On Monday as I was taking my recycle trash out to the curb I saw a leaf in the shape of a heart.  I love nature and observing different things that God has made.  But I was in a hurry and needed to get my boys to school.  In the past I would’ve seen the leaf, accepted its uniqueness and then walked on and forgot about it.  However, I have a friend that over the course of several years continues to take pictures of different things she sees that are in the shape of a heart.  She has seen rocks, clouds, pictures, and much more.  So when I saw it I began to walk away and then thought of her and knew she would enjoy seeing this leaf.  I took a picture of it with my phone and then of course put it on Instagram.  I tagged Candy to it and of course, she loved it.  I put some hashtags to go along with the picture:  #godislove, #godisnear, and #heartshapedleaf. 

There were more ways I wanted to tag this picture, but I know I needed more words.

#Godisinthegutter

I haven’t mentioned this until now, but the leaf was in a gutter when I found it.  Or really it is the closest thing to a gutter in our neighborhood.  It was in the street but in the path where water drains from the road.  The wheels of my trashcan lined up perfectly with the leaf.  And after my hashtag that God is near, I thought , well that means that God is in the gutter.  And while that might be offensive to some who view God as an old man in a perfect white suit that never stains or dirties, I was given much comfort by this thought.  I have to admit that my life is pretty good, but sometimes I feel discouraged with different pieces of my life.  And on a dreary Autumn day when I thought about God waiting for ALL of us in the gutter I felt a comforting embrace come over me.  God is a god above all gods.  He is the only God and no one and nothing is greater than He.  So while we look at the gutter and see it as a sign of defeat and despair, God sees it as an opportunity.  God doesn’t see the gutter as defeat, because He knows that He cannot be defeated.  The gutter doesn’t scare him and so he comes to the gutter to drive out despair and defeat and bring us up out of it into His marvelous light.

#Godredeems

You can’t picture God in the gutter without realizing that only God redeems.  God takes a fallen leaf and beautifies a gutter.  God takes an addict and fills their veins with pure blood and their heart with love.  God takes the convict and gives them a new name.  God takes the ill-perceived perfectionist and shows them his perfect call for their life.  God takes the angry and gives them peace.  God takes the brokenhearted and wraps his arms around them holding them up in their direst times.  Over and over in scripture we see a God who gives something beautiful to people and after it has become ugly and the people have went their own way, he gives them another beautiful thing that brings them back to him.  God doesn’t do this because He loves being neglected and punished by His own creation, but because God’s heart is bent on redemption.  Sometimes God wipes the slate clean and starts over.  Sometimes God sends light in the midst of darkness and allows the light to re-create.  Sometimes God sends a heart-shaped leaf to give beauty to a wet, nasty gutter in the road.  He makes all things new.

#Godsendslovedown

I love finally living in a place that actually has the Autumn season.  The trees here in Arkansas are breath-taking as their green leaves change to an array of beautiful earth-tone colors.  There is something about a green-leafed tree that is gorgeous and perfect.  A tree that grows tall, spreads its branches, and whose leaves are a perfect green.  It is the sign that the tree has received everything necessary to grow correctly.  The amount of light and water have been perfect.  It is majestic to see.  Of course we can also see the beauty in a tree that as the season of great sunlight and rain morph into a season of cool air, dryness, and wind begins to change its color.  The leaves turn into bright reminders that the Earth is still turning and time continues to tick away and everything has its time.  The leaves begin to drop as winter desires to approach, creating a blanket of brilliant color on a bed of browning grass.  Perfection comes down to give light and life to the land that has lost its beauty.  And so does God!  A fallen leaf that gives beauty to barren blades of grass is like God who comes down in the form of Jesus to give beauty and life to a barren people.  God sent his Love, Jesus, down to the world.  And the beauty of Jesus was just enough to save it.  And as the leaves trickle down, I’m reminded that not only do trees send down their leaves to give beauty to the land only to die and regenerate, but God has done that as well through His son.  God sends love down.  Not once, but All the time!

Truth 3

Calling someone a hypocrite doesn’t say as much about them as it does you.  When you call someone a hypocrite you are communicating that you can see someone else’s fault, but may have trouble seeing your own.  And doesn’t that make you a hypocrite yourself?  Yes, it’s a vicious cycle.  When the church calls people infidels, evil-doers, sinners, lost, and other terms we have come up with, we are setting ourselves up to be in a hierarchy where we are at the top and “they” are at the bottom.  We have already set up a system of us vs. them.  When those outside of Christianity call us hypocrites, Bible-beaters, conservatives, and other terms I’d rather not get into right now, again we have a chasm between us.  They don’t want to be a part of us and frankly, we don’t give them the best of ourselves to want to partner with in the first place.  When someone calls another person a hypocrite, they communicate that they aren’t seeking to understand or seeking a relationship.  They are seeking a defense and creating a barrier.  This is why when we are called hypocrites and we enter into a debate about that title, we lose ground quickly.  What if instead of defending our reputation after being labeled a hypocrite, we simply came to the name-caller and said, “Hi!  My name is Michael.  I apologize if I have offended you or treated you unfairly.  If you are willing, I would love to listen to you more over a cup of coffee or lunch.”  Maybe, just maybe, that dialogue would go further toward breaking down the barrier than simply lining up our set of scriptures, reasonable doubt, and all of our good characteristics to change their minds.  Remember the true definition didn’t work for me 20 years ago, and I doubt that strategy works today.    

Truth 4

Using the hypocrite claim to not be a part of a faith family is just an excuse and probably not the real reason you reject the church or Christians. Because my guess is that if you have a boss (and let’s face it, we all do), they have told you to do something that they have no intention of doing themselves.  You may have a spouse who wants you to do a chore simply because they don’t plan on ever doing it.  It’s possible that you are against racism, sexism, war, and bigotry or against abortion, fiscal liberalism, and same-sex marriage. Yet my guess is that you still work for that boss, or are in a relationship with someone who you love, or you have retweeted or liked a Facebook status or purchased from or donated to an establishment that might sharply disagree with some of your principles—whether they know it or not.  What I’m saying is that we won’t line up completely with anyone in this time and day.  We don’t leave their camp simply because we don’t completely agree.  So my guess is that hypocrisy isn’t the flagship reason you haven’t joined a church or given your life to Jesus.  You may not believe in the idea of God.  You may not want to feel obligated to read your Bible, go to church every Sunday, or serve others in your community.  You may not want any part of a group of people who act like they have it all together or a group of people, period.  Whatever the reason, own it!  And for those of us who love church and the idiosyncrasies of following Jesus, we should be interested in the real reasons.  We should want to know why many people want nothing to do with church or Christianity.  Yes, people have a hard time with Jesus.  However, those who follow Him are sometimes difficult to get along with as well.  If someone doesn’t want to be a Christian, His followers shouldn’t be the reason.

Truth 1

Whether you define hypocrite as actor or some conservative yahoo doing the very thing they are telling others not to do, there are hypocrites in Christianity, in American churches, and in each of our congregations.  Even though this is the truth, it doesn’t mean that the message is wrong.  The message, depending on what that message may be, is true.  It just simply means that the one delivering the message is still trying to learn it too, whether they can see that in themselves or not.  The relationship of those who are attending church together, serving their community together, pursuing God together, and being family together should allow for honest talk between brothers and sisters in Christ to minimalize the hypocrisy in our churches.  In community, the awkwardness should be broken and honest, and loving talk should win the day.  It might go like this, “You say people should win over their coworkers for Jesus.  When you tell all of those off-color jokes around the water cooler, is that helping win people to Jesus?”  Gutsy, I know.  The risk is making that particular brother or sister very angry and damaging your relationship.  You may not be able to talk about the weather, sports, and they may not like your latest picture on Instagram.  The reward though, will be that maybe around the water cooler the next week at work, the conversation changes.    

Truth 2

The church is made up of people and since the day Adam and Eve decided to eat the forbidden fruit, people have been imperfect.  Before we go taking this truth and using it as an excuse to keep going our hypocritical ways, we must know that we are also people who have given our lives to follow Christ and this should change our entire being.  His grace is sufficient for us and if that is really true (and it is) then we should live for His grace and not perfection.  That means that we live out our lives in complete honesty.  I may know that the right thing to do when I hit my thumb with a hammer while I’m working with my church at a Habitat for Humanity house is to remain calm and say, “Wow!  Hey guys, I just hit my thumb with this hammer and I’m experiencing incredible pain and even bleeding.  Isn’t that just terrible? Can we huddle around and pray for my pain?”  But instead what could possibly come out of my mouth is something more like, “S#@&!, Oh my dear Lord!!  Owwwwwwcccchhh!!  I hate you hammer!”  Look, I know it’s wrong to curse and really I don’t even like typing the symbols knowing that when people read this, they will know the word.  However, that was an honest, real moment in college and I apologized for my action, but I’m just real.  I’m about to tell you a secret.  People who go to church, Christians, even the most enthusiastic and passionate, sin!  Yep, they sin.  And not just once, but all the time.  And it’s a good thing, too, because if they didn’t, then Jesus would lose his claim of being the only one who was perfect.  The church is made up of people who are sinful, yet live lives that are covered with grace because they pursue the one who takes away the sins of the world-Jesus!  They aren’t hypocrites. They are in sinners like anyone else, but also realize they are forgiven.    

I have heard the term “hypocrite” all my life.  I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was my first word.  I mean, I grew up in church and a conservative church at that.  I might had even thought that it was a term of endearment for a Christian, had it not been always said with a shout, a huff, or an angry growl.  It seems that not only had I heard the word, but I knew exactly what it meant and what it really meant.  It meant to those opposing us as Christians that we were railing against some kind of sin, rule breaking, or anti-Jesus attitude and then at the same time were committing the very thing we were railing against.  What it really meant was being an “actor.”  No really, that was its literal meaning from the Koine Greek language that the New Testament was written in almost 2000 years ago. 

So, of course, it was my mission in middle school to set the record straight every time I heard the word “hypocrite.”  And, of course, I was correct.  But what I couldn’t wrap my concrete-thinking mind around was this: why wasn’t the true knowledge of the word changing the way people were using it against Christians?  This was going to be tougher than I thought.

Well I know now, and you do, too, that it is more than just what the word means.  It is the history behind it, an excuse that works, and a Christian worldview that needs some tweaking.  Okay overhauling.

So I decided that I couldn’t control what others were thinking, but I could control my actions and my thoughts.  If I wanted others to think of me and not have the word “hypocrite” on their tongues, then I needed to talk the talk AND walk the walk.

In college, I began to work with middle school and high school students doing youth ministry internship at a church in Abilene, TX.  Just coming out of high school, I knew this culture fairly well and if I was not going to be a hypocrite (doing what we were telling others not to do), I would become a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week, 365-days-a-year example.  I would not drink, smoke, do drugs, have pre-marital sex, say curse words (this one may not have worked out so well), or go to parties.  And let’s face it, this is what the world meant, right?  This worked out really well for me (with the exception of a few choice words when extreme stress hit), mainly because I didn’t do these things anyway.  I didn’t drink, smoke, do drugs, have sex (I was lucky to have a girlfriend), and if you have ever seen my dance moves, you know parties weren’t going to happen.  Although this is a lot of tongue-in-cheek, this became my standing answer for how I was living spiritually.  It became my new legalism.  I got jobs because this was my answer.  And seriously, I really did this and lived up to it, even after I turned 21.

That was almost 20 years ago and I’m still hearing the hypocrite call and debate.  Why can’t we get past this?  Well there a few truths and an Aha! moment for me that is worth saying.  

In many cases within our religious world, there is a fine line between what is helpful to the kingdom of God and what is harmful.  When a preacher stands in the pulpit and begins to open his/her mouth, they should do so with great awareness that the words coming out of their mouth is now not their own.  Sermons are created through studying God’s word, the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, the grace of Christ’s salvation, and the gifts and discipline of the preacher.  As the sermon is being preached, the words enter the ears of the audience and settle into the minds and hearts that choose to listen.  Therefore, a sermon, once spoken, becomes communal property and thought.  It becomes a shared experience and truth for the community of faith.  The preacher’s character bears the burden of genuineness and truth.  A preacher who lacks integrity will speak only so that, that act of worship can be checked off for the day.  However, even when a preacher struggles with the very message they present, they are not necessarily expressing a deception of truth.  Preachers preach to themselves first, then to the audience.  Of course, ALL Christians must deal with this kind of battle.  We find ourselves wanting more in our own lives, while knowing that God calls everyone to a higher standard.  So as we call others to follow God, we must be careful not to only ask this of other people.  And if we are calling others to behave a different way because of Christ, then it would be wise of us to genuinely acknowledge our own struggle with the same teaching.  Because when we don’t, people have a word for us—“hypocrite.” 

I want to take some time to share some thoughts on the word, “hypocrite.” There are some truths regarding this word and our culture’s use of the word that need some conversation and thought.  Finally, I want to use Amos, the prophet, and his circumstances to challenge our current cultural idea of hypocrisy.  



Note:  This will be a blog series that will be posted weekly.