New monastic community house in Liverpool

 Right hands, left hands and sharing our good works

What is the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings? What he says on loving enemies? Wealth? Not worrying? All of these should give serious pause for thought to us modern, Western Christians. One perhaps left field candidate has been on my mind much in recent months and is found in Matt 6.2-4:

"So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

I have been thinking about it because of a song on a children’s CD we have. It is by Randall Goodgame who produces the Slugs & Bugs CDs – brilliant by the way if you have small children. In ‘When you give to the Needy,’ Sally Lloyd-Jones (author of the Children’s Storybook Bible among other books) is a reporter who finds a group of racoons are playing a secret table tennis tournament in a tree to raise money for St Gertrude’s Home for Hairless Cats.

The reporter is mystified as to why the tournament is kept secret – surely they would want people to know about it? The answer (in song) comes from the passage above and the racoons resist the temptation of fame to hold onto this teaching. At one stage Lloyd-Jones says she will write a children’s book about it, tweet a tweet or Instagram an Instagram. The response is firm: ‘Let the birds tweet about it sweetie. When we do these things, we do them for pure joy and for the glory of our Father in heaven.’

It is a simple song our kids love and it brings to life the message of Matt 6 – a message that might be well received today in our social media generation where there is the temptation to broadcast everything we do for the wider world to consume.

I am not claiming ideological purity here. Scroll back through my Facebook and Twitter and you will see me doing exactly what Jesus warns against when it comes to social projects I or my church have been involved in. And I have done them for the reasons I’m sure others have, many of which I hope are good: raising awareness of an issue, inspiring others to do something similar, to raise funds, to let distant friends know what we’re up to.

Yet the words of Jesus still haunt me here. Those who share their good works for others to see ‘have received their reward.’ Our Father sees what is done in secret. The message confronting us here is about our faith: do we really trust that God will see what is done and will this be enough for us? Or are we acting as functional atheists and perhaps subconsciously investing in an insurance policy: well at least it’ll look good for others as well as raising awareness or funds.

I don’t know about others, but when I post something (whatever it is), I don’t do it primarily for the attention – I find something interesting or want to comment on something because I want to share. But if my post does get attention, the likes or retweets slowly seep into my soul – ‘that was a clever comment,’ ‘that looked really good.’ The enemy knows where to prod. Pride is something I struggle with and it is exacerbated by social media. The truth is you can share something for good reasons and it still pose an issue for us – both things can be true at the same time.

I am not saying that all followers of Jesus should cease immediately from sharing what they are up to on social media, but perhaps we should allow this passage to make us uncomfortable. I serve in a denomination which has arguably often prided itself on presenting a certain public image. The early Salvation Army seemed to believe any publicity was good publicity. Perhaps the difference was that they expected to get pelted with rocks and bottles when they marched the streets and were willing to be held in contempt as well as receiving plaudits for its work.

Some things I have found helpful over the years, although I know I still have a long way to go: taking breaks from social media; posting something and not checking until later in the day; consciously choosing not to share things at times. Mostly we need to be honest about the impact this has on us - for some this will be a greater issue than for others.

I am still challenged and haunted by these words and acknowledge the irony that I shared this post on social media! Maybe that is not even enough. After all, in the chapter before there is some uncomfortable cutting off of eyes and hands.

‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ Philippians 1.21.