Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Every able bodied man in Russia must serve in the army, but Abe managed to remain quietly on his farm year after year.

One day his neighbor asked him, "Abe, how does a strong young man like you manage to get by without being drafted for the Red Army?" "That is what I am asking myself," replied Abe.

"Every time the comrade doctor comes around to give me my physical to see if I am fit for the army, I bet him 500 rubles that I will pass the exam.

But would you believe it, never once have I won that bet."

Man is the most clever creature when it comes to figuring out how to get his own way.

Hypocrisy, or pretending something that isn't so, is one of his best methods.

John Barrymore, the famous actor, once lived with Frank Butler in New York where both were struggling to survive.

One day they were down to their last dime.

They went to a cheap lunchroom where you could get hotcakes and two cups of coffee for a dime.

John waited outside until Butler had ordered the two cups of coffee and had eaten half the hotcakes.

Then he dashed in and whispered in Butler's ear.

Butler jumped up and dashed out of the lunchroom.

John then sat down and drank the second cup of coffee, and finished the hotcakes.

It was all an act, but it was clever, for they were both able to get a meal for a dime.

Few would be anxious to condemn this hypocritical little ploy, for their deception intended no one harm.

They were simply being clever in making the best of a bad situation.

I suppose that is the reason why all of us are amateur hypocrites.

If you have ever responded to the question, "How are you?" with just fine, when in reality you are far less than fine, then you have played the role of the hypocrite.

If you have ever smiled and said, "Excuse me," when in fact, you would have liked to scream, or tell somebody off, then you have played the hypocrite.

If you have ever gone to a social event pretending you were enjoying yourself when, in fact, you would rather be several others places, then you have played the hypocrite.

If you have ever pretended to like something that you really didn't like at all, then you have played the hypocrite.

We could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

All of us to some degree are actors and pretenders, and that is what the word hypocrite means.

It refers to the actors who put on a mask of someone else, and play the role of that person.

The hypocrite is one who pretends to be someone he is not.

Since we all do this on occasion, we need to establish that it is not an entirely negative experience.

There is no point in feeling guilty for all pretending.

Wearing the mask and pretending to be fine when we are not is often an act of love.

We feel it is not appropriate to burden others with our ills in all situations and times.

Much of our pretense is simply to prevent unnecessary concern about what we expect to be a passing experience.

What a pain life would be if I was obligated to tell everybody of every bad feeling I had every time they asked me how I am.

We have the right to choose how much, and to whom, we reveal the status of our health, and many other private matters, and that is why we play the hypocrite.

Sometimes it is a mistake when we do not play the hypocrite.

We have worn the mask all day, and we have smiled when we didn't feel like it, and we were sweet when we didn't feel like it, and so when we get home we throw away the mask and act just how we feel with those we love the most.

The sad thing is that we have been wise with strangers, but now we let it all hang out with our family.

We no longer hide our anger and frustration.

The mask is off, and we are done acting for the day.

Now we are for real, and the real is not very pleasant.

We play the good guy or gal all day, and then come home and act the villain.

The family could use a little of the hypocrisy that you have lavished on the world.

Many a marriage could be renewed by mates pretending to be as sweet, loving, and thoughtful as they were when they were first dating.

What I am saying is that there is a positive side to hypocrisy where we put on a mask and pretend to be in a better mood than we really feel.

This pretense can lead to that very better mood, and even if it doesn't, it is an act of love and kindness toward those who most need it.

We waste too much of our hypocrisy on people who do not care when those who love us would give a standing ovation for the same acting.

Hypocrisy is sometimes a key sign of sanity.

Knowing when to put on the mask and hide reality that hurts and embarrasses others is part of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Those in insane asylums lose this sensitivity.

If their underclothes do not feel comfortable, or are on backwards, they may take them off right in the middle of a group.

There is no pretense, and no mask.

It they feel like cursing you, they do it.

If they want to spit in your eye, you can expect spit to fly.

Nothing is held back in language or behavior.

The sane person, however, smiles and pretends to be comfortable in their backwards underwear until they can change it in private.

The sane person is constantly evaluating the wisdom and value of his words and behavior.

This means that what he says and does may not always correspond to what he feels.

He is, therefore, acting, or being different on the outside from what he is on the inside.

This is not wrong, but very right, for it means he has the capacity to choose how he influences his environment, and not be at the mercy of his feelings, or a slave to circumstances.

For the computer it is garbage in and garbage out, but for a person it can be garbage in and a gourmet dinner out, for the person can choose how to respond where a computer cannot.

Much of our hypocrisy, or play acting, ranks as a virtue.

Even Jesus while walking with the two on the road to Emmaus pretended he was going on further, but was glad when they invited him to stay with them.

It is the experience we all have when we say, "I am full," but are so glad when the hostess encourages us to take another helping.

Much hypocrisy is just common courtesy.

Love covers a multitude of sins, and does so often by means of hypocrisy, or by pretending so as not to bring out the worst and call attention to the weaknesses and follies of others.

Most of the entertainment of our culture is due to man's ability to be a hypocrite, that is an actor who can pretend to be somebody else.

By means of these actors we can be, by pleasant deception, transported to other times and places, including biblical times and places.

We can experience in many ways the message of God's Word through these actors.

We are, in fact, disappointed if the hypocrisy fails, and we feel it is too fake, and does not move us to feel that we have tasted the real past.

The point of all this praise for hypocrisy is not to exalt it excessively, but in order that we might maintain a sense of balance and perspective as we focus on it as one of the sins that Jesus most despised.

Nothing made Jesus more angry than the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

No other sin is so blasted by Jesus.

He never raked any other sin over the red hot coals of His judgment like He did the sin of hypocrisy.

The Gospel of Matthew is full of the fury of Jesus against this sin.

There are more references in Matthew than in all the rest of the New Testament, and here in chapter 6 Jesus strikes at hypocrisy three times.

In chapter 5 Jesus had been dealing with major sins, but now He begins chapter 6 dealing with the master sin.

Jesus warned His disciples in Luke 12:1, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy."

This sin can turn everything good into evil, and that includes our religious faith and practice.

It substitutes external show for internal reality.

In Matt.

15:7-8 Jesus said, "You hypocrites.

Well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying this people draw high to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."

This is a very uncomfortable sin to deal with, because Jesus was so down on it, and we all can be made to feel guilty, for all of us are aware of the gap between our external public life, and our internal private life.

It is easy to manipulate people by the power of guilt in this area.

One pastor had a wife complain to him of her husband's unkind behavior in the home.

He assured her he would help her solve her problem.

So he announced from the pulpit on Sunday that he had become aware of a gentleman, much respected in the congregation, who was behaving in a very unchristian way at home.

He said he would expose this man if he did not acknowledge his hypocrisy by placing a twenty dollar bill in the offering, and by mending his ways.

When the offering was counted there was an unprecedented fifty twenty dollar bills in the plates.

This sounds like it could be a good fund raising scheme, but the problem is that it is doing the very thing Jesus is condemning in this chapter, and that is the abuse of religious power.

When religious power is used, not for the glory of God, but for the glory of man, that is hypocrisy at its worst.

It is the devil's favorite show, for he loves such acting as this, for it permits man to be very religious and at the same time be anti-God.

That is why it is life's most dangerous sin, and why Jesus so blasted it.

Other sins are clearly anti-God, but everybody knows that they are.

If you lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, or murder, you are doing what is out of God's will and everybody knows it.

But hypocrisy is pro-religious, and it can even be super religious.

It is one of the most subtle forms of evil that exists.

Other sins are clearly identified, but this one is hidden and often identified as good.

It is using the good for evil ends.

There is much power in religion, just as there is in politics, and that is why both of these realms are so subject to corruption.

Power corrupts, and that is why most of the scandals of life will be found in the realm of religion and politics.