Almighty God, give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit; and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save. AMEN
JOKE: Car flashing his lights at me. Then pulled past and leaned out the window and shouted at me, saying “Drive faster you BEEP BEEP idiot”
One of my sons calls out from the back, “is he a friend of yours, Dad?”
I say, “No, of course not, why?”
“He seems to know you quite well!”, my son says… smiling mildly.
Well I think we can all relate. You know the way it is: anyone driving slower than you is an idiot. Anyone driving faster than you is a maniac? And this is why Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt…
‘For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’
For the Cathedral clergy – we are perhaps sorely tempted when we see people parking in odd places, cycling down curls passage or walking on the newly seeded grass.
For my colleagues this is a more straightforward experience. For me – the offenders are normally related to me so one has to be more careful…
But seriously… the temptation to vent a little and lend strangers some righteous indignation is very strong for most of us. An indiscretion on the road, over some covid rule, manners in public and behaviour in the press all give delicious licence for ‘regarding others with contempt’.
We even do it over class, religion, and culture.
‘Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art’, said F Scott Fitzgerald in his diary.
Some people can’t help themselves but express their contempt out loud. Like Jonah in the first lesson a few positively look for the chance to deride…
No one – it seems – can help themselves on social media – at all. Others still – prefer to think it in secret believing, with another keen observer of humanity, George Bernard Shaw, that silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
But few question this sad aspect of our nature, as Luke did: Why do we trust in ourselves that we are righteous and regard others with such easy contempt…?
It is a question worth mulling over – not just now at the start of Lent but now as we watch with horror the Putin war machine treating international law and human life with extreme contempt.
It seems to me these fleeting feelings of judgment are a window into our souls.
And whether you are lost for words or itching to act – how we regard and respond to contempt in ourselves AND others makes a very big difference to how we act – and the world we will make together.
Why do we trust in ourselves that we are righteous and regard others with such easy contempt..?
My theory is that that moment of contempt (you can imagine the nearly disguised flickering sneer of the man at prayer)… that moment offers us a simulation of what it must feel like to be really good.
It presents a momentary illusion of what it would be like to be better than our neighbour
A glance at actual goodness – and without the effort.
But like any intoxicant that ennobling effect is fleeting and, if anything, leaves us further from a lasting and genuine experience of change.
In the short term it may be exquisitely rewarding. But in the medium term, like arguing with the ref
or reasoning with the automated helpline… it never works!
Jonah – in the first lesson – was longing for judgement before God made his intervention, and Jonah had to learn the hard way that indulging in this temptation is not only degrading of others, but it is degrading of ourselves even more so. Why? Because it avoids our true call and nature. It denies our destiny to be GOOD and TRUE and HOLY, to love mercy, to do justly, and to walk humbly with our God.
As with Jonah so with us: The reason why St Luke presents contempt – as itself – so contemptible
is because it represents how people most often avoid that much harder won redemption of evil
that Christianity offers.
Contempt is a defence against our own unwanted feelings, and the gap we feel between who we are and who we want to be. Haven’t you noticed how we either focus on sins that we ourselves are not tempted by at all or call out in others what we are most afraid of in ourselves?
And this is why Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: Because he knew that we express contempt out of fear and shame to disguise our own lack and to deflect our own need to grow in holiness.
That, friends, is why Luke’s gospel is the way it is….
Luke is always focussing on those for whom his society had institutionalised its snobbery – and he challenges his readers over and over, saying:
Forget them. What would it be like to change yourself?
To be better. To grow into holiness.
To be free of the pride that is contempt for everyone except yourself.
As I say this to you – let me assure you all I can think of is my own need for just the same. This is preacher’s dilemma I suppose.
It reminds me of some wonderful Paul Simon lyrics in his album ‘You’re the One’:
Wanna be a missionary? Got that missionary Zeal?
Let a stranger change your life. How’s that make you feel?
You want to be a preacher
But you don’t know how or when?
Find a quiet place
Use a humble pen.
Paul Simon finds his resolution in just the same place as Jesus did – HUMILITY.
And this is the nub of what I want to hold before us this morning. Humility is the opposite of Contempt. It is its sacred antidote and mortal enemy, “for all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
but all who humble themselves will be exalted”.
Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts, said archbishop Temple. It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all.
Humility is the acceptance that the problems we experience do not find their genesis solely in others and that the solutions to the problems we experience do not like solely in ourselves.
Humility means being like the little child in the account that follows this coming to Christ, being with him, allowing him to know and love us as we are.
Humility means being like the persistent widow in the parable before this and looking/praying persistently to GOD, keeping our eyes off our neighbour, and on him.
The Rule of Benedict spends so long talking about humility because it is THE key ingredient in conflict de-escalation and personal transformation.
Humility is THE prescription for pride
Humility is THE on-ramp to change
Humility is the precondition of peace
Humility is not humble pie. Nor meekness, nor weakness.
It is hard. It requires practice, restraint, mercy, forgiveness, but it feeds resolve, respect, wisdom, courage, perseverance.
And as hot passions are cooled, contained and directed, humility becomes a powerful weapon for change.
The Christians response to any lack… and any evil begins with the rebirth in us of God – the welling up of God’s power to save.
Christian action – which is so necessary – NOW requires that we first cleanse our hearts and pour contempt on all our pride.
God’s amazing power – which has done marvellous things in people and in history, Gods power which we ARE invited to partake of even now only emerges in those who are rooted in HUMILITY.
It only grows when feeds off the pure waters of God’s love and judgement, his anger and righteousness betwixt which there is no distance or difference: The perfect love that drives out all fear.
Dean Catherine suggested a super simple method for prayer this morning:
TSP- THANK YOU SORRY PLEASE
I am certainly going to use it myself.
Whether you are lost for words or itching to do something… as you pray and seek God this Lent – to thank, confess, and intercede, why not start here?
“Do not regard others with contempt. But humble yourself that God might exalt you”
