Hope for Hypocrites

[This is the journal of my quiet time with God this morning. I read Matthew, chapter 25; two verses particularly stood out to me.]

Look: “[Jesus said] The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:50-51)

Matthew 24 begins with Jesus leaving the temple and the disciples coming up to Him “to call his attention to its buildings” (Matthew 24:1). Jesus stuns them by saying that “all [the] buildings” of the temple mount that so impress them will one day be destroyed.

It’s the disciples’ conflation of the temple’s destruction with “the end of the age” in verse 3 and Jesus’ response to their question without distinctions between the temple and the entire world that show that Jesus’ prophetic words in verse 1 apply to end of the whole cosmos. His answer applies to the demise of both the temple and the cosmos.

Jesus never tells the disciples when these cataclysms will happen. He does tell them what to expect as signs preceding them. But above all, He says to remain faithful to Him without knowing when these ends will come: “...the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

According to Jesus, there will be Christians who are lulled into complacency and sin because the end when Jesus returns hasn’t come yet. The love of many will grow cold and, intimidated by the persecution to which faithful Christians are subjected, will defect from the faith, betraying fellow believers (verses 9-10). False prophets will arise bringing false hopes or exploiting the immature faith of some believers (verse 11).. Entrusted with stewardship of the gospel, the complacency of some believers, who will think that they have time to get away with sin before the Master Jesus returns, will cause them to treat other believers harshly (verses 48-49). (Although nobody knows when Jesus is returning, can there be any doubt that these very behaviors are exhibited and have been exhibited within the Church since Jesus’ ascension?)

But, Jesus is says “the master,” Jesus Himself, is one day returning. He’ll do so without forewarning. And, He says, He will destroy “the hypocrites,” those who have made it their lifestyles to breezily ignore Jesus’ lordship over their lives. He will consign them to a special place of punishment reserved for hypocrites.  

Listen: I am a hypocrite. That’s part of why Christ and His Church are so important to me. Where else would a hypocrite, aware of his sins and hypocrisy about them, go? I know that I need Jesus. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Peter asked Jesus. “You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Where else am I to go to hear God’s Word of condemnation for my hypocrisy as well as God’s Word of grace for those who repent for their hypocrisy? I must go to the Church to hear this Word, to have it claim me in Baptism, to have it fill me in Communion. I must go to the Word in the book the Holy Spirit gave to and through Christ's Church, the Bible.

In the fellowship of the Church, my complacency is challenged and my life is called from hypocrisy to authentic preparation for one day seeing Jesus face to face.

A friend, a fellow believer, in whom I reposed great confidence, aware of an abiding sin in my life, once asked me, “Do you ever read your own sermons?”

That friend was lovingly confronting me with a hypocrisy in my life, an area in which, despite my confession of faith in Christ, my desire to conform my life to God’s will, and the very sermons I preached, caused me to  breezily and complacently ignore God’s call to me for repentance and faith.

My friend was calling me out of hypocrisy. This loving administration of the Law drove me in repentance to Christ, the One to Whom all hypocrites must go for grace, with its forgiveness, restoration, and new life.

It helps me to know, through the fellowship of the Church, that I’m not the only one who struggles with the temptation to complacent hypocrisy. The Church is meant to be a hospital and a support group for recovering hypocrites, for people who want to live faithfully for Jesus but still sin. (And therefore need Jesus every day and into eternity.) The Church is a place for those who are simultaneously saints, saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, and sinners who deal with the reality of their sin until the day they die.

The apostle Paul knew of this struggle. Hw wrote revealingly in Romans:

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (Romans 7:15-25)

So, we’re all hypocrites, even Saint Paul.

Does that mean we should go on being hypocritical despite Jesus’ words in Matthew 24? As Paul would write elsewhere when asking if Christians should therefore go on willfully sinning, “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2)

We are to neither keep living in complacent hypocrisy nor in fear that because we are hypocrites, we’re irredeemable. Those are both pathways to death and they’re not of Christ.

The question isn’t whether I’m a hypocrite or not. If I’m living, I am a hypocrite. If I’m a Christian and live hypocritically, denying my sin and my need of grace, I should feel authentic guilty and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and the power to live in Him alone (Hebrews 6:4-6).

When I acknowledge my hypocrisy, the question is: What do I do with my hypocrisy?

Do I ignore it?

Do I embrace it?

Do I falsely cling to the notion that Christ justifies the sin along with the sinner?

Or do I daily turn to Christ, confessing all of my sins, including my hypocrisy, and take shelter in the grace of God given in Christ, trusting that, as I allow Christ to tear the sins and hypocrisy in which I live and that I love from my life, He will replace it all with Himself?

Hypocrites need Jesus and can be daily saved by Jesus.

Thank God for that, because when it comes time for me to meet God face to face, I don’t want to stand there with my hypocrisy--the false faces I wore to fool the world into thinking that I was righteous--as my only justification and defense. I want to be covered by Jesus so that as the Lord looks at this sinner, it’s Jesus He sees, not me. That’s who I want God the Father to see in me as I come to Him this morning, this day.

I want to be covered by Jesus, filled with Jesus, protected from myself by Jesus. Even when I want what I want, I will turn to Jesus and ask Him to help me to want Him more.

And I will trust in Him to overcome my hypocrisy and all of my other sins, to conquer me, to keep making me a new creation.

Respond: Father God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, God the Son, forgive my hypocrisies. Cover me in the grace Jesus died and rose to give to sinners like me and help me to be an authentic, grateful disciple of Jesus who daily seeks to follow Him. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Watch What God Does!

[For the past eleven years, I've written a column that appears in the Community Press newspapers in Clermont County. This piece is the column version of this blog post.]

Four months ago, the lay leadership of Friendship Lutheran Church and I, watched as a combination of alarming trends threatened not just our church's capacity to do ministry, but its very existence.

One factor was complacency. After a twelve year struggle to get into a building, it was only natural for us to take a deep breath when we finally moved into a new facility nearly four years ago. But we seemed to slip into relax mode.

The first result of our complacency was decreasing and sporadic worship attendance.

That, in turn, resulted in lowered and sporadic offerings.

That threatened our ability to do the ministries of community service for which Friendship is probably best known.

It also threatened to make it hard for us to keep up with our church mortgage payments.

It would have been easy for our leaders to wring their hands and do Chicken Little impressions.

But these are people of faith, people who believe that they belong to the God of all creation. They really believe that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). So, our leaders challenged us in four ways.

First, they asked that the congregation daily prayer for the well-being of the church.

They asked that our members make regular worship attendance a priority, cancelling the summer slump.

They challenged members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to activities of the congregation.

Finally, we were asked to increase our giving, considering the tithe, the Biblically-honored practice of giving the first 10% of one's income to God's causes in the world.

The result?

We've seen remarkable answers to our prayers. Ever since this focused praying began, we have seen first-time worship visitors every single Sunday, unprecedented in Friendship's history. Many of those folks have returned for second visits.

In addition, our attendance has increased, something churches rarely see in the summer months.

So too has our giving. Offerings in the months of May, June, and July wiped out the operating deficit that accrued in January through April. We still need to be diligent in our giving. But progress has been made.

Why has this happened? In 538 BC, the Babylonian king, Cyrus, allowed God’s people, the Jews, who had been slaves in Babylong for more than forty years, to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple. It was an exciting time!

But the returnees soon became discouraged, intimidated by the enormity of the obstacles they faced.

They also were comfortable in their new homes in the Judean homeland.

Complacency and fear caused them to completely stop working on the temple.

This was unacceptable to the prophet Haggai. Prompted by God, he told the governor, the high priest, and the people to take heart, to rely on God, and to get to work rebuilding the temple (Haggai 2:1-9).

Soon, praying and working for God's cause, the temple was rebuilt.

The God Who helped ancient Israel is still in the business of helping those who trust in Him. We've seen that in our congregation.

And how about you in your personal life? Are you fearful or self-satisfied, afraid to tackle the next mountain God asks you to climb? Prayerfully rely on God and then work, knowing that God is with you. And as you pray and work, don't be afraid, knowing that God is with you.

Then, watch what God does!

[Mark Daniels is the pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church.]

Got a Mountain? Enlist God's Help and Climb!

Four months ago, the lay leadership of Friendship Lutheran Church and I, watched as a combination of alarming trends threatened not just our church's capacity to do ministry, but its very existence.

One factor was complacency. Complacency seemed to set in after we started worshiping in a new building nearly four years ago. After twelve-and-a-half years in an elementary school gymnasium and the prayer and struggle that had gone into getting into a building, it was only natural for us to take a deep breath. But we seemed to do more than that, slipping into relax mode. We took our building and one another for granted. We forgot that every church and every Christian is called to reach out to others with the Good News of life changed eternally good through Christ's death and resurrection.

The first result of our complacency was decreasing and sporadic worship attendance.

That, in turn, resulted in lowered and sporadic offerings.

That threatened our ability to do the ministries of community service for which Friendship is probably best known--our involvement with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Clermont County, CASA for Clermont Kids!, Habitat for Humanity, and so on.

It also threatened to make it impossible for us to keep up with our church mortgage payments.

It would have been easy for our leaders to wring their hands and do Chicken Little impressions.

But these are people of faith, people who believe that they belong to the God of all creation.

They also know well the history of our congregation. From the beginning, even officials of our own denomination thought it would be impossible for a Lutheran church to take off here in Clermont County. When, back in July, 1990, I asked a denominational official for his advice on whether I should take the call to start Friendship, he betrayed this pessimistic assessment when he said, "Well, even if it goes belly up, it won't hurt your career."

I didn't care about my career. I cared about letting people know how much God loved them.

That same passion motivated our leadership to challenge the people of Friendship in four ways.

They asked that, first, that the congregation daily prayer for the health and well-being of the church.

Second, they asked that our members make regular worship attendance a priority, even in the summer months when all Christians seem to want to "take a vacation from church."

They challenged members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to activities of the congregation.

And finally, members were asked to increase their giving, considering the tithe, the Biblically-honored practice of giving the first 10% of one's income to God's causes in the world.

The result?

We've seen remarkable answers to our prayers. (And not just our own. Starting in June, I enlisted prayer help from thousands of people, including the prayer team at our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America headquarters in Chicago; subscribers to ShoutLife, a sort of Christian MySpace; and the prayer groups of several other churches.) Ever since all this praying began, we have seen first-time worship visitors every single Sunday, unprecedented in Friendship's history. Many of those folks have returned for second visits.

In addition, our attendance has increased, something churches rarely see in the summer months.

So too has our giving. Offerings in the months of May, June, and July wiped out the operating deficit that accrued in January through April.

Why has this happened? In 586 BC, the Babylonian army swept into Israel, the homeland of God's chosen people, the ancient Jews, destroying the temple, God's house, in Jerusalem. Many Israelites were sent to Babylon, where they lived as slaves to their conquerors and where they wondered if their God was still Lord of the universe. In 538 BC, the Babylonian king, Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple.

But the returnees soon became discouraged. They were also intimidated by the enormity of the obstacles they faced. They also were comfortable in their new homes in the Judean homeland. Complacency and fear caused them to completely stop working on the temple.

This was unacceptable to the prophet Haggai. Prompted by God, he asked the people, "Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house [God's temple] lies in ruins?" (Haggai 1:4).

He also shared God's counsel for the governor, Zarubbabel, the high priest, Jehozadak, and all the people:

Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear." (Haggai 2:4-5)

Soon, praying and working for God's cause, the temple was rebuilt.

The God Who helped ancient Israel is still in the business of helping those who trust in Him. We've seen that in our congregation.

And how about you in your personal life? Are you fearful or self-satisfied, afraid to tackle the next mountain God asks you to climb? This happens to all of us.

But the cure is always the same: Prayerfully rely on God and then work, knowing that God is with you and as you pray and work, don't be afraid, knowing that God is with you.

Then, watch what God does!