We Need More Hypocrites in Church

As I prepare for worship this morning, I come here to post an odd petition. It is a bit of a prayer, something of a rant, a complaint against those who constantly complain about people of faith: Lord, this Sunday and every Sunday, please send more hypocrites into your church.

As someone who has discussed the value of the church and matters of faith with many people over the year, the subject of "hypocrites" seems to be a recurring theme. I use the scare quotes because at some point in time my concept of what makes a "hypocrite" seems to have diverged from most of the people I encountered.

I always considered a hypocrite to be a person of double standards, as in someone who preached morality for everyone else, but always found a way to justify their own conduct no matter how outrageous. This was the father who took his son to task for going to bar with friends and having a beer while insisting that his own three-case-a-week habit was perfectly fine, or the mother who insisted her daughter dress "appropriately" while reveling in her own immodest attire. In more modern times, I tend to think of congress, who insists that the laws they pass are so beneficial for the people and yet they always seem to have a perfectly good reason for exempting themselves.

The modern definition of a hypocrite that I ran into the most, at least where churchgoers were concerned, was "someone who said one thing, but did another." If you said it was wrong to lie, but had lied in the past, you were a hypocrite. If you said it was wrong to steal, but had stolen in the past, you were a hypocrite. If you believed that anything was "right," but had fallen short of that standard at any time for any reason, you were a hypocrite.

I have to admit, I was taken aback. Under that definition, the church was certainly full of hypocrites. In fact, using that definition, there were nothing but hypocrites in the church. Now personally, I had never considered that type of behavior hypocrisy. I pretty much considered this to be the human condition: flawed, imperfect, fallen, sinful. I could only think of two ways, again using this definition, to avoid being a "hypocrite." The first way was to be perfect, and I knew that perfect people were in pretty short supply. The second way was simply to proclaim no standards. No right. No wrong. Observe, consent, affirm. Go along.

Over time, I came to realize that much of the use of the term "hypocrisy" with regards to the church was less about describing the members than about justifying the critics. This is not to say that there are not hypocrites in church. There certainly are. And there are liars, and thieves, and drunkards. There are men who beat their wives, and wives who cheat on their husbands, and all manner of unpleasant people.

And that's right where I want them. Not in charge, hopefully, at least not until Christ has gotten into them enough so that they can be faithful servants of others, but I want them there. Christ remarked that it was not well people that needed a doctor, but the sick. For all of these "illnesses," and many others, Christ is the cure, and a God-fearing, faithful church is the best treatment center available. It's the emergency room, the hospital. Hopefully, it's also the long-term rehab therapy afterward.

Churches are anything but perfect. They are filled with people. The two don't go together. But the church is generally the one place where people can go when they need help finding their way back to God. And God loves the hypocrites, just the same as he loves all the rest of us sinners, so that's my prayer for this Sunday.

"Lord, please send more hypocrites into your church, that they may see your face which holds nothing false. And give the rest of your believers the spirit of your love, that bears all things and points to a better way. Let us not seek to turn away those whom we find unpleasant, but welcome them into your grace. Let us remember that it is not our church, but yours. Amen."