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Giving in Secret
by the Rev. Rick Hoover
Matthew 6:1-4
Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
For years I bumped over this command from Jesus. It made no sense to me. How can I keep my left hand from knowing what my right hand is doing!? They're part of my body and they'll ALWAYS know what the other is doing.
I think now that Jesus must have been talking not about my body, but His body, the Church, the family of God. At this service, we'll take up the offering row by row, and none of us goes peeking around, trying to see what anybody else put in. Then others take our offerings and carry out the ministry of the church and meet needs of people here and in the community. By the time that happens, I'm far enough distanced from my offering that there's no chance anyone is going to know I had anything to do with it. All credit can all go to Jesus. I have been a steward of my offering, not a provider. That honor goes to Jesus.
Still there's the worry, if I don't talk about what I'm doing, who will? People might think I don't care! I want everyone to know how much I care! Yet the right gift given the wrong way detracts from the intended result. If anyone starts to think of me as their provider, we're both in trouble. Stewardship mishandled weakens all of us.
Consider for a moment the stewardship of our chastity and virginity.
God intends each of us to keep this gift for the one person He wants us to share it with. When we fail in this trust, it introduces great pain, lingering self-doubt and unnecessary battles in our own heart. To protect ourselves, we refuse to trust others as we once could. That weakens the Church by wounding our ability to trust Jesus in one another.
Our society cares nothing for this. Lots of time no one knows that you've taken this matter seriously. But faithful stewardship of this gift ends up strengthening the life of our church family, because our love and faith and ability to trust have remained strong. Our secret stewardship here results in many unexpected blessings.
As another example of anonymous stewardship blessing us, consider the story of one person in Bible whose name we know, yet not have one word he ever said was written down. I'm speaking of Mary's husband, Joseph. Thomas Howard says it seems as if God told Joseph, "I'm calling on you to step aside while I do a great work with Mary!"
Though we know nothing directly of all his years raising the child Jesus, you know he must have been faithful day after day. He worked to earn his living and to buy groceries to feed that child. He introduced him to the Scriptures and the Worship of God. Joseph introduced Jesus to our human family. Who can doubt that the impact of this quiet, faithful, anonymous stewardship among the neighborhoods of Nazareth left their mark on Jesus, helping our Lord to know what it was like to be one of us?
One more example of secret stewardship: on the front page of today's newspaper is a story about the remarkable revival in our city that is drawing people from around the world. One reason it is remarkable is that ot many of us are called to stand up in the spotlight and speak to thousands about Jesus Christ.
The stewardship of evangelism that God has given to each of us is far from this spotlight. It is with individuals that will often speak only to us. No one else can get their attention or permission to speak to them. We are called to carry out a stewardship of our witness with that one person who will receive it from no one else. If we hesitate in this quiet, secret stewardship, the Kingdom of God ends in this generation.
Stewardship carried out in secret can have enormous and public effects.
Why would God want us to keep them secret? Because He wants to be the one who finally rewards us. If we go about our ministries looking for immediate gratification, we'll spoil God's stewardship of His plans!
Instead, let us follow this instruction from the Lord, and trust His promise that "your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."
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