Preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Ash Wednesday
Many of you may have seen this story. It’s one of those that gets passed around because it’s funny, in a sad sort of way. The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.
He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the “What Would Jesus Do” bumper sticker, the “Choose Life” license plate holder, the “Follow Me to Sunday School” bumper sticker, and the chrome plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally…I assumed you had stolen the car.
What’s the moral of the story? Christians shouldn’t put bumper stickers on their cars? When people know you’re a Christian, they will be watching to see if what you do matches up with what you say, and if it doesn’t, not only will they judge you to be a hypocrite, but also they may paint all Christians with the same brush. It may be faulty logic, but nevertheless, it is the conclusion to which many have come. Gandhi said that the life and teachings of Christ attracted him to Christianity, but that observing how Christians lived their lives kept him from coming to faith.
Christians, and especially Episcopalians, are talented at compartmentalizing their faith. This part of my life is for church, this for family, this for business, and so on. The problem with that way of organizing one’s life is that one’s faith is supposed to guide all aspects of a person’s life. We can make a virtue out of keeping faith from becoming too important in our lives. After all, if you’re not careful, you might be branded a fanatic. Last Sunday, Stanley Hauerwas alluded to this when he said that we don’t trust our faith to guide us in the really important matters of life. If that truly is the case, then hypocrisy is the inevitable result. The woman driver with the Christian bumper stickers didn’t allow her faith to determine her behavior in that situation.
It seems to me that we have two problems when it comes to hypocrisy, and I am talking about hypocrisy because that is what Jesus dealt with in today’s Gospel. The first, I believe, is the easier of the two, and that is that the bar is set high for the Christian. We are to strive to love God above all things, and to love our neighbor as ourself. We can only do that by the grace of God, and even then, when we try our best, we make mistakes. We don’t measure up. And so it is inevitable that what we say with our lips we end up not professing in our lives. There is a kind of built-in hypocrisy as a result.
The second problem is that there are times and situations when we willfully choose not to live according to our faith, when we don’t trust that Jesus really knew what he was talking about. Those times when we say to ourselves, “I know Christianity teaches thus and so, but I need to be realistic. The best choice for me, right now, in this situation, is not the Christian choice.” And so we go our own way, a kind of willful hypocrisy. Yes, I call Jesus Lord, but…No one will know if I cheat on my income taxes and I need the money…..My spouse isn’t giving me what I need, so I will carry on this extramarital affair…….I know I should treat my employees lovingly, but throwing my weight around helps them remember who’s boss…..Yes, Jesus is my Lord, but…..The second problem, this willful hypocrisy, is not only the more damaging to us spiritually, but also is the hypocrisy most noticed by those outside the faith, and thus the more damaging to the Body of Christ.
The fact of the matter is that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way to the Father, he is truth itself, and only through him can we have authentic life. Until we live in sync with that truth, our lives will not be whole and we will not reach our potential, as individuals or as a people. That’s what we professed at our baptism, and it is what we profess every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.
Lent is an opportunity for all of us to get honest about our faith, to look seriously at how we consciously and unconsciously choose a different path, and it is a time to reduce the gulf between what we say with our lips and do with our lives.
In the Gospel, Jesus gives us three areas to work on in our faith, and I urge us all to think about these three areas in what we do this Lent as a rule of life. The three areas are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Add more prayer to your life. Make sure you worship every Sunday and perhaps add a weekday mass or Morning or Evening Prayer service to your regimen. Make the Fridays in Lent meatless, or even fast on those days, and especially keep today and Good Friday as fast days, if you are able to do that, given your health. And give up something you enjoy during Lent, reminding yourself of the sacrifice our Lord made for you on the cross. Give a little more to the Church or to a favorite charity, reminding yourself that all that you have is a gift from God and that you are called to share what you have with those who are less fortunate. If you give away what you save from giving up something, then you won’t even miss it.
May those who see us know we are Christians by how we live our lives.
Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Ash Wednesday
8 March 2011