A Sermon preached on Sept. 1, 2019, Pentecost
12 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Sirach 10: 12 – 18,
Hebrews 13: 1 – 8, 15, 16, Luke 14: 1, 7 – 14
Are the seven deadly sins all bad? Let me remind you what they are –
because of course none of you have any practical experience – they are pride,
greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Can any of them be good? Well, there
is for example such a thing as righteous anger – as demonstrated by Jesus when
he cleared the Temple. And a hunger for justice is also a good thing. In fact,
in most cases the sin or vice is something good or at least neutral gone bad or
taken to extremes. Desire becomes lust, curiosity and interest become envy,
enjoyment becomes gluttony, anger wrath, and resting sloth. The exception is
pride. Pride can – according to the dictionary definition – have a positive
connotation, when it refers to “a humble and contented sense of attachment
toward one's own or another's choices and actions, or toward a whole group of
people, and is a product of praise, independent self-reflection, and a
fulfilled feeling of belonging.” Pride month for the LGBT community would be a positive
example, a parent’s pride in their children’s achievements another.
And yet for the Bible, and for
Jesus, pride is something very negative. Jesus is actually much more likely to
condemn pride than any sexual sins. In this morning’s Gospel for example, he
says “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble
themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14:14) We find a similar sentiment in
Matthew’s Gospel: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who
exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
exalted.” (Matthew 23:11-12) As well as in Mark: “Beware of the scribes, who
like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the
market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor
at banquets! … They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Mark 12:38-40). Not
surprisingly, the writers of the New Testament epistles echo these harsh
warnings against pride: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
(James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5) As do early Christian theologians, for example St.
Augustine called pride "the love of one's own excellence."
So, what is wrong with pride? The problem with pride – excessive pride –
is that it makes us blind to our needs and to others, it separates and excludes,
it is self-focused. If we believe that we are completely autonomous and self-reliant
– both as people and more recently again as nations – then we are claiming to need
no help and to be dependent on ourselves alone. That is a sin, so it is no wonder
that Jesus condemns it.
The last part of our program at this year’s Night of the Churches is
called “Better Together,” and we will use this to celebrate the very opposite of
this sort of pride, focusing on what connects rather than divides our nations,
and introducing several people who have been involved in active acts and/or
projects of connection and reconciliation, often as a result of their faith.
Excessive pride simply leaves no room for God. As we heard in our first
reading: “The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord; the heart has
withdrawn from its Maker.” (Sirach 10:12) Why should I turn to God and to God’s
Son if I believe that I am perfect? Anglican
Theologian Tom Wright says that “pride is like a great cloud that blots out the
sum of God’s generosity. If I reckon I deserve to be favored by God, not
only do I declare that I don’t need his grace, mercy and love, but I imply that
those who don’t deserve it should not have it.”[1]
And C.S. Lewis (in Mere Christianity) wrote: “A proud man is always looking
down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you
cannot see something that is above you.” He went on to ask how can “people who
are quite obviously eaten up with pride say they believe in God and appear to
themselves very religious?” His explanation was that they worship an imaginary
God, while “they theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence
of this phantom God, (they) are really all the time imagining how He approves
of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people.”
This is exactly the sort of behavior that Jesus is criticizing in this passage.
The pharisee and many of his guests clearly think that God only approves of
them and thinks them far better than other people, especially those that Jesus usually
consorted with, and also those who did not belong to the chosen people. But I
think Jesus also has a warning here for the disciples, and for us as their
successors. They too were occasionally prone to the sin of pride, to assuming
that as Jesus’s first followers they would have a privileged place in the kingdom,
perhaps seated on Jesus right and left hand. But there are no first places in the
kingdom. Think of the parable of the workers in the vineyard. They all got paid
the same, regardless of when they began working. Salvation is God’s choice, not
ours.
That’s the other issue with pride. In its excessive form, often
associated with arrogance, it sets us up above other people. Of course, we have
people who sing better than others, most of you here sing better than I do. We
have people who are better musicians, painters, doctors, engineers, carpenters ….
But that does not make them better persons. Every person is made in God’s
image, every person is loved by God. And so, Jesus tells us to invite those who
would normally be last – or just not even considered – to the banquet and to
give them pride of place: “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and
the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will
be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 4:14) The author of Hebrews puts it much
more simply: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that
some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (13:1)
In rather more drastic language, Sirach warns that God can easily turn
established orders upside down: “The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers and
enthrones the lowly in their place. The Lord plucks up the roots of the
nations, and plants the humble in their place.” (Sirach 10:14-15) if you hear
an echo of the Magnificat in there, you are not mistaken: “He has scattered the
proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from
their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53) The only preference God knows is
for those in need. If God reaches out to all, then those who seek to honor and
imitate God through God’s Son should reach out also. Not only must we be
willing to acknowledge our weaknesses and our need for help, but also our
willingness and ability to help and support and serve others.
“The greatest among you will be your servant,” Jesus says (Matthew 23:11)
and in opposition to pride, he praises and raises up those who are humble: “Blessed
are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) God
honors those who serve and who are humble. True humility is recognizing our need
for God, and for one another. The poor and the powerless should be welcome. For
such generous hospitality and true humility, God promises us blessing, not out
of any right, but out of the need for God’s blessing that we share with all.
Amen.
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