“When pride comes, then comes disgrace;

but wisdom is with the humble.”

–Proverbs 11:2

“Seven Deadly Sins.” Some of you are familiar with that term from Roman Catholic theology. It speaks of actions that can be harmful for one’s spirit–pride, greed, lust, and more. Only recently did I learn that there is a companion list known as “Seven Heavenly Virtues.” Those traits build up the well-being of ourselves and others, pointing us once again toward God’s intention. Each of those virtues is identified as the opposite of the deadly sins. During Lent, I will focus on six of those attributes, omitting the lust/chastity antonym. We begin this week with humility.

Its opposite is pride. Pride or hubris is spoken of by some theologians as the original sin. That affirmation arises from the Scriptural moment when Adam and Eve disobeyed the one limit God set for them in the Garden of Eden. They convinced themselves that eating of the fruit would make them more like the Creator, but they were wrong. Some have argued that pride is the root emotion of the other deadly sins. I’ll let you decide  

Of course, pride in its best form is a good thing. We want our children to take pride in learning a new skill or gaining admission to their preferred college. An employee has cause to feel pride in a job well done and an individual working on personal growth should appropriately be proud when old triggers do not generate the same behaviors. Excessive pride is the problem and the Bible frequently speaks of its dangers.

“A person’s pride will bring humiliation,” Proverbs warns, “but one who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.” “The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low,” added the prophet Isaiah “and the pride of everyone shall be humbled.” Jesus declared “All who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted” while the Apostle Paul added “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regards others as better than yourselves.”  Thus, the consistent message of Scripture is that a surplus of pride gets us in trouble while humility lifts up.

I suspect each of you can think of a person who has reversed that deadly/heavenly paradigm as they think that pride is the way to go and humility is to be avoided. I can certainly recall moments when I got off track on this one. Perhaps you can identify such occasions for yourself as well. Thus for your sake (and mine), let me tell you of someone I met years ago who seemingly got it right. 

His name was Bruce. I would never have addressed him with such informality for when I arrived at Princeton Theological Seminary in the fall of 1983 he was a professorial legend. Even though he was not teaching any of my introductory courses, returning classmates encouraged me to sit in on one of his lectures because he was retiring after that school year. I did so once or twice and found him to be incredibly insightful and humble. He had this gentle spirit which belied the fact that he was one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars. In fact, if you have a copy of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, read the introductory piece entitled “To the Reader.” At its conclusion you will find the name of the man who chaired the committee behind it: Bruce Metzger.        

I never had a conversation with him, but two memories stand out. As part of my orientation weekend, he spoke about another Bible translation that he had helped bring to publication the previous year. It was the Reader’s Digest Bible. In those days, that magazine would publish condensed editions of best-sellers. In its Biblical version, the Old Testament was reduced by half and the New Testament by a quarter. 

He told the new seminarians about the furor that came with its publication. Many asked Dr. Metzger why, given his scholarly credentials, he would have anything to do with that effort. I don’t remember his exact words, but it was something like “My goal was to help people encounter God’s Word. I felt then and still believe that if a condensed version of Scripture helped persons read it for the first time, it was worth being part of it.”

The other comment came to me second-hand.  A long-time friend was Dr. Metzger’s pastor for the last chapter of his life. Along with other seminary professors Bruce was regularly in worship. That would have intimidated me as a pastor. I have another friend in ministry who served a congregation largely composed of retired Presbyterian ministers and missionaries. He once recounted that upon standing up to read the New Testament lesson in worship, he noticed those retired servants of the church following in their own Bible–though they were doing so in Greek!

Its was something of the same experience for my friend knowing that Dr. Metzger sat in the pew. Early in his pastorate my friend made what was probably a half-jesting comment to Dr. Metzger about how having him in worship forced that pastor to make sure he had accurately translated the text from its original language. In his gentle and modest way, Bruce replied “I don’t need someone to translate a passage for me. What I need someone to help me hear how we should live in response to the Word. I’m grateful for the way you do that week after week.”   

During this week and season, I encourage you in all the places you go, to be more like Bruce. 

God of all knowledge, I have unique experiences and gifts that make me an expert. Even so, help me to approach this day and all of its interactions with a spirit of humility. And to keep doing so whether or not I end up exalted. Amen.