Last week I mentioned the importance of church camp in the
development of my spiritual life and my sense of call as a minister. As powerful as my camp experience was,
it was not without a few shortcomings.
One summer, one of our counselors told us that when we returned to
school we needed to be sure to bow our heads and pray before lunch each day in
the cafeteria. We were instructed
to do this not just because of a desire to return thanks and not because we
ought to pray, but we were told to do so because our classmates should see us
praying; the point of our prayers was to be seen praying, as it would be a
witness of faith. Our counselors
also told us we should read our Bibles regularly, and as I did, I remembered
the words of Jesus in the Sermon On the Mount, where he says that we should
pray in secret. The words of my
counselor seemed to be in conflict with the instructions of my counselor.
The conflict between what I was told and what I read in this passage
led me to what might seem like a strange practice to some people – before I eat
a meal I always return thanks, but not always in an obvious manner. When I share a meal with another person
or a group of people, I’m often asked to offer the blessing, which I do and I’m
happy to do so, but when I’m by myself, I do not bow my head and I do not close
my eyes, but I do return thanks.
Praying in a way that is obvious to others makes me wonder about the
difference between an authentic expression of faith and an activity that is
done simply to gain attention.
Does that make me weird?
It’s okay to nod your head yes, I know I’m weird.
Listen to what Jesus says in chapter six of the Sermon On the Mount
–
1 Be careful not to practice your
righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in
heaven.
2 So when you give to the needy, do not
announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the
streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their
reward in full.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not
let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving may be in secret.
Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 And when you pray, do not be like the
hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street
corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward
in full.
6 But when you pray, go into your room,
close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 And when you pray, do not keep on
babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many
words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father
knows what you need before you ask him.
This morning we are talking about The Danger of Self-Righteousness. What is the difference between a genuine expression of faith
and self-righteousness? Let’s find
out –
Self-Righteousness Feels the Need to Call Attention to One’s Actions.
One of the marks of
self-righteousness that is identified by Jesus in this week’s Scripture passage
is that of drawing attention to one’s spiritual practices and actions. Be careful not to practice your righteousness
in front of others to be seen by them, Jesus said, implying that if we have to point out our
righteousness to other people, it’s not really true righteousness.
Self-righteousness is identified by a looking-over-the-shoulder way of living
that wants to be sure others see what we are doing.
In Luke 18:9-14 we read
the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, both of whom were praying in
the Temple. The Pharisee is
audacious enough to point out the tax collector, to whom he felt superior, and
turned his prayer into a self-congratulatory speech. God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers,
adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week
and give a tenth of all I get (Luke 18:11-12). I’m not sure how he managed to reach around and pat himself
on the back and pray at the same time, but he did!
It’s very sad to see
prayer used in a way that makes a point.
Ministers, sadly, are some of the worst offenders about using prayer in
this way. I’ve heard ministers offer
a prayer in a worship service similar to this – Lord, we’ve got a really big decision coming up in our
congregation. We need to do the
right thing. We know the right
things is to (decided in some particular manner). Lord, we know how you want us to decide, but there are some
who have closed their minds and hearts to that way. Open their hearts, their minds, their eyes, and their ears
to vote in the proper way, especially those elders who are being stubborn and
unwilling to get with the program!
Those kinds of prayers aren’t really prayers – they’re speeches, and
everybody knows it, and they’re self-righteous as well.
Jesus encountered a lot
of self-righteous people. And when
he did, he was usually pretty tough on them. Consider these words from the 23rd chapter of
Matthew’s gospel – Woe to you, teachers
of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You are like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but
on the inside are full of of deadmen’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you
appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and
wickedness. You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to
hell? (Matthew 23:27-28; 33)
Wow. Those are tough words, spoken with
strong emotion, and they probably didn’t win Jesus any fans among the Pharisees
and others in the religious establishment. Jesus was hard on self-righteousness, I think, because it
presents a distorted idea of the nature of faith and because it turns people
away from faith, as they find it to be so unattractive.
I don’t think anyone
has much tolerance for self-righteousness. Jesus certainly didn’t. But as much as we dislike
self-righteousness, it’s important to remember that we all have the capacity to
become self-righteous. It’s really
not that difficult, because one of the traits of self-righteousness is the
inability to recognize it, even in one’s self. While we are quick to recognize it in others, we are not so
quick to identify it in ourselves.
People don’t generally
know when they are being self-righteous.
The Pharisees, who represent to us the very epitome of
self-righteousness, wouldn’t have understood themselves to be self-righteous. In fact, the Pharisees as a group began
in the time between the Old and the New Testaments as a movement to revive
spirituality among the Jewish people.
The Pharisees were a reaction to what was perceived as cold, stale,
legalistic religion, so their roots were based in a good impulse, but they
eventually came to represent exactly what they originally opposed. From a desire to encourage prayer they
moved to offering showy prayers, standing in busy public places so they would
be seen as they prayed. From a
desire to encourage generosity they moved to a self-congratulatory attention-calling
to their giving. From a desire to
give to the needy they moved to a lesser concern with helping and a greater
concern to receive the recognition for their generosity.
Sometimes, the best and
most noble spiritual impulses can go awry. In fact, one of the lessons we can learn from those whom
Jesus addressed is this – if we have to
point out our righteousness to other people, it’s not really true righteousness.
Self-Righteousness
want to serve as God’s gatekeepers.
I like the concerts at
the State Fair, especially the free ones at Cardinal Stadium. I like them because, well, they’re
free, and because they often feature the classic rock acts of my era of music. One
year I was walking through Freedom Hall on my way to the stadium, and there was
a long line of people waiting to be seated for a Kenny Chesney concert. I don’t mean to stereotype, but have
you ever noticed how it’s just obvious that some people belong to a particular
group? Like Kenny Chesney fans,
for instance. The dress code was
an assortment of boots, cowboy or baseball hats, and faded and torn jeans. I’m not being critical of country
music, I’m just making an observation.
Or maybe I’m just jealous because no one has ever written a song about
my sexy tractor. Not the I even
have a tractor. I have a sad, little
riding mower and believe me, there is nothing sexy about it! But the point is, everyone in that line
looked like they were going to a Kenny Chesney concert, except for one
guy. In the midst of this long
line of people was a guy who looked to be in his early to mid 20s. His hair was heavily jelled up in
spikes and was dyed three or four different colors. He had a bunch of piercings and a big chain hanging down
from his belt. I wondered if I
should tell him Metallica wasn’t playing that night, because he just didn’t
look like he fit in, and many of the people in the line were giving him looks
that communicated that they didn’t think he fit in either.
Self-righteousness
loves to communicate who fits in with God and who doesn’t. It has a uniform, and a set of beliefs
and actions; it has a mold in which every one must fit perfectly. Self-righteous people want to define
that mold, and they believe they are the ones qualified to serve as God’s
gatekeepers, determining who is acceptable to God and who isn’t. They are the ones who will look at
people and say, no, you don’t fit; you
don’t belong; you’re not like us.
The Pharisee in the Temple fit this bill perfectly, as he looked down on
the tax collector in his self-congratulatory manner. It was very clear to him that he was one not only of God’s
chosen but one of God’s preferred, and that gave him the right, in his mind, to
determine that the tax collector was not worthy enough to be one of God’s
children.
We hear a lot in recent
years about the folks who are spiritual
but not religious. I’m not
going to criticize that group of people, because I believe churches had a big
part in creating them. Far too
often, churches appointed themselves the gatekeepers to the kingdom of God and
would confidently, loudly – and often irritatingly – proclaim who was
acceptable to God and who was not.
Jesus very obviously kicked the legs out from under that high
horse. Jesus very obviously went
out of his way to bring into God’s favor those who were cast aside by the
self-righteous. Jesus very
obviously offered love, grace, and dignity to people who received none of those
gifts from the self-righteous.
Self-Righteousness
thrives on false comparisons.
I talked some about
comparisons last fall, but I want to mention comparisons in a different context
today. Self-righteousness loves to
make comparisons; the Pharisee in the Temple is a perfect example of this – God, I thank you that I am not like other
people. The reality is, the
Pharisee might have been a better person in some ways than the tax collector,
but so what? The point is not to
be better than other people; that is a false comparison. The true comparison is this – how do I compare to Jesus? It’s not hard to find someone to whom
we can feel spiritually superior, whether or not we really are. And plenty of church people over the
years have made that comparison to others, so in some cases, the reputation of
churches as being self-righteous is well-deserved, isn’t it?
A couple of weeks ago I
mentioned a church I served as Student Minister back in the 70s, Bethel
Christian Church in Jonesboro, Tennessee. Bethel is an African-American
congregation, which was a very interesting experience for me. Early in my ministry there I was
standing in a room behind the sanctuary looking at a picture. It was the traditional Head-of-Christ
picture that we see in many churches, except it was an African-American
Jesus. As I was standing there,
just looking at the picture, one of the ladies of the church walked by and,
without stopping, said, yeah, that’s not
right, but neither is the one at your church.
I found that to be both
funny and true, as the reality is that we can easily have the tendency to remake
Jesus in our image, rather than remaking ourselves in his.
The comparison we ought
to be making is not how we measure up to other people, or how they measure up
to us, but how we measure up to Jesus.
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