Religion's Built-in Hazard
Sermon
Something's Coming ... Something Great
Sermons For Advent, Christmas And Epiphany
A Japanese legend says a pious Buddhist monk died and went to heaven. He was taken on a sightseeing tour and gazed in wonder at the lovely mansions built of marble and gold and precious stones. It was all so beautiful, exactly as he pictured it, until he came to a large room that looked like a merchant's shop. Lining the walls were shelves on which were piled and labeled what looked like dried mushrooms. On closer examination, he saw they were actually human ears. His guide explained that these were the ears of people who on earth went diligently to the temple, listened with pleasure to the teaching of the gods, yet, did nothing about what they heard. After death, they themselves went elsewhere, but only their ears made it to heaven.
We may smile at such a story, but the painful truth is that church people seem at times to be mostly ears - people who easily substitute hearing for doing. Religion has always had a built-in hazard. Believers are tempted to be good only for the show of it. The Greek word from which we derive our English term "hypocrite" literally means actor. And in every age, the great temptation of religious people is to go through the motions of piety without letting their faith permeate every aspect of their daily lives. I always marvel how just before election, our public officials are careful to mention God in their speeches, and to be photographed going to their church or synagogue. We Americans would still like to believe that our public officials are pious men and women who acknowledge the rule of God.
Of course, many of our elected officials are people of genuine faith, but many others in spite of their public displays of piety, have turned out to be hypocrites, people who say one thing with their lips, and another with their lives. I often recall the story of the little boy who simply refused to go to Sunday school one week. His mother, trying desperately to encourage him, said, "Son, your father always went to Sunday school as a boy." The little boy looked at her with knowing eyes and said, "That's what I mean, Mom; it won't do me any good either!"
That's the painful truth about us all, and it was no different in the time of the prophet Isaiah. In fact people often made a great show of praying, almsgiving and fasting. Then, as now, it was easy to substitute a great public display of piety for concrete deeds of justice and compassion. People in Isaiah's time and even in the days of our Lord's earthly life would make a great spectacle of praying in the streets. In the synagogues of Jesus' time, announcements were made of gifts to the poor, and very large gifts were signaled by the blast of a trumpet. Those who fasted cultivated a lean and famished look, that others would know the full extent of their self-deprivation.
It must have been this insistence on winning public recognition for one's piety through fasting that reallyupset Isaiah. Looking about him at the needs of the homeless, the hungry and the oppressed, Isaiah could no longer keep still. The selfindulgent displays of sackcloth and ashes, he declares, are not acceptable to God! The only true way to observe a fast is by liberating the oppressed, sharing your bread with the hungry, and opening your own house to the homeless!
Now all this talk of fasting sounds almost ridiculous to our modern ears. In a culture where the landscape is dotted with shrines to the golden arches and an assortment of pizza temples, talk of fasting as a religious duty is almost ludicrous! If fasting exists at all in our time, it is in connection with dieting, and that is largely based on motivations that are either cosmetic or therapeutic. Few people recall that fasting in the Bible was a spiritual discipline that one undertook to get closer to God. The focus was not on the self, but on God, and I cannot help wondering if that little couplet that used to be quoted to those who quit smoking could well be recited for those who make such a show of their dieting: "Giving up eating too much isn't enough. It's giving up bragging about it that's tough."
But that is precisely what Isaiah's message to us is - a call to move beyond public displays of piety to a faith that touches every aspect of our private and public lives. It is no accident that behind the Greek word for piety is the Hebrew word for justice. What was a problem for the people of God in Isaiah's time is even a greater concern in our own age - namely, that the modern church is in danger of being swallowed up by our culture to the point where no one can even tell who are the followers of Jesus Christ. Let's listen again to the prophet's message about the built-in hazard in religion.
1. God's Approval Versus Human Applause
First, Isaiah calls us to remember that it is God's approval and not human applause that ultimately counts. Jesus echoed the same call when he urged his followers to go about prayer and almsgiving and self-denial as though we were enlisted in the divine Secret Service. Those acts are done for the eyes and ears of God, not for any approval from our fellow human beings. According to Jesus, those who pray on street corners and make a great public show of piety already have their reward:
they receive the approval of others. But the reward they hoped for - to be found pleasing to God - this will be denied to them.
Now it is not easy to let one's piety be hidden. If one has a lovely voice and sings in the church choir, the temptation is almost irresistible to let one's voice sound out above the others. "Listen to me. Is not my voice beautiful? Am I not fortunate to have such a musical instrument?" What's more, it is so satisfying to let one's golden tones ring out above the ordinary noises made by fellow singers! To know that others are hearing the same lovely voice that rings in one's own ears; what could be sweeter? But is God glorified by such a display? No, says Isaiah! One does not need a public validation. If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, is there truly a sound? If one transposes that to the life of faithfulness, the answer is a solid yes. The hearing or seeing by others is not what makes our acts faithful. It is the faithfulness of God that is our validation.
How easily we forget that the emphasis in the Christian life is not on what we have done, but rather on what God has done for us in Christ. I read recently of how an outstanding Christian Sunday school teacher died and went to heaven. At the gate he was met by Saint Peter who began asking him some questions about his life on earth. Peter then explained that he would need a total of 100 points on this exam to enter heaven. "Well, I went to church almost every Sunday," said the man proudly. "That's good for one point," said Peter. "I taught Sunday school for 23 years," said the man, his confidence somewhat shaken. "Great," said Saint Peter, "that's worth another point."
The teacher was getting nervous, but he managed to say, "And I helped the elderly lady who was my neighbor as often as I could." "Fine," said Saint Peter. "That gives you three points. You have 97 left to go!" Speechless, the man fell to his knees, and cried, "All I've got left is the grace of my Savior, Jesus!" Gently Peter reached down and lifted the man to his feet, and said, "And that, sir, makes exactly 100! Welcome to heaven!" Isaiah of old reminds his people that it is God's approval, not human applause that counts in the kingdom of God.
2. Believing And Behaving
But Isaiah's message is also a call to God's people to close the gap between believing and behaving. What infuriated Isaiah was people who fasted on holy days, and then oppressed their workers the rest of the time. I think of the 18th century ship captain carrying slaves in the hold of his ship. The slaves were without sufficient food and water, and their situation was desperate. Yet the good captain decided to read his morning devotion on deck. He turned to the words in 1 John which say, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." From below decks came the cries of dying men, yet the captain did nothing. He told his crew, "It's not my problem. I am only a sailor."
Isaiah, in words that perhaps better describe our world than his own, appeals to people of faith "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house." In those prophetic words, the prophet calls us to close the gap between our beliefs and our behavior. This is first a call for deeds of justice. Isaiah's words speak pointedly to those of us who live in a land of plenty in the midst of a world that is starving - a world where it is said that if every hungry person was lined up single file, the line would encircle the globe not once, not twice, but 25 times! Isaiah's call for deeds of justice along with pious behavior is echoed by Jesus in those famous words in Matthew 25. A modern writer has written:
I was hungry, and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. Thank you.
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked, and in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt beside your bed and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached to me about the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for myself. You seem so holy, so close to God, but I am still hungry, and lonely and cold.
What does it profit a person to page through their book of prayers when the rest of the world is crying out for help?1
Isaiah's message is also a plea to God's people to love and to show generosity in the same ways that God has loved us. Isaiah has no patience for those who claim that what happens in politics, in government, in society, in the business world, or in military affairs is of no concern to the church. For Isaiah, God is Lord over all of life, and that means that God is much more than a small compartment labeled "formal religion." God is holy, and a moral God demands moral holiness in all of life.
The familiar words of Sir George McCleod to the Iona Community in Scotland still speak of God's call to carry our faith into all of life. McCleod wrote: "I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am for recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap, at a place so cosmopolitan, they had to write his title in Hebrew, Latin and Greek; at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, soldiers gamble and thieves curse; because that is where Christ died, and that is what Christ died about, and that is where church people ought to be, and what church people should be about."
Closing the gap between belief and behavior is not something we will ever do in our human strength and wisdom, but in the power of God's Spirit, all things are possible. The answer to so much that is wrong in our world has come in Jesus Christ, who in reconciling us to God, brings us to a place where we can be reconciled to one another. Only then shall "light break forth like the dawn, and righteousness shall go before you."
We may smile at such a story, but the painful truth is that church people seem at times to be mostly ears - people who easily substitute hearing for doing. Religion has always had a built-in hazard. Believers are tempted to be good only for the show of it. The Greek word from which we derive our English term "hypocrite" literally means actor. And in every age, the great temptation of religious people is to go through the motions of piety without letting their faith permeate every aspect of their daily lives. I always marvel how just before election, our public officials are careful to mention God in their speeches, and to be photographed going to their church or synagogue. We Americans would still like to believe that our public officials are pious men and women who acknowledge the rule of God.
Of course, many of our elected officials are people of genuine faith, but many others in spite of their public displays of piety, have turned out to be hypocrites, people who say one thing with their lips, and another with their lives. I often recall the story of the little boy who simply refused to go to Sunday school one week. His mother, trying desperately to encourage him, said, "Son, your father always went to Sunday school as a boy." The little boy looked at her with knowing eyes and said, "That's what I mean, Mom; it won't do me any good either!"
That's the painful truth about us all, and it was no different in the time of the prophet Isaiah. In fact people often made a great show of praying, almsgiving and fasting. Then, as now, it was easy to substitute a great public display of piety for concrete deeds of justice and compassion. People in Isaiah's time and even in the days of our Lord's earthly life would make a great spectacle of praying in the streets. In the synagogues of Jesus' time, announcements were made of gifts to the poor, and very large gifts were signaled by the blast of a trumpet. Those who fasted cultivated a lean and famished look, that others would know the full extent of their self-deprivation.
It must have been this insistence on winning public recognition for one's piety through fasting that reallyupset Isaiah. Looking about him at the needs of the homeless, the hungry and the oppressed, Isaiah could no longer keep still. The selfindulgent displays of sackcloth and ashes, he declares, are not acceptable to God! The only true way to observe a fast is by liberating the oppressed, sharing your bread with the hungry, and opening your own house to the homeless!
Now all this talk of fasting sounds almost ridiculous to our modern ears. In a culture where the landscape is dotted with shrines to the golden arches and an assortment of pizza temples, talk of fasting as a religious duty is almost ludicrous! If fasting exists at all in our time, it is in connection with dieting, and that is largely based on motivations that are either cosmetic or therapeutic. Few people recall that fasting in the Bible was a spiritual discipline that one undertook to get closer to God. The focus was not on the self, but on God, and I cannot help wondering if that little couplet that used to be quoted to those who quit smoking could well be recited for those who make such a show of their dieting: "Giving up eating too much isn't enough. It's giving up bragging about it that's tough."
But that is precisely what Isaiah's message to us is - a call to move beyond public displays of piety to a faith that touches every aspect of our private and public lives. It is no accident that behind the Greek word for piety is the Hebrew word for justice. What was a problem for the people of God in Isaiah's time is even a greater concern in our own age - namely, that the modern church is in danger of being swallowed up by our culture to the point where no one can even tell who are the followers of Jesus Christ. Let's listen again to the prophet's message about the built-in hazard in religion.
1. God's Approval Versus Human Applause
First, Isaiah calls us to remember that it is God's approval and not human applause that ultimately counts. Jesus echoed the same call when he urged his followers to go about prayer and almsgiving and self-denial as though we were enlisted in the divine Secret Service. Those acts are done for the eyes and ears of God, not for any approval from our fellow human beings. According to Jesus, those who pray on street corners and make a great public show of piety already have their reward:
they receive the approval of others. But the reward they hoped for - to be found pleasing to God - this will be denied to them.
Now it is not easy to let one's piety be hidden. If one has a lovely voice and sings in the church choir, the temptation is almost irresistible to let one's voice sound out above the others. "Listen to me. Is not my voice beautiful? Am I not fortunate to have such a musical instrument?" What's more, it is so satisfying to let one's golden tones ring out above the ordinary noises made by fellow singers! To know that others are hearing the same lovely voice that rings in one's own ears; what could be sweeter? But is God glorified by such a display? No, says Isaiah! One does not need a public validation. If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, is there truly a sound? If one transposes that to the life of faithfulness, the answer is a solid yes. The hearing or seeing by others is not what makes our acts faithful. It is the faithfulness of God that is our validation.
How easily we forget that the emphasis in the Christian life is not on what we have done, but rather on what God has done for us in Christ. I read recently of how an outstanding Christian Sunday school teacher died and went to heaven. At the gate he was met by Saint Peter who began asking him some questions about his life on earth. Peter then explained that he would need a total of 100 points on this exam to enter heaven. "Well, I went to church almost every Sunday," said the man proudly. "That's good for one point," said Peter. "I taught Sunday school for 23 years," said the man, his confidence somewhat shaken. "Great," said Saint Peter, "that's worth another point."
The teacher was getting nervous, but he managed to say, "And I helped the elderly lady who was my neighbor as often as I could." "Fine," said Saint Peter. "That gives you three points. You have 97 left to go!" Speechless, the man fell to his knees, and cried, "All I've got left is the grace of my Savior, Jesus!" Gently Peter reached down and lifted the man to his feet, and said, "And that, sir, makes exactly 100! Welcome to heaven!" Isaiah of old reminds his people that it is God's approval, not human applause that counts in the kingdom of God.
2. Believing And Behaving
But Isaiah's message is also a call to God's people to close the gap between believing and behaving. What infuriated Isaiah was people who fasted on holy days, and then oppressed their workers the rest of the time. I think of the 18th century ship captain carrying slaves in the hold of his ship. The slaves were without sufficient food and water, and their situation was desperate. Yet the good captain decided to read his morning devotion on deck. He turned to the words in 1 John which say, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." From below decks came the cries of dying men, yet the captain did nothing. He told his crew, "It's not my problem. I am only a sailor."
Isaiah, in words that perhaps better describe our world than his own, appeals to people of faith "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house." In those prophetic words, the prophet calls us to close the gap between our beliefs and our behavior. This is first a call for deeds of justice. Isaiah's words speak pointedly to those of us who live in a land of plenty in the midst of a world that is starving - a world where it is said that if every hungry person was lined up single file, the line would encircle the globe not once, not twice, but 25 times! Isaiah's call for deeds of justice along with pious behavior is echoed by Jesus in those famous words in Matthew 25. A modern writer has written:
I was hungry, and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. Thank you.
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked, and in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt beside your bed and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached to me about the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for myself. You seem so holy, so close to God, but I am still hungry, and lonely and cold.
What does it profit a person to page through their book of prayers when the rest of the world is crying out for help?1
Isaiah's message is also a plea to God's people to love and to show generosity in the same ways that God has loved us. Isaiah has no patience for those who claim that what happens in politics, in government, in society, in the business world, or in military affairs is of no concern to the church. For Isaiah, God is Lord over all of life, and that means that God is much more than a small compartment labeled "formal religion." God is holy, and a moral God demands moral holiness in all of life.
The familiar words of Sir George McCleod to the Iona Community in Scotland still speak of God's call to carry our faith into all of life. McCleod wrote: "I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am for recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap, at a place so cosmopolitan, they had to write his title in Hebrew, Latin and Greek; at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, soldiers gamble and thieves curse; because that is where Christ died, and that is what Christ died about, and that is where church people ought to be, and what church people should be about."
Closing the gap between belief and behavior is not something we will ever do in our human strength and wisdom, but in the power of God's Spirit, all things are possible. The answer to so much that is wrong in our world has come in Jesus Christ, who in reconciling us to God, brings us to a place where we can be reconciled to one another. Only then shall "light break forth like the dawn, and righteousness shall go before you."
