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 16^th 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