\u201cJesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, \u2018The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses\u2019 seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or, in the more familiar version of this, \u201cPractice what you preach.\u201d In contemporary terms, we say, \u201cIf you talk the talk, you\u2019d better walk the walk.\u201d Or we say, \u201cPut your money where your mouth is.\u201d Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet said, \u201cSuit the action to the word.\u201d Maybe Nike has it right: \u201cJust do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever version of this timeworn saying you use, it means basically the same thing: What you say must be reflected in what you do. Otherwise, you have to fall back on that other old saw, the desperate recourse of embarrassed parents everywhere: \u201cDo as I say, not as I do.\u201d Yeah, right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A great deal of the public conversation in America this fall has been about just this issue: does what we say match what we do? And does what we do embody the values we pronounce?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few weeks ago, the pundits were talking a lot about the problems that parents who belong to the Baby Boomer generation have in talking to their kids about drugs. So many Baby Boomers at least experimented with drugs in college or high school that it requires choosing our words carefully to caution our kids against drugs without being hypocrites. The experts advise parents to tell the truth, to confess that yes, we did experiment, and came to learn in that way just how bad drugs can be. Does it work? Maybe. Only maybe. Kids are right to be skeptical. Practice what you preach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During these waning days of the 1996 Presidential campaign, we have been barraged with demonstrations of the pervasiveness of hypocrisy, of people \u201ctalking the talk\u201d but not \u201cwalking the walk.\u201d The Democratic Convention was a heart-tugging show on the theme of family values, but much of the country harbors serious suspicions about the Democratic President\u2019s marital fidelity, among other concerns, and the political advisor who was the architect of the focus on family values was caught red-handed in a sleazy affair in the midst of the convention. The Republican candidate rails about the Democrats selling out to \u201cspecial interests,\u201d after years of having served valiantly in Congress to sustain the concerns of tobacco companies and the Archer Daniels Midland Corporation, and suddenly espouses supply-side economics after opposing it for years. Ross Perot\u2019s currently commercial urges us not to \u201cwaste your vote\u201d by voting for either of the leading party candidates, when the received wisdom is that to vote for someone who patently cannot win is to do exactly that: to waste your vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little wonder that the polls tell us that the level of trust in politicians in general is at an all-time low. Most of us have learned to take the speeches of political candidates not with just a grain of salt, but with the whole saltbox. When polled, most of the electorate mostly just want for the thing to be over, to get on with our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does this mean that we don\u2019t care about our country any more? Does this mean that we no longer \u201chold these truths to be self-evident,\u201d that every one is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Does this mean that we don\u2019t give thanks for living in \u201cthe land of the free and the home of the brave,\u201d in America the Beautiful? No, of course not. Most of us know that our country is far from perfect, but believe passionately in the ideals and the values that shaped it and shape it still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was just this way with Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus cared passionately about the traditions of justice from the days of Moses and Abraham, interpreted by the prophets. In his profound commitment to those ideals, his life became a demonstration of how to fulfill not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of it. When the Pharisees accused him of destroying the Law, he responded, \u201cI come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.\u201d Over and over again, his critique of the Pharisees is that they get so caught up in the outward forms, that they miss the inmost heart of the Law. Here he speaks of their demonstrations of piety as a show, something to impress others, rather than a way of living into the fullness of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, of course, is the besetting sin of public life. The adulation of people is a terrible temptation, and pride is an all-too-familiar sin. Even the most unworldly idealists can begin to fall in love with a heroic image of themselves. For most of us, it is a temptation to believe our own myth of ourselves \u2014 a little holier, a little more heroic, a little nicer than we really are. Why else do we love it so much when someone tells that we don\u2019t really look our age? Or why else shave off ten pounds or so when we fill in the blank for \u201cweight\u201d on our driver\u2019s license?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if our own image of ourself is a temptation to delude ourselves, how much more potent is a public audience that demands of all our public figures that they be larger than life? We only want to vote for Superman, not for Clark Kent. Can you imagine what would happen to a candidate who said, \u201cWell, folks, I\u2019ve made some real mistakes, and I\u2019m only moderately good at managing the government, but on the whole, I\u2019m as good as my opponent so I hope you\u2019ll vote for me.\u201d Will you rush right out to support him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With that kind of pressure on us, both from inside and outside, to advertise ourselves as better than we are, how can we avoid hypocrisy? How can we walk the walk, as well as talk the talk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We begin every Eucharist with the Collect for Purity, calling upon God \u201cto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.\u201d We cannot be hypocrites to God, saying one thing and doing another. God sees it all. As Bette Midler sang a few years ago, \u201cGod is watching us.\u201d And God desires for us to grow every day more truthful. God knows that you\u2019re 47, even if you\u2019ve just told someone you\u2019re 42. God knows that the driver\u2019s license may say you weigh 148, but it\u2019s closer to 165. And, at the same time, God forgives us, wanting us to know only that we are loved JUST AS WE ARE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the Collect for Purity, we\u2019re asking God to help us to get better: to \u201ccleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of\u201d the Holy Spirit. To make us truer to ourselves and to God. To make us more open, more honest, more truthful. To blow away the chaff and leave the good grain, to burn away the straw and leave the gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Lord Jesus was the perfect image of the good grain, the gold at the heart of the Law. He is the walking, breathing demonstration of what it is to live the Law to its fullest. He truly \u201cwalked the walk.\u201d As he taught, so he lived. And he called to us to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election coming up on Tuesday is not a contest among perfect, larger-than-life candidates, Superman v. Paul Bunyan. Some people, disgusted or simply weary of the whole long, noisy campaign, will be tempted to decide that it\u2019s too much trouble to vote, that it\u2019s a choice among scoundrels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you care about the truth? Then vote. It is part of our responsibility as citizens of this country. It is why we are bidden to pray every Sunday for the leaders of the nation. We are part of this nation, and called to work and pray to make it a better place for ourselves and all who live here. Do vote \u2014 and then pray for the nation, and for our leaders, that we all may grow more surely into Truth, in the footsteps of the One who came to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Linda Strohmier<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cJesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, \u2018The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses\u2019 seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.’\u201d Or, in the more familiar version of this, \u201cPractice what you preach.\u201d In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[119],"class_list":["post-511490","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-26a"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":119,"label":"Proper 26A"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478657,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511490\/revisions\/3478657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}