The Seven Deadly Sins - Pride

I’ll start this morning with this quotation from the philosopher John Paul Sartre.

“Hell is other people” he said.

And all the introverts in the room said ‘Amen’!. While all the extroverts said ‘rubbish!;.

But what’s the solution, if you feel that other people are the problem? The obvious answer is to get as far away from them as possible! Which observation cues you up nicely for this little piece of history.

Way back in the 4^th century AD, after years of persecution and martyrdom, suddenly it became legitimate to be a Christian. The emperor Constantine converted in 312 BC and in the space of about a hundred years, Christianity became the established religion of the empire – sponsored by Emperors and protected in law.

But not everybody was happy with that state of affairs.

Before Constantine, only the very committed lived out their Christian faith in public, because they knew they could be killed for it. But when Christianity became legitimate, every Tom Dick and Harriet started jumping on the bandwagon, regardless of how committed they were to the faith.

Almost overnight, it became culturally and politically expedient to be a Christian, at least on the surface, and many genuine believers saw that as a dilution of the faith and witness of the church.

So what did they do? They decided to leave the towns and cities and make their home in the desert , where they could live purer. simpler lives of devotion to God. It was the start of the movement that we call monasticism, and the stories of the men and women who made that journey, and tried to live that kind of life, have a lot to teach us today, Because they did everything they could to leave sin behind, only to discover that they took it with them into the desert, because sin’s a part of our human condition and it follows us wherever we go.

They discovered that the way to deal with sin isn’t to run from it; it’s to understand it; name it, and seek Christ’s help in overcoming it.

And they also realised that hell isn’t other people. In the desert they discovered that that they couldn’t live this life alone. They needed one another’s help to make the journey of faith; and so even the most isolated would still gather together in community now and again for fellowship and support.

And in that spiritual laboratory of the desert, the monks began to examine the roots of how sin worked in their lives. And one monk in particular, Evagrius of Pontus  came to understand that sin has its origins in our thought life. Something that’s affirmed in the letter of James in the New Testament where he says

“each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full–grown, gives birth to death.”

On the basis of his own experience, and that of his peers, for whom he was a confessor, Evagrius classified eight deadly thoughts that tended to draw a monk towards sin. And they are  thoughts about food, thoughts about sex, thoughts about possessions, thoughts about sadness, about anger, about nothing, about what others think of you, about the self.

And you’ll see straight away that there are close parallels with the Seven Deadly Sins we were speaking about last week, and that’s because the spiritual leaders in the centuries after Evagrius drew on his work as they tried to take this thinking out of the monastic setting and open it up to the wider church.

And it’s worth making a point that Evagrius wanted to emphasise.  Having the thought is not committing a sin. It’s when you entertain the thought and allow it to lead you off somewhere, that’s when the problems start. As somebody once said, you can’t stop the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair!

So that’s a wee bit of background we didn’t manage to cover last week. But the real business of today is with the sin that many think is the granddaddy of them all. Pride.

Professor Willie Barclay  writes that “Pride is the ground in which all the other sins grow, and the parent from which all the other sins come.”

And it’s fitting that pride should come at the top of the list, because that’s what pride is all about. It’s about being number 1, whatever the cost.

Pride turns ‘thy will be done’ into ‘my will be done’. It turns love the lord your God with heart, soul, strength and mind’ into ‘love yourself with heart, soul, strength and mind’. Pride places self at the centre and God, if he’s deferred to at all, firmly on the margins.

Biblically  pride is our refusal to accept our status as creatures. Something within us doesn’t like playing second fiddle to anyone, even if that person is God.

Anyone in possession of a self, and I think that’s most of us here, will always be tempted to put the desires of our own self before the desires of the God who made us. And that is the essence of pride.

Tradition holds that pride was the first sin. Adam and Eve wanted the fruit from the tree not just because it looked good, but because the devil promised that if they ate it, they would be like God, knowing good from evil.” They ate because they weren’t content to be creatures – they wanted to be like God.

And Tradition also holds that the devil himself is a fallen angel, cast out of heaven because his pride led him to rebel against God.

The first commandment is ‘You shall have no other Gods before me’ and the voice of pride says ‘Oh yes I will. I think I’ll be my own God, thank you very much’.

And the story we heard read this morning, the story of the tower of Babel is a paradigm for what happens when pride takes over our thinking.

Why do they set out on this epic building project? The writer tells us - “They wanted to make a name for themselves.” The implication being, that the name of being God’s creatures, God’s children wasn’t enough for them. They wanted more.

So they harness a new technology to their own ends. Baking bricks and cementing them together is much faster than quarrying and dressing stone, though it’s ultimately less stable.

They work together on the project. The human race gathers together in a city, neglecting the fields, for the pursuit of this one goal, made possible through a common language.

And so the tower rises quickly, reaching towards the heavens. And some commentators wonder if this is another attempt of primitive man to gain parity God – to climb to his dwelling place and so become equal with him. “Look at this mighty tower! Is there anything we can’t do?” they say.

But God, looking down from the heavens, sees this vast tower as a tiny speck. He goes down to see what they’re up to and says ‘we can’t let this happen. Soon they’ll be able to do anything they want.” Which sounds a little threatened at first, but it’s not himself God’s concerned for here, it’s them. They’re like a toddler playing with a loaded gun. They have no idea where all of this might end.  And the solution, of course, is to carefully take the gun away before anyone gets hurt.

And so, in the story, God scatters the people and mixes up their languages to defuse the situation. He places obstacles of distance and communication in the way to make it harder for humanity to do this kind of thing again.  Though history clearly shows it hasn’t stopped us trying.

The people in the story wanted to make a name for themselves, and not be scattered all over the earth.  

Where are they at the end of the story? Confused and scattered, because in their pride, they went their own sweet way in defiance of God.

TS Eliot  is surely right to observe that “most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.”

Now let’s bring this home a little. It’s fine talking about Adam and Eve and Babel, and speaking about pride in general terms. But what’s all this got to say to you and me?

Well firstly, I think I need to point out that not all pride is bad.

As I was shaking hands with someone after church last Sunday he was saying I must be proud seeing Rhona Ross and Mairi up at the front together and leading worship. And he’s right – it’s lovely to see them helping out, now that they’ve got to a stage in their playing where they’re able to contribute in that way.

And I’m proud of them not because they’re better than others, but because of the dedication they’ve put in to learning to play. I’m celebrating the way they’ve honed and developed the gifts God’s given them.  That’s a perfectly legitimate form of pride.

And when you see your children or grandhchildren dancing, or playing sport, or performing, or graduating, or getting married – you’re rightly proud of them. And there’s nothing wrong with that kind of pride – all you’re doing is celebrating their achievements with them.

And it’s the same with your own achievements. You can be proud of your hard work, and the things you accomplish in life. But what we’re not allowed to do is to then judge ourselves to be superior to others because of it.

I said earlier that pride is our refusal to accept our status as creatures.

When we remember our place in the created order, it helps keep us humble. It helps us remember that each man and woman is a fellow human being, not an enemy. Not a rival. And it reminds us that our ultimate worth is not in what we have, but in who we are – children of God who are made in his image.

But when we forget that central truth that gives us our validity, we go looking for affirmation in all kinds of other places. And it seems to me that that’s one of the main malaises of our times.

Some look for affirmation in others. Evagrius called that vainglory, and it’s not as bad as full blown pride but it’s still not pretty.

Think of the narcissism of the selfie culture . The new technology we have allows us to build a new image.  I will post these carefully selected photographs because I need your approval if I’m going to feel good about myself. I will obsess about how I look because what you think of me is the true measure of my worth. Industries are built on those kinds of thoughts.

Vainglory says ‘I need your affirmation to boost my self-esteem’. Pride goes a step further and says ‘I don’t need anyone’s affirmation to boost my self esteem’. 

So I heard this week that Donald Trump’s going to be the best president since Abraham Lincoln. Who says so? Donald Trump.

Pride leads to self-delusion. It also breeds intolerance. Why would I need to listen to your opinion when I already have my own and I know it’s right? A closed mind is often a sign of a proud mind. A mind that’s already decided there’s nothing more to learn.

Pride leads to arrogance. We get inflated ideas about our own importance and what we’re able to achieve. We pat ourselves on the back for building the Burj Khalifa  and collecting rocks from Mars, and raising our own country’s GDP, but we turn a blind eye to the fact that half the planet is living on less than a dollar a day.

And pride also leads to touchiness and thin skin. If the story is all about me, your purpose in life is to defer to me and stroke my ego and if you don’t do your job properly I’m going to get offended.

Trainspotting  was a seminal film that came out in the late 90’s and it’s the movie that really made Ewan MacGregor a star. It was directed by Danny Boyle, who went on to stage the opening ceremony at the 2012 Olympics, and back in those days the two men had a really good relationship.

But as both of them became more successful, Danny made a decision to cast Leonardo Di Caprio in a movie instead of Macgregor, and their relationship broke down completely. They didn’t speak to one another for years.

Macgregor tells a story of being on a long-haul flight back to the UK from the Far East, and as it turned out there were only three people travelling first class on that trip. He, his wife, and further up the plane, Danny Boyle. He spent the whole 10 hour flight trying to summon the will to  go and speak to him and try and sort things out, But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Pride.

It’s only in the last couple of years that they’ve managed to overcome that fallout and patch things up.

And that last story leads to a closing word on the antidote to pride, which is humility. The beatitude of being poor in spirit.

And the essence of that, it seems to me, is remembering your creatureliness.

Mother Teresa says  “If you are humble, nothing will touch you. Neither praise nor disgrace. Because you know what you are.”

If you know you are God’s beloved child, that is enough for any ego. Everything else is secondary; surface. It doesn’t penetrate to the roots of who you are because your heart and mind are secure in God.

And when you know that in your bones, you can sit lightly with your accomplishments. CS Lewis says the perfectly humble person would be able to create the most spectacular cathedral that’s ever been built, but be just as happy to walk through it and marvel at it if someone else had been the designer.

Humility allows you to sit lightly with your accomplishments; but also with the setbacks and the slights that will inevitably come your way in life. You know that you’re not defined by success or failure or what people think of you. You’re defined by the love that God has for you. That’s the pole star – the light you navigate life by. And you really don’t need anything else.

John the evangelist writes movingly about the last evening Jesus spent with his disciples before the crucifixion.

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him. 

And the key word to note there is ‘so’. He knew who he was. He knew where he’d come from and where he was going, so he got up from the meal and washed the disciples feet.

His security in who he was gave him the freedom to serve. To be a servant King.

  

A wise man once said that only the secure can be humble.

Pride, in all its manifestations, is about the frantic search for security – to make a name for ourselves.

Humility is the very opposite. It’s resting in the name God has already given us, when he looks us full in the face and says – you are my beloved child.