October 30, 2011

Sermon - Proper 26, October 30, 2011

Reverend Gregg D. Wood

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is critical of the Scribes and Pharisees because “They preach, but do not practice.”  He goes on to illustrate his point with some examples. 

There is a word for what the scribes and Pharisees were doing.  It is hypocrisy.  Although Jesus does not use the word here, he does elsewhere.

I think it is important to understand what Jesus is saying about hypocrisy, because what he is saying applies to each of us.  But in order to do this, I want to turn to one of the healing stories in the Gospel of Luke.  It is in chapter 13, at verse ten.  Let me read it.

“Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”

In this Gospel passage, Jesus heals a woman who is “bent over and not able to stand up straight.”  Although we are told that this affliction was caused by “a spirit that had afflicted her for 18 years,” it sounds to me like the condition we today would call osteoporosis, a bone disease which usually affects women more than men.  Whatever the cause of the condition, Jesus laid hands on her and pronounced her to be healed, and lo, she was healed. 

But that is not the end of the passage.  The leader of the synagogue criticizes Jesus because he healed the woman on the Sabbath.  And how does Jesus respond to the criticism?  He draws a comparison.  “If it’s okay for you to untie your ox and your donkey on the sabbath so they can get to water,” asks Jesus, “then why isn’t it ok for me to free this woman from her 18-year bondage to this crippling condition?”  And at the very beginning of his response, he names the sin of which his accusers are guilty.  He says, YOU HYPOCRITES!

So this story is not just about healing.  The healing is a springboard for a teaching about the sin which seemed to outrage Jesus more than any other — the sin of HYPOCRISY. 

There can be little doubt that Jesus hated the sin of hypocrisy to a great degree.  The word “hypocrisy” and its cognates are mentioned in the New Testament 25 times, always spoken by Jesus, and always spoken to the Pharisees and other people in the religious establishment.    And there is a vehemence and a passion in his voice as he upbraids these people which contrasts sharply with the gentleness and comprehensiveness of much of his teaching.   Here is a sample of his pronouncements against hypocrisy:

Matt 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith,

Matt 23: 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 all kinds of filth.

And what is hypocrisy?  The dictionary defines it as “the [habit] of expressing feelings, beliefs, or virtues one does not hold or possess.”  

Now I think most Christians would agree that we should not be hypocrites.  And if most of us were asked point-blank, “Are you a hypocrite?”  We would probably say no, or at the very least, “I hope not.”  So Jesus’ criticism doesn’t seem to be addressed to us.

But before we get too comfortable, we should go back to the text.  It’s important to realize that observing the Sabbath by not working was an extremely important issue for the Jews of Jesus’ time, as indeed it still is for Orthodox Jews today.  There was a long tradition of interpretation which specified what constituted work.  According to those traditions, it was permitted to feed and water one’s animals, because that was not considered work.  But healing was considered work.   No doubt the leader of the synagogue was quite sincere in his criticism of Jesus.  I doubt that he intended to be a hypocrite.  But Jesus points out that there is hypocrisy involved.  How can it be acceptable to untie animals to feed them, yet it is not acceptable to free a woman from bondage to a terrible disease?  By adhering too closely to the letter of the law, it is possible to subvert the spirit of the law.  By concentrating on small matters, you may well overlook the important ones.   And yet, if we are not careful, we can do it almost automatically.  So Jesus is speaking, not so much against intentional, malicious hypocrisy, but rather against unconscious, automatic hypocrisy — hypocrisy we don’t even realize we’re doing until we get some distance from it, or someone points it out to us.

Let me give an example from my own experience:  When I was younger, I was a smoker.  When my daughter Lisa was three we enrolled her in a nursery school.  One day, when I was driving her home, smoking a cigarette, Lisa started telling me I shouldn’t smoke.  Apparently her school had done some teaching about the evils of smoking.  She pointed out that she was expected to brush her teeth and wash behind her ears, etc., but that smoking was more serious than failing to do these other things.  So why didn’t I stop smoking?

Well, to finish the story, within a few years I did stop smoking.  But what Lisa was accusing me of (although she didn’t know the word yet) was hypocrisy.   I was hypocritical in expecting her to avoid bad health habits when I myself was practicing a really bad health habit.  Of course, when it was pointed out to me, I realized the truth of it.  Normally though, I was blind to this particular hypocrisy.  And that is what Jesus is complaining about:  the hypocrisies that are so habitual, so common, and so unconscious, that we are blind to them.

Here is another example, this time from American history.  In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote, in one of the founding documents of our nation, that “All men are created equal.”  And for 87 years this idea of equality was preached in sermons and celebrated in 4th of July speeches.  Yet for that same 87 years the institution of slavery based on race survived and thrived in this country — an institution that completely betrayed the promise of equality.  This was hypocrisy on a national scale — a hypocrisy so habitual, so common, and so unconscious, that people were blind to it.

The teaching from today’s Gospel points to a task for us to do.  We should try to become aware of our unconscious, habitual hypocrisies.  In the Liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we are specifically called to do this, for we pray in these words: 

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives.

In the spirit of that prayer, we should try to examine our lives for hypocrisy.  Where do we preach something that we do not practice?  And how can we correct that fault?

Of course, this may not be easy to do.  By definition, an unconscious hypocrisy is one we are not aware of.   We may need help from other people.  Perhaps a spouse or partner can point out that which we ourselves are not aware of.  Perhaps a child can do it.  That’s how it happened with me.  Children usually have a good ear for cant and hypocrisy.   Or you might ask a close friend, a trusted colleague, or a priest who knows you well.

Finally, it’s encouraging to realize that hypocrisy is something that can only affect those who are already making an effort in their moral and spiritual life.  It’s like pretending you got an A when you really got a C: you wouldn’t do it unless you really cared about getting an A in the first place.  Hypocrisy is a fault of those who care.  That’s why in the Gospels it is always the people who are trying to be good and do what is right — the scribes and Pharisees — whom Jesus accuses of hypocrisy.  And his anger against them is stronger because he really loves them, he loves that they love God and they care. 

So as you try to deal with the hypocrisy in your own life, remember that the presence of hypocrisy is itself a sign that you are seriously pursuing a righteous life.  God hates the hypocrisy but God loves you.  Press on with God’s help!