Month: August 2009

 

Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 6.

 

Pastor Jeff:

 

What do you think of when you think of a genuinely righteous person – behaviors or character qualities?

 

Dave:

 

I am convinced it is character qualities that then manifest themselves in right behaviors.

 

For me that process encompasses a few things. I think a genuinely righteous person clearly understands that their righteousness is because of Christ. Period.  As I alluded earlier, we have made righteousness about right behavior and that definition dooms us to fail. We can’t always act righteously so we wear a mask to cover our sin and shortcomings. And then Satan does something insidious…he convinces us that people love the mask and not the person behind it. So we have to wear the mask all of the time to be loved.

 

I think part of maturing in our walk is trusting God and others with who you are. I can bring the junk in my life and dump it on the table with a few dear friends who are sitting here and I know I am okay. I trust these guys with who I am. A flawed, stumbling bumbling guy trying to follow Jesus. I can trust Joni with who I am. I know I can trust God with all of my baggage and junk. I need to trust at least few people with who I am because God designed this journey to be lived in community.

 

The book Truefaced notes that humility is the key that unlocks the door to the room of grace. God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior. Second, we need to verbalize what the blood of Christ has done for us: We are deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted, and complete in Christ.

 

To be continued…

Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 5.

 

Pastor Jeff: 

Don’t you think hypocrisy creeps up on us as we’re trying to “be” the best we can be? It can even have good motives at the beginning, yet turn into legalistic hypocrisy. How do we combat this?

 

Dave: 

 

This is my passion. I am a recovering legalist and as you pointed out I am a professed hypocrite. And I am happier and closer to Christ today than I have ever been. It is because of grace and finally understanding and trusting what God says is true about me.

 

I had been frustrated by my behavior and the behavior of other pew dwellers for many years. But what I have finally figured out is that the Bible churches of America are full of people who know a lot of truth. But knowing truth doesn’t transform you. Trusting truth transforms you. So that helps me to be patient and view others through the lens of grace. Others could have looked at me in the past with judgment and condemnation. They could have rightly said years ago that Dave is 15 or 20 years into this journey and he is still doing the same stuff. But that is not what God saw. He was working and patiently molding me in ways that most people could not see. I hope I am more Christ like in one year than I am now. I look back and see how far I have come and also how far I have to go.

 

Tim Keller has this provocative thought…The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees—men and women who try to save themselves. They are more unhappy than either mature Christians or irreligious people, and they do a lot more spiritual damage. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Timothy Keller)

 

My friend Ed Underwood says it well. You are in danger of hypocrisy if you answer to the wrong source of authority–your religious traditions, rather than the Word of God. And if you teach or imply the wrong definition of righteousness–from the outside in, rather than the inside-out.

 

To be continued…

Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 4..  

 

Pastor Jeff:

Jesus had severe words for hypocrites. He took these betrayals seriously. Yet, in some sense there is always a hypocrite (or two) with us. Can’t we get rid of them?  Why does the church seem to attract hypocritical people?

 

Dave:
 

We are not like a private club that has a screening process. We let everyone in. So the church really can’t be anything but dysfunctional to some degree because we allow people in all states of belief, maturity and stability. I often joke that my family reunion would look a lot better if it were by invitation only. But it is not. My family has good folks, some bad, some smart, some not so smart, some impressive and some downright embarrassing.

 

Imagine an athletic team attempting to operate as a church must. You start with a couple of All-Conference and a few other pretty good players. But you also have several who just started playing and don’t even know the rules or terminology of the game. Add some dreadfully out-of-shape, middle-aged players who have been around for years, who never work out or train, but who expect to get playing time nonetheless. You have a few who just don’t care anymore and don’t want to practice, learn the plays, or listen to the coach. But you can’t cut them from the team or even bench them without causing big problems. There are some who try hard but are too weak or injury prone to be effective. A few regularly miss games and practices without notice and then reappear expecting to play and even start. Toss in some…um…“mature” players who remember the way the game was played back when it was good. You also have some players who think the coach and his assistants are total idiots. Some passionately believe that the offensive game plan is totally wrong and that all the other players need to change to comply with their personal team philosophy…now! And then you have some who try to run their own plays when they go in the game. Many of the players meet regularly at Denny’s immediately after each game to disparage the coach and staff after saying grace over a Grand Slam breakfast.

How do you think this team would perform? If they ever won a game, it would be a miracle. Yet we have a church team with many of those same dynamics, and we seem surprised by its dysfunction. Sure, we could fix the church just like you would go about fixing the football team. Hold spiritual tryouts for all Christians before you let them join the church. Cut most of the rookie Christians or send them to another church to get experience. Waive all the Christians with bad attitudes or a poor work ethic. Fine those Christians who are late to meetings. Make the elders run laps when they miss a row while passing the offering basket. Assign fifty push-ups to the pastor if the sermon goes into overtime. (I rather like that one.) With a little discipline you could shape up the church and make it look impressive on the surface, but it would cease to be the church of the New Testament.

 

Tim Keller wrote this in The Reason for God…

 

I realize that so many people’s main problem with Christianity has far more to do with the church than with Jesus. I will grant that, on the whole, churchgoers may be weaker psychologically and morally than non-churchgoers. That should be no more surprising than the fact that people sitting in a doctor’s office are on the whole sicker than those who are not there. Churches rightly draw a higher proportion of needy people.

 

And then he makes a great point that we often overlook.

 

They also have a great number of people whose lives have been completely turned around and filled by the joy of Christ. 

To be continued…

Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 3..

 

PASTOR JEFF: 

 

Don’t hypocrites think they’re fooling everyone, yet their behavior gives away who they really are?

DAVE:

Absolutely. It is not just a spiritual phenomenon.

Al Gore has made an amazing personal comeback with his global warming documentary. I will not debate the claims of his film here. Instead I want to focus on a very inconvenient truth that all of us battle. We are natural born hypocrites. All of us. Gore outlined a list of sacrifices that we should all make to help the environment. Use a clothesline instead of the dryer. Drive a hybrid. Cut back on the thermostat and home energy consumption.

But Al Gore’s personal lifestyle hypocrisy severely damaged his message.  The Chattanoogan newspaper reports that Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year. So how does Gore justify this apparent case of talk not matching walk? Mr.Gore purchases “carbon offsets” to make his consumption “carbon neutral”. By paying to plant trees or contributing to solar or wind powered energy it “offsets” the personal excessive usage.

The spiritual application is real and sobering. A messenger without commitment to the message loses effectiveness. Christians produce our own version of “carbon offsets”. We talk about the life changing power of Jesus and don’t demonstrate it. We talk about God’s love and don’t manifest that love. So we invest in “carnal offsets” like serving on every church committee or saying yes to every church request so that others can see how committed we are to the church.

“Look at how hard I am working.”
“I am doing so much more than that person.”

And we spectacularly miss the point of following Jesus.

Researcher George Barna has a fascinating theory about hypocrisy and my generation.

“Twenty five years ago, Baby Boomers wanted nothing to do with institutional religion and generally felt that Christians were hypocrites. Today, Boomers are half of the born again population. You have to wonder what caused such a massive turnaround. It was not simply because they had children and wanted their offspring to have religious training.

“After pouring over numerous national studies we have conducted since the early Eighties, I believe that the issue is the way in which we have proposed Christianity to the Boomer generation. At heart, Boomers are consumers. The way we presented Christ to most Boomers struck a resonant chord with them from that mindset. We told them all they had to do was say a prayer admitting they made some mistakes, they’re sorry and they want to be forgiven. Boomers weighed the downside – which really amounted to nothing more than a one-time admission of imperfection and weakness in return for permanent peace with God – and figured it was a no-brainer, a can’t-lose transaction. The consequence has been millions of Boomers who said the prayer, asked for forgiveness and went on with their life, with virtually nothing changed.

“Sadly,” the researcher continued, “they misunderstand the heart of the matter. They saw it as a deal in which they could exploit God and get what they wanted without giving up anything of consequence. But very few American Christians have experienced a sense of spiritual brokenness that compelled them to beg God for His mercy and acceptance through the love of Christ. We have a nation of ‘Christians’ who took the best offer, but relatively few who were so humiliated and hopeless before a holy and omnipotent God that they cried out for undeserved compassion. That helps to explain why in practical terms it’s hard to tell the difference between those who have beliefs that characterize them as born again and those who don’t; the difference between the two groups is based on semantics more than a desperate plea for grace that triggered an intentional effort to live a transformed life.”

I am afraid that is scarily insightful. As followers of Christ we have not demonstrated that grace that transforms lives. We have not displayed the humility and brokenness that makes faith real. There may be a silver lining here. The charge of hypocrisy offers a great opportunity to confess our own failings and explain grace. Admitting mistakes will be disarming and may well open a dialogue of grace and healing.  

Tim Keller writes that “Christians, surprisingly to most people, should not be surprised and might even expect to find nonbelievers who are much nicer, kinder, wiser, and better than they are. How can that be? Christianity is unique in that its followers are not accepted by God because of their moral performance, wisdom, or virtue, but because of Christ’s work on their behalf. Almost every other religion assumes that one’s spiritual status depends on your religious attainments and discipline. This naturally leads adherents to feel superior to those who don’t believe and behave as they do. The Christian gospel, in any case, should not have that effect.”

Our lack of explaining the distinctives of Christianity leads to part of the hypocrite conundrum. We don’t explain that our faith is not about our righteousness but all about the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to us by faith. Because we have made it about us and our behavior we have opened the door for the church to be charged with hypocrisy.

To be continued…
 

Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is part 2.

 

Pastor Jeff:

 

There are several reactions we can have to hypocrisy.

–          Just accept it.  “It’s part of every Christian’s life. We’re all hypocrites about something.”

–          Use it as an excuse for not being part of God’s family.   (Like today’s question: “Why would I hang out with those people?”   “Those people are fakes and I don’t want to be with fake people.”)

–          Rationalize it or Lower our standards.

 

To be honest with you – all these replies simply give credence to the accusation by someone outside the church —  “Isn’t the church filled with hypocrites? I don’t want to be with them, so I don’t want Christ.”

 

We’ll address the issue of talking about hypocrisy with non-Christians in a moment. Dave, let’s talk first about hypocrisy among Christians and address it within the context of the church. I immediately think of the example of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).

 

1 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

 

They keep some of the profit from the sale of some property, but claim to have given the entire amount of the sale price. They’re each struck dead for this deception, this hypocrisy of trying to look better than they are – generous, instead of greedy.

 

Can you give us some other examples of hypocrites in scripture?

 

Hypocrite Laureate Dave:

 

I think the example of Ananias and Sapphira is a great one because Peter is the one who accused them. By the way, that is a great passage to read right before you take the offering. We see that Peter was discerning and confronted the hypocritical actions of Ananias and Sapphira. But we fast forward in God’s Word and we find Peter being accused of hypocrisy by Paul in the 2^nd chapter of Galatians.

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ ¹⁶know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.   

Fascinating. So Peter revealed hypocrisy in one passage and stands accused in another. And then he writes about hypocrisy in 1^st Peter…chapter 2. It is a hypocrisy hat trick.

1 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.

I think that is a message to all of us. We are all capable of discerning hypocrites, capable of being a hypocrite and hopefully capable of seeing hypocrisy as a bad behavior. James talks a lot about actions that many would define as hypocrisy.

 

In Chapter 2 of James…

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

 

Later in the chapter he says this…

 

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

 

James is full of annoying truths that challenge believers to live their faith and not set yourself up to be hypocritical.

Last Sunday I participated in a series at my church, Waterbrook Bible Fellowship, that has been dealing with tough questions. Pastor Jeff Denton has been moderating discussions on difficult issues that every thoughtful believer must address. These topics have already been addressed and you can visit the website to watch or listen to the discussions.

“Isn’t believing Jesus is the only way arrogant?”
“Does science contradict Christianity?”
“Isn’t faith a cop-out?”

My assignment was a duck and cover topic.

“Isn’t the church full of hypocrites?”

My “bad Christian” response to that is simple. “Sure…but go ahead and join us. We can squeeze in one more.”

Inexplicably, Pastor Jeff wanted me to flesh out the topic a bit more. Over the next few days I am going to post Pastor Jeff’s questions to me and my answers. Some of this is bonus material because we ran out of time on Sunday. Here is how I was introduced on Sunday.

Pastor Jeff: When I think of “hypocrite”, I think of Dave Burchett.

Hmmmm. Nice rep I have on my home court, huh? He went on to explain that I came to mind because of the intro to my first book. Nice recovery Jeff.

Pastor Jeff: Why did I think of Dave?  The opening paragraph to his book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People.
It reads: “I must begin with some words of disclosure. I am a hypocrite. I can be arrogant and selfish. I have been known to stretch, conceal, or slightly massage the truth. I am sometimes inconsiderate and insecure. I struggle with lust and impure thoughts. My ego often rages out of control, and I battle foolish pride. I can be lazy and foolhardy with my time. I get angry, petty, and ill tempered. I am sarcastic and cynical.        
I am a Christian.

After that considerable lowering of the expectation bar we began the Q&A portion.

JEFF:

When I think of a hypocrite, what comes to mind for me is someone who lives by the axiom, “Do as I say, not as I do.” What is a hypocrite?

DAVE:

Abraham Lincoln once defined a hypocrite as the man who murdered both his parents…and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. 

The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hyprokrites, meaning one who plays a part, an actor. Probably no word is more destructively used in describing Christians than hypocrite.

The book UnChurched is full of hard truths. One of the primary conclusions from the survey groups they interviewed is that Christians are perceived as hypocrites and this keeps people away from church.

The book reports that most Americans believe that the top priority of born-again Christians is, “doing the right thing, being good, and not sinning.” This “strive to be a good Christian” value topped biblical values like “relationships, evangelism, service and family faith.” In another survey, four out of five churchgoers said that “the Christian life is well described as, ‘trying hard to do what God commands’.” Such a primary focus on lifestyle and sin-management as a measure of spirituality leads to what the authors call a “false pretense of holiness,” which outsiders describe as hypocrisy.

We have done a very poor job in the church of clearly defining the distinctive of Christianity. Pastor Tim Keller says it quite well.

Christian theology also speaks of the seriously flawed character of real Christians. A central message of the Bible is that we can only have a relationship with God by sheer grace. Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has provided salvation for us, which we receive as a gift. All churches believe this in one form or another. Growth in character and changes in behavior occur in a gradual process after a person becomes a Christian. The mistaken belief that a person must “clean up” his or her own life in order to merit God’s presence is not Christianity. This means, though, that the church will be filled with immature and broken people who still have a long way to go emotionally, morally, and spiritually. As the saying has it: “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”

It seems too often like we Christians are living for others’ approval and forgetting about grace. This isn’t lost on younger generations. “Like it or not, the term ‘hypocritical’ has become fused with young peoples’ experience of Christianity,” say the authors of UnChristian. Eighty-five percent of “outsiders” and half of young churchgoers say so.

To be continued….