Holding Matthew 6

 

This week, the Sermon on the Mount takes a turn right toward your everyday life.  The mystics say that there is no such thing as your “spiritual” life.  Paula D’Arcy says, “God comes to you disguised as your life,”  God comes to you in your daily activities, doctor’s appointments, driving down the road, shopping at the grocery store, talking to your friends, and so many more mundane/ordinary moments.  How you live your life is how and where God shows up.  To be sure, most of us think of faith as going to church, making a pledge, serving on a committee or going to help with a free community meal, visiting someone in the hospital.  To be sure, these are holy acts of love.  But, we compartmentalize and categorize some activities as holy and others as ordinary.  God cannot be separated or segregated or segmented into easily manageable (which is to say controllable) ways.  At the end of January, I asked you to light a candle and look at your calendar.  You can do the same this week for the month of February.  How has God shown up in serendipitous ways that you never saw coming?  When did you expect God to be there, swoop in like a superhero, and God left you hanging or you felt like God ghosted you?  When and where can you be honest about your whole lives (remember Jesus ended chapter 5 by saying be whole as God is whole ~ so we explore and express where we are physically – in our bodies and geography, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally).

 

In chapter 6, Jesus addresses issues of almsgiving or how/when/where you swipe your credit card or click “buy” online; how to connect with the Creator, to pay attention to what we are consuming and what is consuming us (practice of fasting), what we cling to, and the concerns we carry that weigh us down.  Chapter 6 is a marathon of wisdom that when you are finished reading you may feel like you need a nap. 

 

I invite you today to read chapter 6 in its entirety.  Where do you find your spirit soaring and saying, “Amen”?  Where do you want to raise your hand and have Jesus clarify what he is saying?  Where does your defense attorney in your mind shout, “Objection”?  For me, I find Jesus’ teaching on giving challenging, in a world that loves to recognize donors with plaques and praise and applause.  I find Jesus’ words on prayer compelling, when do I stop, breathe, be, let my soul catch up to me and stop trying to prove I am worthy?  I find Jesus’ words on fasting interesting ~ even as I realize there are things beyond food that I consume and can become a glutton of (I am looking at you social media and 24-hour-news-cycles).  I find his wisdom on worry downright difficult.  I am good at worry, and I have the hours in therapy to prove it! 

 

Just hold this chapter, let it rummage and roam around your life.  Please don’t read these words as some kind of manual that if you do “properly” you will receive a badge for your heavenly sash.  I think these words are expansive and evolving and meant to meet us in our ordinary life, which is where God always shows up.  Prayers for you and me as we read today.  Amen.