ASH WEDNESDAY SERMON
First in a Lenten Mid-Week Series on "The Seven Deadly
Sins"
THE DEADLY SIN OF PRIDE
"Have mercy on me O God according to your steadfast
love." (Ps. 51:1)
Did you know that there is murderer running loose in the world and nobody seems
to care all that very much? In fact, hardly anyone notices. Yet this murderer
causes more pain, creates more misery, divides more people, crushes more
spirits, inflicts more wounds and takes more lives that anyone or anything else
in all the world. We even know this murderer's name, but you won't find his
picture hanging on the Post Office Wall! Because, you see, he's very cagey this
murderer. He can disguises himself so cleverly that much of the time we don't
even see him when he's right in front of us doing his dirty work. And when we do
see him, well sometimes he doesn't seem all that bad. We often excuse him, and
make rationalizations for him, and let him off the hook. He can even look like
our best friend. He has a name. We know his name; we know him well. His name is
SIN. And he's been around for a long time.
But the world doesn't talk very much about Mr. Sin any more. Many consider Mr. Sin to be an old-fashioned idea, a dusty, rusty relic from a day gone by. Mr. Sin has been replaced by numerous psychological and sociological theories that attempt to explain the waywardness of human behavior -- most of which are built on the premise that our faults are simply the result of some kind of psychological/sociological failure, which only has to be diagnosed for us to set it right. For sure, our New Age World has pretty much removed sin from life's vocabulary.
In the early 1970's the psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled "Whatever Became of Sin?" His plea was that we not trivialize or write off the unpleasant behavior of humankind simply as some kind of psychological or emotional maladjustment.
St. Augustine is considered to be one of the premier theologians of all times. In his classic book Confessions, Augustine tells the story of a youthful escapade of stealing pears from a neighbor's tree. He records that late one night a group of he and his friends planned and implemented what we might call an "adolescent prank." They took all the pears from the neighbor's tree and then fed them to the pigs. Later in life, while reflecting upon this childish episode, Augustine was very hard on himself. He said, "It was my love of mischief that made me do it. The evil in me was foul, and I loved it... My soul was vicious and it broke away from God's safe-keeping to seek its own destruction."
Now it's only natural to ask why a relatively harmless prank such as this would loom so large in the mind of this great theologian? Especially when you consider that by his own admission, in his adult life, Augustine had taken a mistress, fathered a child out of wedlock, and had indulged in every fleshy passion. Surely any of these was far more serious than stealing pears as an adolescent!
But Augustine saw something in the "pear incident." Augustine saw his true nature and the nature of all humankind being played out. He saw that in each of us there is this thing; there is this power of death; this propensity for destruction called Sin. And whether we reckon with Sin or not, it will reckon with us! Whether we acknowledge Sin's existence or not, it will acknowledge ours. Whether we have our day with Sin or not, it will have it's day with us.
The Apostle Paul spoke much of Sin--nowhere with more agonizing intensity than in the 7th chapter of Romans. In these verses we see that for Paul Sin was far more than merely misdirected behavior or ethical misdeed. Sin, for Paul, was a destructive death-dealing, dehumanizing power that takes up residence in the human soul and it wreaks it's havoc. Listen to his agonizing words. He's not speaking merely intellectually here. He's speaking with gut-wrenching emotional seriousness. Listen to his gripping heart-cry. Listen as he describes his heart being severed in half; the tearing apart of his efforts to be whole, and centered and headed in a clear direction. He says,
"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not
do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. But if I do what I do not
want... in fact it is no longer I that does it, but Sin that dwells within me. I
can will what is right, but I cannot do it! Now if I do what I do not want it is
no longer I that does it, but Sin that dwells within me. I delight in the law of
God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another power at war with my
inmost self, making me a captive. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver
me?" (Romans 7)
Now that's an ripping experience that everyone of us, if were honest knows
intimately.
- Remember that time someone asked you for help; to just listen perhaps; to share a burden; to carry a load; to do good deed; and you held yourself back? Oh, you had a perfectly good excuse which you articulated very well. But when you walked away you felt empty, compromised, torn, angry that you were placed into such a situation. In your heart of hearts you wanted so much to reach beyond yourself and respond with care and kindness, but you couldn't do it--you were paralyzed--something stopped you--and the something was much more than your busy schedule, that was just a disguise--something else stopped you!
- Remember when you made a resolution you were going to be more patient; more understanding; control your temper; and become a good listener. You were really serious about it! You really meant it! But, the first or maybe second time stress levels were raised just a little bit--well, you know what happened!
How can we be so naive about sin our lives? There are those who still think it's ridiculous to talk in such terms. For them problems of society and personal misery are located not in our alienation from God--not in our sin--but somewhere else: ignorance; psychological maladjustment; sociological factors, feelings of powerlessness, economic inequities, limited education, something else, but never Sin. They say, all we have to do is figure out what it is, fix it and everything will be O.K.
But the witness of history in the 20th century would suggest something else. In the 20th century with all the incredible pinnacles reached in education, science, technology, and human development - it was in this century that Hitler murdered six million Jews; Stalin by some estimates 15 million human souls; millions murdered Pol Pot in Cambodia. It was in this modern enlightened century that lynch mobs roamed territories of this nation with their white hoods and burning crosses. It is in this enlightened century that stock-piles of weapons that can extinguish life on this planet exist in unprecedented proportions!
Sin is at the heart of our lives my friends. It is there just beneath the surface ready to break out in attitudes and actions that will destroy, maybe ever so subtly and quietly, and then again maybe with grotesque deafening volume.
I heard someone describing Sin once and he was using the analogy of criminal behavior--making sin analogous to criminal behavior. And I remember thinking to myself, "No that's not it!' Sin shouldn't be compared to criminal behavior. That's not how the Bible describes sin." Sin is more analogous to the act of a traitor, not a criminal. A criminal violates a law; a traitor violates his citizenship!
In Psalm 51 with which we opened this service the Psalmist says, "Against you, you alone O Lord, have I sinned." There are many who say that King David authored this Psalm of Confession. It certainly fits! Remember his story. From his rooftop David saw Bathsheba bathing, and lust raged within him. David ordered Bathsheba brought to him so he might satisfy his burning sexual lust. David was the king, so Bathsheba had no choice in the matter. David's rape and adultery led to deception, and deception to murder. Bathsheba conceived. In order to cover his sin, David dug the pit even deeper by having her husband Uriah, a soldier, sent to the frontlines of battle to be killed. David's initial lust led to a successive chain reaction of sins causing destruction and death!.
The Lord confronted David through Nathan the prophet. David confessed. If this is a Psalm of David it surely is an outpouring of his repentant and contrite spirit before God.
David was not guilty of breaking a law, as much as he was guilty of becoming a traitor... a defector from the ranks... a turncoat! Through attitude and action David severed the very relationship that had sustained and nurtured him all along-his relationship with God. David was guilty of committing more than one of the seven deadly sins, lust for sure! But even more than lust, David committed the first and greatest of the seven deadly sins--PRIDE!
When the early church fathers and mothers talked about the sin of Pride they were talking about the over-assertion of self to the point of posturing oneself in opposition to God; pushing God to the periphery of life, pushing God out to the edge; if not out of the picture altogether; declaring independence from God.
The defining story about the deadly sin of Pride is one of the oldest stories in the Bible--the story of Adam and Eve. The drama of all humankind moves through these two people. Their story is our story--and our story is their story - that's the whole point! In creating them God chooses to bind Himself to them in a marvelous relationship of love that is always growing. They are made in the image of God and they are placed in a situation unmarred by evil and sin. But Adam and Eve, at the tempter's cue push God to the edge; they betray their citizenship by doing the only thing God told them not to do, they eat the forbidden fruit--and Ah!, Oh how sweet it that fruit tasted, at least for a moment--and for a moment they felt that rush of power--for a moment they were God; independent; calling all the shots; in control of their own destiny. But, in that moment everything changed--things started cascading out-of-control; things got out of hand. Before they knew it they were aware of their nakedness and feeling guilty--the story's way of saying the harmony was forever broken.
Whatever else we get from this story, this much is clear! We are not only creatures of God; we're also creatures in rebellion against our Creator; pridefully setting ourselves up as god over and against God. When we really begin to come to terms with this, and accept this, and understand the implications of this in our own lives, this story becomes the story of every person. It becomes your story, my story. Adam and Eve are you and me!
So what are we to do? How are we to respond?
I'll answer that in two brief ways.
First, a comment about what we are not to do, and an old Peanuts cartoon can help us out here! Frieda shouts at Snoopy and essentially tells him that he's not important: "He's just a dumb dog!" Snoopy responds by laying flat on his stomach. His long ears spread on the ground in total dejection. A thinking bubble emanates from his head saying, "I'm just a dumb dog! I'm worthless! I don't even deserve your attention."
That's a "dog-picture" of what not to do! Nothing in the Gospel calls for a devaluing of self. I repeat! "Nothing in the Gospel calls for us to devalue ourselves." Nothing!
So what are we to do? How are we to respond?
We are to come before God with empty hands, bringing nothing--only the acknowledgment and confession of our sin of Pride... of pushing God to the outer limits and over the side... of consistently asserting ourselves over and against God. We come not in weakness or in strength--that's not the point. We simply come, with open and empty hands, praying from our hearts one of the oldest and simplest prayers ever prayed--perhaps prayed by David himself, "Have mercy of me, O God, according to your steadfast love." (Repeat) Or the prayer of the tax collector in Jesus' parable, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!"
Only then are we really ready to receive the incredible gifts that God has to give.... the gift of sin forgiven... the gift of reconciliation, restored relationship, harmony with God... the gift of letting God reassert Himself as God in your life... in your heart... in your mind.... in your soul.
It's the first day of Lent. Once again we are about to begin the long winding journey with our Lord Jesus Christ to His cross. On the way we will see Jesus engage in a fierce struggle with sin and take on all the dehumanizing powers of the universe. We will see him beaten down; we will see him crushed under sin's awesome weight; we will see him hang his head and die! But yet, not three days later he will be among us again, proclaiming an eternal victory that wasn't won with the power of force, but rather by the stunning energy of God's suffering and forgiving love. And once again that love will be focused upon you and me, and the Good News is that love can win the same victory in us that it won in him!
"Have mercy on me O God according to you steadfast love."