This poem is based upon Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 which is the lectionary reading for this coming Ash Wednesday.

If it’s helpful, you may listen to me read the sonnet via the player below.

Your good deeds should be so secret that you
Don’t even know what you do,
Nor notice and watch in self-satisfaction
How with skill you avoid the infraction
But do all you were supposed to,

When gratitude wells up for how you’ve been,
How you aren’t like other men,
How you alone stood strong, kept straight, and right,
Let your good deeds shine as light
Before them again and again.

Let not your left hand know
The right that your right hand does,
But plant the good seed, let it grow
Leave it there, don’t watch, because
The Lord shall bring forth from that little seed
Not only the good, but its fruit which feeds
And fills with joy — a feast that needing needs.

© Randy Edwards 2018.
This poem is for Christ’s church. If it is helpful, please feel free to copy or reprint in church bulletins, read aloud, or repost. I only ask that an attribution be cited to myself (Randall Edwards) and this blog (backwardmutters.com). Thanks.
Artwork: Frans Francken the Younger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons