Below is my column in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.
For those who attend churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary (and who also went to church this past Labor Day weekend), they heard from Mark 7, where Jesus upbraids the religious leaders, calling them hypocrites, because they “abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Specifically, they clung to the traditions of ritual washing – even though many of these traditions were never commanded in Scripture for all people to follow – and yet abandoned the greater commandments of God. As we know from elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus saw this particularly in the failure to faithfully love God and your neighbor.
The religious leaders in the time of Jesus may keep the traditions and ritual, but the way they treat other people is not good, loving, or just. And so, he told them that they cannot think they can treat another human poorly but still claim holiness, at least not a holiness that comes from God. To act as though they were ritually holy despite the word and actions that flowed from their hearts, this was hypocrisy.
The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word for an actor, someone who is pretending to be someone they are not. As one scholar notes, “hypocrisy is a negation of authentic life: it is life acted out to fool others, a role that we take on and pretend to be, that is not really us.” It’s described as well in the first chapter of James, where he says those of us who hear the word of God but don’t actually do it are like those who look at themselves in a mirror, see who they truly are, and then forget the second they walk away.
Perhaps the best way I’ve ever heard this described, comes from the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. In a scene early in the book, the wretched Fyodor Pavlovich – the patriarch of the Karamazov family and a man who is licentious, a compulsive liar, sensualist, and a buffoon – is always making a great deal about how he doesn’t care about what others think of him. He has gathered with his sons in the cell of the great elder Father Zosima. The miserable person of father, Fyodor Pavlovich, asks Father Zosima what he must do to inherit eternal life (a question he clearly does not actually care about for he is simply putting on a show). But Father Zosima responds, anyway, telling him to turn from his obviously wicked and sensual ways.
Then, Father Zosima goes even further, saying, “And, above all – don’t lie. Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures.”
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. I think that might be the heart of the hypocrisy that Jesus warned about, the hypocrisy that lies close at hand to any one of us. That’s certainly how James describes it as well, saying that if you think you are religious but you don’t bridle your tongue, you are simply deceiving your own heart, that your religion is worthless.
Now, I want to be quite clear. Neither Jesus nor James nor Father Zosima are saying you must be perfect. No, they are saying you must be honest. When you fall short, don’t think your ritual or superior perspective on religion will save you. That’s simply not true and you are deceiving yourself. All of us are saved by gracious love, and that is all.
But, on the other hand, certainly don’t think that you can let evil or hateful words come from your heart and still be who God calls you to be. Indeed, this is why so many have turned away from Christianity entirely. They see people who claim to follow God but who speak and act in hateful ways towards those who are different from them, those with whom they disagree, those who see God differently.
They see what comes from the hearts of Christians and, in the eyes of unbelievers, these Christians are just as defiled as were the religious leaders in the time of Jesus. And when those religious Christians claim they are actually superior… well, the hypocrisy is obvious.
In that same first chapter of James, he describes true and pure religion as this: care for the orphans and widows (that is, whoever the marginalized are in your society) and live differently than the world around you. So, if you want to follow Jesus, don’t think you can ignore the marginalized and be who God calls you to be. When you live a self-centered life, as though you are what is most important, you deceive yourself about what love actually demands of you, you forget that your worth is not in yourself, but that you are called to offer yourself to others.
As the theologian Robert Cummings Neville once articulated it, “the human condition of sin is ontological self-contradiction, or being divided against oneself in one’s very being.” Sin is deceiving yourself about who you truly are. It is a form of lying to yourself. And so, I think all of us could stand to take Father Zosima’s words to heart. (Including this Christian priest writing this column.)
Don’t lie to yourself. You were created for God, you were created for good, you were created to be a force for love in this world.
Don’t believe the lies others may have told about you, especially religious people who have condemned you while claiming their own righteousness.
Don’t believe the dark thoughts that linger when no one else is around. You are so much more than that.
Ensure that what comes out of you, what comes out of your mouth, what comes out in your interactions with others, in the way you live your life, in all the ways you impact the world, ensure that what comes out of you is true to the good and loving person God created you to be, that what comes out of you makes holiness, makes goodness, and makes justice.
Because it is only then you will be who you truly are.
The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.