Jesus says that when alms are given they should be given privately, that we should not call attention to an act of kindness, that the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6.1ff). We can understand the wisdom of this. The image he uses of the uninformed left hand communicates, I believe, something more than secrecy. I believe it communicates a letting go of the information within ourselves – that WE do not dwell long on the act within ourselves. This would certainly prevent internal pride as well as external pomp. Also, such privacy respects the dignity of the one being helped.

This is important. We decided long ago that our food pantry would be open whenever anyone was here to serve. Some congregations only open their food pantries at a few given times during the week. They involve lots of volunteers from the congregation, and everyone feels great as lines of hungry people are given food. There are advantages to doing things this way.  It involves more members in service.  It allows people to see the good that is being done by the congregation.  It makes everyone serving feel good about the good being done. There are advantages to doing things this way – all of them about us, not about the hungry.  I always felt that it was better to help people when they need it – that it was not necessary to force them into a breadline outside church on a Wednesday evening. I always felt that if we allow folks come when they have a need, without being put on display, we respect their privacy and dignity. But maybe I’m being old-fashioned.  Most acts of generosity nowadays are accompanied not only with trumpets, but with confetti, cameramen, and checks the size of ping pong tables.

The reason for privacy Jesus emphasizes in Matthew 6.1ff is that the giving of alms is a loving act between us and God – it is, by its nature, a private act. Any time a private expression of love is put on public display it is soiled. Something done for show becomes a show and nothing else.

            And yet Jesus, in the very same sermon, says “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” (Matthew 5.16).  These two notions may be harmonized when we think of the different intention and the different context of each passage. My intention in this piece, however, is not to harmonize the two passages from the Sermon on the Mount, but to assert that sometimes it is important that we know what the right hand is doing.

            I want you to know, if you are a member of our family here, at the Manassas Church of Christ, that the right hand is very active. As generous as you are we have a hard time keeping our pantry stocked, we are helping so many families. Your Benevolence deacon is perhaps the hardest working man in our family. Much of the help he administers stays here within the family.

            I am telling you these things so that you will know your free-will offerings are being used to help, in the name of, and for the glory of God. I am telling you these things so that you will know to come to the family when you need help – do not be ashamed to ask, you will not be the first to ever have such a need, nor the last. Our right hand is strong, and active, and ready to help. I just thought you ought to know.