Sunday, March 1, 2026

Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

Sermon Title: Pride and Selfishness

Last week we began our Lenten Series called “Masterpiece,” inspired by the verse from Ephesians 2:10 which says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (NLT) We might not always feel like it, but we are God’s masterpiece. Unfortunately, sin often messes distorts this masterpiece. Last week we talked about how the famous David Statue in Florence, Italy was sculpted by Michealangelo. And when Michaelangelo was asked how he created it, he said that he chipped away at everything that wasn’t David.

In the same way, this Lent we hope to be chipping away at the things in our life that are not of God, until only a masterpiece is left. Last week we talked about Confession. I gave you the homework to write your own prayer of confession out in your own words. I hope some of you have taken time to do that this week. If not, you could still do it this week.

This week, we’re talking about chipping away at our pride and selfishness.

The dictionary defines pride as “a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.” So basically, thinking a lot more highly of yourself than you actually are. There is nothing wrong with good self-esteem or confidence in your abilities, but pride is taking that all to a whole new level.

I’m guessing we’ve all known at least one very prideful person. Maybe personally, or maybe someone we’ve seen on television. Someone who thinks that they are amazing. Somone who thinks they know everything. Maybe you can even picture that person in your mind.

Some of us have maybe even been that person at various times in our lives, and we have maybe even had to experience the Lord humbling us.

In scripture we first see this in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They think they know better than God and disobey. This is just the first of many stories of pride in scripture.

We see pride again at the tower of Babel. This is where the people decide to build a tower to heaven. And pride is their motivation. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4, NIV) Now there’s nothing wrong with building a tower. But here we see their motivation. “To make a name for ourselves.” It’s all about them and how great they are. It’s not about how great God is.

God’s response to this is scattering the people with various languages so that they can’t communicate with one another. What a way to be humbled, right?

So often we need to ask ourselves, are we doing things to glorify ourselves or glorify God? Are we doing things to help others or help ourselves?

In our scripture today, Jesus tells a parable about two very different people. One person is a tax collector, and the other person is a Pharisee. I laughed, one of the commentaries I was reading this week said its almost set up like “2 people walk into a bar joke.” In today’s circumstances it might be a pastor and a biker. Which is super fitting for Bike Week.

Now at first glance if you hear that Jesus is going to tell a parable about these two people, you might assume the tax collector is the bad person in the story and the Pharisee is the good person in the story. But we will see that Jesus turns this idea upside down as he has a habit of doing.

Now it’s important to notice who Jesus is speaking to before he even tells the parable.

“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable.” (Luke 18:9, NIV)

Sometimes the scriptures are a vaguer about who they are talking about. Here it is clear: Anyone who thinks they are more righteous of someone else and looks down on others. This is a parable for any of us who have every looked down on anyone else. And if I had to guess, I’m guessing we all have at least once in our lives.

Has your pride ever led you to look down on others?

Or have you experienced being on the other side? Someone looking down on you and thinking they are better than you because of their pride?

These two people go into the Temple to pray. A Pharisee and a Tax Collector.

Now I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ll let you be the judge. I personally think the Pharisee’s prayer comes off a little prideful: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” (Luke 18:11-12, NIV) Just me, or does that sound pretty prideful?

I mean it’s great to pray and give God thanks for all our blessings. But he comes off like he’s praying a list of how great he is and not necessarily giving the praise to God.

Then we get to the Tax Collector’s Prayer. Its Tax Season here in our own country, so I think many of us can naturally understand how the Jewish People in Jesus’s Day would have felt about Tax Collectors. And yet, for the Jewish People, a tax collector was way worse than our tax collectors today. A tax collector would have been viewed as a traitor.

The tax collector “is most surely rich, a traitor, and an extortioner, a Jew who collaborates for his own monetary benefit with the hated Roman occupiers. By every imaginable standard, the tax collector is a sinner. His style of life is clearly out of sync with the Torah, and he would be understood by other Jews to be powerful, greedy, corrupt, and merciless.” (Thomas Long, Proclaiming the Parable) You know maybe by today’s standards, the Tax Collector would not be a biker, but a corrupt politician.

Now I know we have a mix of political beliefs here, but for you and whatever side of the aisle you find yourself on, picture the most corrupt politician you can think of. Don’t say that person out But if you have them in your head, imagine Jesus telling this parable describing that person doing this:

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:15) Ouch. It gives this a whole new meaning imagining the most corrupt politician praying this doesn’t it? This gives a whole new meaning to how the Jewish Listener might have felt hearing this parable about a tax collector.Surprisingly in this story, the tax collector of all people is the one who recognizes that they are in need of God’s mercy.

It’s a reminder that God can show mercy and grace to anyone. Even a tax collector. And the choice for us is will we accept that grace? And will we allow that grace to chip away at us, to sanctify us and become more and more like Christ, no matter who we have been in our past. No matter what we have done. May we all receive that grace, and allow the Holy Spirit to chip away at us until only a masterpiece is left.

The opposite of pride is humility. And when we are humble, we recognize that we are in need of a Savior. When we are humble, we recognize that we cannot live this life in our own power or in our own strength. We must seek the power of God working and moving in our lives. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace and mercy.

Most of us here are regular worship attenders. Many of us are involved in church activities outside of Sunday Morning Worship. That could be Dinner Church, United Women in Faith, United Methodist Men, Bells, Choir, Sunday School, Bible Study, WOW, Stephen’s Ministers, F.A.I.T.H, serving meals at HUM or Palmetto House, or so many other wonderful ministries. And for many of us, I’m guessing we could be tempted to pray like Pharisee. To pat ourselves on the back and say, “I’m at church 3 nights a week.”

This is great to be involved in the life of the church. Please don’t hear me wrong. I love how active and involved many of us are. But we must always be careful to judge our motivations. Are we doing what we are doing because we realize that all we have is a gift from God, and we can’t help but want to share our blessings with others? Or are we serving out of pride to say, “look at me?”

Do we find ourselves looking down on others, people like the Tax Collector in the parable?

I mentioned earlier that Bike Week and Biketoberfest was a big fundraiser at my previous church. Community UMC is only a block from Main Street and so for maybe 30 years they’ve been doing Bike Week parking in their Parking Lot as a fundraiser. I believe last year in just 10 days of Bike Week they raised around $40,000 for the church.

As a side note, if you would like to help volunteer with Bike Week, I’m sure they’d love to have you. And I can get you the information.

But every year we would have a Volunteer Celebration after Bike Week. Now some of us volunteered one shift at Bike Week, some did a various number of shifts. But we had at least one woman, maybe more, but one woman that I specifically know of who worked all 10 days straight of Bike Week. And I wanted to honor her for working all 10 days. But she was adamant she did not want me to say anything because she did not do it for the accolades. She just wanted to help the church. And she knew not everyone was physically able to work all 10 days. She did not want to make anyone else feel bad for not working all 10 days.

That’s humility. That’s someone who has chipped away at their pride. That is someone who is serving simply to serve God and not to say, “look how great I am.”

Now don’t get me wrong. I think we should thank people for their service to the church. I’m big on thanking people. We should show gratitude to our volunteers. And I understand it feels good to be recognized. I won’t lie, I love when someone compliments a sermon, or a prayer, or the way I have done something.

But I have to remember not to let praises go to my head. To not say “look at me.” But instead to say, “look at God.” That’s God working in me.

You see the life of humility instead of the life of pride, is all about going from “look at me,” to “look at God.” This week we began our Lenten Bible Study. And in the study this week it contrasted Adam in the Garden at creation, and Jesus in the Garden praying before he was arrested.

Adam in the garden chose pride. He believed that he knew better than God. He chose, “look at me,” instead of “look at God.” Jesus in the garden prayed “thy will be done.” He chose humility. He chose servanthood, he chose “look at God the Father.”

In our Lenten Study, the author said we have a choice to make. Will we be like Adam and pray “not thy will, but my will be done?” Or will we be like Jesus and pray, “not my will, but thy will be done?”

I hope this Lent, as difficult as it may be, that we chip away at our pride. We chip away at our selfish will. We chip away at praising ourselves. And instead, we are transformed into masterpieces of God who are humble, who are not self-seeking. May we turn into masterpieces who instead of saying “look at me,” say “look at God.” And may we live a life of praying the prayer of Jesus, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”

Amen