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The Professor
– Pride
Proverbs 16:18
Tonight I want to start a series looking at classical Christianity's
list of the seven deadly sins. I was going to call this series “Fun With
The Seven Deadly Sins”, but I get in enough trouble without looking for
it. Besides, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. We are going
to look at some pretty serious topics over the next seven weeks but I'm
pretty sure along the way we'll find some things to laugh about. But I
don't want you to think I don't take sin seriously or that this isn't
going to be a serious treatment of an important subject.
So let me tell you why I wanted to address the seven deadly sins. First,
to be perfectly honest, I preach better when I have a plan, or a series.
Knowing what's coming up next week or even six weeks from now helps me
cook it longer. So I needed a multi-week series.
Second, I'm just really interested in the concept of sin, and I don't
just mean from the standpoint of a practitioner of it. I do practice sin
and I think you know that. Those of you who have been with me on any
regular basis know that I've committed my share of sins and those of you
who know me well know specifically what some of my personal struggles
are. Beyond our own experience of sin, however, I am interested in our
culture's love/hate relationship with the idea of sin.
Not very many people living in the Western Hemisphere would object to
calling what happened on 9-11, sin. It was a sin against all the
individuals who were working in the towers that day and a sin against
our nation in a corporate sense. By virtually anyone's definition, that
act qualifies as sin.
Just as many people would call what the Enron executives did, or what
Martha Stewart did sin. They'd have no qualms whatsoever in labeling
those executives as sinners and their actions as sinful. They took
advantage of their employees, they lied about the value of their
company, they misrepresented the debt to income ration of their
business, they misled investors.
Yet the same people who would label those acts as sinful will, in a
different conversation, object to the concept of sin. They'd never call
homosexuality a sin. Sexual sins may be rude or hurtful or unsafe or
even unwise, but they'd never agree to call it sin.
Greed, though it was the force driving the Enron scandal, might be
considered a nasty thing, but not sinful. Same for envy or pride or
laziness or lying or any number of other attitudes and behaviors we
could mention.
Our culture is double-minded when it comes to the idea of sin. We'd like
to keep the concept around just in case we need it for a really major
issue. But when it comes to talking about our own decisions or the
decisions of people very much like us, we get squeamish. We hesitate to
call it sin. We'll call it a bad decision. We'll recognize it as
socially unacceptable. We might even call it a sickness. But we just
can't bring ourselves to call it sin.
Let me give you a couple of examples of our culture's discretion to deal
with the idea of sin. Ronald Reagan once gave a speech in which he
called the Soviet Union, "the evil empire." Every department
representative who saw that speech before it was presented, struck that
phrase. After every revision, Reagan put it back in. When he finally
gave the speech to a group of evangelical radio broadcasters in Florida,
people around the globe came unglued. They were more offended by
Reagan's description than by what the Soviets were actually doing.
Something similar happened recently when President George W. Bush
labeled three countries as an axis of evil. People everywhere criticized
his undiplomatic rhetoric. Ironically, again, the people and nations
most vocal about Bush's speech have been the people and nations most
silent about the human right's abuses and military activities of the
nations Bush labeled.
I'm not asking you to endorse what either Reagan or Bush said. I'm just
trying to show you that many people today are simply not willing to
recognize the reality of sin. They, we, try to rename it or reclassify
it.
So I think it is a useful exercise for us to turn to one of the classic
doctrines of Christianity and study it for several weeks. The seven
deadly sins, as they have been called for centuries, are not catalogued
together anywhere in the Bible. The closest you come to any kind of list
like that is in Proverbs 6: 16 - 19
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination
to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to
evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord
among brothers.
But that’s not the list that we are going to be spending our time on.
Our list tonight comes from Pope Gregory the Great.
In the late sixth century, Gregory, working off a list created by a
Greek monk, developed a catalogue of seven sins he believed were the
root of all other sins. That isn't to say that Gregory's list is
extra-biblical. Indeed, all the sins he mentions are condemned
throughout scripture. His point was that there are certain sins which
are deadly to the spiritual development of all people. In fact, these
sins are connected to each other and empower each other. Failure in one
area is sure to lead to failure in another. Both scripture and practical
experience confirm Gregory's assertion.
Let me head off a question here before some of you turn me off. “Why are
we going to spend the next few weeks talking about some list of sins a
sixth century Catholic pope came up with?” That’s a great question. In
the Church of Christ we are pretty suspicious of anything that isn't
located somewhere between Genesis 1: 1 and Revelation 22:21.
I appreciate the commitment to scripture-only that stands behind that
kind of thinking. But I want to challenge the prejudice that discounts
any contributions made by people who lived after the scriptures were
completed. There are centuries of careful thought and tradition which
can inform and instruct us if we are open to its voice. I don't for one
minute think we are bound by the voices of tradition, but we should at
least listen to them to see if they don't have something valuable to
contribute to our faith.
Some of the finest explanations and applications of biblical truth you
will ever read come from people who lived in another time, spoke another
language, yet shared a commitment to God similar to yours. Whether you
know it or not, we are all influenced by Augustine, Justin, Martin
Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, and dozens of other post-biblical
thinkers. In fact, we get our concept of scripture only from none other
than Martin Luther. Besides, I think you’ll find their reflections on
sin refreshingly honest, direct and accurate.
For example, John Calvin said sin is that within us which deserves the
hatred of God.
Martin Luther called it a departure from God.
Augustine said sin has two causes; either from not seeing what we ought
to do, or from not doing what we see ought to be done.
Gregory's list of seven deadly sins has informed and educated people
through the centuries and we'll be confronted and challenged by it, too.
Here's his list in order, and to Gregory the order mattered, Pride,
Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Lust
Now I told you I thought about calling this series Fun With The Seven
Deadly Sins. So I thought it would be helpful to give you a way to
remember the seven deadly sins. Just in cast you're on Jeopardy or Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire.
Can you name the seven stranded castaways on Gilligan's Island? You can
even sing the song if it will help. Gilligan, The Skipper, Mr. Howell
and Mrs. Howell, Ginger, The Professor, and Mary Ann. If you can
remember them, you can remember the seven deadly sins.
Pride = the professor.
Envy = Mary Ann
Anger = Mrs. Howell
Sloth = Gilligan
Greed = Mr. Howell
Gluttony = Skipper
Lust = Ginger (Though for me Maryanne was always better looking).
Isn’t it interesting that Gregory's list of seven deadly sins and the
cast of Gilligan's Island just sort of match up like that? Well maybe
just to me.
Okay, we don’t have a lot of time left so let’s tackle our first sin:
Pride.
Fairlie writes, "Here is the keystone of the arch, and once we recognize
that pride runs through almost everything that we do, everywhere in our
nature, we are in a better position to fight the other sins."
Proverbs 16: 18 says that Pride is the precursor to all sin. "Pride goes
before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
When Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the garden his first appeal was to
their pride: You will be like God. So it shouldn't surprise us that when
we look at the other six sins pride is there in each of them.
Pride is in our envy, persuading us that we deserve better.
Pride is in our anger, in which we adopt a position of superiority over
those who have wounded us.
Pride is in our greed, prompting us to display ourselves in
extravagance.
Pride is in our gluttony, showing itself in the form of vast quantities
and numerous choices.
Pride is in our sloth, in our assurance that we can get by with minimum
effort.
Pride is in our lust, in our belief that we can reduce people to a
collection of favored body parts, that we can talk of them or gawk at
them regardless of their feelings, that we can treat them as less than
human and still call ourselves humane.
I want to close tonight briefly looking at three ways Pride is a sin.
First it a sin of self reliance
Now I know that there is merit to being self reliant and I am trying to
teach the boys how to do things by themselves, but tying your own shoes
is not what we are talking about here.
G. Gordon Liddy, Watergate conspirator said when he was released from
prison: "I have found within myself all I need and all I ever shall
need. I am a man of great faith, but my faith is in George Gordon Liddy.
I have never failed me."
As brash as that sounds G. Gordon didn’t originate that type of self
reliant thinking. Look in Isaiah 10:12-13 When the Lord has finished all
his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of
the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his
eyes. For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my
wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples,
and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on
thrones.
The most significant word in this passage is the word "I." The king of
Assyria says I four times in one sentences. I have done, I have
understanding, I have removed, I bring down. Sounds down right American
in his self-reliance doesn’t it? But did you notice the first part of
our passage. Because of what the King had said The Lord punished the
King.
The sin of pride takes the focus off of the creator and places it on the
creation, and that leads to self-deception.
Listen to Obadiah 3-4 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who
live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your
heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?” Though you soar aloft
like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I
will bring you down, declares the Lord.
Secondly Pride is a sin against others
Have you ever read Dante's Inferno? Much like many of the other classic
pieces of Christian literature it alludes to the seven deadly sins. When
Dante encounters the proud in hell, they are each carrying the crushing
weight of a huge stone, which bends them over so that they cannot lift
their eyes from the ground. It seems that those who looked down on
everyone else in their lives are condemned for all eternity to never be
able to look up.
You see when we are proud that expresses itself in self-preoccupation.
When the bible describes the proud it is a portrait of people who are
never generous and rarely concerned with the needs of others. The
epitome of this behavior is seen in Jesus' story of the rich man and
Lazarus. The rich man, surrounded by wealth and comfort and sense of his
own importance, never lifts a finger to help Lazarus.
In a community of believers that are to love our neighbor as ourselves,
pride breaks the second greatest commandment.
Finally, pride is a sin against Christ and his cross, expressed in
self-righteousness.
David Rhodes wrote, "Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes
deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the
tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil: The danger
of pride is that it feeds on goodness."
Pride in the form of self-righteousness is perhaps the greatest danger
for Christians. When we do good works they are not for the Glory of the
Lord but for the Glory of Me.
We forget the testimony of the cross, that none are worthy, that all are
sinners, and assume that our goodness, our knowledge, our generosity,
our whatever, somehow makes us more worthy of Christ's death than
others.
I heard it put this way once. If you put a world class swimmer and a man
who can't swim a lick in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which one will
survive? Neither. Both will drown. It's the same way with righteousness.
If you sport a Mother Teresa type spiritual resume, without Christ, you
are as lost as someone with Hugh Hefner's reputation, Osama Bin Laden's
compassion, and an Enron executives sense of community responsibility.
I read a story this week about a young woman who went to her minister to
confess a besetting sin. She sat in his office and said, "Brother Jones,
every time I go to church I can't help but to compare myself to all the
other women there. I look around me and I see that I'm the prettiest
woman in church. I have the best figure, the best face, the best hair
and I just don't know what to do about this terrible sin."
The minister smiled and said, "Mary, darling, you aren't sinning when
you think those things. You're just mistaken."
Sometimes we need someone to sort of slap us back to reality with a
comment like that. Pride was the first sin, and the power behind all
other sins. Tonight for our invitation I want to leave you with the
words of the C. H. Spurgeon. "Be not proud of race, face, place, or
grace." Amen.
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