Well Intentioned Arrogance
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
October 27, 2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 18: 9-14
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
9 He also
told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous
and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The
Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am
not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax
collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’
13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up
to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a
sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified
rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all
who humble themselves will be exalted.” [1]
I think this is my all time favorite
gospel passage. It's so biting. How many times do we think like this
Pharisee? I think if we admit it, it happens
so often, the best of us, and especially on our best day, we just seem to
scream out, Man I am glad that I'm not like that guy. I may be this, but at
least I don't do that. And that's on our best day, the day when we are supposed
to have it all figured out. And this is where the pharisee is you can imagine,
he's a good person, worked really hard to be, a pillar and example in the
community, he deserves his status. And here he is being criticized. . . in
Sunday School we were talking the other week about how hard Luke is, and how
disjointed it seems to be, but then we found the consistent thread, that Jesus
isn't often talking about what people are doing, but why, which is the hardest
part. But we live in a world where morals matter and behavior is judged, where
we compete with each other in every way, where from a young age we begin the
comparisons, where we are driven to success, where we believe that merit
matters, and should be rewarded, all of this going on, and Jesus reminds us
here to be humble. Oh how hard humility can be, especially when from our
perspective we have overcome so much to be the good people we are, well not
perfect people for sure, but at least better than. . . there we go again. The
old Mac Davis song was, Oh It's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every
way, that may be true, I wouldn't know, but I think it misses the mark, it
should be, Oh it's hard to be humble when you're just a little bit better than
someone else, anyone else, just one is enough, oh it's hard to be humble when
you're human and alive. . . Ok Ok, it's just hard to be humble. Medieval Monks
knew this, so many monasteries would put humility last, the highest rung on the
ladder of ascension, the step by step process of purity that they would put
themselves through, it wouldn't matter how high they rose, self importance and
self righteousness would always ring its ugly head and knock them all the way
down, so they put it all the way at the top as the last great barrier to moral
perfection. There is nothing like a reminder to be humble, a requirement to be
humble, to bring you back down and humble you.
I see it all week at school, both in
class and on the football field. My favorite example from school has got to be
from a bunch of years back, when I had a student, who wasn't the best student,
he was ok, but he wasn't amazing, but he usually did his homework, and he would
be so proud of doing it, that with a big smile on his face he'd say, "I've
got my homework, Mr. Atkinson," which was only half the statement, the
other half went unsaid, but would mean, with his eyes, that someone else
didn't. I look good, got it done, but you know someone else didn't, boy am I
glad I'm not that guy. He'd feel better about himself, simply because he could,
from his perspective, put himself above. I see it on the football team often.
There is a definite hierarchy of talent and leadership, and it flows from the
top to the bottom pretty steadily. It's always amazing to me how some of the
players in the middle will assert themselves over those at the bottom, talent
and experience wise. I may not be a star, but at least I'm not that guy. And
they feel good about themselves, and they feel better when they let those
people, who are below them know it, We call it bullying. They are simple examples,
and I wish I could say that it all stops when we get out of school and become
adults, but you know it just doesn't. There is still that hierarchy, and there
is always someone below who we can feel good about being "better
than" at least about something.
So why does it matter? You know
other than Jesus reminding us in this parable that being humble is important,
and other than the fact that Jesus, himself, the son of God, coequal, coeternal
with God, humbled himself to become human like us, to die on the cross, and on
his way not saying, man I'm glad I'm not like these criminals who are hanging
on these crosses next to me, or man I'm glad I'm not like these people who are
sending me to my cross, but instead, father forgive them, they know not what they
do." Other than all that, why does it matter?
It all stems from what the I'm glad
I'm not like them mentality does to us. It gives us a pass for all that we do
that isn't so great. At least in our minds, it allows us to rationalize our own
issues and excuse them, giving us a pass for our own bad behavior. It blinds us
to our imperfections, or it allows us to rationalize them away as being not as
bad as the other guy, but they are bad, they are real, and they do add up.
Despite the best of intentions our little more innocent than the other guy
peccadilloes often result in really bad things, and what's worse we don't even
recognize how we are implicated in the problem. We look at the world and see it
spiraling out of control, but we do not see our role in it.
I know I have a habit of being
influenced by the other things that I'm reading during the week, especially
also what I am teaching. This week we've been looking at the ancient work,
Oedipus Rex, yeah the famous king, who by ugly twist of fate, despite or maybe
because of his trying to avoid it, kills his father and marries his mother.
This king has become famous for the psychoanalytic term Oedipus Complex,
dealing with certain subconscious desires we won't dwell on, but the real
Oedipus Complex is this well intentioned arrogance. Oedipus is blind to his
issues, mostly because he is a king in the middle of a crisis, who needs to
save his people. He promises to save them, he believes he is the only one who
can save them, and he loses total track of who he is, where his power comes
from, where his abilities come from, what his role really is, and how he
oversteps those bounds at his own and his peoples' peril. If you look at the
prayer of preparation for today I took a quote from Oedipus, this the chorus,
reminding the audience exactly what a king should be, above all things pious,
knowing his role, but he doesn't. He thinks that he is the only one who can
save the city, not God, completely blind to the fact that the scourge he is
trying to eliminate is actually himself. Anyone who suggests that possibility
is immediately against him. He bases his ability to save the city on the fact
that he did it before, he saved the city from the sphinx, so he is sure he can
save it from this plague, his success makes him arrogant, and his arrogance
makes him blind, and his blindness to his guilt legitimizes in his mind
everything that he does, including calling for the death of his best friend and
brother in law/uncle, I'm the savior of this city, the people need me, I'm glad
I'm not like you unfeeling, uncaring people, who are trying to stop me, at one
point, that unfortunate brother in law says, but Oedipus, what if you are
wrong, he responds, still I must rule, at another point, what if you bring upon
yourself destruction, and he responds, but if it saves the city. Then you are
acting like a fool a tyrant, would you have me not save myself? The city and
himself become so entwined that he cannot differentiate, himself as savior, in
importance, and the object of what he is saving, it becomes about him. Though
his intentions are good, meaningful, selfless even, his arrogance makes him a selfish
tyrant, yes selfless to selfish, so quickly. . . well intentioned arrogance.
Now you may be asking yourself, what
does a fictional ancient king have to do with me? We do the same things all the
time. So much of American culture is based on the idea of being "good
people." Giving back, paying forward, , saving something or someone, be it
the planet, the poor, the children, the victims, wearing pink all month to make
people aware of breast cancer, yeah it's about making people aware, but not of
breast cancer instead, of how much we care about other people. We often look at
performing community service as status symbols, we look at political action
movements as having monopolies on compassion. All with the best of intentions
surely, I mean we are helping people, more than that we are saving people,
right, that makes us good people, but then what do we do afterwards? What do we
do with our good person status that we have bought with our compassionate
hearts? Whatever the heck we want, right? We're free, and we're good people, so
why shouldn't I have the finer things in life, why shouldn't I buy this extra
expensive designer handbag, why shouldn't I put in a pool, why shouldn't I take
the week off and go lay on the beach for awhile. I give lots of money to
charity, why shouldn't I cheat on my taxes? Why shouldn't I cut a few corners?
Why shouldn't I take this insider information I know and make a little money?
Sure it's illegal, but it's not like I'm really stealing, I'm not like those
other guys who rob at gun point, I'm just cutting a few corners. Imagine you
are someone who donates all their time, running a non profit organization that
is working to save poor people in Africa who are afflicted with AIDS. No one
else is helping those poor people, I'm the only one, I'm the only one who
cares, I'm glad I'm not like those uncompassionate people who care nothing
about people who are suffering, so why shouldn't I live in a bigger house, buy
a pool, drive a nice car, I deserve it, I care. I'm entitled to it, I'm
compassionate and you are just heartless, so yeah I'm glad I'm not you. Aaron
Hernandez, NFL Star, is in the news lately accused of murder, I'm sure last
October he was feeling pretty good, dressed in his pink socks, showing how much
he cared about women with breast cancer, why not commit murder? Well at least
he isn't involved in dog fighting? What about you, have you ever said, well,
thank God I'm not as bad a person as Michael Vick?
We're keeping this nation safe, why
not use the NSA to spy on our people. We're trying to give people health care,
why not use tricky politics to get it passed, or we're trying to save people
from a bad health care policy, why not shut down the government to get it done.
Our politics are full of it because we are full of it. . . Literally. We say,
well I'm glad I'm not a Republican, or I'm glad I'm not a Democrat, or lately,
I'm just glad I'm not a politician.. I mean, even collectively it gets us, as a
nation, we give aid to countries all around the world, we are the good light of
democracy and freedom, the exceptional a city on a hill, why not send drone
strikes, at least we're not like Russia, or Iran, or are we? It's arrogance,
well intentioned I think, but arrogance, and its individual and collective,
micro and macro, so it's not just about following Jesus example or listening to
his parable, when he talks about humility, it's not just empty advice because
there are real world consequences for well intentioned arrogance and it's been
wise to take a look at them.
Looking down there is always
examples of people doing things, and being people, who can make you feel pretty
good about yourself, pretty solid in your status and self satisfaction, but as
Christians we are called to look up, and Christ's example smacks our arrogance
in the face again and again. Oh yeah you put on pink socks, I wore a crown of
thorns, oh yeah you spent a little money, I paid the ultimate price, you saved
someone, I saved the entire world, but Jesus never would point those things
out, he just wouldn't because on top of all that he was also humble, giving up
his crown to become human, humble beginnings, and therefore was exalted. He
didn't take a day off, he was always Christ, always good and always humble. And
that's the thing about the Kingdom of God, it isn't a part time kind of place.
It's full time. It's all the time. It's not fragmented, its whole, its holy. It
isn't the kind of deal where you are a good person to earn your get out of jail
free card. It's a place of love, and love just doesn't have a day off. At least
not the true love, that is patient and kind, slow to anger, and of the
steadfast nature that God abounds in, so loving the world that he sent his only
begotten son, not to condemn the world, but to save it, to save the humble, to
exalt the humble, allowing the meek to inherit the Earth, full time, now and
forever, and if it wasn't so we'd be in serious trouble, which leave us no
excuse not to find in our hearts a little bit of humility and a whole lot of
love. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 18:9-14). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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