Esse Quam Videri

T

he year, 1973. The place, South Elementary School.  The teacher, Mrs. Sarah Beam. The mission, create a notebook containing information on the fifty US states.  Opportunity to reject the mission, non-existent!  And so my adventure in the fourth grade began.  Every kid in my class was offered the same deal, do a notebook or else.  To my knowledge, no one ever explored the “or else” option.  Mrs. Beam assigned the project at the beginning of the school year and gave us deadlines for the different sections.  The rest was up to us. Oh yeah, and our parents!

My mom and dad were very instrumental in this project.  Mom and dad made the cover for the notebook using wood, hinges, and brackets. It really was quite pretty with its red, white, and blue paint, the decals of the U.S. Constitution, and the added touch of a small feather indicating the document had just been signed.  The cover, however, was nothing without the information to go inside and this is where mom and I spent hour upon hour writing the reports on the various states.

For each state, we would make a fact sheet.  This sheet contained basic information concerning population, location, major products, the capital, the year it entered the union, its nickname, and the state’s motto.  Mom would read the information from the encyclopedia and I would write what she dictated.  We did this for each state. Some states had long entries and some were less involved but it was a great learning experience, even though I thought differently at the time.  I wanted to watch Gilligan’s Island, not talk about the soybean products of Midwestern states!

Finally, we came to my home state, North Carolina.  I wrote the now familiar information on the pages.  Raleigh was our capital, our population was a few million people, we produced tobacco, furniture, etc. and our motto was “Esse Quam Videri” Latin for to be, rather than to seem.  At the time, I didn’t think much about our state’s motto.  I simply wanted to finish the entry and watch Gilligan’s Island.  I was so glad the motto was short and to the point.  I really wanted to be in front of the television rather than seem interested in my project. 

Jesus touches on the message of being rather than seeming in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew’s gospel.  In this chapter, Jesus addresses the Pharisees and warns his listeners against duplicating their religious lifestyle and piety.  In Matthew 23:2-3 our Lord says, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”  Notice the charge against the Pharisees.  They do not practice what they preach. In other words, they seem to be one thing but in fact are something else.  This is what we call being a hypocrite and that is just how Jesus addresses them in the remaining verses of the chapter.

How does this apply to us today?  It applies directly!  One of the consistent criticisms against Christians is that we claim to be followers of Jesus but live like everyone else.  We are willing to tell others what they should do or more likely what they should not do yet we do not practice what we preach.  Jesus accused the Pharisees of working very hard to gain one single convert and then living a life completely opposite to their profession of faith.  He accused them of wanting to bask in the limelight and to receive recognition for their religious service and devotion and he accused them of worshiping the Temple more than the one who lived therein.

 

Lest we be too hard on the Pharisees, we need to take a good look at ourselves today.  Everywhere we are erecting huge buildings with tall steeples, air conditioned auditoriums, and state-of-the-art systems.  We can tell someone the square footage and the price of the building as if they were indicators of the church’s effectiveness.

On a more personal note, we attend church each time the doors are open, we serve on all the committees, and we raise money and collect items for different projects in which the church is involved.  We pat ourselves on the back and enjoy the recognition of our peers for the service we have rendered.  But do these activities make us effective Christians?  That is the question, isn’t it?  That’s where the rubber meets the road, doesn’t it?  Jesus has called us not to “seem” Christ-like but to “be” Christ-like and there is a world of difference in these two small words.  In fact, they are completely opposite!

Today, it is my prayer for us all that we are being Christian instead of seeming Christian.  Jesus had one word for the Pharisees because they did not practice what they preached. That word was hypocrite and he had no tolerance for hypocrisy.  Where are we today?  Are we being or seeming? Esse Quam Videri!