IN SEARCH OF THE COMMON GOOD - III
Out of the grace of God, we create the COMMON GOOD by DOING GOOD. Certainly, our attempts are fraught with sin, twisted motives, and outcomes that are mixed at best. Yet, they are faithful efforts, and as Christians we are bound to try, called to try. Faith without works is dead. Faith active in love. Not as we ought but as we are able.
Part III of the SEARCH will explore Matthew 6. Within are Jesus' words for creating the COMMON GOOD by DOING GOOD.
MATTHEW 6
GIVE ALMS: We choose to give generously to the poor, not to be recognized or to earn an award, but because the poor have need of it for living. We love concretely without gathering attention for ourselves. Alms giving is not about us, but about the other in need. Indeed, God's reward, God's blessing of the giver seems contingent upon the quietness, the secretiveness behind the giving. Pride and publicity in giving darkens the giving. Blessings arrive through the back door. Giving begets giving. The COMMON GOOD is GIVING.
PRAYER: We pray not to be seen, but to address God. Prayer is an intimacy, a privacy, an intense focus on our relationship with God. It is this intensity that engenders trust. Out of trust comes God's action in response to our going to God. Yet, prayer also stirs our response to God's beckonings. Prayer excites action in both directions.
The Lord's Prayer is Jesus' ultimate prayer. Other than Jesus' prayers from the cross, the Lord's Prayer is the only noted prayer in the Gospels. The COMMON GOOD happens as we live out the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. Significantly, the Lord's Prayer can be prayed individually AND corporatively. Its scope is broad, beyond "me and Jesus" to "all and Jesus." The pronouns are plural, meaning we pray with the entire family of God. We pray not just for ourselves and the faith community, but for the world. Intercession is part of its plea. We yield to God's will and not to the doing of our own. We ask for daily bread, not for poison; for that which gives life, not destruction. We ask for forgiveness and humbly forgive others, refusing to hold grudges nor the facts of a blighted history halt reconciliation. We ask deliverance from that which would deter us from doing God's will. Doing the COMMON GOOD is DOING the Lord's Prayer in real time through words and deeds.
FASTING: I am not a good "faster" in the traditional sense! I love to eat! Yet, I can say that I "fast" by denying my body too much junk! I used to regularly eat Frito's and potato chips and drink Mountain Dew and Pepsi by the quarts as a chaser, then top it off with a hamburger and fries. I stopped when I realized this regimen was negatively affecting my health. Now, I eat salads regularly, enjoy soups, avoid gravies and fried foods, and drink ample glasses of water. I do, however, indulge in a morning cappuccino or occasional Starbucks, Dunn Brothers, or Caribou mocha lattes! Is this fasting? I think it is showing a greater respect for God's gift of our bodies. I had to learn to say "No" to certain in-takes and "Yes" to others. I am not a purist nor a "vegan", but I am better. We must take care of our bodies because they are not our own plaything. God's body gift works best when we learn its rhythms and honor the proper fuels it needs to function as God would will. Doing the COMMON GOOD means doing what is best for our bodies.
STUFF: The NRSV uses the word "treasure." The admonition is to realize that people and things of this world may hinder our relationship with God and our ability to do the COMMON GOOD. Asceticism is not the goal, but awareness of how our choices in gathering people and goods within our personal sphere affect our discipleship, and are therefore matters of concern to God. Consumption may be the engine of our economic growth and satisfy personal longings, but it may also lead to an addiction of hoarding and obsession with possession, for our sakes alone. "Stuff" may be a symptom of our narcissism, blocking our ability to care for the COMMON GOOD. We become collectors and not protectors. Compassion is sacrificed on the altar of consumption. Christ calls us to weigh the cost of our possessions. Do our possessions hinder our love for the other? Do my "toys" shield me from generosity? Doing the COMMON GOOD means shedding whatever stifles our doing justice.
THE SOUND EYE: What do we look at? When we enter the Internet world, what sites do we visit? When we go to a book store, what books do we lift to look? As we walk through a mall, what stores do we enter? When we watch television, what programs grab our attention? How well could we do our jobs if our sight was impaired? Most of what we learn happens through our eyes. Our eyes are our life receptors. Our eyes can nurture or poison our spirit. We can choose what we look at. Will we look at the hungry, the poor, the persecuted? Will we look at the realities of life rather than be obsessed by entertainment visuals? What is our visual balance? Do we see the cross of Jesus in daily life? Do we see the joys of life that beckon us to participate? How we use our eyes reflects the COMMON GOOD.
TWO MASTERS: "You cannot serve God and wealth." Serving the COMMON GOOD means putting wealth towards serving people's well-being. Too often the focus is on profit before people. People are the means for profit. Profit means another home in the Hampton's, or southern France or Aspen, Colorado. It means a car elevator. Focus on wealth creates them and us, I have and you don't. Focus on wealth creates power in the hands of the few, leading to oligarchy, plutocracy, and fascism, all which lead to despotism and oppression, poverty and injustice. Wealth is created for everyone, to be shared, to provide enough for all, to lift-up equality and opportunity, to ensure quality health care, to educate, to nurture joyous living. To serve God is to share the wealth. Sharing the wealth is serving the COMMON GOOD.
WORRY NOT: If I am hungry, I will worry. If I am about to lose my home, I will worry. If my country is invaded, I will worry. If I have cancer, I will worry. We are human, we will worry. The worry that Jesus is talking about is worry that crushes our faith, crushes our worship, crushes our efforts to make real the Kingdom of God, crushes our compassion, crushes our quest for justice and peace, crushes our engaging the challenges of today, crushes our hope, crushes our love. It is Christ that gives us the grace to live each day to the fullest, in the midst of the shadows, among the cries of life, doing what we can because we know we are loved. The act of pressing on gives witness to the COMMON GOOD, because we never give up, we are persistent, we have an audacity for life, today. Out of the grace of God, we create the COMMON GOOD by our commitment to living fully for others, now.
Peace!
The Lord's Prayer is Jesus' ultimate prayer. Other than Jesus' prayers from the cross, the Lord's Prayer is the only noted prayer in the Gospels. The COMMON GOOD happens as we live out the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. Significantly, the Lord's Prayer can be prayed individually AND corporatively. Its scope is broad, beyond "me and Jesus" to "all and Jesus." The pronouns are plural, meaning we pray with the entire family of God. We pray not just for ourselves and the faith community, but for the world. Intercession is part of its plea. We yield to God's will and not to the doing of our own. We ask for daily bread, not for poison; for that which gives life, not destruction. We ask for forgiveness and humbly forgive others, refusing to hold grudges nor the facts of a blighted history halt reconciliation. We ask deliverance from that which would deter us from doing God's will. Doing the COMMON GOOD is DOING the Lord's Prayer in real time through words and deeds.
FASTING: I am not a good "faster" in the traditional sense! I love to eat! Yet, I can say that I "fast" by denying my body too much junk! I used to regularly eat Frito's and potato chips and drink Mountain Dew and Pepsi by the quarts as a chaser, then top it off with a hamburger and fries. I stopped when I realized this regimen was negatively affecting my health. Now, I eat salads regularly, enjoy soups, avoid gravies and fried foods, and drink ample glasses of water. I do, however, indulge in a morning cappuccino or occasional Starbucks, Dunn Brothers, or Caribou mocha lattes! Is this fasting? I think it is showing a greater respect for God's gift of our bodies. I had to learn to say "No" to certain in-takes and "Yes" to others. I am not a purist nor a "vegan", but I am better. We must take care of our bodies because they are not our own plaything. God's body gift works best when we learn its rhythms and honor the proper fuels it needs to function as God would will. Doing the COMMON GOOD means doing what is best for our bodies.
STUFF: The NRSV uses the word "treasure." The admonition is to realize that people and things of this world may hinder our relationship with God and our ability to do the COMMON GOOD. Asceticism is not the goal, but awareness of how our choices in gathering people and goods within our personal sphere affect our discipleship, and are therefore matters of concern to God. Consumption may be the engine of our economic growth and satisfy personal longings, but it may also lead to an addiction of hoarding and obsession with possession, for our sakes alone. "Stuff" may be a symptom of our narcissism, blocking our ability to care for the COMMON GOOD. We become collectors and not protectors. Compassion is sacrificed on the altar of consumption. Christ calls us to weigh the cost of our possessions. Do our possessions hinder our love for the other? Do my "toys" shield me from generosity? Doing the COMMON GOOD means shedding whatever stifles our doing justice.
THE SOUND EYE: What do we look at? When we enter the Internet world, what sites do we visit? When we go to a book store, what books do we lift to look? As we walk through a mall, what stores do we enter? When we watch television, what programs grab our attention? How well could we do our jobs if our sight was impaired? Most of what we learn happens through our eyes. Our eyes are our life receptors. Our eyes can nurture or poison our spirit. We can choose what we look at. Will we look at the hungry, the poor, the persecuted? Will we look at the realities of life rather than be obsessed by entertainment visuals? What is our visual balance? Do we see the cross of Jesus in daily life? Do we see the joys of life that beckon us to participate? How we use our eyes reflects the COMMON GOOD.
TWO MASTERS: "You cannot serve God and wealth." Serving the COMMON GOOD means putting wealth towards serving people's well-being. Too often the focus is on profit before people. People are the means for profit. Profit means another home in the Hampton's, or southern France or Aspen, Colorado. It means a car elevator. Focus on wealth creates them and us, I have and you don't. Focus on wealth creates power in the hands of the few, leading to oligarchy, plutocracy, and fascism, all which lead to despotism and oppression, poverty and injustice. Wealth is created for everyone, to be shared, to provide enough for all, to lift-up equality and opportunity, to ensure quality health care, to educate, to nurture joyous living. To serve God is to share the wealth. Sharing the wealth is serving the COMMON GOOD.
WORRY NOT: If I am hungry, I will worry. If I am about to lose my home, I will worry. If my country is invaded, I will worry. If I have cancer, I will worry. We are human, we will worry. The worry that Jesus is talking about is worry that crushes our faith, crushes our worship, crushes our efforts to make real the Kingdom of God, crushes our compassion, crushes our quest for justice and peace, crushes our engaging the challenges of today, crushes our hope, crushes our love. It is Christ that gives us the grace to live each day to the fullest, in the midst of the shadows, among the cries of life, doing what we can because we know we are loved. The act of pressing on gives witness to the COMMON GOOD, because we never give up, we are persistent, we have an audacity for life, today. Out of the grace of God, we create the COMMON GOOD by our commitment to living fully for others, now.
Peace!
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