognize “your word won’t return void,” so we call upon you today, Lord. Hear our prayers, meet our needs, heed our cries. “Give us today our daily bread.” Amen.

We pray the Lord’s Prayer of course. Sometimes we pray the psalms. Sometimes full psalms—yes, we can pray entire passages from the scriptures. Many of the more famous rote prayers consist of lines lifted straight from the bible and arranged to sound like a prayer.

We do this for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes not-so-legitimate ones, like we want our prayers to sound more bible-y. That’s why we’ll trot out the King James Version English with its “thee” and “thou” and old-timey verbs. If it’s old-fashioned we figure it’s more solemn and serious and holy. It’s not really—but people think so, which is why they do it.

Or we covet the bible’s power. We quote bible because the bible is God’s word… and since God’s word is mighty and powerful, maybe quoting it in prayer is also mighty and powerful. Maybe those words can make our prayer requests mighty and powerful, and we can get what we want because we’re tapping that power.

Or we’re padding our prayers. Short prayers are fine, but way too many Christians think long prayers are, again, more solemn and serious and holy. So if our prayers are too short, maybe we can stretch ’em out by throwing in a dozen bible verses. Plus they’ll sound bible-y, plus they’ll tap the bible’s power; we can do this for all three inappropriate reasons.

But don’t get me wrong; there are appropriate reasons to include bible verses in our prayers. Really good reasons.

Be indiscriminate in loving other people.

Matthew 5.44-48, Luke 6.31-36.

Probably the most important trait Jesus wants to see in his followers is grace, which Evangelicals tend to describe as “unmerited favor,” but I define as “God’s generous, forgiving, kind, favorable attitude towards his people.”

Because the attitude is a significant part of it. You can grudgingly or apathetically grant unmerited favor to people, as you might’ve seen clerks or bureaucrats do when you beg ’em for stuff. Sometimes they don’t wanna, but they realize it’s in their best interests if they do it, so they roll their eyes, and do it. And sometimes we appreciate it… and sometimes not, ’cause we think we do merit some favor out of them.

But God’s attitude isn’t, “Ugh, you humans; here.” It’s love. He’s eager to give us his kingdom. He’s happy to. Lk 12.32 He wants us in it! Including even the ungrateful, selfish, most obnoxious Christians you can think of. Or pagans.

And Jesus wants us to share this attitude, which is why in his Sermon on the Mount and Sermon on the Plain, he tells us his followers to love our enemies. He doesn’t have to order us to love our friends; we already do. But now we gotta love the people we don’t wanna love. Because God loves ’em—and if we wanna be legitimate children of God, we gotta start acting like our Father for once.

Matthew 5.44-48 KWL

44“I tell you²:

Love your² enemies!

{Bless your² cursers.

Do good to your² haters.}

Pray over {your² slanderers

and} your² persecutors.

45This way, you² might become children

of your² Father who is in the heavens,

since he raises his sun over evil and good,

and rain over righteous and unrighteous.

46For when you² love those who love you²,

should you² expect compensation for that?

Don’t taxmen do the very same thing?

47When you² greet only your² family members,

what more do you² do than others?

Don’t pagans do the very same thing?

48So you² will be consistent,

just like your² heavenly Father is consistent.”

Luke 6.31-36 KWL

31“Same as you² want

that people might do for you²,

do likewise for them.

32If you² love those who love you²,

in what way is this grace from you²?

For sinners also love those who love them.

33When you² do good for those who do good for you²,

in what way is this grace from you²?

{For} sinners do the same.

34When you² lend to those

from whom you² expect similar treatment,

in what way is this grace from you²?

Sinners lend to sinners

so they might receive the same treatment.

35Regardless, love your² enemies.

Do good, and lend expecting nothing.

Your² compensation will be abundant.

You’ll² be children of the Highest,

for he is kind to the ungrateful and evil.

36Be compassionate

just like your² Father is compassionate.”