(Sermon text: Jeremiah 23: 23-29 & Luke 12: 49-56)
Given at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL
Ever met a person who consistently “under judges” things, particularly things about their own beliefs and actions?
People with “under judgment” are hypocrites, a word that has come directly over into English (through Latin) from the Greek. If we take apart the word “hypocrite”, we see that it consists of a prefix “hypo”, which means “under”, and “crite”, which means “to judge”.
Jesus used the word “hypocrite” quite often to describe His opponents (often the Pharisees)….Why?...because their outward actions did not match their professed beliefs. Put more simply, their “insides didn’t match their outsides”.[1]
People whose “insides don’t match their outsides” are people who are under judging themselves. That is to say, they are blind to their own actions and words, seeing themselves, perhaps, as the center of authority for their own lives.
“Hypocrites”, “under judgers”….today’s Gospel text is all about blindness and self-centeredness.
Before we look at the Gospel text for today, and also at our Old Testament reading from the prophet Jeremiah, we might do well to remind ourselves of the setting for today’s Gospel text…For the past two Sundays, we’ve been reading from Luke, chapter 12, encountering tough texts that serve as “wake-up calls” to Jesus’ hearers, and to us….Two weeks ago, we heard Jesus tell the crowds not to “store up treasure for themselves”, while being poor toward God.[2] Then, last Sunday, we heard Jesus tell His disciples that they “must be ready”, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour”.[3]
Luke 12’s texts come crashing in on our little world, calling us to “wake up”! It might be tempting to try to turn the page and ignore Jesus’ warnings, but the lectionary forces us to fix our eyes firmly on Jesus’ words, allowing them to search our hearts, our minds, and our actions.
For Jesus is trying to get us to see that there is a source of authority outside of ourselves, telling us what God’s will is for us as believers, telling us what the sources of authority are, telling us how the beliefs which are formed by God’s authority will shape our actions.
Jesus’ words are a call to avoid being an “under judger” of our own beliefs and actions, a “hypocrite”.
If we are to avoid being an “under judger”, a “hypocrite”, what should we try to see clearly, then? (After all, what we believe and how we believe will ultimately shape our actions, so beliefs and the grounds for believing are very important.)
Two areas come to mind, and so here, we turn first to our Gospel reading for today, and then to our reading from Jeremiah:
- The evidence before us: In addressing the crowds from today’s reading from Luke, Jesus says, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘it’s going to rain,’, and it does. And when the south winds blows, you say, “It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypcrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”[4]
Essentially, Jesus’ words boil down to this: interpret the meaning of what you are witnessing by the evidence before you.
The evidence before Jesus’ disciples and the crowds who following Him
was Jesus Himself! It consisted of the restoration of sight to the blind, the healing of the lame, the curing of those afflicted with leprosy, the healing of the deaf, the raising of the dead, and also the preaching of the Good News of the approach of the Kingdom of God.[5] - Beware of wisdom that comes from our own minds: “I have dreamed, I have dreamed”, the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah says, quoting the false prophets who are spreading their false wisdom, the “delusions of their own minds”.[6]
The human mind is a marvelous creation, capable of ingenious solutions to innumerable problems and situations.
But it is also capable of imagining things that come only from our own imaginations, and that seems to be exactly Jeremiah’s point. For the words of the false prophets of Jeremiah’s time[7] proved to be wrong: God’s chosen people were carried off just as Jeremiah warned they would be. All was not well, after all, as these false prophets had claimed.
Being able to judge the evidence before us, and to avoid falling into the trap of believing the false wisdom of our own imaginations is all about being able to avoid being an “under judger”, a “hypocrite”.
Being able to see ourselves clearly, and to allow our “outsides to match our insides” is essentially a condition in which we admit there is a source of authority that outside of us, and is greater than we are. In other words, that authority is God Himself.
But how can we avoid being “hypocrites”, allowing God’s wisdom and authority to shape our beliefs and our actions? Where can we find the sources of authority that will allow us to shape our lives into God’s plan for the human race?
Three answers come to mind:[8]
- Holy Scripture: The ultimate source of authority for the believer is “God word, written”, or Holy Scripture, the Bible. Holy Scripture is the source from which we see God’s working in human history and in people’s lives, ultimately working in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
In order to tap into this source of authority, it’s necessary to spend time reading the Bible, studying it, applying its teachings to our lives, allowing its divine wisdom to shape and mold our knowing and acting. - Reason: Part of our humanity, as it is created by God, is the ability to understand something of the nature and will of God with our minds, and our ability to reason. As I consider this aspect of being “created in God’s image”,[9] I think it’s part of the imprint of God Himself that has been given to each of us.
So, with our minds, we can understand something of the nature of God, and of God’s will for our lives. - Tradition: Tradition essentially consists of the beliefs and actions of the Body of Christ, down through the ages. What has been believed, “generally, by all, in every time” is at the root of what tradition is.
Put another way, tradition is all about consistency of belief and action, God’s people working out their faith and the actions that come from believing, as they apply Holy Scripture to their lives, using reason and the history of God’s people to supplement (but not take the place of) Holy Scripture.[10]
“Hypocrites!” “Under judgers”…..people whose “insides don’t match their outsides”
Jesus warns us today to judge correctly the evidence before us, evidence that is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is a call to recognize that God’s wisdom is greater than our own. It is a call to be on our guard against believing that our own thoughts and actions are the ultimate source of wisdom and authority.
May God’s Holy Spirit enable us to see Jesus Christ, and God the Father, clearly.
AMEN.
[1] This quote is attributable to the Rt. Rev. Peter H. Beckwith, Bishop of Springfield.
[2] Luke 12: 13 - 21
[3] Luke 12: 32 - 40
[4] Verses 34 & 35
[5] Luke records Jesus’ list of His good works in 7: 22 – 23.
[6] Jeremiah 23: 26
[7] 6th century, B.C.
[8] These three sources of authority were formulated by the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker (1554 – 1600).
[9] Genesis 1: 27
[10] Hooker maintains that Holy Scripture is the primary source of authority. Reason and Tradition follow it. Hence, there is no “three legged stool” where authority is concerned.
