Big 'Ol Slice, Please

Prayer

The Big Problem of Pride

At the very beginning of our trip, I was in line at the airport in order to check my bag…and it’s taking a while.

I’m behind these two women - who are watching the lady behind the counter as she’s taking the bags and placing them on the conveyor belt. And they don’t like the way she’s doing it. They’re slamming her.

Then it’s their turn to check their bag. Between the two of them, they have a backpack, small piece of carry-on luggage, and a massive suitcase. Massive suitcase with lots of stuff in it. Which is the problem - because there’s a weight limit to bags (50 pounds), and if your bag weighs more than that, you have to pay extra - $100. Woman at the counter helpfully informs them of this.

So, these two women, who were being critical of worker, now find themselves opening up their suitcase up right there in front of everyone, in order to pull out items and stuff them into their other two bags. And it’s taking a while, because they were 8-10 pounds over the 50 pound limit. And I couldn’t help but think, that’s a little serving of humble pie.

It did dawn on me that I may be enjoying the moment a little too much, and may need a helping myself.

It was reminder of what I want to talk about in our new sermon series, Humble Pie - and why we should want to get as big a slice as possible. That humility is virtue that we absolutely need to cultivate in our lives.

And here’s why: Because of pride.

Now, when we talk about pride, I’m not talking about feelings of pride that we take in doing something well. In doing good work. In accomplishing a goal. Creating something beautiful. Or pride in things that we have great affection for - our nation, our families, our favorite sports teams, our church.

Now, all those can become sinful pride, but in general, those are good and positive sentiments.

I’m talking about pride that C.S. Lewis argues is not just a great evil, but THE great evil. Listen to what he shares in his writing on “Christian Behaviour”:

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility...According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.  Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Does this seem to you exaggerated? If so, think it over. I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, 'How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?' The point is that each person's pride is in competition with every one else's pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.  Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive – is competitive by its very nature – while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident.  Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If someone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.  That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not.  The sexual impulse may drive two men into competition if they both want the same girl. But that is only by accident; they might just as likely have wanted two different girls. But a proud man will take your girl from you, not because he wants her, but just to prove to himself that he is a better man than you. Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power.  Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.

I want you to hear two things that C.S. Lewis is saying here about the problem of pride

One, is that it is pernicious, pervasive. Pride affects all of us. It is the root sin behind other sins. It’s two women so easily criticizing an airline worker, and the people in line behind them enjoying their comeuppance. And it’s deeply rooted within us, far more than we ever want to admit (our pride won’t allow it).

Second thing is that it is the great evil - what Lewis calls the “complete anti-God state of mind”. Because pride has us looking down on others - that drive of competitiveness makes us want to be above them in some way, superior.

We want to be smarter, more attractive, more popular, morally superior, a better friend, the favorite. We want whatever we’re associated with to be better (better team, the better nation)…the list goes on.

And if our tendency is to look down, we are not looking up, and that pits up against God. As Lewis writes:

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. 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.

Which brings us to our main point this morning: If pride is the great evil, the complete anti-God state of mind, and it’s pervasive condition within us, then it’s necessary for us to actively seek to nurture the virtue of humility in our lives. We need to seek to become humble. Or, according to our sermon series title, to get as big a slice of humble pie as we can get.

Let me offer you two examples of how this plays out, the first one coming from Book of Daniel, the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.

It’s a long story, so I’m going to walk us through it a bit. It’s helpful to know context of this story - it comes when Israel has been conquered by the Babylonian empire (which happened in 587 B.C.), number of Jewish elites were exiled to Babylon to be trained in Babylonian culture. One of those people was Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar is King of this immense empire . And Nebuchadnezzar’s rule is absolute. One night, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, a disturbing dream. He calls together all his advisors - his magicians and astrologers - to interpret his dream for him. But no one can. That is, until Daniel comes forward.

Dream involves a huge and bountiful tree - tree reaches to the sky, its branches spread out to the ends of the earth, its fruit is abundant - all creatures of the earth are provided for by this tree, living under its shelter, eating from its fruit.

Then a messenger comes to declare that the tree is to be cut down, stripped of its branches - with only its stump and roots remaining, bound with iron and bronze.

Then messenger declares, “Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a human being and let him be given the mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.”

Daniel is shaken by the dream, because he realizes that it bears bad news for Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is the tree! It represents his glory and dominion over immense empire God has given him. The messenger is from God, who is going to strip all of this from Nebuchadnezzar. Not will the kingdom be taken from him, but his very sanity - Nebuchadnezzar will live among the animals as an animal. For seven years.

As Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, “Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms on the earth and gives to them anyone he wishes.” In other words, you better humble yourself before God. Recognize that all you have is because of him.

Sadly, Nebuchadnezzar’s pride gets to him. A year later, the King is walking on roof his palace, surveying his empire, and he declares, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty.”

And as the words part from his lips, all that Daniel told him came to pass. He is stripped of his royal authority, driven away to live among the animals. And then,

At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

Nebuchadnezzar is properly humbled. It was a hard lesson (seven years, reduced to nothing!), but now, instead of looking down, he looks up - I raised my eyes toward heaven.

And this really is remarkable thing about this story - listen to what he says at the very end of the story: Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (is he ever!)

This is amazing - normally, when we think about being humbled, being humiliated - we see that as a huge negative, something to be avoided. We don’t want to lose our stature or privilege or esteem. We typically become angry or resentful.

And yet Nebuchadnezzar is praising God for it. I praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven - because everything he does is right. The King of heaven is perfectly just. Nebuchadnezzar is saying, “This was a good thing to happen to me, to be humbled.”

And that’s our point. It is a good thing. Very good thing. We want humility. If pride is complete anti-God state of mind, then humility is complete pro-God state of mind. It puts us in place where we can know and love and appreciate God - as we should.

Because he is greater than us in every conceivable way. He is Creator, we are his creatures. He is Savior, we desperately needed to be rescued. He gives it all - we only have because of him. We want to walk, not in pride, but in humility.

We have a great example of what it looks like to walk in humility from our own American history.

As the story goes, a traveler, stopping for a night at a Virginian inn, struck up a conversation with a (quote) “plainly-dressed and unassuming” stranger. As they talked through various subjects, the traveler first thought the man was a lawyer…then a doctor…then a clergyman. The traveler, filled with wonder, asked innkeeper about the man. Turns out, the stranger whom he had (quote) “found so affable and simple in his manners” was the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was a big believer in what he called “republican simplicity.” Instead of riding to his inauguration in a liveried coach, Jefferson walked. Instead of elaborate state dinners with proper seating arrangements, Jefferson favored smaller dinners where guests selected their own seats at round tables. He would answer the door of the Executive mansion himself. One British ambassador was insulted when Jefferson greeted him while wearing slippers on his feet. He would walk over to the Washington Navy Yard and strike up conversations with the dockworkers and shipwrights, and they would have no idea that they were talking to the President of the United States.

All of which goes to explain while Jefferson could declare so powerfully: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Document rooted in humble recognition that it is God, the Creator, who bestows us with rights. Who makes all people equal.

Why he could recognize dangers of governments that, in their pride and quest for power, failed to recognize that.

Declaration of Independence is truly a revolutionary document (pun intended), revolutionary in ideas it presented.

All rooted in recognizing God as God, and all that we have comes from him - he’s Creator. He endows us. We’re all equally nothing without him. Which is we need to nurture the virtue of humility, to eat a big ‘ol slice of humble pie.

Let me encourage you to do that this week by offering a couple of practical ways to put Jesus’ teaching into practice.

The first step, as C.S. Lewis says, is to recognize that you are proud. That we are deeply inflicted with sin of pride. This is a “biggish step” as Lewis writes, “nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”

Pay attention to how easily offended you are. How strongly competitiveness stirs within you - you have to be better, you have to be right. You have to win. You have to reach a certain standard. How angry you get at being slighted. How much it irks you when others are showing off. Or when things don’t go your way. Your feelings of superiority - especially moral superiority.

The second discipline is to pray daily for humility. Every day, ask God for a big ‘ol slice of humble pie. He will give it. As Nebuchadnezzar learned all-too-well, “those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” Ask that he would humble you.

You might pray while in kneeling posture. Or laying prostrate, as a physical demonstration of your desire for humility.

Which is exactly what we should desire - that’s our whole point this morning - humility is the virtue that will most enable us to grow as followers of Jesus Christ.

Let me finish with this - there really is beauty in humility. We want to convince ourselves that pride is a good thing, but we see all-too-often its ugliness in ourselves and others.

When Thomas Jefferson was President, he was out riding on horseback with some other gentlemen. They encountered a man who needed help crossing a stream. The man, not knowing who Jefferson was, asked for assistance. Jefferson reached down, pulled the man up to share his saddle and rode with him to the other side. Afterwards, someone asked man why, of all those on horseback, he asked Jefferson. “From their looks, I did not like to ask them. The old gentleman looked as if he would do it, and I asked him.” He was quite surprised to learn that the old gentleman he had asked was the President himself.

That’s the beauty in humility. It’s the same beauty we see in Jesus, why he was so approachable, why all the outcasts - the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, would flock to him. It’s the beauty we see in Jesus as he wraps a towel around his waist, kneels down and one by one, washes the feet of his disciples. It’s the beauty we see most fully in cross, arms stretched out in love, as Jesus laid down his life for us.

May we aspire to this kind of beauty. A big ‘ol slice of humble pie, please!