Do Not Let Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand Is Doing: Jean
Do Not Let Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand Is Doing
American Generosity. Americans are among the most generous people in the world. In a study conducted for the UK based Charities Aid Foundation, Gallop asked individuals from around the world three questions:
Have you done any of the following in the past month:
(i) helped a stranger who needed help?
(ii) donated to charity?
(iii) volunteered your time to an organization?
The survey was taken over a ten-year period and included results from approximately 1.3 million individual interviews. Not surprisingly, the USA ranked number 1. One needn’t look any further than our community food pantries and voluntary responses to tornados and hurricanes to see American generosity in action. We are by no means a perfect society but there is a rich vein of generosity in the American spirit.
I attribute our ranking, which admittedly is opinion, to our culture which is still influenced by Judeo and Christian values, both of which promote generosity, especially to those in need. I am not speaking here against other cultures or nations, with which I have little experience, but am simply trying to understand America’s spirit of generosity.
Covid-19. When the pandemic first became national news around February or March of this year, I thought at that time that America could manage comparatively well and, in particular, that Christians could be leading citizens in a communal response marked by generosity and a spirit of looking out for the health of one another. I thought churches, seeded throughout the country, could be public witnesses of generosity and hope, grounded not in fear but in Christ and His Spirit of neighborly love.
American Responses. However, to my dismay, I have been, thus far, sorely disappointed and dead wrong in many cases. Without unfairly generalizing, because with tens of thousands of churches in America, there is no single or unified response to the pandemic (and many have reacted with generosity), many Americans, and among them many Christians, have taken on a role in response to the pandemic, not of generosity, but of resistance and denial; not of service to the neighbor, but of advocacy for individual rights at the neighbor’s expense.
I hear a frequent drumbeat of Americans saying to one another, “If you do not feel safe, stay home,” but I am going out without a mask and without social distancing. Fair enough, but does that sound at all like generosity? How would a congregation commune together with such a spirit of division? How can a person who needs to work outside the house to feed his or her family stay at home?
Cognitive Dissonance. I will not speculate on the thoughts of non-Christians here, but I have been confused by the Christian response to the wearing of masks and CDC guidelines to social distance. Some have responded by becoming their own doctors and infectious disease experts. Others have responded by denying the existence of the pandemic as a public health emergency. Some have politicized the pandemic. But missing from the conversation among many Christians is the spirit of generosity, a spirit that America is known for. That is what confuses me.
Do Not Let Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand Is Doing. I have no doubt for the vast majority of Christians that, if they could know with certainty that any time they wore a mask to the supermarket they would save or prolong another life, they would happily wear a mask. But this is what distinguishes generosity in a pandemic from generosity after a hurricane: we do not know if on any occasion that we wear a mask we have helped anyone. Maybe we have; or maybe we haven’t. On any given occasion, my wearing a mask may protect someone else or it may not; it may break a chain of infection, or it may not; someone else’s mask may protect me, or it may not. I do not know, and most likely I will never know. Only in the aggregation of anonymous epidemiological statistics is our generosity recorded.
As I have thought about my response, as well as the positions of other Christians, I have been drawn to the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter 6, and Jesus’ teaching on final judgment in Matthew 25. In those Scriptures, Jesus describes the invisibility of Christian generosity. It is not seen by the public and is even invisible to the disciple himself or herself; but it is seen by our Father in heaven. This invisible generosity is not rewarded here on earth but is rewarded by our Father in heaven. Invisible generosity is real generosity.
Living by Faith. The Christian life is one lived from beginning to end by faith, not by sight. Our love from God is by faith, not by sight. Our righteousness before God is by faith, not by sight. Our prayers are given and mostly answered by faith, not by sight. Even our generosity in the middle of a pandemic may be offered and commended by faith, not by sight. I do not think we are any less generous if we cannot see the fruit of our generosity. Our Father in heaven sees it.
The Christian witness is not primarily marked by political protest, defiance and civil disobedience. It is marked by generosity, aimed towards each other, as well as towards our neighbors in need, including our enemies. That generosity may be interpreted by the world as defiance and civil disobedience; and so Christians suffer for righteousness sake, for Christ’s sake; but not for one’s own sake or in defense of his or her own “rights.” The Christian witness is marked by going out clothed in Christ.
For the sake of our neighbors, may we express our generosity invisibly in the coming months by each doing his or her part to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, by listening to our nation’s health experts, by wearing masks and by social distancing. This is not a mark of fear or of political correctness, but of generosity and communal responsibility. Our Father in heaven, who sees all and knows all, will reward our generosity. Amen.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mt. 6:1-4) Amen.
I too have been puzzled as to the resistance that some Christians show in wearing a mask and keeping social distance. It seems obvious to me that doing so is a mark of respect and love for our fellow humans–we would not want to risk their health in any way, even if we may never know for sure that doing so has made a difference.
Why would we, as Christians, NOT do this–preferring others to ourselves and actually possibly avoiding infection for ourselves? I have read the arguments made and in terms of simple Christian service, those arguments simply don’t stand up.
This is a good contribution, Jean.
Thank you Michael.
Nancy, thank you for reading. In response to your questions, maybe we will receive some feedback on those questions.
Matthew 7:21
We are, perhaps, lacking teachers who can teach us what the will of the Father is….. ? Dunno
In the 1940s in Glendale, CA. there’d be a knock at the screen door to the service porch (there was an alley behind most houses back then). Grandmother would go out to see who was knocking and there’d be a disheveled soul, “Mam, can you spare something to eat?”
Grandmother would tell him to wait and she’d go back in the house and make him a substantial sandwich…
In Colo Springs, in the 1980s, mother’s house faced a park beyond which was a R R track. Occasionally , she would find a young man at her front door with the same question. She’d tell him to wait there on the front porch and she’d go in and fix him a hearty plate of food.
Funny story
late one night she heard someone on her porch, looked out and saw a young fellow bedding down for the night. It was very cold and she flipped on the porch light to speak to him. The light exploded and the fellow jumped over the porch rail and took off running.
He was gone before she could unlock and open her front door. Her house was next door to the R.C. Parish house and she suspected that there was some confusion when directions were given.
The 1960s when most here were growing up seemed to mark a change in our nation’s outlook. Lots of chaos, questions not answered by the God fearing
Jean
Generosity is indeed a hallmark of Christian character… nice piece.
Jean,
thanks for the contribution. My own thinking regarding masks, social distancing, etc. have been shaped by discussions here. I was quite resistant to begin with, especially due to what I thought were draconian measures by my governor. Yet, I have reconciled the issue in recognizing I do these things for others. It really is a practice of faith–not the religious sort–but trusting ones actions are for the betterment of another regardless of visible proof. I imagine this is your point. Blessings
I started wearing a mask as soon as it was mandated by my employer. I didn’t mind. Then, a co-worker lost his disabled brother to COViD-19 in a care home, and my cleaning lady lost her brother-in-law. A nurse who worked in the local hospital emergency department shared in our Zoom Bible study that she didn’t know what to say to patients when she knew they probably wouldn’t. make it Suddenly, the mask became the most important individual thing I can do to help fight COVID-19. I wear mine with pride.
Good words, Jean.
On one hand, I am puzzled by the response of many Christians to this pandemic. On the other hand, I’m not surprised as so many Chrisitans have politicized their faith, and current day politics demand that you be all for your “side” and all against the “other side”. Therefore, when those on the right have concerns about the harm that comes from lockdowns, it doesn’t stop just there. Rather all things pandemic related must be demonized, mocked, and resisted – masks, social distancing, medical experts, government leaders who impose restrictions, etc. And sadly, for many of the Christians who have wrapped up their faith with politics, they follow right along, believing all along the way that they are acting the “Christian” way.
Thank you Duane, Filbertz, Linn and Kevin.
Kevin, I think what you are describing is how many people process issues as binary categories or choices. I think you’ve identified a valid issue.
Nancy has expressed my thoughts exactly. THANKS
This was a very good post. My youngest daughter and her husband left L.A., where they both had jobs, so that her husband could work as an architect there after a lay off in L.A. The
They are both dismayed because only half of the people there wear masks. Luckily, they both are able to work from home at their jobs on line, but they still have to go out in public. My father and brother moved to Wisconsin a few years back and they are experiencing the same thing – many people won’t wear masks! We live in San Diego, and everyone wears masks. My older daughter lives in Hawaii with her husband and everyone there wears masks also. I certainly hope that some hearts are changed by your article,Jean, because I worry about my loved ones living in these areas where people seem to be so irresponsible in regards to mask wearing. I wish we could all just get on the same page and come together, do the right thing, and conquer this virus. – its my prayer every single day.
Thank you BOC.
The CDC published a new Scientific Brief: Community Use of Cloth Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 on 11/10/20. So this is the current state of the art on the subject of masks.
After the following excerpts is a link to the Brief:
“Studies demonstrate that cloth mask materials can also reduce wearers’ exposure to infectious droplets through filtration, including filtration of fine droplets and particles less than 10 microns.”
“An economic analysis using U.S. data found that, given these effects, increasing universal masking by 15% could prevent the need for lockdowns and reduce associated losses of up to $1 trillion or about 5% of gross domestic product.”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html
Michael, Jean, and others,
Here is an interesting article on masks and an interesting Scriptural example:
https://heidelblog.net/2020/07/of-masks-and-the-weaker-brothers/
All,
In light of that article I just presented, let me ask all those Christian who refuse to wear masks this question. “Would you drink a beer in front another believer who was a former alcoholic in name of protecting your liberty or individual rights?”
CM,
I have heard the Heidelblog rationale before, and I want to identify a flaw in its argument.
There is a key distinction between eating food offered to idols and mitigating Covid-19 by wearing masks and social distancing. That distinction is found in 1 Cor. 8:4:
“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.’ ”
Unlike food offered to idols, which in reality is good food (because idols have no real existence), Covid-19 has real existence whether you believe that or not. Wearing masks and social distancing have real efficacy (unless you just want to deny the science).
So, it is not a weakness of those who wear masks, nor a strength of those who don’t, as Paul defines those to attitudes.
Does that make sense?
Jean,
Yes it does.
Though the overall principle of loving your neighbor and thinking of others more highly that yourselves which no doubt is involved in the Meat offered to idols section. After all, if one did espouse those, one would do as Paul mentioned in that text.
CM,
I agree.