The Opposite of Pride

I was at a gathering of deanery clergy this week and my colleagues were lamenting the fact that they were running out of things to preach concerning pride. Sunday after Sunday this time of year in lectionary year C the Scripture readings are about pride. Since I had just had a bit of a break from preaching, I wasn’t as aware of this monotony as some, but as we look at this Sunday’s readings we have to admit that there is no escaping the issue of pride.

Ecclesiasticus puts it squarely before us. "Arrogance is hateful to the Lord." "The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord." "The beginning of pride is sin." And in Luke’s gospel, Jesus says, "Do not give yourself a place of honor, rather go and sit down in the lowest place. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." And we can go back to last Sunday’s gospel, too, where Jesus said much the same thing. "Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."

So the message seems pretty straightforward. We are to be humble, to live life humbly, never putting ourselves forward. Jesus is quite clear: Living humbly is the only way to get ahead. The only way to fulfill spiritual ambition is by being humble...?   It’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it? Krister Stendahl is a Lutheran scholar and bishop. He writes about humility that it is "one of the trickiest, funniest virtues of the Christian life." He recounts the well-known story about a man who wanted to be humble. "The man was very happy when he managed to be humble. But he was very sorry that he was happy that he was humble. And he was very happy that he was so sorry that he was happy that he was humble…"

Maybe there’s another way to come at this.

Pride is clearly a vice, a sin, that we are challenged to avoid. As Ecclesiasticus says, arrogance (or pride) is hateful to the Lord and to mortals. Pride is one of the seven capital sins. Our pride offends God and separates us from communion with God and with one another. But what is the opposite of pride? If we are not to be prideful, what are we to be? If I were to ask you in a rapid fire, free association sort of way, what is the opposite of pride, I expect you would say humility. The opposite of pride is humility. But, maybe not, at least theologically speaking. Maybe the opposite of pride is something like faithfulness. Rather than being pride-full, we are to be faith-full. Pride can be defined as love of self. Faith is love of God. The opposite of pride is faithfulness.

Or, to use another term, the opposite of pride is agape love. Agape love, the unmotivated love of God. Agape love, the sort of love that God shows towards us, and the sort of love that we, in faith, can show towards God, is not motivated by what it offers us. Agape love simply celebrates the presence of the other and seeks the happiness and fulfillment of the other. That is how God loves us. God doesn’t love us so that God will feel virtuous or even so that God will feel warm and happy. God loves us for our sake. Agape love. The opposite of pride’s self-love. When we love God, just for God’s sake. When we love others, all those others around us who bear within them the image of God… when we love others just for their sake, that’s agape love. That’s the model for our Christian life.

So it really isn’t about us achieving individual virtue at all, even the virtue of humility. It isn’t about us. It’s about others. The measure of our Christian life isn’t calculated by the purity of our own individual virtue, it is measured in the lives of those around us.

Stendahl tells the story of a boy scout. The boy scout knew that it is good to help old ladies across the street. The young scout had, however, really started to understand the seriousness of Christianity, so that he started to realize that he did such good deeds—leading old ladies across the street—just to show off, just to put himself forward. One day there was an old lady who needed help in crossing the street, but the scout withstood the terrible temptation to help her because he knew he would be doing so only to show off. He resisted the temptation of his own pride, clung to the virtue of humility, and the old lady was run over.

It isn’t about us. It isn’t about our virtue, even the virtue of humility. It’s about others.

This morning’s reading from Hebrews reminds us of the same thing. "Let mutual love continue." Agape love, made real in actions done for the betterment of others. You’ll hear this over and over, but agape love isn’t a feeling, it’s a way of acting that respects, honors and celebrates the other. "Show hospitality to strangers." Offer hospitality to people you do not know and may possibly never see again.  Just for their sake.  "Remember those in prison." For the author of Hebrews those were probably Christians imprisoned and tortured for their faith, but the message is good for us to hear also. Remember those in prison. Honor the image of God present even in those who are behind bars. Do not betray your relationships, whether those are family relationships, friendships, committed, romantic relationships or your relationship with God. Act in ways that respect, honor and celebrate the other one in all of your relationships. And do not love money more than people.

The stories I’ve told from Krister Stendahl come from a chapter in a book on Paul. The chapter is called "Love rather than integrity." He stresses that integrity is not a bad thing, but it is an example of an individual, personal virtue. And Paul’s theology, and certainly much of the theology of the Gospels, isn’t about achieving personal virtue, it’s about building up the community of faith through love. Agape love. Acting in ways that celebrate, respect and honor others, for the building up of the community.

Here is a little more of what he says about love and the Christian community. "The church is a place," Stendahl writes, "where people can afford to live together with different views, but that requires love." Because we have love, we can afford to live together. We can pay the price that it requires to live together, in all of our diversity and shortcomings, because we have love. The price means giving up individual needs, recognizing that those needs are secondary to the community, and acting in love...   in ways that celebrate, honor and respect others for the building up of the community. Paul gives love, agape love, primary prominence (Stendahl writes) because love has the great power to keep even things like faith and hope, even wonderful individual virtues like faith and hope (and we might add humility)… "love has the great power to keep things like faith and hope from deteriorating into little lapel buttons which we flaunt to proclaim our own cleverness, our own commitment, our own capacity to believe. In reality, love means actually to be what one is together with one’s brothers and sisters to the benefit of the building up of the church."

Each piece of that is important. To be who we are, together in celebration of one another, acting to build up the church. Agape love. The opposite of pride.

Sermon Index
Comments are welcome.  Send to krisorr@att.net