Brief synopsis of the readings: In our first reading from the apocryphal book of Sirach we read about how one’s faults are exposed when we speak. “Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.” Luke’s Gospel describes a scene where Jesus is teaching. He condemns hypocrisy, when we find a splinter in someone else’s eye but ignore the plank in ours. Further he talks about how a rotten tree produces only rotten fruit. “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”

So here’s an odd thing about splinters: most of the time we notice our own and ask someone else if they see it. And candidly I’ve never seen anyone sporting a plank in his eye. Maybe this imagine is more about sight than it is about what prevents us from seeing. Even a cursory read of the New Testament will show that Jesus often uses sight and blindness to show awareness of what’s around us. And we do that today also. Local news is often called “Eyewitness News” and few things mean more in court than an eyewitness. Many of us dread nothing about ageing more than the idea of losing our sight.

And in fairness it’s what we see that oftentimes informs us about other people and their actions and few things rankle us more than hypocrites. If we insist that someone act a certain way and then violate it ourselves, well that’s probably the fastest way to lose credibility. Talk to the parent of a child who is learning to drive and they will tell you about going a few miles over the speed limit or not coming to a complete stop. It’s hard to teach safe, responsible driving if we cut corners ourselves.

Recognizing that our actions have an effect on others can be a burden at times but it speaks to the honesty we should demand of each other. In the summer of 2017 the state of New Jersey was in the middle of a budget standoff and the governor closed all the state beaches. But the governor had a residence adjacent to one of these beaches and was photographed with his family sunning themselves there. When asked about the hypocrisy he suggested that anyone who wanted to the use the beach was free to run for governor and have access. It should come as no surprise that his popularity among state residents hovered around 15%.

Others, particularly sports figures, have sometimes insisted that they do their job and have no interest in being role models. Sorry, that’s just not how it works. Part of making millions of dollars means people emulate them. They may mimic your jump shot or slugging percentage but they will inevitably mimic your treatment of women. And why they may not be legally responsible for what they do, they do hold some moral responsibility.

Jesus spoke about this because he found himself surrounded by hypocrites. Unfortunately many of them were the religious, social and political leaders. They used their intelligence and social standing as a way of portraying themselves as the moral and ethical leaders. It wasn’t even a matter of “do as I say, not as I do,” it was worse than that. It was “because of who I am I can do as I please and hold you to a different standard.”

Now I’m going to walk a fine line as I want to make this relevant to our experience today without appearing to choose sides in a fraught political reality. But any politician who demands absolute power on a promise to keep us safe has no interest in keeping anyone safe. This is a politician who wishes only power for himself and nothing else. Other people may be useful but they are never valuable.

Does this matter? Yes, it does. These hypocrites train the next generation and their behavior becomes not only acceptable but a necessary part of attaining power. The very heart of Jesus’ message is the belief that we are all valuable and seeing others as only useful means we justify using them. We use Christianity poorly when others are nothing more than steps on our journey and we live Christianity well when we see everyone as valuable.

We don’t need to be a politician to avoid hypocrisy, we find ourselves as role models all the time. All parents, all teachers, and all clergy live lives that affect others. Survivors of clergy sexual abuse suffer not only from the abuse but also from the betrayal. I speak from experience when I say that the identification as clergy brings with it a high level of trust.

As a matter of fact these readings should particularly apply to clergy and other religious leaders. Holding these positions does not automatically make someone a better or more integrated person but it should be foremost on his mind. Many years ago I met with a group of colleague hospice chaplains for lunch. One of the chaplains seriously wanted to go to a restaurant where the female servers wore suggestive clothing and the restaurant marketed itself not for the food but for how the servers looked. It wasn’t easy but the rest of us convinced him it would not be good for anyone to see us there or see us leaving the restaurant. We weren’t necessarily tell anyone that it was a sin to eat there but appearances matter.

I do have to say that there are gray areas here and that presents other challenges and there are times when things are uneven, particularly with children. If it’s a rule that there are no sweets before dinner, and grandpa’s blood sugar is crashing, he still needs that piece of candy. But that’s only with children and learning about gray areas is part of growing up.

We live our best lives as disciples of Jesus when we see ourselves and each other clearly with no splinter or plank in the way. In the end it depends on how we see each other.