Matthew 6

Imagine a man standing up in church on an "open mike" spot and giving a testimony that he has given £20,000 to the church. Most people today would think, "big head!" "Show off!" However, at the time Jesus was teaching people would have thought, "What a guy!" "Cool dude!" (in Aramaic of course!)

This difference in attitude is based on the fact that our culture has been shaped by the teaching of Jesus over the past 2,000 years.

The most "boastful" fasters, prayers and givers seem to be preachers. I hear more about how big a fast, how passionately prayed and how sacrificially given from the pulpit rather than the pew. But that is not a problem, Jesus was open about prayer and we all know he fasted for 40 days! Paul likewise talked about praying without ceasing and that he knew how others had given.

The point isn't the secrecy. Jesus was talking to people who in their hearts did things for men to be impressed. We get the point, even the early church got the point.

From the rest of the New Testament it seems that it is perfectly OK to talk about giving, praying and fasting. I think there is a danger in the legalistic nature taking this to equal and opposite extremes. But, it is like a lot of things in life, those who are often "wholly" taken with something need to be "wholly" not taken with it. For example the alcoholic needs to never drink. The thief needs to work with his hands. The rich man needs to give everything. (How many times has that been applied to everyone?!)

In fact the opposite sermon to "secrecy" needs to be and is often preached. When public exhibition was the vogue people gave, prayed and fasted. Now people need to be taught and encouraged to do it. They have few or no public roll models. There are preachers who don't even like to teach on giving. If people are not taught they will not know. We can throw into this mix reading and studying scripture.

We need to create a culture where prayer, fasting, giving and reading of scripture is normal. Not pressured. We can teach about giving once a year as some do, but that doesn't create a culture. Legalism creeps in either way. We either legalistically don't talk about giving or start scrutinising pay slips to make sure people are giving enough! The middle way of Christianity is, "as each decides in his heart!"

In essence what Jesus was teaching was against legalism. We need to do the same, but in the context of where people are today. There are lots of "initiatives" but again these do not become culture. I can remember the "prayer lighthouse initiative." This had people praying for their immediate neighbours. However, are there still prayer lighthouses? Are we still in 24/7 or has something else come along?!

Always new, never growing! A culture of prayer has stability and growth, an initiative has excitement and hype.

And of course we need to teach people to say "lord have mercy" rather than "show off!"