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Redford Aldersgate
United Methodist Church
Sermon
This
summer, we are looking at the Book of Proverbs, to gain some wisdom from
all the little lights of bright thoughts that shine through this book to
illumine our lives ... just like all the little candles on our altar
brighten up our worship setting. We’ve looked at the beginning of wisdom
which is the fear of the Lord. We’ve looked at a precious promise that
if we do our best at child rearing, even if there are some tough times,
the day will come that they will appreciate our efforts. Last Sunday,
John Bruce spoke about the power of words which I hope inspired you to
choose your words more wisely this week. Today, we are looking at a
rather difficult piece of wisdom having to do with Pride. Our scripture
text is Proverbs 16:18-19. The more popular version of that is simply
what is on your bulletin cover: Pride comes before the fall. We’ve all
heard that ... we’ve all experienced that. Am I right? I think if we are
honest with ourselves, we would all have to admit that there are times
that we have been a bit over-self-confident and the results have not
been so good.
* Maybe we really thought we knew the subject in a class so we didn’t
study for a test, and we blew it.
*∙ Maybe we knew we were really good in a particular sport and so we
bragged about how great our team was, and we lost the game.
*∙ Maybe we felt really confident that we had the right power-point
screen up and when we clicked the clicker, the wrong screen came up and
we couldn’t do anything about it ... like the last time we sang “Morning
Has Broken.”
Pride can cause us problems. The verse I just read is not the only verse
about pride in Proverbs, there are several. Here are a couple more:
11:2;
18:12. Then there is the practical advice in 27:2 about not praising
yourself but letting others do it. Then there is the one that Jesus used
as a parable... 25:6-7. Remember the parable Jesus told about not
sitting at the best seats at the banquet ... how it was better to sit in
a lowly seat and be invited to come sit in a better seat than to sit in
the best seat and be told to go take a lower one. I hadn’t realize that
was a proverb, I just thought Jesus made it up. But he used the
scriptures as a background for his teaching too. So Jesus warned us
about PRIDE and so did the Apostle Paul, for example Philippians 2:2-3.
Over and over again, we are warned about pride... yet, we also know that
pride is a good thing.
It’s
good to have pride in your work. If we didn’t take pride in our work, we
would do a sloppy job. We talk about having Team Pride, Pride in our
Country, we want you to be proud of your church. Having pride in
something means that it’s a good thing and you are grateful for it. It’s
important to have a healthy sense of self-worth. Someone who has no
pride in themselves doesn’t appreciate all the gifts and talents God has
given them. That’s not a good thing. So when the scripture is talking
about pride, it’s not talking about a healthy self-worth or a healthy
opinion of something that is good.
The
pride in today’s scripture is pride that is arrogant. Some synonyms are:
Haughtiness, insolence, rebelliousness. It’s the kind of pride that
presumes to have more authority than is warranted. It is inflated
pride... a bubble that is about to burst and go all over your face. It
is pride that is exemplified in the character of Gaston in Beauty and
the Beast. He is handsome and strong. The girls all think he is the
greatest.... and he knows it. He is obsessed with himself. Every time he
passes a mirror he has to look in it to admire himself. He thinks only
of his wants and his desires. He can’t imagine that anyone would want to
do anything that wasn’t pleasing to him. I had hoped to show a clip, but
my pride in being able to rip a DVD was shattered because somehow it
came out rather choppy and the sound didn’t come through on all of it,
so here’s just a bit to show you what I mean.
... He was confident that Belle would be thrilled to marry him. So he
arranged the wedding and had things all ready so that when she agreed to
marry him, he could bring her out and get married right there, but this
is just a bit of what happened. ... Pride goeth before the fall. Gaston
is an exaggerated characterization of someone who is full of pride ...
an inflated pride that is sure to pop and make a mess.
None of us are quite as extreme as Gaston. But we do have to watch our
step with pride. Pride is a good thing until it becomes over inflated.
So we need to watch our step and make sure we aren’t getting puffed up.
It is so much easier to see the harmful type of pride in other people
than it is to see it in ourselves. I have heard it
said
that Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick but the one who
has it. When we see someone who is puffed up with pride it repels us,
just as it repelled Belle in the movie Beauty and the Beast. I think we
all have encountered people who are pretty stuck on themselves. Maybe
they are really good at something - sports, music, writing, speaking,
drama ... and they know they are good. But instead of just being good,
they have to tell you they are good. They need the proverb that suggests
they should let other people do the praising instead of themselves. But
instead of us thinking about someone we know who needs to listen to that
proverb, we each need to ask ourselves if we have bragged about
ourselves recently. That’s a bit more uncomfortable isn’t it?
Plus,
there is also the Pride that may not be as vocal, but it’s as
destructive. It’s the kind of pride that looks down upon others - others
that aren’t as good as we are. It’s very hard to do that when you are
good at something. If you can draw well, it’s hard not to look down on
someone who doesn’t draw as well as you do ... or hit a ball as well as
you ... or cook a dinner as well as you do ... or invest their money as
well as you have invested your money ... or preach a sermon as well as
you do... the list could go on and on. But when we look down on someone,
we aren’t looking up at God. Because there is a lot of truth in the
saying: "If you look down on others, then you aren’t looking up to God?"
Is there any pride in your life that is causing you to look down on
someone else?
There’s also the danger that pride will make you so stubborn that you
think your way is right and you refuse to give in. A disastrous example
of this kind of pride was shown in the summer of 1986, when two ships
collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of
passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of
the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the
cause of the accident. It wasn't a technology problem like radar
malfunction--or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each
captain was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have
steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to
give way to the other. Each was too proud to yield first. By the time
they came to their senses, it was too late. (Closer Walk, December,
1991.) Is there any area in your life where pride is causing you to be
stubborn ... so stubborn that you may be on a collision course?... If
so, maybe you need to take the bulletin home and put it up on your
refrigerator to remind you what the result of your pride might be.
This
is the time of year when we celebrate our freedom and revel in the
greatness of this country. We have a great country. We have done
marvelous things. It is a great place to live. I really wouldn’t want to
live any where else. We can be proud to be Americans. It’s good to be
proud of our country. We sang, “My country tis of thee, sweet land of
liberty, of thee I sing.” It is amazing that this experiment in
democracy has worked as well as it has. We have elections and the losers
don’t try to go out immediately and kill the winner. Our government is
definitely not perfect but there are lots of good things about it, so
that we can be justified in being proud of our country. But just as we
have to watch our step personally as we walk with pride, we must watch
our step as a country. When we brag about ourselves, when we look down
on other countries, when we stubbornly push ahead with things “OUR WAY,”
we are being too prideful and we need to put this bulletin cover on the
refrigerator of our nation. I think we, as a nation would do well to
heed Abraham Lincoln’s advice as he called for a day of prayer and
fasting in 1863, he said these words:
We
have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have
been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown
in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we
have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved
us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have
vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to
feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray
to the God that made us. (A. Lincoln, Proclamation of a day of National
Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, 1863.). Yes, we have a great country,
but we must look up to God, not down on the rest of the world. I love
our last hymn. It is a favorite of mine as well as Millie Spaw, for I
believe it helps us to see what a healthy pride in our country is all
about. Yes, we have blue skies that are wonderful, yes we have fields of
clover and holy shrines ... but other countries have blue skies and
wonderful things too. Their country is just as precious to them as ours
is to us. We need to respect that, we need to honor that, we need to
rejoice in that.
The way to watch our step with pride is to walk with humility...
humility that is concerned about the welfare of others, not threatened
by others. If we are puffed up with pride and someone else does
something well, it’s as though someone stuck their finger in our bubble
and popped it. But if we have a healthy sense of pride then we will
rejoice when others do things well, whether it is on a personal level or
a national level. I love the story of a man called Paedaretos who lived
in Sparta in ancient Greece. A group of 300 men were to be chosen to
govern Sparta. Though Paedaretos was a candidate, his name was not on
the final list. Some of his friends sought to console him, but he simply
replied, "I am glad that in Sparta there are 300 men better than I am."
He became a legend because of his willingness to stand aside while
others took the places of glory and honor. If we can rejoice when others
do things well, we will spend a lot more time rejoicing than if we only
rejoice when we do things well.
So don’t let your pride get in the way of blessings God may want to give
to you.
I
ran across this story about Booker T. Washington that I think shows the
blessings of humility. Booker T. Washington was a renowned black
educator, who had just become the president of Tuskegee Institute in
Alabama. One day, he was walking in an exclusive section of town when he
was stopped by a wealthy white woman. Not knowing the famous Mr.
Washington by sight, she asked if he would like to earn a few dollars by
chopping wood for her. Because he had no pressing business at the
moment, Professor Washington smiled, rolled up his sleeves, and
proceeded to do the humble chore she had requested. When he was
finished, he carried the logs into the house and stacked them by the
fireplace. A little girl recognized him and later revealed his identity
to the lady. The next morning the embarrassed woman went to see Mr.
Washington in his office at the Institute and apologized profusely.
"It's perfectly all right, Madam," he replied. "Occasionally I enjoy a
little manual labor. Besides, it's always a delight to do something for
a friend." She shook his hand warmly and assured him that his meek and
gracious attitude had endeared him and his work to her heart. Not long
afterward she showed her admiration by persuading some wealthy
acquaintances to join her in donating thousands of dollars to the
Tuskegee Institute.
There may be times we are asked to do things that are really “below our
dignity.” There may be times others do things that irk us. There may be
times we don’t get all the recognition we deserve. Life is like that.
But let’s not let our pride lead to our destruction. We don’t want to
end up in the mud like Gaston. Instead, let us realize we are not
perfect. But we are children of God, loved and redeemed. As we come to
communion today, let’s remember that the only person who ever had the
right to be filled with Pride was not inflated with pride. Rather, he
humbled himself to die on a cross for our sin ... so that we could be
forgiven for the time we have failed to watch our step. So let us
rejoice in the forgiveness that is ours and go forth to watch our step
with pride as we humbly realize our own self-worth and rejoice in the
worth of others.