Acting religious, looking religious and sounding religious are not
\nthe same thing as being religious. \"The scribes and the Pharisees sit
\non Moses' seat, therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it.\"
\nThat is, you should respect the law, and strive to follow it, but then
\nhe goes on, \"but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what
\nthey teach.\"<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nIf someone were to ask me what I thought
\nwere the two most consuming passions of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have
\nto say 1) how the strong treat the weak, and 2) the sin of religious
\nhypocrisy. He begins the gospel of Matthew by preaching the world's
\nmost important, and revolutionary sermon, The Sermon on the Mount \u2014
\nand it is all about the reversal of power in the kingdom. . .\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nActing religious, looking religious and sounding religious are not
\nthe same thing as being religious. \"The scribes and the Pharisees sit
\non Moses' seat, therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it.\"
\nThat is, you should respect the law, and strive to follow it, but then
\nhe goes on, \"but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what
\nthey teach.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat Jesus is saying has a powerful and poignant relevance to the
\nsituation that we find ourselves in today. The powerful preachers and
\nteachers of our time are in fact the keepers of a great spiritual
\ntreasure (we call it the Good News), but \u2014 and here is the thrust of
\nhis commandment \u2014 they are not what they pretend to be, and they are
\nnot what they ask you to be. They are walking, talking forgeries. They
\nare hypocrites.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nIn the case of the scribes and Pharisees, God had called them to
\npositions of power so that they might give expert counsel on spiritual
\nmatters to people who have to work for a living \u2014 who don't have the
\nopportunity to study the Law day and night \u2014 many of whom are
\nilliterate, or don't have access to the scrolls of the Torah. In other
\nwords, they are called to be servants, but they serve only themselves.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nHere are their threes sins, and in the case of each one, I intend to
\nmake a comparison to our own high-profile religious professionals, our
\nown scribes and Pharisees, the high and mighty Religious Right.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n1) Jesus says, in no uncertain terms, that they do not practice what
\nthey preach. It is the number one reason given by people who have given
\nup on organized religion. I tried to go to church, people often tell
\nme. I wanted to learn and to walk in the light, but everyone was such a
\nhypocrite. I couldn't stand it.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nWhen the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was at the height of his
\npower, he preached mightily against the sins of the flesh. As it turns
\nout, he was also visiting prostitutes on a regular basis, and was
\ncaught soliciting sex form a minor. During the frantic and furious
\nimpeachment proceedings against President Clinton, a great cry went up
\nthroughout the land from the most powerful religious leaders of the day
\nthat a cancer was growing on the moral fiber of the country, and needed
\nto be cut out and burned in a national act of penance.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nThe man who led the charge, Newt Gingrich, was discovered to have
\nbeen having his own affair with a woman many years younger that had
\nstretched over years. When the House of Representatives tried to elect
\na new Speaker, Robert Livingston, he lasted all of three minutes, after
\nrising to the microphone to confess that he too had been unfaithful to
\nhis marriage vows.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nOh, the sound and the fury of those godly men! It was deafening, and in the end, it was sheer hypocrisy.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n2) \"They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the
\nshoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger
\nto move them.\" \u00a0By this Jesus meant that religious professionals often
\nmake the rules for other people to follow, and then, while exempting
\nthemselves, they fail even to lift a finger to help the masses to
\nshoulder this burden\u2026\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nMore tax cuts for the rich, more cuts in spending for the poor,
\ngreed run rampant in corporate American \u2013 it has all brought us,
\nfinally, to a day of reckoning. In the misuse of religion, political
\npower has been co-opted in exchange for the appearance of religiosity
\n\u2014 which is the greatest sin of all. How do I know this? I've read the
\nBible.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nWhen we saw the response to hurricane Katrina, we saw the true face
\nof conservative social policy in action. The Pharisees of our time, who
\nknow what is best for everyone, and treat the poor with a kind of
\nbenign neglect, will not get their hands dirty, and will not lift a
\nfinger to help. It is the responsibility of the poor to help
\nthemselves. To pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. If they
\ndon't have boots, they should buy some. If they can't afford them, they
\nshould work harder. If they want charity, they should join a church.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n3) \"They do all their deeds to be seen by others.\" In other words,
\nit's all for show. It's all for the cameras, it's all a photo-op, a
\npolitical commercial, a choreographed spectacle to fool the masses into
\nbelieving that talking about compassion is the same thing as acting
\ncompassionately. . . .\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nDo all politicians do this? Of course they do. Are all of us guilty
\nof religious hypocrisy at some level? Of course we are, because none of
\nus can avoid the charge of wanting to look and sound religious without
\nacting religious. . . .\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nIt is now possible to run on a morals platform, govern immorally,
\nand then blame everything on politics as usual. And when it comes to
\nputting on the mantle of religiosity, Jesus reserved a very special
\nkind of anger for this kind of bait and switch. . .\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nSo let me ask you, just let me ask you: does this really work? This
\nwhole humble-yourself business? I mean really, in an individualistic,
\ncapitalist, media dominated world, what proof do we have that humility
\nin the doing of good deeds ever pays off \u2014 ever gets recognized by
\nothers when we have not sought such recognition.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n[Pick up paper]. . .Working Poor, Homeless Receive Free meals,
\nClothes and `Light.' \u00a0 I think you know against what odds this story
\nappeared on the front page of the Oklahoman. How did it get there? How
\nis it that after seven years of no-strings attached service to poor in
\nour own community, someone finally took this light of ours out from
\nunder the bushel and let it shine? . . . Because 363 folk didn't do it
\nthemselves. They did not toot their own horn, they did not call a press
\nconference, they did not arrange for any photo ops. They simply let
\ntheir light shine. . .what Mr. Lindley calls in the final line of the
\nstory, \"the light of the members of the Mayflower Congregational
\nChurch.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\"Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble
\nthemselves will be exalted.\" You don't suppose that's really true?\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat if that's true?\n<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nDr. Robin Meyers is Senior Minister of Mayflower Congregational \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acting religious, looking religious and sounding religious are not the same thing as being religious. “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it.” That is, you should respect the law, and strive to follow it, but then he goes on, “but do not do as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c23-sermon-of-the-week"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nUCC church of Oklahoma City, OK, and Professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma
\nCity University. \u00a0His new book from Jossey\/Bass, is entitled:<\/em> Why the Christian Right is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, and Your Future.\n<\/p>\n