Story of mirror woman
There once was a wolf pack – who stuck together to just make a living. There were willing to share with one anther – but also with others. One day this very strange woman came to live with them. And they were willing to share what they had with her. But they could never really see what she looked like because she hid her face with a mirror. They called her mirror woman. She would also show the faces of the wolves in the mirror. Whenever they would try to hold a conversation with her – she would hold up the mirror. And she would point out all of the bad things that she saw in others from this mirror. The wolves saw themselves so much, that they started to believe everything that she said. They started to believe they were the bad behavior in the mirror. Until one say the den mother explained, that they were so much more than the mirror reflected. There was some bad things, but there were also some good things. They actually started to resent mirror woman, and asked her to take the mirror down. But she was afraid and left the pack. She did not want to think about her own bad, it was easier to see that in others. But when she was gone – they started to reflect the love that they wanted to see in others.
I am always amazed at how people quickly the people who don’t go to church like to use that word hypocrite when a talking about Christians.
How many times have I heard that people don’t go to church, because the church is full of hypocrites. What does that mean? And why do you need to say such a thing.
It is just like the woman in the story – who was so busy blaming and accusing others, that she did not take the time to look at her own character. She did not see that what she was doing was even more destructive for the group, then anything that she accused them of doing.
The word hypocrite – comes from greek – it means an actor. In the days of classical theater- an actor would put on one of those masks – either with a happy face or a sad face – to show what character they were playing in a play.
It was very clear that they were not the person they were playing on the stage. They were putting on a persona – taking on a personality that was not really their own.
There are many people today besides actors who have a professional persona and a personal life. That is just a part of the job they have. There is nothing wrong with what they are doing. And most of the time these are really nice people. And their persona is just an exaggeration of their real self.
Hypo – means under - crite means truth – which means under truth or understatement – not overstatement.
Over the years – it seems that the word has taken on a negative connotation that was not intended. Today to word means someone who intentionally takes on a religious or moral persona to hide their true self.
That does not describe the average Christian.
I told you about the workshop on safe sanctuaries. On making the church a safe place for children. The FBI agent warned us that child predators look at life in a totally different way then we would. He also said that many of them intentionally develop a persona of being thought of as a good person. They intentionally go to church, they intentionally try to be a nice guy. So that you don’t question their behavior.
The agent says that usually at the trial of these people, the family members or friends will spit on him, or yell at him. And say that the offender is really a nice guy – look at all of the things he has done in the community. He loves children.
That is the problem – he loves children, that is why he is being prosecuted. To me I would say that is the true definition of a hypocrite.
In Mark 7 as jesus is talking to the Pharisee – he calls them hypocrites.
It is a part of the tradition of the elders – to wash your hands before you eat. Every jews would have known that. The tradition was a set of unspoken rules that everyone would have known and everyone would have obeyed without question.
To jewish tradition to be clean was everything. In order to be close to god you had to be clean. As a Pharisee, you had to be intentional to make sure that you did not do anything that would dirty your hands or your body. That meant you were not fit to worship god. Today, when you enter into a muslim mosue – before you can pray – you have to ceremonially wash your entire body. Even though they are intentional to tell visitors that is only intended for muslims, others are not bound by that custom.
In the Christian church – we don’t have ceremonial cleanings, even though it is still tradition to dress up and look nice when we come to church. We still have the tradition of the elders.
And that was what Jesus was trying to attack when he called the Pharisees hypocrites. The tradition of the elders was not scripture - it was something someone made up. It was something that you just did without question and no one really knew why. Jesus point was that we should stop doing things because they were tradition and to give some thought to what they were doing and why. Maybe the intention of what you were doing was more important than following tradition. And jesus had a mission to fulfill, more important than the way it was always done.
Jesus went on to point out that it was not the tradition of being clean that caused the real evils in the world – it was the condition of the heart – the human heart – to lie, to steal, to criticize, to hurt when we have been hurt.
So we shouldn’t spend so much time worrying about the outside – but concentrate on the inside.
It is not just Christians, or people trying to be good who have those things – but all of us – it is human nature. In some ways we are all hypocrites. Not just Christians, but all people.
The lesson for us as Christians is not that we don’t have those tendencies inside of us, and not that we don’t have an inner self and an outer self. Being a Christian means that we know what is inside of ourselves and we acknowledge that we are sinners and we work to do something about it. We don’t exploit our sin to hurt others, to know that we are sinners, totally dependent on the grace of god to deal with our sinful nature.
For an outsider to be obsesses with calling a Christian a sinner is like the mirror woman finding the faults of the wolf pack – they spend so much time talking about others, that they forget to correct themselves.
Jesus knows that we will always sin, but some of us will look in the mirror and be able to fix what we see is wrong.
James talks about uses mirrors as a metaphor for looking at our selves and our actions too. He says that when we know the will of god and we don’t do it – we are like someone who looks in the mirror and forgets what they look like.
We look like the sons and daughters of God. In the message – Euguene Peterson says that when we know the word of god but we don’t do it – it is like we forget the face we were born with. We forget that we were all born sinners, but we were all born in the image of God. That is the true persona of all people – to reflect the love of god in their lives in some way.
Yesterday, sydaney and ray and I attended the workshop on stewardship. Great speaker, he told a story about a docter who went on a mission trip to Honduras. Before he left, he went to church, but it didn’t mean anything to him. He went through the motions, but it had no meaning. But when he went to help the people of Honduras – he saw the word of god being put into action, and he started to understand why he was really coming to church.
When we returned, he gave more in the offering plate, he volunterred more, he even was able to share his faith with others in a meaningful way.
There was something that was changed in his inner heart – that changed his outer actions. It was the cleansing of his inner heart – that made his outer heart clean. That is all jesus is trying to say to us. Cleansing comes from the inside out – not the outside in.
When we go outside of the sanctuary there are still those who will look on the outside and be critical no matter what. There are still non Christians who need to call Christians hypocrites, there are still neighbors who tell us that they need to see a change in our behavior to really trust us and to believe that we are who we say we are.
I hope you will always be able to admit that you are a sinner saved by the grace of God. Someone who has a heart of jealousy, anger and all kinds of bad things. But a sinner who has been touched in your heart by God, who lives a life not mandated by the mirror of others, but the light of God’s love for you.
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