the church geek

Today’s sermon, from the text of 1 Peter 5:5b-11

One person who has been in the news a lot over the last several years is Roger Clemens. This week he was in the news because of revelations of an inappropriate relationship with country singer Mindy McCready, which supposedly began when she was 15 years old.

Now, in my estimation Clemens is one of those people full of Hubris. For those of you who don’t know what Hurbris is, the wikipedia definition of its modern usage is this: Hubris describes someone who demonstrates exaggerated self pride, arrogance, or self-confidence.

Rogers Clemens was one of the most pre-eminent baseball players in Major League history. There isn’t another pitcher who has come even close to winning seven Cy Young Awards like he did.

Unless you’ve been living in some sort of hole for the last several years, you’re probably aware that the sport of baseball has been awash in a huge scandal related to the use of illegal performance enhancement drugs.

Subpeonas, congressional hearings, accusations, admissions and denials of guilt, and a pretty damaging 409 page report to the Commissioner of Baseball have kept the sports media very busy over the last several years.

On the one hand, some players caught in the midst of this scandal seem to have handled themselves fairly well given the pressure and the charges brought before them. On the other hand, Roger Clemens has not.

Following accusations of illegal substance abuse by fellow players and his one-time trainer, Roger Clemens demanded his day in court, appeared before a congressional committee, and swore under oath that he did not take steroids.

But nobody seems to believe him….And it seems the reason nobody believes him is that Clemens has a bit of a reputation of being full of hubris. His reputation of pride and his over-inflated ego already precede him.

While a brilliant pitcher, early and often in his career Clemens was accused of purposefully mowing down batters by throwing too close to them.

In one American League Championship Series Game against the Seattle Mariners, Clemens knocked down Alex Rodriguez and then proceeded to argue with him. Following that game, Lou Pinella, the Mariners manager called Clemens a head hunter.

Clemens also demanded special treatment. He complained when he had to carry his own luggage at the airport. He received a special dispensation and didn’t have to travel with his team on road trips when he wasn’t scheduled to pitch.

So, with his big ego in the way, when it came time to make a decision whether to believe the word of players like Jose Canseco, Andy Pettite, and his former trainer Brian McNamee, or to believe the word of Roger Clemens it seems that congress and public opinion has weighed against Clemens.

Now, Clemens is in a lot of hot water as he is being investigated for lying under oath about his use of performance enhancing drugs. And the water is only going to get hotter following this week’s revelations.

As the old saying goes, Pride truly comes before the fall.

Pride. Hubris. Over-inflated egos. These things have a way of getting the best of us. We have a hard time keeping them in check. But who can blame us really? After all it’s so hard to keep these things in check in our dog-eat-dog world.

Our competition laden, sports-driven society doesn’t encourage us to keep those things in check. In fact it thrives on the adrenaline of pride and hubris.

Over the years, the NFL has struggled to stamp out celebrations of players full of pride and over-inflated egos. They have put all sorts of fines and penalties in place against players who do crazy and outrageous antics in the end zone after making touchdowns.

And still the celebrations occur, and most of the fans excuse the antics, saying, “Awwww, c’mon….let the guys have a little bit of fun!”

Maybe what the NFL should do is send a memo out to its players. In it they should include these words from Peter, who in this closing passage of his letter writes:

All of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

Okay, maybe that’s totally and completely ridiculous. If the NFL did that sort of thing the games would be boring since nobody would be trying to win.

Peter, however, seems pretty certain that in the game of life those who follow his advice will come out ahead. In his words, those who walk in the path of humility will be exalted. They will find eternal glory in Christ who will restore, support, strengthen, and establish them.

Keeping our pride, our hubris, our over inflated egos in check is a pretty difficult thing to do. Perhaps that’s why Peter uses the words, “clothe yourselves with humility.”

It’s his way of saying that humility does not come naturally to us. Instead, humility is something we have to go over to the coat closet, pull it out and put it on.

Peter suggests that humility is a garment we wear to cover and conceal the things that are underneath. Humility cloaks and conceals our pride, our hubris, and our egos. Humility keeps those things in check.

While this idea of humility can be difficult for us to wrap our minds around, it wasn’t much easier for the Greeks or Romans back in biblical times to get it either. In the Greek world, the word for humility was seldom used. When it was it was almost always used negatively.

As the Greeks understood it, a humble person did not value their own worth. They intentionally degraded themselves. They bent over backwards to serve others and did almost anything the other person wanted. To the Greeks, a humble person was a weak person.

In contrast to the Greeks, Jews and early Christians saw humility differently. True humility was a positive virtue. It was a sign of both moral strength and integrity. In fact, both Peter and Paul talk about it often in their letters. They held it up as a virtue.

But to them, humility had little to do with lowering their self worth, or degrading them selves, or bending over backwards to serve others to do only what they want us to do. Humility had nothing to do with that sort of thing whatsoever.

Peter writes, “humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.” And with those words Peter indicates what true humility is all about; it is about how we see ourselves before God.

Even the Greeks understood that. You see, the origin of the word Hubris which I used to start things off this morning goes all the way back to the days of Greek mythology.

Hubris described people who thought of themselves as more important than the Greek gods. This attitude was considered a crime in the city of Athens and was thought to be the greatest sin in the ancient Greek world.

Similarly, Peter says those who are humble truly understand their place before God.

The naturalist William Beebe was a good friend of Teddy Roosevelt. After an evening of talk, the two of them would go out on the lawn to search the skies. They would look for a certain spot of light in the lower left hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus.

When they found the spot, Roosevelt would say: “That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda and is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies, each one consisting of one hundred billion suns, each one larger than our own.”

Roosevelt would then grin and say; “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”

That story, in some way gets at the true nature of humility. As we look out at the vastness of the universe and ponder at the wonder of God, the creator and sustainer of the world, we get a sense of what the psalmist meant when he wrote in the 8th Psalm:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

Before God, humility recognizes our limits, weaknesses, and inadequacies. A humble person does not focus on what they can do in their own ability and power. Rather they find their power, their strength, and their adequacy in God.

To walk in this way of humility requires us to see our own story as part of a much larger story. It asks us to trust that our own story is a part of God’s story. This is what Peter tried to help the Christians in Asia Minor see from the very start of his letter.

In the opening to his letter, Peter told them that the things the prophets wrote in the Old Testament all pointed toward their invitation to relationship with God. In this way Peter encouraged them to see their own stories within the context of the entire biblical story.

In today’s passage, as he wraps up his letter he tells them that their story is not just a story of what has happened in the past, of what was revealed through the prophets and the work of Jesus Christ. It is also a story of a future, of their future, of God’s future.

Peter writes:

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

The promise of God’s future redemption and the hope of God’s final work in Jesus Christ is the source of true humility that both gives us a part to play but also keeps us from thinking we are so important we are the only ones who can get it done.

In the third book of that grand tale, the Lord of the Rings, when all has turned out for the best and the power of the Evil Lord Sauron has been destroyed. The wizard Gandalf and the hobbit Frodo are chatting about the way things have come about.

Frodo marvels at the truth of the various prophecies that litter the tale as it unfolds. He marvels that they’ve been fulfilled and that he has been a part of their fulfillment. The wise wizard Gandalf responds to Frodo’s surprise by saying,

And why should not they prove true? Surely you do not disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”

Here in lies the secret of keeping our Pride and Hubris in check, of walking in the way of humility. It comes in remembering that “You are a very fine person and that God is very fond of you, but that you are only quite a little person in a wide world after all!” And that Christ will be the one who will restore you, support you, strengthen you, and establish you. It’s to him who will be the power and the glory now and for ever. Amen

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