The Devil in the Details re: Good Deeds

You can tell summer is here b/c the endless stream of reruns forced me to watch a program I don’t normally watch: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it takes a team of designers, builders, and hundreds of volunteers from the community to come in and either drastically renovate or replace completely their home. In this case, a woman who’s husband died of an allergic reaction to toxic mold while fixing up their home was given a new home to enjoy with her family in order to fulfill her husband’s dream of their own home. I will not say this was not a good deed nor was the family in the episode somehow undeserving of this gift. Still, I don’t normally like this type of program. Outside of the criticisms that such shows promote suburban excess, to me it seems to reinforce that cliché: “One family in dire straits is a tragedy, one-million in dire straits is a statistic.” Still, all the fanfare surrounding these programs did cause me to wonder how this modern way of publicity fits in with Biblical teachings about charity.
We all know the part of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 6 where Jesus tells everyone to not do acts of righteousness in front of other people and: “...when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Is this really feasible in our modern world? After all, I don’t see that justification flying if a charity got audited by the IRS and they had no records of their expenses. I know we liberal Christians would say this needs to be interpreted to mean not to expect or demand some sort of praise or benefit for doing good works. However, I would ask you to get in touch with your inner-fundamentalist for a moment and think about this as a passage that is to be taken literally. If so, how do we act without knowing what we’re doing since that’s more often a reason for committal to a hospital than a sign of being a good Christian.
Although I am no expert in Biblical history, I do know that Jesus’ time was way before the organization and resources of many charities and aid agencies we see today like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and OxFam. A person who lost their home in a fire couldn’t really file a homeowner’s claim with their insurance and, in the event of a natural disaster, they didn’t expect a score of Aid workers to come in to feed, clothe, and house people until they got back on their feet. If someone was in dire straits, it was usually the family of the person who would help them out and, if they had no family, they were really out of luck. Therefore, the kinds of good acts that Jesus is talking about in this passage are probably more personal, unorganized, and usually would involve one person helping another out.
When we do a good deed, how much thought do we put into it? I must admit once I saw an old woman unloading a stack of newspapers at the recycling bin and did spend a minute thinking “maybe she doesn’t want help” before I offered to give her a hand. Many years ago Rita Wilbur did a sermon where she talked about people that hid Jews during the rise of the Nazi party. These people were not known for being saintly or extremely self-sacrificing, they just thought it was the right thing to do. Another, more recent, example is a story a friend of mine told me. She had moved from rural Oregon to Boston and had to get to a hospital to get medical tests performed. She couldn’t find the place, got very disoriented, and ended up breaking into tears on the sidewalk. A woman came up to her asking what was wrong and she told her. She instantly hailed a cab, gave the driver the address, paid him, and told my friend to get in. The woman would not give her name or address so her act could be repaid and just said “I’m from Louisiana, I know what it’s like.”
Perhaps what Jesus is talking about is that helping others in these unsystematic, random ways should be like second nature to us, we should do it without over analyzing, weighing the risks/benefits, or assuming someone else will do it. Although I do not mean to downplay the important role large, organized charities like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army play in serving those affected by hard times, at the root of all good acts is one person feeling the need to reach out to another. Something that maybe we should make as a rule and not an exception.