February 10, 2008

I Have Sinned: Hypocrisy

Matthew 23:23-28

Opening Words: Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” Many will admit they are sinners but never repent. Instead, they have become experts are making excuses. As disciples of Jesus Christ we must remember three things. First, God sees through our excuses for sinning. Second, God is more interested in forgiving us then hearing our excuses. Third, God expects us to repent and become more like Jesus. Lent is a time to stop making excuses. It is a time to identify and eliminate your sinful ways. It is a time to start practicing what you will do in heaven for eternity. This morning let’s look at the sin of hypocrisy.

Matthew 23:23-28   ²³"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

    ²⁵"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

²⁷"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. ²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

We are writing a Gospel a chapter each day

By deeds that we do and words that we say;

People read what we write, whether faithless or true…

So what is the Gospel according to you?

I love the story of the woman who invited the neighbors over for dinner one warm August evening. She prepared for the meal in her hot kitchen the entire afternoon. When her guests finally arrived, dinner was served. Everything was perfect. Everyone was impressed. She welcomed everyone warmly and told them how honored they were to have them in their home. She looked at her five year old and asked him to say the blessing. He was a little uncomfortable with this assignment. This would be his first public prayer so he looked to his mother for help. She said, “Go ahead, Dear. Just say what you heard me say before.” The five years old bowed his head and said, “Dear Lord, Why did I invite these fools over on the hottest day of the year?” Mark Twain once said, “We're all like the moon, we have a dark side we don't want anyone to see.”

Webster defines a hypocrite as anyone who gives a false appearance of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings. In other words, we become a hypocrite when our words and our deeds don’t match. We understand what a hypocrite is because our society is filled with hypocrites. American society will tolerate just about anything but our society will not tolerate a hypocrite. However, today I am not going to talk about unfaithful spouses, corrupt politicians or wayward clergy. Today, I am going to talking about the hypocrisy that exists within the church. Let us just be honest. Our words and our deeds don’t always match. We speak of our passion for the Master but deeds don’t always match. How often do we in the life of the church get more excited about church policies, practices and happenings than Jesus? Could it be we have substituted church membership with discipleship? The two are completely separate. You can be involved in the life of the church your entire life and still not know Jesus. Some have compared the church to the Queen Mary.

In 1936, the Queen Mary was launched. She was the largest ship in the world. She crossed the oceans through four decades and served in one world war. When finally retired she became a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California. During the conversion, her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock they crumbled. Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. They were hollow on the inside. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away.

Could it be our churches are rusting away from the inside out? Our churches look good when you drive passed. The lawn is kept. The building is painted. They flag is flying. Everything looks good to the outsider but when you take a closer look there is a great problem. Spiritually we are weak or impotent. We hide our lack of understanding with church work. You maybe fooling the world but you are not fooling God. If you know the location of the salt in the kitchen or the location of the salt for the sidewalk or the budgeted figured for the gas bill of this building but you can’t find the scripture lesson for this message you have a problem. By your presence today you are telling the world Jesus is important to you but your words and your deeds don’t match. The truth is you are a spiritual hypocrite. Our world will not tolerate hypocrites and neither will Jesus.

I was accepted into the New Church Start Academy several months ago. I go to the Area Center in North Canton once a month and study how to start new churches. Starting new churches is important because congregations are like people. They have a time line. Every church was birthed at some point in the past. Every church will die at some point in the future. I really don’t care for that fact but it is true. You can see it with your own eyes. How many once striving congregations are near death? As an Annual Conference we have closed countless more churches in the past forty years than we have started. Our Annual Conference is dieing. I said it last week. Survival is not a ministry. We need to start new churches but if we are starting new churches to just keep the United Methodism alive, then we have already missed the point. We need to start new churches to make new disciples. All a denomination we need to reclaim our passion for Jesus! Our words and our deeds must match. The world will not tolerate a hypocrite and neither will Jesus. Just look at this morning’s scripture lesson.

We are in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew. Jesus has the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in his sites. Leadership and responsibility go hand in hand. They too are doing the external but are failing to do the internal. They give ten per cent of their money but have forgotten about justice, mercy and faithfulness. They are cleaning the outside of their cups and dishes but are consumed with self-indulgence. They bury the dead in the proper way but are really spiritually dead themselves. They looked good on the outside but on the inside they are ugly. It is my sincere prayer that is not our story. Lent is a season to repent and receive God’s forgiveness. We will never completely succeed as a church until we stop our hypocritical ways and become genuine in passion for Jesus.

Today, I want to talk about three things that will happen when we leave our hypocritical ways. Each one of these things begins with the letter C. Each one is important. When we become genuine in our passion for Jesus things will truly begin to happen. So if you are ready to stop worrying about salt and start getting passionate about Jesus say, “Amen!” The first word is the word compelling.

Compelling

Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson's famous valley campaign. Jackson's army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before daylight General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river. General Jackson asked where are the engineers and what are they doing? The wagon master's only reply was that they were in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge.  This is the point.

When you are passionate about Jesus, you will want to be like Jesus. It is not enough to just study about Jesus. If you are passionate about Jesus, then you will want to be like him. Church members are basically happy with themselves. Disciples are compelled to be like Jesus. And all of God’s disciple’s said, “Amen!” Word number one is compelling. Word number two is contagious.

Contagious

In Twelve Tests of Character, Henry Emerson Fosdick tells the story of the hardships in Armenia during the early days of the twentieth century. On one occasion a woman and her brother were chased by a Turkish solder down a dark street. The soldier killed the bother but the woman escaped. However, later she too was captured and became a prisoner. When her captures found out she was a nurse they sent her to a military hospital. You guessed it! One day the Turkish soldier who killed her brother appeared. He was wounded and was near death. She nursed him back to health. She helped the man live who killed her brother. Later, that Turkish soldier asked, “Why?” Why did she care for him after he had killed her brother? She said, “Because my Lord said to love our enemies.” He said, “then tell me about your Lord. Genuine Christian faith is contagious. And all of God’s people said, “Amen!” The first word is compelling. The second word is contagious. The third word is convincing.

Convincing

I read the story the other day about a teacher who was assigned to help a boy in the hospital with his school work. He was burned over most of his body and was extremely depressed. The nurses had tried to cheer him up but his spirits remained low. The teacher felt kind of silly helping the boy. The subject was irregular verbs and dangling participles. The boy didn’t seem to comprehend a thing. The next day the teacher showed up for another lesson. The nurse stopped her first and asked her what she had said to the boy? The teacher asked why. The nurse said, “After you left the boy’s demeanor completely changed. His spirits began to sore.” In time the boy completely recovered and released from the hospital. The teacher asked the boy what she has said that changed his attitude. He said, “Everyone told me I was going to recover but I didn’t believe them. I thought I was going to die. But when you came you didn’t tell me I was going to be recover. You talked about irregular verbs and dangling participles. If I was going to die who cared about irregular verbs and dangling participles? Your lesson was preparing me for life! I knew I was going to live!” Actions speak louder than words! Actions are compelling. Actions are contagious. Actions are convincing.

We are writing a Gospel a chapter each day

By deeds that we do and words that we say;

People read what we write, whether faithless or true…

So what is the Gospel according to you?

And all of God’s people said, “Amen!”