Previously, on Brokenness... When we last left our hero, Cartoon Chris was having all his rationalizations and beliefs in his own human decency obliterated, one by one, by chapter 5 of the Sermon on the Mount. At last count, he was about here:

This is going to end well.  I can already tell. — This is going to end well. I can already tell.

Surely, Cartoon Chris believes, the rest of his excuses will stand up under Chapters 6 and 7 of Matthew! Ha ha! Cartoon Chris is naive and foolish.

I'm Good with God Because I Give to the Poor (Matthew 6:1-4)

Isn't giving to the needy one of the things that everyone agrees is nice and good? Shouldn't I get a big, cosmic pat on the back every time I sign a check to a charity (like, oh, say, Teen Challenge New England, or the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation)? Well, Jesus says, not if your heart wasn't in the right place. If you give for selfish reasons, it's not bad exactly, but God isn't gonna throw you a party. It's easy to imagine why when you look at it relationally:

Because nothing says "I love you" like buying your spouse a car without consulting them first - at least, according to obnoxious Lexus commercials.

The press corps frequently hides behind suburban sofas for precisely this sort of occasion.

The more you try to prove you're a good person to yourself and others, the more distant you get from actually pleasing God.

Unfortunately, it's easy to take verses like these and turn them around to make ourselves feel better when other people give more than we do:

Yeah, well, I'M not a judgemental looker-on, so I guess that makes me... wait a minute.

This can go on, ad infinitum. (And does, if YouTube comments are anything to go on - and we know they are.) There's always a way to feel morally superior to someone. One big theme of the Sermon on the Mount is that the trying to justify oneself is offensive in and of itself.

I'm Good with God Because I'm Very Religious (Matthew 6:5-18)

It's probably not news to most of us that religious showboating and legalistic list-checking don't make us righteous before God. But does it help to turn the Sermon on the Mount into another reason to showboat or another list to check off?

The key feature of the famous Lord's Prayer, I think, is not the pattern or its brevity or the specific words that Jesus speaks (although there's lots to learn from these things, of course) -- it's the humility. This is a really humble prayer. Its shortness and its language and its simple choice of requests all point to the heart of a person who knows he's relying entirely on God's mercy - there's no pretense, no bombast, and no willfulness. It is all part of the message of moral humility God is trying to get across, so anyone who thinks:

I don't think God would be too upset if we set an egg timer for group prayers, do you?

... has ENTIRELY missed the point. Religious practices don't make you righteous if you do them out of selfish desire to justify yourself or win praise - therefore, wielding the Sermon on the Mount as a tool for belittling others or uplifting yourself is 100% foreign to the spirit God intended. (And I oughta know, having thought similar thoughts quite frequently...)

I'm Good with God Because There's Nothing Wrong with Wanting Stuff (Matthew 6:19-24)

None of us really thinks of ourselves as greedy. I mean, we never go around introducing ourselves like...

And there's nothing morning commuters on the Red Line like more than having complete strangers introduce themselves whilst revealing awkward personal information.

... even though it's, well, you know, true. We imagine we would give it all up if we had some unambiguous sign...

Clearly I'm hallucinating after watching Monty Python.  After all, if you REALLY don't want to do something, NO sign is unambiguous. — Clearly I'm hallucinating after watching Monty Python. After all, if you REALLY don't want to do something, NO sign is unambiguous.

Not that any of the various Bible verses telling us to do so qualify as an unambiguous sign, of course. We're all pretty sure those are intended for someone else. Not that we have a problem with giving anything up. Not that it's an idol or anything. We just really really think God meant the Sultan of Brunei should give up his wealth for the kingdom and not me. Well, we really really hope. Well, I really really hope.

I'm Good with God Because I'm Just Trying to Make Ends Meet (Matthew 6:25-34)

People keep trying to get this part of Matthew 6 to sound comforting, and there is a lot of real comfort there, but I have to be honest: I've always read the "consider the lilies" passage as one of the most cutting and horrifying criticisms in all of Scripture. Why? Well think of it this way:

"I'm scheduled to be tired that night" was a frequent rejoinder to my requests for a date in high school.

Wouldn't want to spend myself and die at age 33 or something, after all.

If I ever had to grade papers again, I hope I could get to a place where I could wield a red pen with similar relish.

Doing good beats the Sabbath?  Really?  Oh yeah, I forgot about Matthew 12:9-14. — Doing good beats the Sabbath? Really? Oh yeah, I forgot about Matthew 12:9-14.

It's not just working extra hours for a bigger house that God perceives as sinful - even working normal hours to survive, when it excuses a failure to work for the kingdom, is sinful. And that's harsh. That's really harsh.

Except that it's not, of course, when you remember that God promises us he will take care of us if we live the lives he's called us to. He tells us "all these things will be added to you" and we don't believe him. How do I know? Because we don't act like it. The way we spend most of our time is a testament to our total lack of trust. I wonder sometimes if God feels like this: