Don't Be a Poser
08/08/2008 10:47 Filed in: Faith & Reason
WARNING: my apologies if perhaps I’m overly snarky in the post below. Such cynicism wasn’t necessarily my intent, but I may have expressed myself that way. I could take the post down, but I think I’ll let it stand. Feel free to rebuke me in the comments.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 6:1, ESV)
I take the above command from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount very seriously. There’s a balance, right? --between absolutely hiding one’s faith and on the other hand simply making a show of it.
For the last three years, my friend JT and I have met each other for breakfast and conversation on Thursday mornings. JT’s a sharp guy who as a chemical engineer (he can correct that designation if it’s wrong) rose to an executive status in a national corporation. JT is exactly the kind of guy I want to think is represented all around our nation’s workforce. He’s a Christian who takes his faith seriously, who sees the world from a biblical perspective and makes decisions from an ethical point of view. JT is well-read in literature, loves history and philosophy and has a desire to go beyond Sunday School-level faith.
As I mentioned, JT and I have been meeting almost every week for at least the last three years. Sometimes we merely have conversation. Sometimes we study the Scriptures. We’ve read a few books together and discussed them over breakfast. The first book we ever read together set the stage for our breakfasts, Love Your God with All Your Mind by J. P. Moreland and Dallas Willard. In fact, the review of this book here on This Lamp was written by JT. Although I consider myself more of a “biblical studies” kind of guy, JT wanted to have a better grasp on doctrine, so we spent well over a year reading through a systematic theology. We read through Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship together. You get the idea.
When we meet, we have our discussions, but we’re not showy about it. We may have our Bibles out, but we don’t go into long and loud prayer sessions like I see some Christians do when they meet in public. We often trade prayer concerns, but we realize that our meeting is not the only opportunity we will have that week to pray.
A while back when the first edition of the NET Bible was released, I gave JT my “2nd Beta edition” which he has now adopted as his primary Bible. Like most of us, he loves the detail of the notes. Yesterday when we met, he had his copy of the NET Bible on the table. My copy of the TNIV Reference Bible and my Greek NT were still in my book bag. We briefly discussed the content of a recent Sunday School lesson. JT and I don’t go to the same church, but our churches use the same curriculum, so we often compare notes from our studies.
As we were talking yesterday at a cafe in Louisville, a fellow--probably in his late twenties or early thirties--sat down at the table next to ours facing us, or really just facing me. Now, I have this Jason Bourne-spy-style habit of watching others in the room out of my peripheral vision. I can’t help it, but if anyone every whips out a submachine gun, I’ll be the first one ducking.
I could tell immediately that the guy at the next table was a poser. He sat with his back to the entrance (proving he wasn’t a super spy like me and Jason Bourne because we’d never sit with our backs to the door), mainly--I believe--so that he could face us, obviously having seen JT’s NET Bible on the table. He pulled from his book bag a Dell laptop, headphones, and an ESV Bible. How do I know it was an ESV Bible? Well, it was one of the hardback editions with the black and white cover that have “ESV” in large letters on the front. He attempted to subtly push the Bible across the table toward us so that from my perspective, I could see the letters facing us and know he had a Bible just as we did.
JT had his back to the guy, so only I was seeing all this. But the poser didn’t know I was paying attention because you’ll remember that I’m watching him only out of my super-spy peripheral vision. He sat there for a couple of minutes, and then I guess he couldn’t stand it anymore that we hadn’t noticed him. He spoke up, “So, are you guys seminary students?”
Now, this is a pet peeve of mine. As a Christian, it really bothers me that there’s this cultural perception that someone cannot be studying the Bible outside the walls of the church unless he or she is being forced to (I’ve written about this before, but I don’t feel up to searching through 700 posts to find the link). Whatever happened to Christians being known as “people of the book”? Yes, technically I’m a seminary student because I’ve gone back to school to finish my last degree. But there’s more to my life than that. I don’t identify myself as a student anymore. Plus JT isn’t a seminary student. But you know, I’ve had the same question asked of me before when I wasn’t in school at all simply because I might be out in public and had a Bible on the table.
I know I started this post off by saying we shouldn’t practice our righteousness for the sake of getting noticed by others. But I also said there needed to be balance. When it comes down to it, this is a poor reflection on the church. We’ve gone from not practicing our righteousness to get noticed to simply cloistering ourselves up in the safety of the church where it’s “normal” to study the Bible together.
So anyway, to show off his presumed superiority, the fellow at the next table confidently said, “Yes, I graduated from the seminary four years ago.” Now there was a big part of me that wanted to say, “Yeah, buddy, and I got that same degree you’re so proud of way back in 1994, so there!” --but I refrained. Instead I merely smiled, not wishing to add to the conversation. But our friend was determined to size us up. He asked what church we went to. In this town assumptions about one’s ethics and theology are often determined by the church attended. However, JT and I both live outside Louisville in two separate towns, so this fellow could only be left to his own speculations.
JT and I conversed for another thirty minutes before it was time for us to leave. During that time, seeing that we weren’t going to pick his brain for wisdom about post-seminary life, the fellow at the other table had put on his head phones and given his attention to his Dell laptop. His Bible had never moved from the conspicuous spot where it had first been laid.
But as JT and I were gathering our things, preparing to leave, I spotted this other fellow slowly moving his Bible from the other edge of the table to the spot directly between him and his laptop. He casually opened it somewhere in the middle. Just so happened he had been studying 2 Chronicles, perhaps? Obviously, since we had not been paying attention to him for the last half hour, it was important to him that it appeared as if had been deep in the study of the Scriptures this whole time. I mean, isn’t that what seminary graduates four years out are supposed to do? No one is making him do it anymore, are they?
Now, you may think that I’m being harsh--that perhaps I’m not following the other parts of the Sermon on the Mount, especially those words from Matt 7:1-2.
So, as we passed him, he looked up from his Bible, headphones still on, Dell laptop still open and he smiled at us in acknowledgement. I nodded, but instead of turning right to head to the door, I said to JT, “I’m going to refill my drink,” and I went left. Coming back, unbeknownst to the guy at the table because he’s not Jason Bourne and he now had his back to me, I walked directly behind him and had a full view of his laptop screen.
YouTube. He was watching YouTube videos, hence the earphones.
See, I told you he was a poser.
Look, in that same Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus told us not to practice our righteousness before others so as to be noticed by them, he also said to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt 5:16, TNIV). Is this a contradiction? Not at all.
Practicing our righteousness in a way that glorifies God goes way beyond having a Bible on the table in public. It’s more than giving thanks before a meal in public and then trying to subtly look around to see who saw you do it (I’ve seen that one a lot). Practicing one’s righteousness is found in how we speak to others, how we view others as not less than ourselves, how we treat others, how we respond when we’ve been wronged, how we... well, read the Sermon on the Mount for yourself.
And don’t be a poser!
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 6:1, ESV)
I take the above command from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount very seriously. There’s a balance, right? --between absolutely hiding one’s faith and on the other hand simply making a show of it.
For the last three years, my friend JT and I have met each other for breakfast and conversation on Thursday mornings. JT’s a sharp guy who as a chemical engineer (he can correct that designation if it’s wrong) rose to an executive status in a national corporation. JT is exactly the kind of guy I want to think is represented all around our nation’s workforce. He’s a Christian who takes his faith seriously, who sees the world from a biblical perspective and makes decisions from an ethical point of view. JT is well-read in literature, loves history and philosophy and has a desire to go beyond Sunday School-level faith.
As I mentioned, JT and I have been meeting almost every week for at least the last three years. Sometimes we merely have conversation. Sometimes we study the Scriptures. We’ve read a few books together and discussed them over breakfast. The first book we ever read together set the stage for our breakfasts, Love Your God with All Your Mind by J. P. Moreland and Dallas Willard. In fact, the review of this book here on This Lamp was written by JT. Although I consider myself more of a “biblical studies” kind of guy, JT wanted to have a better grasp on doctrine, so we spent well over a year reading through a systematic theology. We read through Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship together. You get the idea.
When we meet, we have our discussions, but we’re not showy about it. We may have our Bibles out, but we don’t go into long and loud prayer sessions like I see some Christians do when they meet in public. We often trade prayer concerns, but we realize that our meeting is not the only opportunity we will have that week to pray.
A while back when the first edition of the NET Bible was released, I gave JT my “2nd Beta edition” which he has now adopted as his primary Bible. Like most of us, he loves the detail of the notes. Yesterday when we met, he had his copy of the NET Bible on the table. My copy of the TNIV Reference Bible and my Greek NT were still in my book bag. We briefly discussed the content of a recent Sunday School lesson. JT and I don’t go to the same church, but our churches use the same curriculum, so we often compare notes from our studies.
As we were talking yesterday at a cafe in Louisville, a fellow--probably in his late twenties or early thirties--sat down at the table next to ours facing us, or really just facing me. Now, I have this Jason Bourne-spy-style habit of watching others in the room out of my peripheral vision. I can’t help it, but if anyone every whips out a submachine gun, I’ll be the first one ducking.
I could tell immediately that the guy at the next table was a poser. He sat with his back to the entrance (proving he wasn’t a super spy like me and Jason Bourne because we’d never sit with our backs to the door), mainly--I believe--so that he could face us, obviously having seen JT’s NET Bible on the table. He pulled from his book bag a Dell laptop, headphones, and an ESV Bible. How do I know it was an ESV Bible? Well, it was one of the hardback editions with the black and white cover that have “ESV” in large letters on the front. He attempted to subtly push the Bible across the table toward us so that from my perspective, I could see the letters facing us and know he had a Bible just as we did.
Now, this is a pet peeve of mine. As a Christian, it really bothers me that there’s this cultural perception that someone cannot be studying the Bible outside the walls of the church unless he or she is being forced to (I’ve written about this before, but I don’t feel up to searching through 700 posts to find the link). Whatever happened to Christians being known as “people of the book”? Yes, technically I’m a seminary student because I’ve gone back to school to finish my last degree. But there’s more to my life than that. I don’t identify myself as a student anymore. Plus JT isn’t a seminary student. But you know, I’ve had the same question asked of me before when I wasn’t in school at all simply because I might be out in public and had a Bible on the table.
I know I started this post off by saying we shouldn’t practice our righteousness for the sake of getting noticed by others. But I also said there needed to be balance. When it comes down to it, this is a poor reflection on the church. We’ve gone from not practicing our righteousness to get noticed to simply cloistering ourselves up in the safety of the church where it’s “normal” to study the Bible together.
So anyway, to show off his presumed superiority, the fellow at the next table confidently said, “Yes, I graduated from the seminary four years ago.” Now there was a big part of me that wanted to say, “Yeah, buddy, and I got that same degree you’re so proud of way back in 1994, so there!” --but I refrained. Instead I merely smiled, not wishing to add to the conversation. But our friend was determined to size us up. He asked what church we went to. In this town assumptions about one’s ethics and theology are often determined by the church attended. However, JT and I both live outside Louisville in two separate towns, so this fellow could only be left to his own speculations.
JT and I conversed for another thirty minutes before it was time for us to leave. During that time, seeing that we weren’t going to pick his brain for wisdom about post-seminary life, the fellow at the other table had put on his head phones and given his attention to his Dell laptop. His Bible had never moved from the conspicuous spot where it had first been laid.
But as JT and I were gathering our things, preparing to leave, I spotted this other fellow slowly moving his Bible from the other edge of the table to the spot directly between him and his laptop. He casually opened it somewhere in the middle. Just so happened he had been studying 2 Chronicles, perhaps? Obviously, since we had not been paying attention to him for the last half hour, it was important to him that it appeared as if had been deep in the study of the Scriptures this whole time. I mean, isn’t that what seminary graduates four years out are supposed to do? No one is making him do it anymore, are they?
Now, you may think that I’m being harsh--that perhaps I’m not following the other parts of the Sermon on the Mount, especially those words from Matt 7:1-2.
So, as we passed him, he looked up from his Bible, headphones still on, Dell laptop still open and he smiled at us in acknowledgement. I nodded, but instead of turning right to head to the door, I said to JT, “I’m going to refill my drink,” and I went left. Coming back, unbeknownst to the guy at the table because he’s not Jason Bourne and he now had his back to me, I walked directly behind him and had a full view of his laptop screen.
YouTube. He was watching YouTube videos, hence the earphones.
See, I told you he was a poser.
Look, in that same Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus told us not to practice our righteousness before others so as to be noticed by them, he also said to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt 5:16, TNIV). Is this a contradiction? Not at all.
Practicing our righteousness in a way that glorifies God goes way beyond having a Bible on the table in public. It’s more than giving thanks before a meal in public and then trying to subtly look around to see who saw you do it (I’ve seen that one a lot). Practicing one’s righteousness is found in how we speak to others, how we view others as not less than ourselves, how we treat others, how we respond when we’ve been wronged, how we... well, read the Sermon on the Mount for yourself.
And don’t be a poser!