Proper 12 :: II Kings 4: 42–44; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3:
14–21; John 6: 1–21
This is the homily
that was given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on
Sunday, July 29, 2018.
“PREVENTING HYPOCRISY”
(Homily text: John
6: 1-21)
Hypocrisy.
This
unsavory word is often leveled against Christians, unfortunately. The outside,
unbelieving world seems to harbor this impression of Christians. Perhaps this
is one way that those who are outside of the Church [1] avoid
coming under the Lord’s leadership. It may be one way of avoiding the
responsibilities of being a disciple of Christ. Or, it may reflect the sad reality
that, many times in the Church’s history, Christians have been hypocritical,
saying one thing but doing another.
How,
then, do we Christians prevent hypocrisy?
Hold
onto that thought for a moment while we take a look at the account that is
placed before us in this morning’s appointed Gospel text: John’s account of the
feeding of the 5,000.[2]
The
feeding of this large group of people, who are following the Lord around the
northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, must have figured prominently in the early
Church’s life, for all four Gospel accounts record this incident. In fact, both
Matthew and Mark record not only this incident, but another miraculous feeding
of a crowd of 4,000, as well.
The
basic facts are well known, and John is faithful in imparting them to us:
- A large crowd of
people has gathered around the Lord. They come for healing, and to hear His
words, which convey to them His genuine concern and compassion for their
welfare. (Recall that in last week’s Gospel, taken from Mark, chapter six,
Jesus looked upon this crowd of people, and had compassion for them, because
they were like “sheep without a shepherd”.)
- The need for food
arises. But there is little with which to feed this large a group, only five
loaves and two fish, found in the possession of a boy who had brought them
along.
- Jesus orders the
crowd to sit down in the grass. Then He prays and gives thanks for the five
loaves and the two fish.
- He distributes the food to everyone in attendance [3], but, miraculously, the loaves and the fishes are multiplied to such an extent that not only is everyone able to eat as much as they want, but twelve baskets of leftovers are gathered up.
It is
worth noting that the Lord’s concern for the people who were following Him took
the form of a concrete act: He fed them all. He didn’t express His concern for
them by what He said alone. His intent was confirmed by what He did.
In
keeping with the theme we’ve been following for the past couple of weeks, we
could say that Jesus’ actions are sacramental[4] in nature. That is, His words (which point to His intent and desire for the
people) take the form of something that can be seen and experienced in tangible
ways.
There
is no hypocrisy in Jesus’ words or His actions, for both mirror one another.
(I
can’t resist saying that the behavior of the leadership of God’s people during
the Lord’s time on earth was another matter entirely: The chief priests, the
scribes, the Pharisees and others cared little for the people they led. They
cared about their own welfare, their own positions of power and their favored
positions in society. Though the Law of Moses required
them to care in tangible ways for others, they were capable of repeating those
mandates, but they didn’t live by them.)
Whenever
we hear the word hypocrisy, it might be good for us to remember its most basic
definition: Hypocrisy is a condition of “low judgment”, for that is what the
word means in Greek.
Low
judgment involves an inability to see ourselves as God and others see us. It
involves saying one thing and then doing another.
But
our Lord’s example impels us to behave in another way: We are called to
integrate our words and our actions to such an extent that there is no
difference between the one and the other.
Why
is this so important? Simply for the reason that our actions confirm our
intentions and our thoughts.
When
for example, we supply food, paper products and hygiene products for the Little
Free Pantry that our church operates, we are integrating our concern for the
hungry among us with concrete and observable acts that demonstrate to those who
are not members of our parish that there is true integration of our faith with
our acts. As one of my former bishops liked to say, “our insides are matched by
our outsides”.
No
hypocrisy there.
AMEN.
[1]
The
Church is made up of people. It is simply those who have gathered around the
Lord Jesus Christ….it is, in its most basic understanding, nothing more than
that. It is not, in its truest form, an institution or a building, even though
we often think of the Church in those ways.
[2]
The
crowd was probably a good deal larger than 5,000, for the Scriptures often
count only the men who were present. Other Gospel accounts of this miracle add
the phrase, “beside women and children”.
[3]
Here
John’s account differs from Mark’s, for John tells us that Jesus distributed
the food to the people.
[4]
Here
it would be good for us to remember the definition of a Sacrament: An outward and visible sign of an inward and
spiritual grace.
