SERMON                                                                                                                  “Down with Hypocrisy”

Fifth sermon in a series,

titled, “The Ragamuffin Gospel”

1.   One of our greatest fears: BEING FOUND OUT.                                                    (4)

2.   One of the greatest sins: HYPROCRISY - "UNDER-JUDGING"                               (5, 2)

      Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.  (Romans 12:3)

3.   Perhaps the greatest risk: TRUSTING THAT GOD IS GOOD.                                 (11)

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."  (Matthew 5:8)

4.   How do I examine myself?  DO I BELIEVE THAT I AM WASHED CLEAN IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST?

Martin Luther:  That person is truly worthy and will prepared who has faith in these words: "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."

Excerpts from The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Multnomah Publishers

1)   The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.  If ‘white lies’ were criminal offenses, we would all be in jail by nightfall … The dichotomy between what we say and what we do is so pervasive in the church and in society that we actually come to believe our illusions and rationalizations and clutch them to our hearts like favorite teddy bears …

      Impostors in the Spirit always prefer appearances to reality.  Rationalization begins with a look in the mirror.  We don’t like the sight of ourselves as we really are, so we try cosmetics, makeup, the right light, and the proper accessories to develop an acceptable image of ourselves.  We rely on the stylish disguise that has made us look good or at least look away from our true self.  Self-deception mortgages our sinfulness and prevents us from seeing ourselves as we really are—ragamuffins.

2)   The noonday devil of the Christian life is the temptation to lose the inner self while preserving the shell of edifying behavior.  Suddenly I discover that I am ministering to AIDS victims to enhance my resume.  I find I renounced ice cream for Lent to lose five excess pounds.  I drop hints about the absolute priority of meditation and contemplation to create the impression that I am a man of prayer.  At some unremembered moment I have lost the connection between internal purity of heart and external works of piety.  In the most humiliating sense of the word, I have become a legalist.  I have fallen victim to what T.S. Eliot calls the greatest sin:  to do the right thing for the wrong reason.

3)   Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted, “… The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners.  The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.  So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from their fellowship.  We dare not be sinners.  Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous.  So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.  The fact is that we are sinners!”

4)   C.S. Lewis wrote:  “It may be that salvation consists not in the canceling of these eternal moments but in the perfected humility that bears the shame forever, rejoicing in the occasion which is furnished to God’s compassion and glad that it should be common knowledge to the universe.  Perhaps in that eternal moment St. Peter—he will forgive me if I am wrong—forever denies his Master.  If so, it would indeed be true that the joys of heaven are for most of us, in our present condition, an acquired taste—and certain ways of life may render the taste impossible of acquisition.  Perhaps the lost are those who dare not go to such a public place.”

5)   Biblically, there is nothing more detestable than a self-righteous disciple.  He is so swollen with conceit that his mere presence is unbearable.

6)   How long will it be before we discover we cannot dazzle God with our accomplishments?

      When will we acknowledge that we need not and cannot buy God’s favor?

      When will we acknowledge that we don’t have it all together and happily accept the gift of grace?  When will we grasp the thrilling truth of Paul:  “We acknowledge that what makes a man righteous is not obedience to the Law, but faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16)?

7)   The deafening spirit of hypocrisy lives on in prelates and politicians who want to look good but not be good; it lives on in people who prefer to surrender control of their souls to rules than run the risk of living in union with Jesus.

8)   The way we are with each other is the truest test of our faith.  How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car.

9)   Today the danger of the pro-life position which I vigorously support is that it can be frighteningly selective …

      When we laud life and blast abortionists, our credibility as Christians is questionable.  On one hand we proclaim the love and anguish, the pain and joy that goes into fashioning a single child.  We proclaim how precious each life is to God and should be to us.  On the other hand, when it is the enemy that shrieks to heaven with his flesh in flames, we do not weep, we are not shamed:  we call for more.

10)  It is interesting that whenever the evangelists Mark, Luke, or John mention the apostles, they call the author of the first Gospel either Levi or Matthew.  But in his own Gospel, he always refers to himself as ‘Matthew the publican,’ never wanting to forget who he was and always wanting to remember how low Jesus stooped to pick him up.

11)  Gerald May, a Christian psychiatrist in Washington D.C. writes:  “Honesty before God requires the most fundamental risk of faith we can take:  the risk that God is good, that God does love us unconditionally.  It is in taking this risk that we rediscover our dignity.  To bring the truth of ourselves, just as we are, to God, just as God is, is the most dignified thing we can do in this life.”