I Am A Recovering Hypocrite!

I got "set up" in church Sunday. It all started with the music. I have always been a fan of good worship songs but yesterday took me on a wave that went on and on and on and into the message and throughout the rest of the day.

The song that started it all, "Arms Wide Open," originally made popular by Misty Edwards, was given new life through our own worship team, Beyond the Veil. The essence is in these phrases repeated throughout the song:

Love’s definition, love’s definition was looking at me
Looking at Him, hanging on a tree
I began to weep and weep and weep and weep

This is how I know what love is, this is how I know what love is

He said to me, “You shall love Me, You shall love Me
You shall love Me, You shall love Me”

With arms wide open, a heart exposed
With arms wide open, bleeding, sometimes bleeding

Later, the key scripture verse for the day was Matthew 23:13: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s [and women's] faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

By definition, a hypocrite is someone who thinks or pretends to know more than he or she does, or to be more virtuous than he or she really is, or where one's private life belies one's public life. calls it "bumper sticker Christianity." This chameleon life closes doors. This kind of inconstancy is rooted in a closed heart.

An authentic Christian has an exposed heart.

It's not easy to leave the heart open: that's how we get hurt and disappointed and betrayed. But it's also how we experience boundless love, humility, and hope. We have to decide, we have to risk, we have to trust that the good elements of an exposed heart will outweigh the pain.

There is a story of a teacher who became concerned about a boy in her class who always held his hands behind his back. He would not engage others, touch others or hold anything in his hands. Finally, she couldn't stand it any longer and contacted the family. It didn't take much to figure out that the parents were abusive in a particular way: whenever the child "misbehaved," his hands were smacked with a ruler. He had lost the ability to open his hands and receive love or anything else.

I confess that I, too, have closed my heart and more often than I'd like to say, put on the appearance of love and faith and holiness. I have prevented others from seeing the broken me. But I hear the Christ calling me to a different way (again): arms wide open, heart exposed.

You, whoever you are, I want to have the courage to invite into the truth of my being a follower of Christ.

This "Restore Church" is working to be about the same thing. Some are there with bona fide open hearts, and some are not. Some are new and some are old. Some are learning to relate to one another. Some are testing the waters.

It's not about "going to church" anymore, it's about living "church." And that means relationships, approachability, and risk, one day at a time. Authenticity has a cost. It requires the shedding of old skin and old ways. It requires a commitment to the process. It requires a certain degree of uncomfortableness - because I'm not the only hypocrite out there. We've all been playing those games, haven't we?

Irmgarde Brown
Blogger, Writer, Librarian, Restore Church volunteer
Follower of Christ, Uncovered Hypocrite
Facebook: irm.brown
Twitter: IrmBrown

Restore Church :: 616 Ontario St., Havre de Grace :: Sundays @ 9, 10:15 & 11:30AM 

Don’t you wish every church rocked? Let’s face it. Many people don’t like church. There are many reasons. All of them are pretty valid: hypocritical, out of touch, cultish, driven by guilt, and judgmental. When the Bible talks about church, are these the descriptions that God had in mind? We don’t like church either ... at least, not these types of church. We need help. We need the love of Jesus to be more real than these descriptions. We need the church to be different. We can change if we can agree on what NOT to be ... we can change if we value God’s dream for the church. Join us as we start 2012 with a 6-week sermon series on changing the definition of church, together!