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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Good Enough for God? |
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Luke
14:1-11 Seventeenth
Sunday after Trinity September
26, 2010 Pride
has been called one of the seven deadly sins.
That is not entirely accurate, because every sin is deadly.
There is no sin unto life, but every sin is a sin unto death. Every
sin makes us unfit to have fellowship with God's absolute goodness.
Every sin makes us worthy of His wrath.
To us, our sins may seem small and insignificant, but to God they
are hate crimes of the foulest and meanest kind which deserve eternal
punishment. But pride is a
sin, as evil and deadly as any other, which people, not very long ago,
thought should be singled out as one into which we are prone to fall, with
disastrous effects. Let us,
therefore look into the sin of pride this morning. Our
English word, "pride," has two meanings. It can mean a good thing such as being conscientious, and
having a commitment to doing things well.
It can mean the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes
from a job well done. In a
good way, we can be proud of our family, proud of our country, proud of
our church. This kind of
pride always has a good dose of gratitude in it because we are also
grateful to be a part of our family, to live in our country, and to belong
to Holy Trinity Church. This
kind of pride is good and is blessed by God. The
other meaning of "pride" is the sinful pride of the Bible.
It basically means to over think your achievements and your worth.
In this sense, "pride" means arrogance and conceit, and
it is closely liked to greed and hate.
Most
people, reading the parable in our Gospel Lesson for this morning think
the pride Jesus had in mind is primarily arrogance and conceit in our
relationships with other people. It
is easy to see how they would reach this conclusion, for our Lord spoke of
the jostling and rushing about of the Pharisees to get the seats of honor
at the banquet. Every culture
I know of has some kind of seating order at important events.
There is a special seat for the bride at a wedding.
The chairman of the board has a special seat at the meetings.
The captain of a ship has a special chair on the bridge of his
ship. On certain ships, the
captain has his own table in the dinning salon, and to be invited to eat
at his table is considered an honor.
But, if someone sits at his table without an invitation he risks
the embarrassment of being asked to move and give his seat to someone who
has been invited. Jesus'
parable tells us these Pharisees were scrambling for the special seats,
and they wanted them because they were guilty of the sin of pride. They
looked at the other Pharisees and said to themselves, "I have more
education, more money, more status, than these other men, so I deserve the
seat of honor." It is
implied in the parable that the people taking the seats of honor were not
always entitled to them, but usurped them in place of those who had more
of whatever it was that gave them status in their group.
Their pride made them desire to have
the honors, not to earn them. They wanted to be honored, not to be honorable. Their
pride shows that they knew nothing of God and His ways.
They knew nothing of the greatness and glory and majesty of God.
They knew nothing of His perfect goodness or His absolute moral
perfection. They did not see
that He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, nor did they see that
they were nothing but guilty sinners who deserved, not God's favour, but
His wrath. These men were like another Pharisee Jesus told us about in
Luke 18:9-14. This Pharisee went into the Temple and "prayed,"
"God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I
possess." It is important to see that the pride of the Pharisees in
both of these stories was primarily spiritual
pride. It was a pride toward God. In their pride they were convinced that they were
not sinners; that they were morally and spiritually superior to all other
people; that they were so good they deserved to be taken right into the
very heart of Heaven; that they were so good they had earned the right to
enter into the very presence of a holy and righteous God. In short, they
thought they were good enough for God. Thus Luke 18:9 says Jesus told the
story of the Pharisee to people who believed they had achieved
righteousness. And Jesus said in Luke 14:11, "whosoever exalteth
himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted." And
here is the meaning of this parable.
Any person who attempts to exalt, that is, to raise himself up to
God or to earn a place in God's house, by his own power and goodness will
be abased. Let me say that in
modern language, because this point is terribly important, it is one of
the most important things you will ever hear in this world. Anyone who tries to earn his way to Heaven by being good,
will not make it. Let me say
it one more time. Anyone who
thinks his own goodness and good deeds will get him into Heaven is not
bound for Heaven; he is headed to hell forever.
The reason for this is sin. "All
have sinned," and "the wages of sin is death."
That's what the Bible says. And
that word "death" means the living death of hell.
Notice that it is the wage of sin.
Hell is what sinners earn. And
who is a sinner? "All
have sinned," everyone, the pope, Billy Graham, The Right Reverend
Doctor R. Dennis Campbell, and you. Thanks
be to God, that's not the end of the story.
For, "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
Let me explain what it means to humble yourself.
It means to abandon any hope of being good enough to earn a place
in Heaven. It means to confess, to yourself and to God, that you are not
righteous, you are a sinner, like everyone else, and you don't deserve
Heaven, you deserve hell. Finally,
it means to trust God to forgive your sins and to give you peace with Him,
on earth now and in Heaven forever, through the ministry and sacrifice of
Jesus Christ. "Whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," for
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Let
us pray. O
Christ, in some miraculous way You came to this planet as a human being to
live and die and rise again so that You can forgive our sins and exalt us
to Heaven. Help us now,
merciful Lord, to humble ourselves and trust in You alone.
In Thy strong Name we pray. Amen.
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