My new shiny rubbish bins are now sitting proudly on the footpath. The council replaced them all across our suburb last week. A new red one for household waste. A new yellow one for recycling. A new green one for prunings and grass-clippings. All glossy and gleaming, with lids in vibrant colour, wheels in perfect order, sides without dents or scratches, and all sitting beautifully, rain-washed and shimmering in the sunlight. Funny though – that’s just the outside. Inside, they’re full of rubbish.

Jesus warned about how any of us can look like that. In a blistering exposé of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day, he called them white-washed tombs. Beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, full of rottenness and dead-man’s bones. It’s a chilling picture, and solemn too, for the double-life can be repeated today, and especially for those who live in religious communities.

Unfortunately, it’s a relatively easy thing to do. On the outside, to look like you’ve got it together, but on the inside, to be full of inconsistencies, contradictions, and opposites. And who would know, but those closest to us; yet even then, things can remain hidden. Except from him who sees it all and who longs for truth and wholeness. No one tries to look rubbish on the outside, except if you’re an actor in a Charles Dicken’s drama. But being clean on the inside, namely the pursuit of holiness, really matters to him who is the Audience of one.