Devotion - Thurday, October 3

Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.  It is the text we read on Ash Wednesday - a warning about practicing our piety before others, in order to be seen by them.  Jesus warns us that if being seen by others is the reason we are praying or giving offerings then when others have seen us we have achieved our goal.  Having achieved our goal, why would we expect anything more - like God taking notice and responding to our praying/giving?

I am never one to argue with Jesus.  However, I might ask him to re-speak this portion of his Sermon on the Mount.  I am no more tolerant than he of showy demonstrations of piety, but in our day and age too many have taken his words as justification for the privatization of religious practices.

It is easier for me to get responses to questions about cheating on exams than to questions about prayer-life.

I have more discussions about alcohol abuse than about scripture reading.

Yes - we should read our bibles and say our prayers and give our offerings in order to reflect the role that God has in our lives, not so that our friends or our campus pastor will think more highly of us.  No - we should not then infer that my faith is between me and God alone.  Our faith changes the way we live in the world.  Our faith alters the way we talk and act around everyone.  Our faith can never be a private thing.