St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
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The Seven Living Virtues 1 John 3:1-7 April 30, 2006 (Click this link to see the bulletin)
1. You may recall (at least, I HOPE you recall) that during Lent we worked on digging weeds -- the Seven Deadly Sin-weeds out of the gardens of our lives. Those of us who are gardeners of whatever level know that soil will not remain just soil for very long. If we do not plant flowers or fruit or vegetables as soon as we have pulled out the weeds, something will start growing that we do not want. Unless, of course, we cover it with black fabric so nothing will grow! So, during these Sundays after Easter, we will start planting – planting "The Seven Living Virtues" which will help keep the sin-weeds from growing back and taking over our lives. 2. Pope Gregory the Great was the one who invented the Seven Deadly Sins in the 5th century. Although no such list exists in the Bible, he pulled them together to help his people nurture their spiritual lives. Since he didn’t want them to focus only on sin, he included a counter-balance – a set of values that his people should adopt in their place, as correctives for a particular sin. The virtues Pope Gregory identified are Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence and Temperance. About the same time, a Christian poet named Prudentius developed his own model of virtues in an allegorical poem he named Psychomachia which means "The Battle for the Soul." He identified seven specific virtues which stand in opposition to each of the seven sins. He says humility cures pride, kindness cures envy, abstinence cures gluttony, chastity cures lust, patience cures wrath, liberality cures greed, and diligence cures sloth. Since then, all sorts of people have created many different lists and configurations. I’ll be using the list Pope Gregory developed, but they all fit together. 3. But that’ll have to wait until next week. I’ll save the more narrow focus on each virtue for the remaining Sundays of Easter. Since we’re ordaining and installing our newly-elected officers today, I want to focus on the big picture, the whole issue of virtue as it relates to value. Value. What is a value? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists many definitions. A value is the monetary worth of something. Like the value of a dollar – it’s buying power. And a value is the relative worth of something. Like the value of, say, spending quality time with someone you care about – a spouse, a friend, children, grandchildren. Or the duration of a musical note, the length of time you hold that note, is its value. Value has several very different definitions. But the value of virtue, especially these "living virtues," is the quality that makes them desirable by their very nature. Faith, and hope, and love are all values. 4. For a long time, we didn’t hear much about Values. Values fell by the wayside a bit after World War II. Facts formed the focus of education in public schools. "Banish those values" became the watchword. Then the pendulum began to swing back the other way. More and more educators and parents saw the "value" in values, and began teaching them once again to the children. But teaching the values and living our values can be two very different things. A person can learn every detail of Pope Gregory’s virtues, but until those details form the core of that person’s life, they are not values. Here’s an example. I can talk all day long about eating a healthy balanced diet, which would be the virtue of prudence or maybe abstinence. But as long as I drink Black Cherry Vanilla Cokes (which I love, but which have absolutely no nutrients, and 40 [count ‘em!] 40 grams of sugar in each 12-ounce can, you’re not going to believe that eating healthy meals and snacks is all that important to me; prudence is not something I really value. And I can stand up here and preach justice, and I can quote Micah 6:8 ("God has told you what is good: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.") but you’re just going to yawn unless I live my life in such a way that what I do actually helps to change what is unjust about our society. Until then, nobody will believe the virtue of justice is a value in my life. 5. Values form the core of our lives as Christians. And the harder we try to pattern our lives after the values that Jesus taught, the deeper those values will be. It’s not easy! It’s a bit like trying to keep the weeds out of our gardens! The reason is spelled out in the words I read from First John – The Very One after whose life we pattern our lives, was himself rejected by all kinds of people. We will be, too! But we cannot let opposition slow us down! We have to keep working at it! All of us! Together! That’s the way it must be – that’s how we continue to be the Church. Together! 6. In a few minutes, we will ordain and/or install new officers for St. Andrew’s. They will lead us in our work and in our mission for the next few years. They already exhibit many of the values we hold dear. They have already planted virtues in the gardens of their lives. Their ability to do their jobs, to act out their values which bring attention to God, will depend to a large degree on the rest of us. Our prayers and our willingness to help them will make it easier – easier for all of us – to do what Christ Jesus leads US to do. |
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