SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Luke 12.2

Casablanca            There is a scene in Casablanca (1942) which is particularly stirring, and patriotic. It takes place about halfway through the movie. Major Strasser of the Gestapo and his fellow officers of the Third Reich are drinking in Rick’s Café and start singing Der Fatherland. Victor Laszlo, organizer of the anti-Nazi underground, starts singing the Marseillaise. The band joins in, and the largely French crowd drowns-out the singing of the Nazis.  As the camera scans the crowd at Rick’s it focuses on the face of Yvonne. She is something of a party-girl who has recently dated Rick, and is out that night with a German officer. She is singing the loudest of anyone, in a very deep, husky alto. The conviction her voice is unmistakable – it isn’t acting. Neither are the tears that well up, making her eyes glisten in a way only black-and-white filming can capture. One single tear streams down her cheek as the anthem concludes and she cries out, “Vive la France!”

            It is a genuine moment. It isn’t acting. I’ve seen the movie more than 50 times and from the first viewing I had no doubt that tear was real. Yvonne is played by the French actress Madeleine LeBeau. She was married at the time to Marcel Dalio who plays the Croupier at Rick’s.  In real life she and her husband had narrowly escaped the Nazi occupation of Paris, travelling by freight car to Lisbon. Their escape was made more difficult by the fact that Marcel was the most recognizable actor in Europe, having starred in both “The Grand Illusion,” and “The Rules of the Game.”  From Lisbon the couple travelled to Mexico City on forged visas.  Their false documents were discovered in Mexico City, so they applied to 60 countries for political asylum. Canada took them in, and soon, friends in Hollywood found them work in American motion pictures.

            And so when she sings the French national anthem with such emotion and conviction, she isn’t acting. That single tear on her right cheek is real. She has earned it.

            Sincerity is evident.  Insincerity may be hard to detect, at least for a while, but sincerity is evident.

            One of the over-arching themes of the Sermon on the Mount is sincerity – that we are good from the inside out, or we are not good at all.  The Beatitudes are about internal qualities, not external actions.  The application of the Ten Commandments Jesus makes in Matthew 5.21-48 focuses on intention and attitudes as much as action.  The one who looks at a woman in order to lust has already committed adultery in his heart.  Giving alms, praying, and fasting must be sincere or they are worthless (6.1-17). We must be careful what we treasure, for where our treasure is our heart will be (6.21). We must be careful how we judge others lest we be found guilty of hypocrisy (7.1-5).

            Jesus will go on in Matthew 15 to say something startling to his listeners: It is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out (v.11). He explains:

Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But the things that come out of the mouth proceed from the heart, and those defile the man. (17-18)

            We would do well to remember that. If we are to be good at all it happens naturally, from the inside out, as we know more, pray more, yield more, serve more. When that happens, that which is genuine will be noticed. Sincerity will have its effect.  Otherwise we are just play-acting, and we will not be able to maintain our disguise for long. Crocodile tears are hard to hide.

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