Hypocrisy on Trial?

 

                                                                                         

I'm pleased that we already have about a dozen people signed up for our upcoming study of the book Sermon on the Mount by theologian Amy-Jill Levine. Levine is a Jew whose insights into the New Testament are really helpful, and she writes in a way that is accessible. As I read in preparation I feel that I'm an old dog learning new tricks about these three chapters of Matthew which both daunt and inspire me. 

In conjunction with the study group I'm preparing a Lenten daily reading regimen, essentially five minutes with the Sermon on the Mount each day. There will be a question to help ponder the verses for each of the 40 days, none of the passages being all that long. 

I've long known that Jesus warns about hypocrites in this teaching but my eyebrows went up when I realized that he warns against hypocrisy not once but four times. The Greek word from which hypocrite is derived actually means "stage actor" and there is a sense of this in what Jesus says. We're not to swan around making a show of our prayers or our virtue. Jesus asks us to "say what we mean and mean what we say', to use an old saw. 

How appropriate this teaching is as the US senate enters into the impeachment trial of the former president - what's his name? - today. There will be plenty of posturing and bombast and sanctimony in what will probably be more like political theatre than a search for justice. Not surprisingly, there have been articles in both the New York Times and the Globe and Mail in recent days which address hypocrisy in regard to these proceedings and both point out that the ex-president  in not on trial for this sin. Mark Kingwell, whose writing is always thoughtful and often thought-provoking offers this at the end of his Globe piece: 

Hypocrisy is certainly a vice, but it is not the most important one. Lack of character is worthy of contempt, but alas is not a crime. Advocating insurrection, conspiracy, storming a public building, threatening death, destroying property, subverting justice – now those are crimes. They should be prosecuted as such.

This is a curious conclusion from my perspective. It is because hypocrisy has become a political norm and that character no longer matters that justice is subverted. In a country where a weird brand of Christianity is worn on the sleeves of many "patriots", honesty and integrity are on trial, even if implicitly. Surely Jesus is telling us that our inner lives result in the "whited sepulchres" the painted tombs of our actions in the world?

I'm looking forward to the discussion in our Zoom and in-person study group at Trenton UC which begins on February 24th. We may have a trial outcome by then to give a little added spice to the conversation!