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The Sin of Pride

Luke 18:9-14

March 12, 2006        (Click this link to see the bulletin)

1. Last Sunday we began our Lenten journey to the foot of the cross by confronting the sin in our lives. You may remember that there are several types of sin. There is plain vanilla sin – like "missing the mark" or "offending some moral or religious law." Plain sin. Then there are mortal and venial sins, invented by Thomas Aquinas in the 13^th century. Mortal sin is one for which there is no defense, and one which God will not forgive [according to Aquinas, but not found in the Bible]. Murder in the first degree is a good example. Venial sin, on the other hand [still according to Aquinas] is still serious but one which God will forgive – like manslaughter. Somebody still ends up killed, but it was accidental. We Presbyterians don’t make those distinctions. I only mention them because you may have heard of them. Plain sin, mortal sin, venial sin; then sins of commission [the evil that we do], and sins of omission [not doing (omitting) the good that we should. Those are all types of sin.

2. And to help Christians confront the types of sin in their lives, Pope Gregory the Great, about the year 595 or 600, identified specific attitudes of sin. He called them "The Seven Deadly Sins." They are deadly because they kill our spirit. During these Sundays in Lent, I’m going to imagine that our lives are like a garden, and these Deadly Sins are "weeds in our garden." We will identify these "Deadly Sin Weeds," and uproot them from our lives, so after Easter we can cultivate the "Heavenly Virtue Flowers" which nurture our spirits. Now, we cannot just arbitrarily dig up every plant in the garden of our lives! We must know what they look like, so we don’t pull up potential posies by mistake. So today we will learn how to identify the worst of all sin weeds – I’ve dubbed it PRIDE-BANE, after the obnixious weed fleabane.

3. Pride-bane is amazing in that, if we do not pull it out when it first sprouts, all the other deadly "weeds" will start growing from its seeds! In other words, the sin of pride is the very worst one. It looks like this: its head is big and heavy, so big and heavy that the whole plant tilts back and a little to the side; its petals of its flower are folded across its eyes so it looks through little slits, just barely seeing. Its stem and leaves are so prickly you can’t even get near it. The Pharisee Jesus described in Luke was a proud man; and the garden of his life was filled with Pride-bane. It took up so much room that tax collector had to stand way, far off. Have you seen any of these Pride-bane weeds before? I’m sure you have! They are everywhere!

4. Last Wednesday I heard a story about the damage Pride-bane can do if left to grow. Rev. Jonathan Miller told the story. He preached at First Presbyterian’s Wiseman Lenten Worship. Actually, he used this story to illustrate forgiveness. But I think it fits pride, too. I’m assuming it is a true story, although I have not been able to verify it. It seems there were two 12-year-old boys, both of them Roman Catholic, both of them altar boys. One was named Josip. He lived and worshiped in Yugoslavia. One Sunday morning, during worship, he was to carry the crystal carafe filled with wine to the Communion Table. At about the third step, he tripped. The carafe flew from his small hands and shattered into a hundred pieces. The Bishop was worshiping with them that day, and flew into a rage. "You careless boy! See what you’ve done! You broke that priceless crystal! Get out of here at once, and never come back!" Young Josip Broz was crushed. He left, and never returned to church. In the years to come, he would change his name to Marshal Tito, and would become the feared dictator.

5. The other boy was named John Peter. He was an American who lived in Peoria, Illinois. He had a very similar experience at the impressionable age of 12. It was his responsibility, also, to carry the crystal pitcher filled with wine up the stairs of the chancel, and set it on the Communion Table. He, too, tripped. The carafe shattered. The Bishop interrupted the service, rushed over to John Peter, helped him get up, and said, "It’s all right, son. Everyone of us here knows what it’s like to fall and have someone help us get up again. Everyone here has experienced the Grace of God. In fact, this same thing happened to me when I was about your age. And look! Today I am a Bishop. Who knows? Maybe some day you’ll be a bishop, too." And it happened just that. This boy’s full name was John Peter Fulton Sheen. He grew up to become Bishop Fulton Sheen.

6. The Deadly Sin of Pride, self-worth that has turned haughty with an over-inflated impression of its own importance. Tito’s Bishop cared more about his own position as Bishop and that crystal carafe than he did about the boy Josip. Now, you can say that Josip had already shown early signs of the dictator he would become, the Bishop knew it, and didn’t want him to infect that congregation with his evil. That’s probably true. But who knows what a difference for good that Bishop could have made in his life, if only he had reacted with the virtue of humility that Fulton Sheen’s Bishop exhibited.

7. Back to this story in Luke. The Pharisees were proud of the Law that God gave Moses, who brought it down the mountain to their ancestors. The only thing that mattered to them was obeying that Law, doing it right! They enshrined the Law in the Holy of Holies in their Temple. They obeyed every little part of the Law, regardless of the damage it did to the people. In a very real sense, The Law became their god. The tax collector, on the other hand, had the humility to recognize his own sinfulness, and that made all the difference. The tax collector, sinner that we was, became justified – made holy in God’s eyes, the only eyes that really matter.

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