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Morning Meditation
February 19, 2026
Reading: Matthew 6:5-6: “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[b]
Reading: 2 Coninthians 6:1-10: As we work together with him,[a] we entreat you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“At an acceptable time, I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation! 3 We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: in great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true, 9 as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.
Meditation by Glenn Beamer
Matthew reveals Jesus’ call to us to be humble in our public religious practice and for each of us to sustain an individual prayerful relationship with God. In contrast, Paul then provides a litany of oppressions, persecutions and cruelties that have been imposed on the early Christians. Simultaneously and paradoxically, Paul writes that early ministries followed “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God.”
Paul rattles off diametrically opposed emotions, principles and experiences. He ends with, “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.” Paul is not simply describing variegated states in which Christians found themselves, he is encouraging an enthusiastic evangelism whether we find ourselves supported or oppressed. But this encouragement is in tension with Jesus’ calls to humility, sincerity, and reverence.
This tension can be reconciled if one understands that a healthy relationship with God cannot be had without our individual devotion to quiet prayers. Jesus is not proscribing joy from our lives; he is offering a healthier basis for inspiring it. If we take the time to reflect on our individual lives, and seek God’s guidance, we arrive at a healthier place when we come to worship to see the myriad innumerable gifts, talents, and experiences our church brings together.
During Lent, I recall Nelson Mandela. For 27 years, the South African government imprisoned Mandela and precluded his leadership in the Black South African community. Today, we romanticize Mandela’s release from prison as a sunny new day that brought democracy to South Africa. But white officeholders spent more than 2 years negotiating among themselves and with Mandela before releasing him. Hardened, opposed politicians, including Mandela himself, had to develop some level of trust among themselves.
Upon his release, Mandela would have been justified, if not expected, to foment an insurrection against the government that had imprisoned unjustly him for nearly three decades. But when asked what he had done in prison, Nelson Mandela replied that he had matured.
Mandela devoted time to discern God’s call to him and to plan how he would effectuate that call if he had the opportunity. Mandela was wise – he knew that his own constituencies were factionalized and vulnerable, and he knew that quick victory from a rebellion might create momentary, but short-lived, triumph. Instead of retribution Mandela chose reconciliation. He balanced the diametrically opposed emotions and forces Paul described in 2 Corinthians to effectuate justice and equity for his community. Having prayed alone Nelson Mandela moved his nation toward a just democracy, as demonstrated by his election as President of South Africa five years after his release from prison.
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