If I was to ask you, what is the greatest hindrance to the growth of Christianity, what would you answer? (Solicit some responses)  Certainly one of the greatest hindrances is hypocrisy.  I weary of hearing people say, literally and in effect, “When Christians begin to act like Christians I’ll become more interested in being one.”  Now, to be sure, that’s a bit of a copout.  First of all, their definition of what acting like a Christian looks like can be seriously flawed.  But also, there is a bit of hypocrisy in most people—including those professing to be atheists or anti-Christianity.  I remember a copy writer who worked at the radio station I worked at in Greeley.  He was outspokenly anti-Christianity and often advocated for a humanism philosophy about “people just being kind and courteous to each other.”  Yet, he was one of the rudest, mean-spirited people I’ve ever known.  One time, I happened to be in the office area where his desk was while he was on the phone.  He was very abrupt and rude with the person on the phone—a sales rep for the station and they were discussing an ad for a client—and when he hung up the phone he voiced a demeaning epithet about that person.  I found myself saying, “Biff (not his real name), you’re always critical of people who aren’t nice, especially Christians, and calling for people to just be nice to each other…and yet you can’t live by the very ‘just be nice’ philosophy you champion.”  He just looked at me, a bit wild-eyed as I remember it, muttered something under his breath and stomped out of the office.  There’s a bit of hypocrisy in all of us.  Julian Lennon, in speaking about his father, John Lennon, a few years ago, said, “I felt he was a hypocrite.  Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world, but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son.  How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces—no communication, adultery, divorce?  You can’t do it, not if you’re being true and honest with yourself.”  All people, of any faith and of some integrity and character struggle with some form of hypocrisy.  I suppose an amoral person, or an immoral person don’t struggle much with hypocrisy—they espouse no standards against which to judge their behavior—but otherwise all people struggle with some form of hypocrisy.  And I daresay that the world goes much easier on a John Lennon and his hypocrisy than on… some notable Christian…say, a Mel Gibson, or a Ted Haggard, who has a moment of violating the standards by which they profess to live.  But, that’s a topic for another time.  The fact is we’re imperfect people.  The Christian will struggle on occasion with behavior that contradicts what he or she states to believe.  That is why grace and forgiveness are important.  But, we must get better at avoiding hypocrisy in our lives and stop bringing discredit to the faith we profess.

There are two pitfalls with hypocrisy.  One is what we already have been speaking about—bad witness.  We know too many examples of that, where the image of Christianity has been damaged because of some dreadful action by a Christian.  We must get better at avoiding that.

The other negative consequence of hypocrisy is no witness.  By that I mean where we’re reluctant to be identified as a Christian out of fear that we won’t live up to the expected standards—in other words, called out as a hypocrite of some kind.  Consequently, we keep our Christian faith a secret, resulting in no witnessing to the good news of the gospel.

I’ll never forget a friend of ours in one of the small group Bible studies I spoke about two weeks ago.  We were having an informal conversation after our Bible study time (and before our dessert time!), the topic for which was recent Christian bumper stickers we’d seen.  And my friend, Bif (not his real name!) said, “I’d never put one of those on my truck.”  “Why,” I asked, thinking he might be like another friend of mine who didn’t want anything on his car that wasn’t on it when it came out of the factory.  But, that wasn’t Bif’s reason.  “Because,” he said, “I’m afraid I wouldn’t live up to it.”  He feared being cut off in traffic some time, whipping around the offender, honking his horn (perhaps even waving inappropriately), and then as he drove away…the bumper sticker “Honk if you love Jesus.”  So, the philosophy develops, “Better no witness than a poor witness.”  But neither one advances the Kingdom.  The tragedy of hypocrisy is bad witness or no witness.  Both are hindrances to the growth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the growth of His church.

Now, if I was to ask you, what is a great antidote for hypocrisy, what would you answer?  (Solicit some responses)  From the text for today we see at least two: obedience and humility.  Obedience is a no-brainer: practice what you preach, make your actions match your words, walk the talk.  Humility is a bit more subtle.  We’re built with a strong sense of taking care of self and taking pride in doing that well.  But followers of Jesus Christ are called to humility.  And our Scripture for today points out some warning signs that humility may be lacking in our lives.

One is status symbols.  In the text, it is clothing and accessories—large phylacteries (boxes with pieces of paper with Scripture passages on them in the box) and long tassels on their robes.  We might add to the list other status symbols like the size of our house or its location, the car we drive, the kind of work we do.  Beware the person who struts their “stuff.”  Beware the influence of status symbols affecting your own humility.

Another sign that our humility is in danger is desiring the places of honor wherever we might be: wanting the best seat at a banquet (“excuse me, but I’m with the wedding party”), expecting the restaurant or nightclub to always have a table for us (think obnoxious celebrity here), or just demanding something better because you deserve it.

I’m reminded of my first trip to Israel.  Our group was packed in the gate area at Kennedy International Airport, beginning to board our plane for Israel.  The gate attendant had called for boarding by seat assignment, but that instruction was being totally ignored by everyone.  Literally, we all massed toward the gate like a herd of cattle…except for our trip leader, who was a professor from a Presbyterian seminary (the name of the leader and the seminary shall remain anonymous!).  He and his young adult daughter were standing off to the side calmly leaning against the wall.  “Look at…Morganstern (not his real name!),” I said to my friend who was also making his first trip to Israel.  “What do you suppose he knows that we don’t know?”  One issue, of course, was overhead compartment space—earlier on the plane the better chance of getting compartment space for a briefcase or carry on bag.  Well, we eventually got on board.  Our group of about 40 people making the trip was seated in the same area…except for two empty seats in the front of our area…until Dr. Morganstern and his daughter finally boarded the plane.  I watched from a few rows back as Dr. Morganstern came to his aisle seat, looked up at the packed compartment space above his seat, reached up, took a briefcase out, set the briefcase down in the aisle and put his briefcase in the compartment and sat down.  A few moments later, a man sitting a few rows in front of Dr. Morganstern was looking around and noticed his briefcase in the aisle.  Getting up, he confronted Dr. Morganstern about it and Dr. Morganstern’s response was, “my seat, my space.”  I thought they were going to come to blows until a flight attendant intervened, assured the man that she would find a place for his briefcase and some sense of order was restored.  I turned to my friend, who was a graduate of that particular seminary, and said, “Well, there’s our leader for our trip to the Holy Land!”  I quickly learned on that trip that humility was not a character trait for Dr. Morganstern.  Beware of the person who thinks he/she deserves the best seats…and beware of that attitude in your own life.

Another thing that affects our humility is titles of honor.  In another church I served, a pastor in the presbytery was infamously known for demanding to be called “Dr.”  I have to admit that whenever I saw him—at a presbytery meeting or some other event—I made a point of calling him by his first name.  Beware those who demand the honor of a title in their name...and beware of that being an issue affecting your own humility.

Christians are called to avoid hypocrisy in their lives, and two avenues toward doing that are obedience and humility.  Not a false humility, by the way, or one that is self demeaning.  Rather, it is one that genuinely puts others, and not self, first.

Today we celebrate the Reformation—our Scottish tradition as Presbyterians, but also the entire movement begun by Martin Luther.  At the heart of Luther’s concern was...hypocrisy, expressed in the wielding of political power by the Church and its leadership, but also in the discrepancy between actions and what the Scriptures say.  Luther, and other reformers, often said in essence, “You say, and most especially do this...but I read in the Scriptures this.”  And a part of what the Scriptures call us to is obedience and humility through service.  Now the Reformation was not without its moments of hypocrisy.  But there was, and is, a striving always to avoid hypocrisy through obedience and humble service.  It’s important that we do that...because when Christians act like Christians, more and more people will want to be Christians.

Let’s take a moment for silent reflection.