My 2010 resolution

photo credit: Himalayan Trails

Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth – 1 Corinthians 5:8

Talk to someone about what they think of the “Church” or of “Christians” and painfully often you will hear THAT word: “hypocrites”. Ouch!

It hurts me that people will often refer to Christians or the Church as “hypocritical”, sort-of in the same vein as one hears people talk about politicians, perceived by many to be milking the public purse for personal gain, or bonanza-bonus-taking bankers, who, many argue, are paying themselves huge sums out of money that they only have because they have mortgaged our whole economies for the next few generations.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church, urges them to “keep the festival” of the (new) Passover, but to keep it in the spiritual sense, having Jesus as their sacrificial lamb that makes atonement for their sins. This festival of the Passover is the foundation of Christianity.

I will spare you the intricacies of Jewish Passover-observance, and the rituals of purging-out of yeast that goes with it – suffice it to say that Passover requires a cleaning-out of every nook and cranny of your kitchen in order to remove any traces of yeast – yeast is symbolic of sin and impurity. He then goes on to state that this festival is to be observed “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Now here’s a thought: We place a lot of emphasis on keeping the festival with the proper truth (and doctrine becomes the rallying-cry for many movements, divisions and separations), but are we placing equal emphasis on keeping the festival, on being true Christians, with the quality of transparency and sincerity? Surely if the world sees the Church as full of hypocrisy, we need sincerity by the bucket load – for fail you might, but people will always appreciate you if something is genuine.

In Paul’s Corinth, it is said that it was normal practice for people selling earthenware to cover-up imperfections, cracks and crevices with wax, pouring it into all the nooks and crannies, and then paint-over the whole vessel. These were sold in dark shops, so the unsuspecting buyer got the shock of his life when a perfectly looking vessel was used to pour hot water into it – the wax invariably melted, and the water was spilled on the ground – and what looked like a beautiful earthen pot was therefore useless. The way to detect that the vessel was “sincere” was by holding-it up against a bright light, and the wax would let the light through in contrast with the opaque clay and all imperfections would be highlighted.

From this practice of filling-up cracks with wax, some say that we get the word “sincere” from the latin sin (without) cere (wax).

Here’s where this thought is taking me: I don’t want to appear as if I’ve got it all together, only to discover wax covering my cracks and faults. In 2010 I purpose to hold my own heart and life up to the “bright light” of God’s presence and have Him reveal all the imperfections, shortfalls, nooks and crannies. I apologize to you all beforehand if it isn’t a pretty sight, but when all is said and done I want to be part of the real deal.

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