Examine me, O God, and Know my Thoughts

Don Friesen
November 3, 2002
Ottawa Mennonite Church

www.ottawamennonite.ca

Robert Baker, a teacher and writer whose columns have appeared in various Mennonite publications, attends the Belmont Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana--a church I've visited. Baker tells of sitting in church one Sunday morning, listening to a veteran Mennonite missionary speak to the congregation. The missionary had a strong connection with the Belmont congregation, and he mentioned several individuals by name. Baker had written several long and newsy letters to the missionary during the missionary's time abroad and Baker began to listen even more attentively when the missionary said, "There is one person at Belmont who did much to keep us in touch with this home base. I want to thank that person this morning." Baker writes, "I thought of the letters I had sent (but) I did not smile. I wanted to look surprised when he mentioned the name." (Robert J. Baker, "The Quiet One," I'm Listening, Lord, Keep Talking)

Baker was surprised! The missionary mentioned someone else! Baker says, "I felt the air go out of the self-image I had been inflating." And it bothered Baker for several days. He confesses, "True, no one knew what I had been thinking--no one but God and me--yet the memory was disturbing." No one likes the sensation of egg on one's face, be it a public experience or a private one. No one wants to feel like a hypocrite.

Some Hypocrites Are Easy to Spot

Some hypocrisy is rather easy to spot, especially when it's on public display. There is a story told of former American president Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who, during one of his election campaigns, almost a century ago, was visited by a delegation at his home. Roosevelt met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up, and he said, "Why don't you come down to the barn with me, and we can talk while I do some work."

The delegation followed him to the barn, where Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. He called out to his assistant, "John, where's all the hay?"

"Sorry, sir," John called down from the hayloft. "I ain't had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa delegation was here."

It's almost too easy to spot hypocrisy in public figures, for they live in a fish bowl and every glaring contradiction between their words and their actions are on display for all to see.

Jesus observed some of the public figures of his day, and was not averse to pointing out their hypocrisy. Look at the Pharisees, he said; they "tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them." (Matthew 23:4)

Pharisees thought it important to do the right thing, but they thought it especially important to be seen to do the right thing. Jesus pointed out to his disciples, "(The Pharisees) do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long" (23:5), referring to the small leather cases which the Pharisees wore on their heads and arms, leather pouches in which they placed passages of Holy Scripture. Some of the Pharisees, it appears, were not above making these pouches larger than usual, conspicuous enough that people would notice them and conclude, "My, but these are pious folks." In case that didn't work, they also made the fringes on the pouches longer than usual, making their piety rather hard to miss! Jesus continued, "(The Pharisees also) love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi." (23:6-7) You can almost picture the Pharisees preening themselves as they parade their pious pouches in the marketplace.

Jesus' conclusion about the Pharisees was pretty straightforward; he told his disciples, "Do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach." (23:3) That's fairly blatant hypocrisy, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to spot it.

One of the down-sides of having children is that children have exceptionally sharp eyes and very little guile or discretion, and so when they notice inconsistencies in their parents they are not above pointing them out! I speak from experience; it's quite embarrassing to have a pre-schooler point out that your words don't match your behaviour!

Of course, hypocrisy is easier to spot in others than within ourselves, and it may be a helpful exercise to ask ourselves on occasion, "What's moving, my mouth or my feet?"

Some Hypocrites Are Downright Devious

The hypocrisy evident in the disjuncture of words and behaviour is often blatant and erodes respect, but some hypocrites are clever hypocrites, clever hypocrites who may very well find their niche in advertising. A small box of cereal is re-labelled large. Plastic is grained to look like wood. Words are made to say what they don't mean; a gesture is meant to conceal; an action is meant to deceive. Profits become a function, not of quality but of gullibility!

The new bookkeeping methods of Enron, World-dot-com and other companies of that ilk were designed to mislead and conceal rather than reveal. This is hypocrisy married to duplicity. And this smoke-and-mirrors approach to accounting resulted in placing "heavy burdens" on the shoulders of thousands and thousands of people, and not only were the executives of these companies unwilling "to lift a finger" to help these people, they themselves profited enormously!

We may not all be industrial-strength cheaters and liars, but we do use ploys and cleverness to our advantage and to mask our inconsistencies. The gap between our words and actions may not be so wide they we, in effect, lead a double existence, but most of us erect an idealized facade for the public to admire which is not quite the same as the reality our families know.

In the case of blatant hypocrisy, one can only hope that the truth will find you out, and it often does. Unless hypocrites are very accomplished imposters, they tend to trip themselves up in some shame-inducing fashion sooner or later.

Most of us are a curious admixture of good and evil. The theme of our dual nature is a classic theme in literature, though some would suggest that the weight of human evidence is on the side of evil rather than good. Robert Louis Stevenson immortalized this human struggle in his well-known story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story in which Dr. Henry Jekyll, a prominent and brilliant doctor, discovers, with the use of an insidious formula, that he can change himself alternately into two persons, the one basically good and well-meaning, the other reflecting the evil side of his nature. The latter he called Mr. Edward Hyde, the face of whom is described as "...the face of a man who was without bowels of mercy... Complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil were (his) leading characteristics...."

Stevenson's story is an entertaining if troubling story of the civil war raging within each one of us. Life is a continuous struggle between our better self and our worse self, and the trick, so to speak, is to maintain the better self while warding off the worse side of our nature. Not an easy trick to master, according to Stevenson, for as the fearful Jekyll admits: "The balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown, ...the character of Edward Hyde become irrevocably mine...."

For most of us the civil war between our good and evil natures does not have such calamitous results, but we do, nonetheless, by our compromises, large and small, by our falsehoods and deceptions, however minute, put goodness and truth in jeopardy and integrity in question.

Some Hypocrites Are Merely Inconsistent

An even harder hypocrisy to detect is when it's mixed in with a lot of goodness. Jesus' observations about the Pharisees may make their hypocrisy seem obvious, but the Pharisees were actually very good and upright people, much like you and I.

The Pharisee movement began as a renewal movement within Judaism. Determined to protect their faith from the deluge of Greek religion, Greek customs and Greek practices, the Pharisees dedicated their lives to the careful and meticulous observance of every rule and regulation of their faith. They carefully observed their faith in its most elaborate ceremonial and legal form in order to preserve the faith, only with time their pursuit became a rather abstract one, with little application to the average believer's daily life. Form became more important than substance and what remained were mountains of instruction without authentic, godly instructors to lend some credence to the instruction.

I think that Jesus had respect for the Pharisees, at least for their sincerity of faith. When Jesus told his disciples, "Do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach" (23:3), I don't think Jesus was saying this with a cynical tongue in his cheek. He certainly had more in common with the Pharisees than with the Sadducees, who were forever ready to adapt their faith to whatever philosophical wind was blowing about at the moment.

Jesus pointed out some of the more blatant examples of Pharisaic hypocrisy, and while some of it tended towards the tawdry and showy, it is essentially hypocrisy without malice or duplicity. Some hypocrites are merely inconsistent; there is no intention to deceive. And when that is the case the goal becomes not to cover up the in-consistencies, but to strive to become consistent.

Karen Blixen (1885-1962) wrote a memoir of her seventeen years on a pioneer coffee farm in Kenya entitled Out of Africa (1937), a book she wrote under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen. While the book is a product of its colonial times, she tells an intriguing story, the story of a young Kikuyu boy named Kitau, who appears at Dinesen's door to ask for a job. She hires him but is surprised when after three months he asks her for a letter of recommendation to Sheik Ali bin Salim, a Muslim living in a nearby town. Dinesen offers to raise Kitau's pay in order to keep him, but money is not his interest. Kitau explains that he has decided to become either a Christian or a Muslim, and his purpose in working for Dinesen was to see, up close, the ways of Christians. Now he wishes to go and observe Sheik Ali to see how Muslims behave; then he will decide. "Good heavens, Kitau," Dinesen replies, "you might have told me that when you came here."

Well, it would be to our advantage to know that someone's decision to become a Christian or not to become a Christian depended on what they observed about us close up, but it's more honest and equally insightful to observe us when we're not on our best behaviour.

Our purpose is not to try for consistency itself, for we could be consistently bad! The goal is to close the gap between our profession of faith and our living out of that faith, to close the gap between our words and our actions, between our piety and its practise, between our religion and the way we relate to others. That is why we come to church, to be redeemed; to pray for wholeness; to sing about the beauty of redemption and wholeness; and to be encouraged by fellow pilgrims to walk in uprightness.

Only I Can Detect Hypocrisy of Thought

Blatant hypocrisy is easy to spot. More difficult are the designs of clever and manipulative hypocrites. Even more difficult to detect is hypocrisy within ourselves--to spot the gaps between what we talk and how we walk, but the most difficult hypocrisy to root out is that of clever Christians--Christians clever enough to be discreet about their hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy of thought is the most difficult to detect, and had Robert Baker not shared his experience of sitting in the Belmont Mennonite Church waiting to hear his name mentioned and glorified, we would be none the wiser. But he knew. And God knew. Others may not be able to read our thoughts, but God can. God "discern(s) (our) thoughts from afar," says the psalmist. (139:2, NEB)

Now, Jesus had some specific suggestions about what to do about obvious gaps between our words and actions; he said, "You are not to be called rabbi, for you have (only) one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah." (Matthew 23:8-10) In other words, it is not for us to strut our stuff. "The greatest among you will be your servant," said Jesus (23:11). A little humility (23:12) is in order.

Jesus had some specific suggestions about what to do about obvious gaps of credibility, but as we all know, Jesus looked upon the heart. When others focussed on murder, Jesus invited them to consider its spiritual roots, in anger, for example. When others focussed on adultery, Jesus invited them to consider our inner impulses, like lust. When others focussed on enemies and evildoers, Jesus invited them to adopt a higher and nobler ethic.

Jesus invited us to pray, as the psalmist prayed, "Examine me, O God, and know my thoughts.... Watch lest I follow any path that grieves thee...." (Psalm 139:23-24, NEB)

Someone has suggested an exercise that may help us examine ourselves. Use your imagination to return to a recent time when you were disappointed by someone's lack of respect or appreciation for you. Feel the mood of righteous indignation you felt then. Then exaggerate it--"blow yourself up" even more. Dress yourself up with fancy clothes, like the Pharisees. Like the Pharisees put on something that's very conspicuous and that leaves no doubt about the honour you deserve. Take a good look at yourself--at your pout, at your fancy clothes, at the conspicuousness of your self-importance--take a good look and have a good laugh at your own expense. (adapted from Isaias Powers, "Jesus Against Sulking," Quiet Places with Jesus, page 37)

In Praise of Integrity

Jesus thought the Pharisees looked ridiculous, but his goal was not so much to make hypocrisy look bad as it was to make integrity look good.

I like the concept of integrity, but as Madeleine L'Engle points out, it's a sad commentary on our world that integrity has taken on a self-centred hue. Most people who worry about their integrity are thinking about it in terms of themselves. It becomes a great excuse for avoiding involvement: "I can't do that and keep my integrity." Integrity, however, is something like humility, a quality which is in danger of vanishing the moment we think we possess it. We can see integrity in others, but we ourselves can only aspire to it. (Glimpses of Grace)

The current notion of integrity may have lost some of its own integrity, but the Scriptures still call us to it. The Old Testament repeatedly calls us to "walk in integrity". (1 Kings 9:4; Psalm 26:1, 11; 101:2; Proverbs 10:9; 19:1; 20:7; 28:6, 18; Malachi 2:6) In the New Testament Jesus counsels purity of heart (Matthew 5:8) and purity of motive. (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) And there are various other New Testament injunctions to truthfulness, sincerity, and genuineness. These are considered fundamental to Christian character and conduct.

A century ago Charles Spurgeon sent a letter to his prime minister, William Gladstone, in which he wrote: "We believe in no (one's) infallibility, but it is restful to be sure of one man's integrity." Integrity invites trust. Kermit Eby, a Mennonite labour organizer years before most Mennonites had even heard of labour unions, spoke somewhat wistfully of his Mennonite forebears when he commented on the "modesty of character which kept my ancestors from putting the biggest apples or the smoothest potatoes on the top of the basket. Doing so would destroy the discovery of the goodness underneath. Their products, like their lives, were better the deeper they were penetrated." ("Let Your Yea Be Yea," The Christian Century, September 14, 1955, cited in J. Daniel Hess, Gifts Handed Down )

May we strive for that depth of character that honours God with its purity of heart. May we strive for those qualities that we admire and respect in others so that we, too, might be numbered among God's good saints.