Sunday Homily - November 11th, 2018 - Take Off the Mask

The Widow's Mite 

Mosaic at St. Apollinarius's Church in Ravena

I. 

"We wear the mask that grins and lies,
   It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
      This debt we pay to human guile;
         With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
            And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
   In counting all our tears and sighs?
      Nay, let them only see us, while
         We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
   To thee from tortured souls arise.
      We sing, but oh the clay is vile
         Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
           But let the world dream otherwise,
             We wear the mask!"
                ["We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar]

Some of you may recognize this poem,
   but if you haven't heard it,
      this is a poem called "We Wear the Mask"
        by one of the most influential poets and novelists
           of the late 19th, early 20th centuries: Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Paul was an African American man,
   born to freed slaves in Kentucky in 1872.
      And Paul was brilliant, even at a young age
        having had poems published even while he was still in high school.

But Paul, even though he was brilliant,
   did not have the financial stability available to him to attend university.
       He initially wanted to pursue law,
          but instead, after more success in his writing career,
              he devoted himself to writing and composing poetry.

Paul Dunbar, today, is internationally recognized for his dialectic verse poetry,
   and is celebrated as one of the first influential African American poets of American literature.
      [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/paul-laurence-dunbar]

And, as any great poet does, Paul Dunbar is a master of language,
   a creator of great worlds of syntax and semantics,
      and a great example of both overt and covert critique of the evils of slavery.

Hidden in the poem above, in "We Wear the Mask," I think,
   is a subtle double aim,
      a dual audience,
         that Paul is critiquing and playing with in the subversive style of the theater mask.

His covert critique is aimed directly at the very real and dangerous and pervasive evil
   of white supremacy and black subjugation at the turn of the 20th century.
      But his covert critique is also aimed at a much more root issue,
         a much more dangerous force that overt racism:
            Paul Dunbar was taking aim at hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy
   which literally means the following:

"Claiming to hold moral values or beliefs,
   when, in fact, one's ethic,
      one's outward actions,
         does not support the living out of those values or beliefs."
            [Merriam Webster Dictionary]

Claiming to believe something,
   when the evidence of one's life shows the exact contrary.

Saying that one believes in equality,
   and yet one's own actions contributes to deep-seated "norms" of inequality.

Saying that one believes in grace,
   and yet one's own actions towards others betrays the exact opposite.

Making a verbal commitment to something,
   and yet one's own actions show that they never really committed at all.

Hypocrisy: in the inability of those who are white to accept emancipation and equality.
Hypocrisy: in the plight of the holy black men and women who struggled to see themselves
   as having innate self worth at the hands of a white culture that thrived on racial domination.

And, in addition to the covert critique of a domineering culture,
   I think Dunbar hits at the exact thing that Jesus is getting at in today's Gospel passage:
      the scathing critique of hypocrisy.

II. 

Jesus does not hold back in today's Gospel in speaking the word of Truth
   into the midst of a couple of situations that arise on the back of hypocrisy.

And Jesus takes aim first and foremost at the ones who should actually be living out
   the life that God has set forth as good and holy in the Scriptures:
      the Scribes.
         And small hint: when you see the word "Scribe" or "Pharisee show up in the New Testament,
            you don't need to have an archaic and inaccurate view of 1st Century Judaism
               pop up into your head.

Rather, the picture that Jesus is painting is much easier to find,
   especially in the Episcopal Church.
      Because I'll give you a couple of guesses as to who wears the long robes
         and takes a pretty decent seat in the "Synagogue", or the Assembly - The Church.
            [gesture at self] Its people like me.

I'm not immune,
   nor should I ever be above scrutiny,
      as my vocation is to actually live out the Gospel truth,
         to live out the love of Jesus and the hope for salvation given freely!

And people who serve as pastors, as priests, as shepherds in the name of Jesus
   are indeed held to a higher standard, and should be! [James 3:1]
      And as someone who, as your priest, is charged with representing Christ to you
         and representing you to God,
            it is of the uttermost importance that I beware of the hypocrisy
               that clings so closely to all of us in various ways.

But Jesus also takes aim, more subtly, at another group suffering from hypocrisy.
   And Jesus uses the example of true generosity
     to expose the hypocrisy of those who have the mask of charity.

And it has to do with where true wealth comes from,
   and who in the second part of the Gospel was the true giver
      and who was simply wearing a mask.

And you have probably noticed this as well:
   just as Jesus says that the poor widow had given much more than those who are rich,
      so also, Jesus subtly critiques those who are rich in their outward show of generosity
         that, in very real, physical ways does not match what their actual generosity
            should look like.

The widow might have literally given all she had for the good of God's temple
   and the spread of the knowledge of God's love given to all nations
      through the Chosen People of Israel.

While those who are rich, while they may have given a great show
   by dropping LOTS of coin into the treasury,
      who by their outward show of generosity may have given WAY more to the treasury
         than the poor widow,
           YET they in no means gave as much of themselves as the widow did.

They gave out of their abundance.
   The widow gave out of her own being,
      putting her own self into God's hands,
        choosing by faith to ask God for her daily needs
           without relying on her own strength or means.

III.

And these two critiques,
   critiques of the religious and the rich
      should perhaps hit home especially for us sitting here today
         in one of the richest and most powerful countries
           in the world.

And this critique should sting us.
   As people of means, including myself in this situation,
      do we give out of our excess
         or do we give out of our actual belief that all we own is God's to begin with?

If we are being honest and truthful,
   which we should be,
      then we need to be able to admit to each other that we are hypocrites in recovery.

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
   and yet we also have come to the feet of Jesus to ask that our masks be removed
     by the loving God who made us and who gives us strength to live into what we say we believe.

For those called to ministry as shepherds and teachers,
   fight the desire for the best seats in the house,
      the temptation of viewing ourselves more highly than we aught,
         and instead ask God to cloth us with humility and compassion,
            and to humbly ask that we may bear our cross, our death, for the sake of those we serve.

For us here who are rich,
   fight the complacency that comes with the perception of self-sufficiency
      based on our wealth, status, gender, or previous triumphs in life.
         And instead devote ourselves to giving of our full selves,
           our whole soul and body,
              giving our full tithes to God, the 10% of our first-fruits,
                and opening our hands to the poor, giving even until it hurts
                  demonstrating that our faith is in God,
                     and not in the wealth or stuff that we have accumulated.

As Paul Laurence Dunbar, speaker of truth into the hypocrisy of racism,
   covertly critiqued the evils of his day,
      so also we must heed his words not as a quaint bit of history
         but as a challenge we must continually strive to overcome in our culture of violence
            and injustice toward those who we are tempted to believe are "inferior" to us,
               whoever they may be.

And the exposure and fight against this hypocrisy is not simply to incite unrest or loss of peace.
   But rather so that pure justice and love culminate in the PERFECTION of peace and love.
     For just as perfect love casts out fear,
       so also may we pray and strive for perfect humility to cast out our hypocrisy and pride.

Pointing out hypocrisy and injustice is not about making people feel badly,
   although it will involve pain and recognition of our culpability.
      Rather, the exposure of hypocrisy is all about healing our hurt
        repairing the breach in our relationships with each other
          and ultimately repenting and returning to the Lord our God.

Take off the mask and pretense of holiness
   and ask God to clothe you with the courage and humility to walk with Jesus
     in a quiet and holy manner.

Take off the mask of pretend charity
   and instead pray for God to set your heart ablaze with compassion for the needy
      such that you take courage to give of your very self, even until it hurts.

And in taking off of our masks of hypocrisy and pretense,
   perhaps we may discover that we are freed from the oppression of our need for ultimate control,
      and we may find that freedom found only in our loving, liberating, and lifegiving God.

In the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.