March 18, 2012:

On Hypocrisy

In last week’s sermon I said that "Hypocrisy is a wonderful thing. Where would we all be without it?". I didn’t mean to seem overly cynical, but there does seem to be a great deal of hypocrisy these days, particularly in the political world. So that we all are clear on this, I looked up the word "hypocrisy" in the dictionary and this is what I found:

"The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not possess; insincerity." The root word comes from ancient Greek drama to mean an actor, one playing a part.

We know that actors are not the same as the roles they play. Great actors such as Lawrence Olivier and Meryl Streep convincingly portray beliefs and emotions they do not posses personally. We expect that of them and applaud them when they do it well.

Hypocrisy outside the theatre is a very different matter. All of us have had (and will have) moments in our lives when we were not fully sincere. That is what it means to be human. We are not always the people we pretend to be. Sometimes, our hypocrisy is regrettable but not serious. Sometimes our hypocrisy is a serious problem. We ought to know the difference and, as the saying goes, ‘clean up our act." Hypocrisy chips away at the trust others have in us and that we have in them. It is particularly serious when we begin to believe that our national leaders and those vying for high office are hypocrites and not to be trusted.

Jesus must have thought that hypocrisy was a serious thing. He used the word to describe certain people 25 times in the Gospels, more than any other sin human beings are capable of doing. But Jesus use of hypocrisy was not to criticize religious leaders and others with pretending to a goodness they didn’t have. Rather, Jesus uses the word to point out their self-righteousness. Sadly, sometimes (mostly) good people look down on those they believe haven’t measured up to them.

Pretending to be something we’re not or preening over the goodness we have are both hypocritical. Both destroy trust and respect and that’s serious.

Love,
Dave