Holy, Holy, Holy…Me Holy? – 02/20/2011

Sermon text: Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18

Max Beerbohm wrote a story which he entitled, “The Happy Hypocrite.” It is a story of a man whose face personified evil. He was faced with a dilemma. The woman he loved refused to marry him because he didn’t look saintly. To solve the problem he had a “kind” mask commissioned by a local artist, put it on … never to take it off. Well, the young woman decided to marry him now … despite the face beneath the mask. For many years they lived happily and her husband proved to be an attentive, kind, unselfish man. However, one day in a moment of rage … an enemy abruptly tore off her husband’s mask right before his wife’s eyes. Instead of a cruel, grotesque face, the man had become what he had lived for so many years … kindness, not evil, radiated from his face. … Read full sermon here (PDF).