SHOW!

The other weekend I was in Chicago to attend a conference, held at the Chicago O’Hare Hilton. In other words, for one long busy weekend, I flew in to Chicago, stayed at a hotel located right in O’Hare airport, and flew out a couple of days later. Never once breathed the salubrious air of Chicago. Never once took in the sights of that famous city. From airport to walkway to hotel. And the route in reverse the day I was to return. Strange trip!

Anyway, right outside my hotel room was this huge concrete edifice, formerly an Air-Traffic Control tower. The ATC moved to better digs half a mile away 10 years ago, leaving the old tower in the hands of City of Chicago; they use it now to manage city vehicles engaged in ground operations.

No longer was this structure the glamorous center of activity for O’Hare Air-Traffic Control. No longer the authority that decides flight and landing patterns of aircraft in the world’s busiest airport. Usurped. Overtaken. Downgraded.

But it looks fancy. Especially at night. All those neon pink lights throwing their ebullient incandescence on its wall. Pretty!

Dressed up to make up for disuse, I thought.

Jesus had some choice words for people like that in an extended section in Matthew 23 where He pronouced a series of woes on the Pharisees.

Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup
and of the dish, but inside they are
full of robbery and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee, first clean
the inside of the cup and of the dish,
so that the outside of it
may become clean also.
Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs
which on the outside appear beautiful,
but inside they are full of
dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
So you, too, outwardly
appear righteous to men,
but inwardly you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:25–28

An easy danger to fall into for anyone. The danger of a cultural Christianity, form without function, concocted externals without consistent internals. A false honoring of God, a dressing up on the outside, merely an attempt to glorify oneself, not God.

Beware of practicing your righteousness
before men to be noticed by them;
otherwise you have no reward
with your Father who is in heaven.
When you pray, you are not to be
like the hypocrites;
for they love to stand and pray in the
synagogues and on the street corners
so that they may be seen by men.
Truly I say to you, they have
their reward in full.
Whenever you fast, do not put on
a gloomy face as the hypocrites do,
for they neglect their appearance
so that they will be noticed by men
when they are fasting.
Truly I say to you,
they have their reward in full.
Matthew 6:1, 5, 16

While there is something to be said for letting our faith show on the outside and allowing Christ to shine out in our lives, there is also significant value to the spiritual discipline of secrecy. Approval comes from God alone; security comes not from the applause of mankind—a good reminder that we serve an audience of One.

… from the Lord you will receive
the reward of the inheritance.
t is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
Colossians 3:24

Serving and pleasing God.

Therefore we also have
as our ambition,
whether at home or absent,
to be pleasing to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9

May we consumed by the ambition to please God and God alone.