Lent II

The Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36

“Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers and sisters,…” Would any of us ever so boldly invite people to imitate us in living out the Christian way of life? Do we consider ourselves credible witnesses and followers of Jesus Christ; exemplars of what he lived and taught? “Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters…” That is a weighty claim. I know it is a claim I am not, at least fully, able and willing to make. The further I travel in life the more aware I am of the gap. It is all about the gap.

I ask this because people often say that Christians are hypocrites. Are they correct? Do we, do you, do I, practice what we say we believe or as the Greek root of the word hypocrite reveals, are we just playing a part? Who are we when no one sees us? Hypocrisy is the Achilles’ heel of the Christian faith. The accusation that our lives contradict our words may be the greatest obstacle for other people to believe in Jesus. And yet as painful and bracing as the charge of hypocrisy is, whether from others or by our own self-examination, it can be a positive force if it spurs us to repentance and then to growth.

It is all about the gap.

Hypocrisy is the gap between truth and lies. Recall the quote from the movie Revolutionary Road: “No one forgets the truth; they just get better at lying.” Hypocrisy is the gap between integrity and fraud; between justice and injustice. The gap is not recognized by our society because the inner, the real and the unseen are irrelevant in today’s world. All that counts in our culture is the appearance. That is why the kind of people Jesus reserved his most severe criticisms for were hypocrites.

There is the hypocrisy of pretense, when we put up the front of being better that we really are. Jesus addressed this with us on Ash Wednesday: “When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.” [See Matthew 6:1-6] Appearances are a dangerous slippery slope to live by or judge others by, especially when confronted by sacred scripture which insists that “the human being looks at the outward appearance, but God looks into the heart” [1Samuel 16:7].

There is the hypocrisy of blame and judgment, when we criticize other people despite our own faults. Faults which Jesus says are always greater than those of the other person. “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother or sister’s eye, but do not recognize the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite!” [Matthew 7:3, 5] There is a big difference, is there not, between a splinter and a full beam? Compared to anyone else, we each have a beam in our eye. Judgment, like appearance, is another dangerous slope; easy to slide down like a crevice.

And there is the hypocrisy of inconsistency, when we lay down moral requirements for other people that we do not apply to ourselves. “Therefore, [Jesus says] do and observe all things whatsoever [the scribes and Pharisees] tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.” [Matthew 23:3] How often do we impose on our children, on the outsider, on the enemy, what we ourselves do not live?

Can any of us walk scot-free and claim we are innocent of these hypocrisies? In Dostoevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov, Father Zossima warns, “Above all, do not lie to yourself.”

There is hope.

As the Canadian singer, songwriter, Leonard Cohen wrote: “There is a crack, a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” I’ve been saying that it is all about the gap. When self-examination, a person who cares about us enough to honestly speak with us or even an enemy with malice in their heart identifies the gap, the crack in our lives, the inconsistencies, and we admit to the charges, the light gets in.

A key and vital strength of the Christian faith is confession. Confession bridges the gap between what is best in us; what Jesus and his Gospel call us to live and being a fraud. Confession takes moral courage, for in confessing our sins, our gaps, our hypocrisies, we demonstrate a strength of character to go on record against ourselves. Unlike the 5th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, confession dos not shield us from the truth. Confession realigns us with truth who is Jesus Christ. Truth is the remedy, the healing Jesus offers us so that we might one day claim: “Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters,and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us.” [Philippians 3:17]

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Phrases and ideas are from, “Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion,” Chapter 10, Beware the Boomerang by Os Guinness, InterVarsity Press, Illinois, 2015.