No-one likes a hypocrite – someone who says one thing and does another. I’m not talking about times when we fall short of the Lord’s expectations of us. I’m referring to the general disposition of someone whose professed faith is hollow.

A hypocrite – an English word derived from the Greek, hypokrisis – means actor.

In Matthew 6:1 Jesus warns: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

Earlier in his Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven…” Now he is saying, “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,..”

In both places he is talking about being seen by others. At first glance his words seem to be contradictory. Is he inconsistent? No.

In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus begins his sermon on the Mount with what we call the Beatitudes – qualities of lives blessed by God. Jesus also says that his followers are to be salt and light in the world and he goes on to exemplify what this looks like in areas of anger and lust, truth-speaking, retaliation, and prayer for enemies.

Now in Matthew chapter 6 he is saying that our faith doesn’t entitle us to promote ourselves. There’s all the difference in the world between honoring God in our lives and wanting to make a name for ourselves.

These days we may not win popularity for our faith in the wider community. However, it can be a different story within the church. Preachers and church leaders, musicians and generous givers can generate acclaim if they work at it. And social media networks can promote it.

But with three examples in his Sermon, Jesus warns against a faith that has no substance. John Stott commented, ‘Our good works must be public so that our light shines; our religious devotions must be secret lest we boast about them.’

Giving. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others,” Jesus says (6:2).

Giving to the ministry of God’s Word and providing assistance for those in need is biblical. Writing on Godly and responsible giving in 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul the Apostle says: For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might be rich.

However, when we give so that others know what we are doing, whether in the street or in the synagogue, whether in church or at a charity function, we are being hypocritical. It’s not the kind of giving that honors God, because it is motivated by self-interest. This is a reason why for decades the names of living benefactors were not on plaques in church buildings.

Jesus is saying that hypocrites give in order to be honored by those around them. ‘And’, he says, “I tell you they have their reward” (6:2).

Jesus uses a telling metaphor that the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing. No one, apart from God, should know about our giving. He will see our true motives: our real concern to support gospel ministry and to care for the needy. Such giving will be rewarded by our heavenly Father, Jesus says.

Prayer. “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward…” (6:5).

To be invited to lead the prayers in the synagogue was a mark of distinction, especially as the leader prayed in front of everyone. Jesus knows how easy it is for anyone leading prayer in church to focus on themselves, their presence, the theological and literary quality of their prayer – even the tone of their voice, rather than truly addressing God.

Now Jesus isn’t saying that prayer must always be in secret. He and his disciples attended services in the Temple and synagogue. Prayer in public is not the issue: it is our attitude. However, there is something special about prayer in private. It reveals who we really are – including the fact that we pray! Prayer in the privacy of our room will be more honest and genuine. We are less likely to focus on self. It’s the kind of prayer God hears and blesses.

Fasting. “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show to others that they are fasting… (6:16).  Fasting was one of the characteristics of Jewish devotional life and was particularly observed on special days, such as the Day of Atonement.

With his words, “whenever you fast …” Jesus assumes there will be times when his followers will fast – as we read in Acts 13:2-3. Fasting was typically associated with a time for reflection with a Bible open and repentant prayer. Fasting can be a helpful self-discipline, prompting us to focus on God without distraction.

But once again Jesus warns: “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show to others that they are fasting…” There is to be no ostentation, perhaps through whitewashing the face or using ashes or earth on the face. Rather, Jesus says, use oil to brighten the face – again not ostentatiously. We are not to show or tell others what we are doing: it is between us and God.

In verse 1 Jesus warns: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven,” And with each of the warnings against hypocrisy he contrasts two types of reward: the applause of others or the reward from your Father who is in heaven.

In verse 9, the first words of the prayer he teaches his followers to pray are: “Our Father …”

All God’s people throughout time, no matter their race or their status in life, are invited to call the creator of the vast and complex universe, “Father”.  It’s an extraordinary privilege, far, far greater than we ever imagined or dreamed.

Jesus’ words about giving, prayer and fasting are humbling. Doing the right thing before God, living with integrity before the Lord, must never become confused with play-acting spirituality, pious ostentation. Jesus challenges us to ask, ‘Who am I trying to please?’

Honest answers to this question can produce the most disquieting results. How many of us would want to hear God’s chilling verdict: “Hypocrite!”

The story is told of an occasion when the esteemed philosopher CEM Joad of London University was asked by a visitor at a College high table, ‘Tell me, Dr Joad, what do you think of God?’ To which he replied, ‘My greater concern is what God thinks of me’.

What reward are you looking for in life – approval of people you know or the secret blessing of the Lord that will one day be shouted from the rooftops?

Prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (BCP, Ash Wednesday)

© John G. Mason

HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds responded to a request from The American Magazine in July 1922, to identify the six most influential people in history. “I am an historian,” he said. “I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history”.

Why then was HG Wells, and many like him, not a believer? Perhaps it has something to do with what we might call, God’s deep irony. In First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22 we read: For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, …

The Jewish people wanted miracles – something that Jesus recognized in the course of his public ministry. In Luke chapter 11, verse 29 he seems to have strangely observed: “This generation… seeks a sign…” I say, strangely, because Jesus performed many miracles. He objected to performing signs because he knew what was in the hearts of people who asked for them: in their pride they thought they had a right to evaluate him, test his credentials.

Significantly, Paul the Apostle not only knew what was in Jewish minds; he also understood the mindset of the non-Jewish world, the Gentiles. They may not look for signs, but they too had a problem which proved to be an obstacle to faith. They believed they were smart enough to explain the world and life: if God exists, he would need to fit into their philosophical and scientific worldview.

First century Corinth was a world not much different from our own. But Paul came with a very different message – a message about a king who came and who was put to death. In verse 23 he writes: but we proclaim Christ crucified,…

It’s not what we would call a brilliant line! But it sits at the heart of God’s powerful message that can transform people’s lives across the nations and races throughout time. It doesn’t sound wise, but it is the only power that can rescue a lost humanity.

Many Jewish people longed for the coming of God’s Messiah who, they believed, would come in majestic glory and great power. For them, Paul’s message of a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. It was blasphemy to think that God’s Messiah would hang, cursed by God, on a tree. And this is what Paul also thought before he met Jesus in a vision on the Road to Damascus.

Paul, a Roman citizen who had been educated in the University of Tarsus, also understood the non-Jewish world. He knew the Gentiles valued reason and philosophy. They weren’t interested in tales about an uneducated man who was put to death as a felon.

Both Jewish and Gentile peoples rejected or mocked the message about a cross. But Paul is insistent. In verse 24 he presses his point: but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

The Jewish people expected a powerful Messianic ruler, a great King David. They scoffed at the idea of a crucified Messiah. It is a matter of deep irony that Jesus’ death which seems to be a moment of supreme failure, is in fact a moment of God’s supreme power.

For their part, the Gentiles who prided themselves in wisdom, mocked the idea of a crucified hero. Yet again, it is a matter of deep irony that through what seems to be utter foolishness, the profound wisdom of God is revealed.

Which brings us to an all-important question: In What Do You Glory? In verse 26 he says: Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Are you ever impressed when you find you are in a church where there are successful people – perhaps a top surgeon, or successful banker or financier, a top sports person? How easy it is to focus on people like this. But the reality is, in human terms, not many of God’s people are successful. This was true in the church in Corinth.

Back in Paul’s day, churches brought together people from all backgrounds and with a wide diversity of ability and skills. One of the things that came to be noticed about them was this very diversity – of free people and slaves, of rich and poor, of educated and uneducated.

Paul is reminding us of the way that God’s mercy reaches across our social divides. None of us can claim an advantage with God because of birth or family, position, success or wealth.

And Paul comments that even in this very diversity God has a purpose: But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God (1:27).

None of us can boast about anything we have done to secure a place with God. We are not good enough. Our relationship with God is God’s free gift to us. To quote Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

However, there is one thing about which we can boast: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1:31).

Typically, we don’t respect people who boast about themselves. It’s rude and arrogant, the height of pride and self-centeredness. Paul’s words about boasting here are of a very different order. He is talking about boasting in God. In fact, another word we could use for boasting is glorying – glorying in the Lord.

In verse 30 he tells us why: He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”.

Christ Jesus who died and rose again is God’s wisdom. His wisdom secures our righteousness – our legal standing before him. God’s wisdom brings about our sanctification – the special status we have with God. It is God’s wisdom that purchases our redemption – the freedoms we now enjoy as God’s people – freedom from sin, from the power of evil, and from death.

How wonderfully wise is our God. How amazing is his mercy. The more we get to know him, the more we will want to bring every part of our life in line with him – our hopes and dreams, our joys and our sorrows, our laughter and our tears.

Here is the God who is not just worth knowing about, but personally worth knowing.

Prayer. Father in heaven, whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain, and spoke of his suffering in Jerusalem: give us strength so to hear his voice and follow him, that in the world to come we may see him as he is; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

© John G. Mason

Last week a good friend of mine went to be with the Lord. In a final conversation with him – in this world – one of the things we talked about was the hope we have in God whose loving action led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ death is reckoned to be foolishness by the world. Consider what the Apostle Paul writes in First Corinthians, chapter 1.

Foolishness…? Writing about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ Paul says in verses 18 and 19: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart”.

Paul wants us to know that when Jesus died on the cross the power of God was uniquely at work. He wants us to know that God in his wisdom has addressed the root problem of the human dilemma in a way that no other religion or philosophy has.

Our world has made incredible strides in the field of science and technology. We can peer into the vast spaces of the universe and map the human genome, but there is always something that trips us up, especially the persistent inability to find a path to perfect peace with one another.

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, was once asked why he wrote it. He responded: I believed then, that man was sick – not exceptional man, but average man. I believed that the condition of man was to be a morally diseased creation and that the best job I could do at the time was to trace the connection between his diseased nature and the international mess he gets himself into.

In First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, Paul is telling us that where human wisdom has failed to find answers, God himself has stepped in and acted. The man who hung on a cross between two self-confessed criminals on a hill outside of Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago, was God’s one and only eternal Son. Crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea, the Son of God, who is the source of our life, died the death we justly deserve.

That day the all-holy God acted in love and provided a solution to our human dilemma in a way that nothing else could. For in his death, the sinless Son perfectly satisfied once and for all every righteous requirement of God.

A moral universe. Paul is saying that we live in a moral universe. Despite the strident voices in the public square, we are not here by chance simply to make the best of a fleeting life. We are image-bearers of our creator God. Our deepest problem is that, designed to know and enjoy a rich relationship with the living God, we worship the desires of our own hearts – ourselves and whatever catches our attention. But we were designed for so much more – and for eternity.

The good news is that through the cross, God in his wisdom and love offers a new start and a new way of living to everyone who turns to Jesus Christ in heart-felt repentance and faith. The cross is not simply good advice. It is not even news about God’s power. It is the place where God has destroyed all human pretence and indifference, even arrogance.

It was something very strange that God did when Jesus died, but there is a rightness to it. Paul tells us that God has deliberately ordered things this way so that we arrogant, self-centered people cannot, and will not, find our own solution.

More foolishness…? In verse 21 Paul says: God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. This is breath-taking. Through the announcement of Christ’s crucifixion, a message that seems senseless and inane when we first come across it, God has determined to rescue anyone who turns to Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

The implications of this are humbling. God, in his wisdom, has determined on a plan that to human eyes seems so ludicrous. Furthermore, it means that all people (it doesn’t matter who we are) have an equal opportunity to benefit. Priority isn’t given to the highly intelligent or the elite. God’s offer of salvation is open to anyone who, by his grace trusts him at his word, to anyone who relies on him, who turns to him and believes in him.

The message of Christ crucified is God’s strange wisdom that subverts the wisdom of the world and provides the one and only solution to our human need – turning our hearts to our true home with God, and giving us motivation and a model for working out our relationships with one another.

In the conversation with my dying friend, we talked about death and the hope of a future that God in his wisdom and love holds out to us. There will come a day when we will meet again in the perfected age to come.

Reflect: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19).

Prayer: Almighty Father, look graciously upon this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked leaders, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

As The Lord’s Supper is often confusing, let me step aside from my usual practice of providing a Bible reflection and make a few remarks about key themes that were crafted by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556.

Cranmer was used by God to re-form the Church of England as a biblically-grounded, gospel-focused church. He achieved this through recovering the unique nature of the Scriptures as God’s written self-revelation, the development of The Thirty-Nine Articles, the Homilies (sermons on essential doctrines of the faith) and his 1552 Book of Common Prayer – which sits behind the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. To this day the 1662 BCP sets out the doctrine and principles of worship for the gathering of God’s people in the Anglican Church around the world.

To understand the shape of The Lord’s Supper we need first to appreciate Cranmer’s view of human nature which Dr Ashley Null summarizes as: ‘What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. Such is the nature of our broken relationship with God that the desires of our hearts dominate us. When we gather as God’s people our hearts need to be addressed and changed, and that can only be achieved by God – through his Word and his Spirit.

So, at the commencement of The Lord’s Supper, we pray: Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

We pray for the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the lives and hearts of everyone present, not on the elements of bread and wine on the Table. The prayer rightly calls down the Spirit of God on everyone gathered in the name of Christ Jesus.

And to remind us of God’s expectations, Cranmer called for the recitation of the Ten Commandments. Jesus’ summary of the commandments is sometimes used today – followed by a response: Incline our hearts to keep this law. Cranmer’s intention was to let the Holy Spirit work through the Scriptures to change hearts.

In the flow of the liturgy, the Scriptures are read and a Creed – a statement of belief – is said. A sermon is given, indicating that we can come only to the Lord’s Table through a response of faith to God’s Word. Prayers are said for the church, leaders in the wider community, and the needs of God’s people and others.

The minister then exhorts everyone with words that echo Paul’s warning in First Corinthians chapter 11, about eating the bread and drinking the cup without heartfelt repentance and a deep desire to live out Christ’s commands.

The warning leads into a general confession, followed by a pronouncement of the promise of God’s forgiveness in the Name of Jesus, for all who truly repent of following their heart’s desires rather than God’s holy law. The biblical ground for the promise of God’s forgiveness is underlined by what are called ‘comfortable words’ (e.g., John 3:16;1 John 2:1-2).

With the exhortation and response, Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord. we are exhorted to lift our gaze to the Lord of heaven and earth. We are also reminded that Christ is not physically in the world. Rather, he is in heaven.

In this context our hearts are lifted up to the Lord on high with words from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, known as ‘the Sanctus’: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are filled with your glory. Hosanna in the highest – period, full stop.

In Cranmer’s 1552 Prayer Book there is no following acclamation: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ – words that reflected a false theology of ‘the real presence’ of Christ in the bread and the wine. If we read Luke 13:35 carefully we will see that Jesus spoke these words of himself and of his forthcoming sacrificial death. This work was completed once and for all through his crucifixion. Cranmer’s aim was gospel clarity, not ambiguity.

The themes of confession of sin, God’s grace and forgiveness, continue with the Prayer of Humble Access. The focus of our prayer is to the Lord whose nature is always to have mercy…

Cranmer’s prayer of consecration – the setting apart of the bread and wine for The Lord’s Supper – follows. It recalls God’s all-glorious act of redemption that was achieved through the Lord Jesus Christ who, in his death on the cross, made there … a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and thereby instituted a perpetual memory of his precious death until his coming again.

The prayer continues, asking that the bread and wine become for us the body and blood of Christ – not literally but spiritually in that the Spirit of God feeds our hearts and minds, with the benefits of what Christ has done for us.

It is important to notice that the sacraments are not administered to give us a nice warm feeling. Nor, as Cranmer’s 1552 Prayer Book makes clear, are they are a re-offering of the sacrifice of Christ. They are not something we do to achieve some merit in our relationship with God. Rather, the sacraments bring us through an outward sign, what God has done for us in Christ. For the true believer in Christ, they bring real spiritual benefits.

As God’s people eat the bread, they are exhorted to Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on Him in your heart by faith, with thanksgiving. And in taking the cup all are exhorted to Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for you and be thankful. As we receive the bread and the wine, we are spiritually partaking of the benefits of Christ’s death. When we truly believe in Christ, they bring us spiritual benefits.

How important it is that when we come to The Lord’s Supper, we have reflected afresh on what Christ has done once and for all time to satisfy in full God’s righteous requirements for our sin and for the sins of the world.

The Lord’s Supper concludes with a prayer of self-offering (oblation) based on Hebrews 13:15 and Romans 12:1-2. With these prayers God’s people are sent into to the world to live for Christ and to change the world through the gospel.

A prayer. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us all with everything good that we may do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

© John G. Mason

The late afternoon storms last Tuesday afternoon (Australian Eastern Summer Time) brought down a huge neigbouring tree on to the Cammeray Church site – one of two church properties where I am part-time interim senior minister. No one was harmed – for which we thank the Lord. But the building itself has suffered structural damage making it unusable for the coming months.

It brought to mind the devastating fires in Los Angeles, USA as well as the loss and devastation caused by war – not least in Ukraine at this time. Where is God? Why does he allow such things to happen?

Now I need to point out that there are no complete answers to the question, ‘why do people suffer in a world where a good and loving God rules?’ It would be misleading to say we have a full explanation. In fact we can only begin to provide some answers with certainty because of God’s revelation of himself in Scripture.

How important it is then that in the midst of the unexpected in life, we encourage one another with cool, clear minds that are grounded in the Bible. The Psalms, for example, constantly reflect on the vagaries of life and evil (the unprovoked, interventionist war in Ukraine, for example) that we experience, reminding us that the wisdom and strength we need are found in the Lord God.

Psalm 46 begins: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:1-3).

The Psalm encourages us that God is the sovereign lord over every aspect of life – over nature, the enemies of God’s people, and the world with all its tensions and conflicts. Written in a time of crisis, the confident faith in the Lord’s ultimate control is most encouraging.

Furthermore, while we might fear the instability in nature and events around us, we can be assured that God not only knows what is happening but is in the midst working out his greater and ultimate and very good purposes. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;… but we are assured of God’s final word: he utters his voice, in judgment on the nations.

If you will allow me a personal note, on September 11, 2001 Judith and I were living in Downtown New York City, in close proximity to the Trade Towers. When the towers collapsed our building was impacted. We were without a home for some 6-weeks and my fledgling New York ministry was also affected. We had to move our apartment and start afresh. Tim Keller who had invited me to start a new gospel-focused Anglican church in Manhattan later told me that he had thought that Judith and I would return to Sydney. But the Lord in his grace brought us through the challenges.

In the midst of the unknown, Psalm 46 was one of the Bible texts from which we, along with many others, drew comfort and strength.

Psalm 46, verse 4 says: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God….  Under God the waters no longer rage but are found as life-giving streams for his people under siege.

It is not surprising that the Psalm moves to a climax with a command, Be still, and know that I am God (verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people – although that is there – but rather primarily God’s word to the turbulent seas and rebellious world.

It is a command that anticipates Jesus’ words to the stormy seas: “Peace! Be still” (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority of Jesus when he commanded the deceased Lazarus: “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43).

Psalm 46, verse 10 continues: God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth.

If such a God is with us, we can have every confidence that when we turn to him he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times, God is our refuge and strength.

And the Psalm concludes: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

A huge broken tree falling on a church building in storm-tossed winds can stir us to frustration and even anger as we work through the challenges of the necessary ministry adjustments. The same can happen when God’s people make mistakes, or experience illness or other personal challenges.

Or, in the goodness of God, it could be another way the Lord builds us up in the riches of his love and forgiveness, and opens opportunities for us to testify to our faith in the community. These are my prayers. Are they yours?

Prayer. Almighty Father, we commend to your goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason