Tying Your Shoes

1 John 2:3-11New International Version (NIV)

Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

I do not have a lot memories from preschool.  However, the one thing I do recall, very vividly, is learning to tie my shoes.  I had a paper shoe that had red yarn as the shoe string and when we became proficient in tying our shoes, we were able to bring the shoe home.  I recall being very proud when I was finally able to bring my shoe home.  Griffin has always been a fan of wearing cowboy boots and therefore we haven’t done a very good job of learning to tie shoes simply because he doesn’t wear them very often.  I have been instructed by Griffin’s teacher (Mrs. Beier, who is in the congregation) to help him learn to tie his shoes.  I find this process frustrating at times because it now comes so natural to me and I forget that it doesn’t come natural when you are learning a task for the first time.  I catch myself wanting to tie his shoes for him usually due to time constraints and a lack of patience.  I have learned that it is a process that takes time and effort by all parties to accomplish.  It gives me great reverence for those who were so patient with me as I learned this task.  Griffin very well may wear cowboy boots a majority of his days but this task is still something he has to learn.  It seems so mundane nowadays though, when velcro is so prominent in children’s shoes.  It seems like a task that is not as necessary as it once was due to the many different options that are available to us today.  

Of course, the message this morning is not one based on tying one’s shoes.  It is, however, about a task that seems mundane and not nearly as necessary given the many different options available to us today.  I am going to speak with you on a topic today that is one none of us like to hear.  It is a topic that we rarely notice in ourselves but is completely obvious when we view the lives of others.  C.S. Lewis says this about our topic in his collection of books and talks called Mere Christianity, “The more we have it in ourselves the more we dislike it in others.”  The topic in which I am referring to is pride.  I am not talking about pride in our family, our community, our favorite sports teams, or even our own accomplishments.  Lewis calls pride the vice that lies behind every other sin that we committ.  He, and many other Christian teachers, say that pride is the root of all evil.  Lewis says, “It was through pride that the devil became the devil.  Pride leads to every other vice.”  The part of Lewis’ explanation of pride that stuck with me the most is when he explains how to gauge our own pride.  Pride is always in competition with another person’s pride.  The more proud we are, the more we will notice it, and dislike it, in others.  Let that sink in.  It may sting but let that resonate in your heart.  How ticked off are you about those women marching?  How upset are you when you see those standing up for equal rights of all people?  How upset do you get when you see those people protesting against planned parenthood?   It is not some conviction of a long held belief that you have that is making you feel that way.  It is pride.  And it is the toughest pill to swallow.  Lewis says, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it of the next man.  We say people are proud of being rich or clever or  good looking.  But they are not.  They are only proud of being richer, cleverer and better looking than others.... The pleasure of being above the rest is what makes us proud.”  And it is that kind of pride that I am speaking of today.  For example, I may say that I am proud of the people of this church or that I am proud of this building we have here.  But pride is what makes us believe that the people here are any better than the people who fill the pews of another church.  It is pride that makes us believe that this building is more of a house of worship than another.  There is no shame in being proud of the people of this church or this building.  However, the force that will wreck a church more quickly and devastatingly is the kind of pride that tells us the people of this church and this building are better than others.  Again, there is no shame in feeling pride.  The sin is derived from the pleasure we get from being better than others, from finding pleasure in having more of something than someone else.  

After writing that last statement, I got a thought... I thought, “Does God find pleasure in the Christian who upholds His greatest command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ better than others?”  After thinking about it for a few minutes, the definitive answer is absolutely no.  I say that with confidence because God does not work that way.  He sent his son to die for us, all of us, on the cross.  God does not view one Christian as better than another for we are not compared to one another in His eyes, we are only compared to Christ.  And that leads us directly to our scripture for this morning: (get bible and re-read verses 3-6 and for those reading in the blog, you can re-read above).  Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus lived.  So if we as Christians claim to live in him and he in us, then we must live as Jesus lived.  If Jesus had let his pride get the best of him, or said in another way; if Jesus would have allowed his pride to compete against those who opposed him it is likely that he would have died much earlier in life than he did.  For his pride of being the son of man would have led to his death very early in his ministry.  Was Jesus proud of his faith?  Of his Father?  Of God?  Of course he was but he never once thought he was better than any of us.  He never once derived pleasure from being more faithful, more prayerful, or closer to God than anyone else.  This is evident throughout the New Testament: the woman at the well, the lepers he healed, the children that sat on his knee, just to name a few.  Never once did he proclaim himself to be better than the ‘least of these’ and we ought not either.  

I struggled with verses 7-8... (re-read from Bible)  I couldn’t really make sense of it until I looked at the footnotes in the scriptures and Facetimed a friend.  The author goes back and forth and back again from saying ‘new command’ and ‘old command’ and back again to a ‘new command.’  We often misquote Jesus as being the first to say “love your neighbor as you love yourself” in the Gospel of Mark 12:31.  However, Jesus is quoting, verbatim, a Hebrew scripture straight from Leviticus 19:18.  I think what John is saying here is that we know the old command as written in Leviticus but seeing that command come to life through the words and actions of Christ allows us to see that command in a different light.  For example, if you go into a dark room with only a flashlight and shine it across the room the room will look different when you walk to the other side and do the same thing.  The room looks altogether different if the batteries were to run out in the flashlight and you are in a completely dark room than if you walked over and turned the lights on. In the same way, the command to love your neighbor as you love yourself is different when placed within the context of Christ for it is void of any pride.

(re-read verses 9-11)  Learning to tie our shoes is a learned task.  And counteracting pride with its opposite of humility is also a learned task.  Neither one of these are things that come natural to us but once we figure them out, they become second nature.  Hate only leads being blinded by the darkness.  And what is the driving force of that hatred?  Pride.  Finding pleasure in having more of something than someone else.  Think about it, I mean be a little vulnerable between you and God and seek out the reason behind your reasoning for disliking someone or a group of people.  Lewis says, “For pride is the spiritual cancer, it eats up the very possibility of love or contentment or even common sense.”  Only authentic humility in its truest form can combat pride.  We have been surrounded by hatred and division, not because of a difference of opinion but because of the spiritual cancer named pride.  I don’t care what your political stance is.  The devil himself is relishing in the pride that divides us for we are weaker apart than we are together.  It is nearly foolish to think that it is not the fallen angel himself driving us apart.  He would delight in feeding the hungry, protecting the poor, and equality for every man, woman and child if to trade all of that for placing within us the spiritual cancer of pride.  And he would do so in an instant.  Therefore, learning to metaphorically tie your shoes, learning to give God this pride that resides in our hearts is not only important, it is essential.