Introspection: I, Hypocrite

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I, Hypocrite

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth.  So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23:27-28 (NRSV)

I focused on the score
But I could never win
Trying to ignore
A life of hiding my sin

To label me
A hypocrite would be
Only scratching the surface
Of who I've been known to be

From "Undo" by Rush of Fools

If you been following this blog for a while, you probably know that I am a certified Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church.  In other words, I am occasionally called to preach and lead worship at a church within the denomination when the pastor is unable to do so.  This morning, I preached at a church pastored by an old friend of mine who is currently out of the country on a mission trip.  I had already written a sermon based on the Gospel reading prescribed for today by the Revised Common Lectionary, so I planned to preach it again this morning.

When I prepare to preach sermons I've written previously, I look for ways to revise them.  As I reviewed the sermon I would preach this morning, I thought it was fine as it was.  I couldn't find anything I really needed to add or delete.  That said, I felt rather uneasy about preaching it.  In my sermon, I suggest that we are daily presented with the choice to be either wise or foolish.  I go on to suggest that the wise servants of Christ are the ones who love God with all their hearts, souls, and minds and love their neighbors as they love themselves.¹  They serve Christ by serving the people with whom He directly identifies, namely their neighbors who are in need.²

I often worry about what people think of me, but I have to admit that sometimes what I really fear is that people are seeing what I know to be my own faults and shortcomings.  In the last few months, there have been at least a couple of instances when people might have perceived in me some apathy toward someone who needed help.  Naturally I have been feeling some cognitive dissonance about preaching a sermon about our calling to serve our neighbors in need.

My sermon didn't need much work, but I need a lot of work when it comes to practicing what I preach.  I have a long way to go when it comes to loving my neighbors as Christ has called me to love them.

Peter Rollins tells a story about a prince who hates the church so much that he actively oppresses Christians in his empire.  He goes so far as to disrupt worship services and to imprison church leaders.  The prince especially hates a certain wise and kind priest who is beloved by his community.  The prince tells himself that the priest is just a hypocrite and a liar, but the truth is that he is actually envious of the respect that the people have for the priest.

One day the prince devises a plan to put a stop to the priest's work once and for all, without drawing the ire of the people.  Knowing that the priest is poor, he approaches him and offers him ten thousand rupees to write a letter confessing that he is a hypocrite and a liar.  This letter will be distributed throughout the empire.  The priest takes a moment to consider the prince's offer and then agrees to do what the prince has asked, on three conditions.  The first is that the prince must stop harassing him and his church.  The second is that the prince must release all of the priest's fellow church leaders from prison.

The third condition is that the prince give the priest time to raise the ten thousand rupees.³

The prince approaches the priest with the intention of bribing him into destroying his own reputation by confessing his dishonesty and hypocrisy.  The priest, knowing his own fallibility, agrees to confess his dishonesty and hypocrisy, but he misunderstands the prince's offer and thinks that the prince expects him to pay a fine for said dishonesty and hypocrisy.

I suspect that most - if not all - preachers and teachers in the Church are guilty of some degree of hypocrisy.  What I mean is that I suspect we all fall short of practicing what we preach at times.  We study our holy scriptures so that we may learn God's will for humanity and then teach it to others, yet, because we are imperfect human beings, we quite often fail to actually do God's will.  We do not always practice what we preach, but, if we are going to follow our calling honestly, we cannot preach only what we practice.  We have to proclaim what we believe to be true, even when we fall short in living according to it.

In the event, dear reader, that you ever read one of my blog posts or listen one of my sermons and suspect that I might be a hypocrite, I just wanted to go ahead and confirm your suspicions.  One of the most common criticisms lobbed at Christians is that we’re hypocritical.  Sadly this criticism is often true.  The suggestion has been made that the Church is actually not full of hypocrites because there is plenty of room for more.  One reason we need the Church in the first place is that we need a community in which we challenge each other to be our best selves and to actually live according to what we claim to believe.


Notes:

1. Matthew 22:37-40
2. Matthew 25:31-40.
3. Peter Rollins.  The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales.  2009, Paraclete Press.  pp. 52-54

My "shadow selfie" was taken by me in 2014.

Perspective: Tethers on Earth

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Tethers on Earth

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Matthew 19:23-24 (NRSV)

Ruin my life, the plans that I've made
Ruin these hours for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place
'Til it's You alone I live for, You alone I live for

From "Ruin Me" by Jeff Johnson

In the Gospels we read that Jesus, at one point in His ministry, begins heading toward Jerusalem.  One day, as Jesus and the Disciples are nearing the city, a rich man approaches Him and asks, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"¹

Jesus replies, "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."  The rich man asks Jesus which commandments he needs to keep, and Jesus says to him, "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."²

The rich man says, "I have kept all these; what do I still lack?"³

Jesus then says, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."⁴

The rich man walks away dejected, because he does not want to part with his wealth.⁵

Jesus spoke previously of "treasure in heaven" while He was teaching the Disciples.  He said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal."⁶  Jesus taught the Disciples not to value material possessions that do not last but to instead value the things that truly matter.

Jesus then said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."⁷  In other words, material possessions have a way of tethering us to the world as it is.

When the rich man walks away, Jesus says to the Disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."⁸  The Kingdom of God, as I understand it, is the world as God always intended it to be.  It is the world we anticipate when we pray, as Jesus taught, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."⁹

People who are wealthy are obviously doing rather well in the world as it is, so naturally they would tend to be less inclined to desire a different world, even a world that actually works as God intended.

When Jesus started heading toward Jerusalem, He began warning the Disciples that, when He reaches the city, He will be rejected, arrested, put on trail, sentenced to death, crucified, and finally resurrected.  When one of the Disciples objected to this revelation, Jesus said to all of them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."¹⁰  Following Jesus will require self-denial and sacrifice.

The "eternal life" the rich man seeks is life in the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is the world as God intended it to be.  Seeking the kingdom means doing God's will by following Jesus' teachings and example, and following Jesus will require sacrifice.  If we truly want to experience life in the world God intended, we will need to sacrifice the things that keep us tethered to the world as it is.


Notes:

1. Matthew 19:16 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 19:17-19 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 19:20 (NRSV)
4. Matthew 19:21 (NRSV)
5. Matthew 19:22
6. Matthew 6:19-20 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 6:21 (NRSV)
8. Matthew 19:23-24 (NRSV)
9. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
10. Matthew 16:21-24 (NRSV)

Christ and the Rich Young Ruler was painted by Heinrich Hofmann in 1889.

Perspective: Speaking of the End Times

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Speaking of the End Times

After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.  While he was going away and as they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them.  They said, "Galileans, why are you standing here, looking toward heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven."

Acts 1:9-11 (CEB)

There will be a day with no more tears
No more pain and no more fears
There will be a day
When the burdens of this place
Will be no more
We'll see Jesus face to face

From "There Will Be a Day" by Jeremy Camp

Do you remember when the idea of robots' wanting to kill all humans was just a joke on Futurama or the plot of bleak, futuristic action movies like those in the Terminator series?

Those were the days.

Within the last couple of weeks, following the public resignation of a very concerned researcher, a senior employee at a leading artificial intelligence research company admitted that there is a possibility that AI technology could reach the capacity to kill all human life within the next ten years.¹  Discussions about placing limits on AI research immediately followed.  The curriculum my Sunday school class uses for our weekly discussions is based on current events,² so, per the curriculum, this week's class discussion segued from the potential threat of AI research to eschatology or beliefs about the "end times."

Some Christians have constructed elaborate timelines of events that will take place before the end of this age, and they frequently consider how current events might fit into them.  Personally, I think that such frameworks are misapplications of Scripture, distractions from what matters most, and means of frightening people into obedience.

I was tempted, at first, to think the end times are not discussed very much in United Methodist Churches like the one I attend, but, as I prepared to lead the class discussion this week, I realized that, at my church, we actually speak of the end times a lot, though we might not realize it.  In fact, at least five eschatological statements are made at my church on a regular basis.  I suspect these statements or similar statements are regularly made at many other Mainline Protestant churches as well.

One eschatological statement is found in the prayer Jesus taught His followers to pray, which is commonly called the Lord's Prayer.  In it, we pray,

Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.³

Though we all realize that the world is currently not as it should be, with this part of the Lord's prayer, we anticipate a day when God's will is actually done in the world.

At my church, Holy Communion is observed monthly, but, at many Mainline Protestant churches, Holy Communion is observed weekly.  A second eschatological statement is found in the Great Thanksgiving, the prayer prayed primarily by the pastor as part of a Holy Communion Service.  At one point in the Great Thanksgiving, the pastor calls upon the entire congregation to "proclaim the mystery of faith," saying, "Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again."⁴  As we "proclaim the mystery of faith" during the Holy Communion service, we proclaim that there will be a "Second Coming," that Christ will return to earth.

A third eschatological statement is found in the epiclesis, the part of the Great Thanksgiving in which the pastor asks God the Father to "pour out" the Holy Spirit upon the congregation and upon the Communion elements.  The pastor prays,

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory
and we feast at his heavenly banquet.⁵

With this prayer, a pastor proclaims that Christ's return to the earth will be a decisive victory against the forces of evil and that a great celebration will follow this victory.

A fourth eschatological statement is found in the Apostles' Creed, one of the creeds used by Christians to proclaim their faith at worship services.  In the part about Jesus Christ, the congregation proclaims,

The third day he rose from the dead,
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.⁶

With this part of the Apostles' Creed, we proclaim that judgment will come with the return of Christ.  Though a lot of people associate judgment with punishment, I like to think of judgment as Christ's setting all things right in the world.  If God's will is to "be done on earth as it is in heaven," then some things cannot be allowed to continue as they are.

Christ's setting all things right in the world will ultimately be good news for all people.  That said, for people who benefit from the messed-up state of the world, Christ's setting things right will be experienced as bad news or even punishment.

A fifth eschatological is found toward the end of the Apostles' Creed.  The congregation proclaims,

I believe in...
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.⁷

With this part of the Apostles' Creed, we proclaim that the Resurrection of Christ is just the first of many resurrections, that, like Christ, other human beings will be resurrected from the dead, never to die again.

Whatever trials and tribulations may come, we can hold on to the hope that someday all things will be set right.

Notes:

1. Robert Booth.  "AI could kill all humans in next decade, warn experts: but how seriously should we take them?"  The Guardian, September 9, 2026.
2. https://www.thewiredword.com/
3. One version of the Lord's Prayer printed in The United Methodist Hymnal.  1989, United Methodist Publishing House.  #895
4. From a Service of Word and Table I as printed in The United Methodist Hymnal.  p. 10
5. ibid.
6. From the Apostles' Creed, Traditional Version as printed in The United Methodist Hymnal.  #881
7. ibid.

The photograph of the sunrise over the Philippines has been released into the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.