November 16, 2006
Fakery
Pent 24/28B Mk 13.14-23
During the Great Depression in the turn of the 1920s into the 1930s, it was not uncommon for people, mostly men, sometimes a whole family, to come to the back door of our house looking for work and as often for food. My mom would never turn a single one away. She would welcome them in, feed them, sometimes clothe them and let them bathe. Once when I asked her why, she said simply that she took Jesus seriously when he said that helping one of these little ones or visiting prisoners or healing the sick was doing the same for him. She never knew when he might be standing there outside the back door. There was no if about it for her.
When our Baptismal Covenant reminds us that seeking and serving Christ in all persons, not only the poor at the back door, but the insurgents in Iraq and the illegal immigrants at the border, as well, I often recall those times about my mom’s ministry. But then along comes Jesus warning us to “take heed,” that there are false Christs and prophets out there who’ll lead us down the yellow brick road without a moment’s notice. Even the Good Samaritan, he implies, might have been in jeopardy for being a bit overly zealous.
False Christs. An oxymoron of some dimension, I’d say. Perhaps a disguise that even Satan itself could not trump. An evil personified that could easily sandblast our usual naiveté and even our informed faith.
So, blessed Lord Jesus, I pray, how does one know a false Christ, let alone a false prophet, when one sees one? Or perhaps more practically, since there are not nearly so many folk claiming to be you as there are those of us who wear our Christianity on our sleeves apparently without a lot of sincerity, what are the signs and wonders you say these impostors will show? How can we recognize them? What gives with such evil that I might even suspect it, let alone recognize it in life’s lineup, when it shows up as You, of all people?
“Well, my son,” Jesus might (repeat might plus unlikely) say, “do you remember Scott Peck, the psychiatrist who had some rare moments with fakery and evil and even with exorcisms? He wrote a book about evil and lying and he was right about how inseparable they are. He was a professed Christian, perhaps with a few reservations, but I’d say he knew something about anybody who would masquerade as me. Indeed, since he joined us only recently, I suspect he knows a lot more now.”
I’m never sure just how Jesus talks to anybody, let alone me, if ever. But just suddenly remembering Peck’s criteria for recognizing evil at a moment like this might mean something, but we don’t have to go there.
But it was in his book, “The People of the Lie.” So I looked, realizing that we’re not liable to run into many who’d be so bold as to claim to be Christ. But that we do have a daily fare — particularly in the media and the government and their minions and even the church — of those who make quite a bit of being Christian and then not acting much like it when the chips are down. What then might be a way of attending to our Lord’s warning and spotting the fakes?
Scott Peck says that evil, in addition to avoiding responsibility, a behavior that characterizes all personality disorders, would specifically be distinguished by consistent and destructive and often subtle buck-passing to others who are probably largely innocent and wonder what hit them.
He said there would be an excessive and usually underhanded intolerance to criticism and other forms of injury to their ego. And then, we might, as well, look for a pronounced concern for a public image and a self-image of respectability, contributing to an apparently stable life-style, but also to a showy grandiosity and a denial of hateful feelings or vengeful motives. Peck then suggests that there would generally if not always be signs of intellectual deviousness, with an increased likelihood of a mild, but noticeably emotional disturbance of thinking at times of stress. (People of the Lie, p 129)
Well, that ought to be enough to keep us wide-eyed. On the other hand, I suspect Jesus would not want us all to be paranoid, either. But he did say a lot about watching out for the sudden arrival of something called “the hour.” And there’s always the possibility of their being good reason for paranoia. We’ll just have to take responsibility for that, ourselves, I suspect. Or maybe bring it up with our neighbor when passing the peace instead of the buck.