Waiting for the Statue
The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
October 27, 2013
Waiting for the Statue
Luke
18:9-14
It was a scrap of paper, yellow and faded,
about an inch square,
taped on the edge of the blotter.
For as long as I can remember,
it was there on my grandfather’s desk,
something he would see each day as he did his work.
It was a sentence, just words, no picture:
“I would rather men should ask
why no statue has been erected in my honor,
than why one has.”
The words are attributed to the Roman philosopher Cato.
He wrote those words more than 2000 years ago,
shortly before the birth of our Lord.
“I would rather men should ask
why no statue has been erected in my honor,
than why one has.”
It is a lesson in the importance of humility,
of humbleness, of modesty,
of the danger of arrogance,
the folly of excessive pride.
We live in a society that chases celebrity,
that idolizes the famous,
everyone hungry for their moment in the spotlight.
Politicians, athletes, business executives,
yes, even clergy
eager to stand out,
to be the one at the head of the line,
bathed in a bright spotlight,
looking assured, confident,
the very picture of success.
Yet, everything the Bible teaches us,
the very word of the Lord our God,
is that we are to live humbly, modestly,
not seeking to have statues built in our honor,
or for that matter, building statues of others,
but all of us together building the foundation
of God’s kingdom.
My grandfather kept that quote on his desk
to remind him of the importance of humility;
it was an important daily lesson for him.
By all accounts, he was a successful man –
he ran a small contracting business,
was held in respect and esteem by others in the community.
He could easily have gone down the road of arrogance:
He graduated from Iowa State University at the age of 20,
and was bright enough to have gone on to
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at age 21
to pursue graduate work,
back in a day when most people didn’t even go to college.
In 1923 he moved to Buffalo,
at that time a booming, bustling city,
filled with opportunities for a bright young man.
He worked hard and enjoyed success even in the Depression.
I knew him to be smart,
demanding
and confident of himself.
Yet I never knew him to be arrogant;
he took that quote seriously.
He took it seriously because he took his faith seriously.
It may have been a quote from a Roman statesman
he had taped to his desk,
but he knew his scripture well,
and he would have known the many, many lessons
in the Bible that call us to lives of humility.
How many times have we heard the quote from the prophet
Micah,
“what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God.”
(Micah 6:8)
Those of us of a certain age know well the King James Version
of verse 18 in the 16th chapter of the book of
Proverbs:
“Pride goeth before a
fall.”
That’s not exactly how the verse goes, though,
it is even stronger:
Pride goeth before destruction,”
The Book of Proverbs is filled with warnings about pride:
“When pride comes,
then comes disgrace;”
(Proverbs 11:2)
“A person’s pride will
bring humiliation,”
(Proverbs 29.23)
And just so we don’t miss the point,
Proverbs 8:13 tells us:
“ ‘Pride and arrogance…I
hate’ says the Lord.”
This is what Jesus is teaching us in our lesson.
Two men praying,
the first clearly a man of God,
in fact a leader in the religious community,
a man who had dedicated his life to God,
a man who lived and worked in the Temple,
someone who would have known the Proverbs,
who would have known the passage from the prophet Micah.
The other man was a tax collector,
an honorable calling these days,
even if some beg to differ;
but in Jesus’ time it was a job that went to the corrupt,
the venal,
the kind of person who today might work as a loan shark,
looking to squeeze a little more money
out of the poor and the powerless.
Yet, who does Jesus lift up as the more righteous of the
two:
the scoundrel!
The scoundrel because he walked in humility,
walked humbly.
Like so much of Jesus’ teaching,
this turns upside down what the world teaches us,
the lessons we learn in school,
on the playing fields,
in life.
The man of God wears fine clothing
that shows his importance,
he is held in esteem by all in the community,
he walks with his head held high,
a man known and respected for his knowledge of the law,
the one who taught the law to others,
who helped others to live by the law.
And yet this is the man Jesus turns from,
in favor of a scoundrel,
a man who was little more than a thief.
Jesus tells us in his Sermon on the Mount
that it will be the meek who will inherit the earth,
not the celebrities,
the rich,
the famous,
the corporate elite,
or the Pharisees.
The Greek word we translate as “meek”
can also be translated as “humble”,
so we’d hear our Lord tell us that it will be
the humble who
will inherit the earth.
How do we do this, live humbly and with humility,
when we want to strive for greatness,
when we want to win the World Series or Super Bowl,
the gold medal, the trophy,
the advancement, the promotion,
to excel and stand out?
Who doesn’t long to hear the words,
“I am proud of you”.
Those words are almost as important as,
“I love you.”
We all want to be proud of our lives,
proud of our accomplishments,
proud of our children,
proud of our spouses,
proud of our parents.
This is the challenge that Jesus sets squarely before us:
to work to use the gifts God has given us
to the best of our ability,
without getting puffed up;
to be proud,
without being prideful.
Two thousand years of Christian history shows that
we are not very good at walking humbly;
that we cross the line eagerly into pride and arrogance.
We followers of Jesus Christ have throughout history
been quick to set ourselves apart,
as though we were better.
We set ourselves apart not only from those
who were not followers of Christ,
but even within the Christian family,
some Christians thinking themselves better than others.
We do that between denominations;
we even do that within denominations,
churches of the same denominations each thinking
they’ve got it right,
they possess truth,
while the church down the street gets it wrong.
I remember seeing a bumper sticker some years ago that said,
“You worship God in your way,
while I worship him in his way.”
That’s just another way of saying,
“I am glad I am not like those other people.”
It is a statement dripping with self-righteousness,
and the danger is that a drip can turn into a stream
if it isn’t turned off.
Frederick Buechner helps us with his observation,
“True humility doesn’t consist of thinking ill of yourself,
or acting with false modesty,
but of thinking of yourself not much differently
from the way you’d be apt to think of anybody else.”
True humility is to live by Jesus’ commandment
that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We should love ourselves and be proud of ourselves,
but in the same way,
we should love and be proud of our neighbor,
friend and stranger alike.
To look down at another –
anyone,
to judge, to treat with disdain,
to think that we are somehow better,
is to ignore Jesus’ call
to love our neighbors as ourselves.
It is the Psalmist who helps us
to focus on where our pride should be:
“our pride is in the
name of the Lord our God.”
This is a pride that doesn’t lead to self-righteousness,
but instead leads us to humility,
remembering our call to service,
following the One who came
not to be served, but to serve;
our call to lives marked by compassion for others,
empathy for the stranger, the foreigner,
the poor, the jobless.
As our Lord has taught us,
it is the little child,
the one with no claims to greatness,
too young to be filled with pride and self-righteousness,
to young to have a statue built
in his or her honor,
that the kingdom of God belongs.
“All who exalt
themselves will be humbled,
but all who humble
themselves will be exalted.”
AMEN
posted by Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson @ 11:00 AM
