It's a pity the NRSV gives us 'piety' instead of righteousness, or just dealing. Other versions have their failings, too. Jesus is not talking about what most of us today would think of when the word piety crops up. Piety's a pejorative in many circles today; a turn-off; a perceived escape from real discipleship, which means acting rightly, justly, etc. True piety, yes! False piety, no way! Jesus' point seems to be that righteousness (to stick to that term), the quality at the very heart of God-ness, is to be so integral to our way of life that we have no need to play act it, in public or private life. In v.18, Jesus talks about three aspects of righteousness: Almsgiving, Prayer, & Fasting. The way they're set out with a refrain: " and your Father...will reward you, means we're meant to remember them; & respond, in practice as well as liturgically. Only the first two of these three appear here.

The blowing the trumpet bit sounds like a Jesus joke. Those who hear (& see) Jesus are no doubt better at picking up his   caricatures of the ridiculous than serious old we are. A disciple without a sense of humour is a disciple without a sense of God! Can't we picture Jesus miming playing a trumpet as he parades off to give alms, & his hearers, the ones he's not aiming at, splitting their sides? They know & suffer under the overly pious ones who act like this. They never see any of the alms! Trot out our sense of humour, dust it off, & put it to work for God & us. It may not be on Paul's list of spiritual gifts, but who cares?! Humour is a gift that goes hand in hand with Imagination (not on the list either!) & may enhance our Generosity (Almsgiving). And our Prayer & Fasting too.

'You can't have your cake & eat it too' as the saying goes. If we make a play for, play act for one kind of glory now from humans, we can't seriously expect God to crown us with the real thing as well. Can we? Maybe Jesus mimes the left hand - right hand business for their amusement & edification too?

As well as leading us up to & into the Lord's Prayer, the thrust of the passge is to get us to check our spiritual compass. Which direction are our Almsgiving, Prayer, & fasting pointing in? A book of the 1950's (?) on liturgical renewal (was the author's name Cowley, or something like that?) approached Eucharist as a piece of theatre played before God. The congregation is never the audience. Only God is ever the audience! Until we point all we are & all we have towards God, we've already fallen into a trap. Help!

Don't let anyone get away with using what Jesus says about praying in private as justification for privatising any part of faith / religion, let alone righteousness, etc. Jesus can do a pretty goo dmime of that, too, if he has to. Watch out, too, for secular (?) cartoonists inspired to take the mickey out of us. We can learn from them, too. Another kind of sermon.

Where do we go from here? Watch this space. Our space.