[Much aggrieved – sorry. I did not start recording until in the anthem.]
Sermon – Preaching in Holes: The Art of Hypocrisy
Psalm 26; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
9/6/2026
Back in my high school days, I was in a number of stage performances. Some were more notable than others. One was Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew), and I had to learn about wearing tights on stage in front of a bunch of people. I also learned about wearing stage makeup. My first role was as The Elephant Man which was a big commitment physically and mentally. For the medical presentation scene, I actually stood on stage in front of friends and family in my skivvies. My second show was Our Town in which I played Howie Newsome, the milkman, in an intentionally “simple” way. He was not a sophisticated character. After the show, someone came up to me to congratulate me as part of the show, and knowing that I was one for “different” characters, they were surprised because I was not actually somehow mentally disabled in real life. They thought I was, in fact, something like the kind of character I was playing on stage. It is a strange compliment, but I had to take it as a compliment. They saw me convincingly on stage as someone that I was not in real life. Though, we are all probably a bit special needs in some way.
Maybe you have seen a show on stage or on the screen (better on the stage) that made you genuinely feel that the actor was the character. The mind can step aside from the obvious to enter that fantasy of performance and appreciate what is going on in an experiential way. You can be teleported, in a sense, to another place, another time, and to other people, and you can be part of it. The show can take on a larger and more real aspect, and the actors themselves can be larger than life. If you have ever seen a good, believable show like that, then you have seen a hypocrite.
That is what the term hypocrite means – an actor. Of course, it does NOT mean necessarily a GOOD actor, but it is certainly someone TRYING to be a good actor. An actor or hypocrite wants you to believe they are in reality whomever they are portraying. That’s the point. Every actor wants to be believable and relatable. The ancient world of faith saw a connection there between people who were putting on a show on stage and people who were putting on a show in the life of faith. And let me tell you, that kind of show really enflamed others who cared. The hypocrite was despised, denounced, and the worst example for people of faith.
You heard some of that in Psalm 26 in which David is desperately trying to convince God that he is authentic and not a sham, a show, or a hypocrite. DAVID (one of the most fervent and sincere servants of God) is worried that God might think he is not being as honest in faith as he should be. Put a pin in that for later.
Plenty of folk struggled with the idea of hypocrisy in the New Testament time, as well. The theater was everywhere. That was ancient entertainment, so hypocrites were just as relatable in Jesus’ day. Acting was more expressive and effusive in those ancient times. People had to go big or over-the-top so that they could be seen and heard in a day without stage lighting or microphones (though, theater acoustics were quite good). You heard in Matthew 6 just how ludicrous people could be with their expressions of faith in Jesus’ world. With faith, however, God desires the sincere heart and the honest hand, and Jesus denounces hypocrites and hypocritical behavior in this part of the Sermon on the Mount. It feels like what is most important is that sincere heart for God.
It is a good thing that hypocrisy disappeared with the first century. It is a good thing that play acting in the world of faith is an ancient concept, far removed from our world of today. It is a good thing that all the world is nowhere near the stage it once was. Call me a hypocrite in that those last three sentences were a show, a play, and a bit sarcastic. All of that was false, of course. We are at greater risk of hypocrisy today than ever before. I need to underscore that thought. The openness and possibility for hypocrisy as a straight up show is huge. We see each other and are in each other’s world from all over, all the time. The world is so much more of a show than it has ever been, and we are all the actors. Since we do not really know each other through screens or even if that person is real, it is much more difficult to be as honest as a culture. The danger is out there for manipulation, but here is the thing. All of us, even the most honest and real among us, still try to put up a better face from time to time. We all want others to think better of us. We all want people to feel like we are on the path. We all want people to believe that we have it together. We all struggle with our own version of hypocrisy.
This is hard. I do genuinely believe that no one here is really trying to put on a show of faith in that classical hypocritical style, but, but, but hypocrisy is something that runs in all of us to some degree. Anyone who has ever accepted that they are a follower of Jesus is under the obligation to act like it. It is a long walk to a holier life, and quite often we struggle to live up to that. This is why we do share in that Prayer of Confession each and every week. It is our admission that there is a hypocritical streak in all of us as human beings. We care what others think. We are not all hypocrites in the same way as Jesus’ day. This is a different but more relatable sense. There are no doubt folk out there in the public eye putting on a show for us and trying to get something whether it is fame, money, adoration, or power. That is not who we are, but we have a struggle and a warning, also.
Our struggle with hypocrisy is different in that I am not trying to live a lie, but I do fail to live for God with everything that I have and that’s my job and your job. Just because we follow our Lord and Savior does not mean we are not still sinful and selfish. This is the reality of it. None of us is holy and righteous unto ourselves. We have all sinned and fallen short God’s glory and continue to do so. To deny that is to fool ourselves as the Apostle Paul notes. It is easy and comfy to let others believe we are doing better than we are, though. That is our hypocrisy. When we do slide into that smug self-righteousness, we are playing a part, too. We might not be putting on a show on the street corner, but we can certainly promote a life without the cracks and blemishes. Honesty and openness is where we find growth as people and where grace grows.
Remember that Psalm 26? David, the same David who gave us so much in our world of faith through stories and songs, recognizes the need to be radically honest and seems to be defending himself in court before God. Whether he reaches that point or not, whether he is radically honest here or not, who knows? There were times when he did lay his life at the foot of God with nothing held back. Psalm 51 is one example. He prayed that song in his darkest moment when he realized how much he had hurt others.
This challenge to be more our true selves is really tough. We like to seem better than we are, and we don’t want to let others know what we are really like. We want to be accepted, and if the standard is that you have to be all good and level and together to be accepted, then we will put on a show to fit in. That is hypocrisy. You may have heard something of the fact that the church is a hospital for sinners. Even more, we will never truly recover this side of glory. Maybe we are more like a rehab facility. What we need is friends in recovery and the community of love and acceptance and honesty. That is a better idea of church to me. That is the kind of church of which I want to be a part.
It is true that we want to be accepted in life.
It is true that we also want to accept ourselves.
It is true that sometimes we might want to impress others whether it is warranted or not.
It is true that we also might just want to feel like we are good enough as we are and don’t need any more help or growth. That is the minimal investment follower of Christ. The auto-pilot version of Christian practice.
The problem is that it is all hypocrisy. It is all something we are not really deep down. We are the broken, the lost, the hurting and the ones who hurt others, the selfish, and the greedy. We are just like everyone else on this planet and through the ages. What is different is this: we have a God who loves us regardless and who has given us a different life to work on living. God has proved what love can do by loving us into hope. We have the Spirit of Love, the very Spirit of Christ Jesus walking this path with us. The more honest we are with ourselves, the more we will love God and others. It is not easy, and it is not the way the world works, but we can put aside the art of hypocrisy. Life is not a show. To God be the glory. Amen.