CHRISTIANITY 101: PLAYING TO AN AUDIENCE OF ONE
There’s a fascinating story that’s been making the rounds on the Internet for quite a while now. I honestly don’t know if the story is real or if it’s a myth. In any case, it reveals what I believe to be a profound and insightful truth. The story is called, “Life Is Like a Cup of Coffee,” and it goes like this.
Once upon a time, a group of college alumni – all upwardly mobile and well-established in their careers – got together for a reunion at the home of a beloved, old professor. The conversation soon turned into a litany of complaints about how stressed out they all were at work, and how their lives had not turned out at all the way they’d envisioned them in college. The professor then quietly offered his guests some coffee, and the distinguished alumni graciously accepted.
The professor went out to the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. When he returned, he brought the coffee…and a varied assortment of cups. Some of the cups were made of porcelain, some of the cups were made of glass, some of the cups were made of crystal, and some of the cups were made of plastic. Some of the cups were very exquisite-looking, and some of the cups were really quite plain. After each of the alumni had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor began to speak.
He said, “I want you all to look around. Notice that all of the more expensive, nicer-looking cups have been taken…while the plainer, cheaper-looking cups have been left on the tray. While I suppose it’s only natural for you to want the best for yourselves, that just might be the source of all your problems and your stress. Rest assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the taste of the coffee. In most cases, it’s just a bit fancier and more expensive.
“What all of you really wanted was the coffee, not the cup…but you consciously went for the best of the cups. Then you even began eyeing each other’s cups in an effort to see who had the best one. Now consider this. Life is like a cup of coffee. The jobs, the money, the position in society…those are merely the cups. They’re just tools to hold and contain life, and the kind of cup we have does not define – or change – the quality of the life we live. In fact, sometimes – by concentrating only on the cup – we actually fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cup. The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. The happiest people simply make the best of everything. Live simply, love generously, speak kindly, and care deeply …because life is a lot like a cup of coffee.” Perhaps the question for us now is this: How do we get there? How do we get to the point where we seek not to have the best of everything, but instead seek to make the best of everything? Keep that thought in mind as we move on.
A number of weeks ago, we noted how – each and every day – we make decisions that move us closer to a life of virtue, or closer to a life of ruin. Though the past may be written in stone, the future is more like wet cement…pliable, soft, and ready to be shaped by the decisions we make. Our goal is to develop a more godly life narrative. Our goal is to discover what it means to live a life of virtue. Our goal is to seek to discern where our deep happiness may truly be found.
We suggested that our deepest happiness is found in the kingdom of God. We noted that the kingdom of God is not just something we hope to attain in the future. As Jesus clearly stated, the kingdom of God is also a present reality. Thus, the kingdom of God of which we speak is not a place. The kingdom of God of which we speak is an interactive relationship with God…an interactive relationship that brings us peace of heart and mind.
We noted how many of us will not even consider a more godly life narrative – many of us will not even begin to seek out an interactive relationship with God – until we encounter a drought in life…until we come up against something that we cannot control. So what we did was consider a social problem that appears to be beyond human resolution: bullying in the classroom. We postulated that while we may not be able to resolve all the social ills that surround us, God is able to resolve the un-resolvable. What we need to do is recognize that fact, and be open to the movement of God’s Holy Spirit. That, my friends, is where our own transformation truly begins.
Then we got a bit more specific as to how we build an interactive relationship with God. The first thing we aimed at was conquering anger. We contrasted anger with Sabbath rest. Anger is a result of our need to control; Sabbath teaches us to trust in God’s strength. Anger is a result of the narrative that we need to be perfect; Sabbath reminds us that we are forgiven. Anger is a result of our fear that God has somehow lost sight of us; Sabbath ensures us that God is watching over us at all times.
Our subsequent goal was to overcome lust; certainly not an easy thing to do. In the words of one Harry Emerson Fosdick: “Only by a stronger passion can evil passions be expelled,” and, “a soul unoccupied by positive devotion is sure to be occupied by spiritual demons.” What we sought was what we called the expulsive power of a new affection. We determined that if our new affection was, in fact, the kingdom of God…then lust would simply lose its grip on us. Thus, perhaps the solution to our problem here…is prayer.
The next thing we aimed at overcoming was lying. What we determined was that as we move further and further into kingdom living – as our hearts become more and more transformed into the likeness and image of Christ – what we need to do is use our tongues to bless and encourage, rather than to harm or humiliate. We need to learn to build up, rather than tear down. In short, we use our tongues to speak words that bestow the grace of God upon others. While that means on the one hand, that we do not lie…it also means that our general tone is one of hope, compassion and kindness.
Then we talked about learning to live above the law of reciprocity. The law of reciprocity, of course, is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Yet as Gandhi once put it, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth makes the whole world blind and toothless.” Jesus proposed a better way. He taught us to trust that God, in spite of all odds, can somehow turn that which is evil into good. Why do we believe this? Because our new kingdom narrative assures us that the kingdom of God is never in trouble.
Today our goal is learning to seek not to have the best of everything, but rather, to make the best of everything. In short, we need to learn how to conquer a little sin we call vainglory. Vainglory is called the eighth deadly sin in the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Western Church we have but seven deadly sins, which are usually described as: wrath, greed, pride, sloth, envy, lust and gluttony. The Eastern Orthodox Church adds an eighth deadly sin called vainglory. Vainglory is defined as the need to have others think well of us. It’s rooted in a basic insecurity that is driven by our need for affirmation from others. Thus, vainglory can be very subtle…and can often be very hard to detect.
We saw the perfect illustration of vainglory in the story I told at the beginning of this sermon. The distinguished alumni visiting their old professor scrambled to acquire the nicest coffee cups, then eyed the cups of their peers in an effort to see who was sipping from the fanciest one. Such behavior is rooted in the desire to receive the approval of others. Such behavior is rooted in the need to have more than what someone else has. And what does that get us? Nothing but a lot of pain and heartache and stress. That’s because when we are under the spell of vainglory, we are only as good as our next acquisition. When we live for the approval of others, we are only as good as our last performance.
Outside the kingdom of God, we have no way to determine our intrinsic value other than by what others say about us, or by what we think others think about us. For example, if we do something incredibly well – and no one even notices – it drives us crazy because we have failed to attain the things we wanted most…those things being: affirmation, adulation, and praise. We thus begin to suffer from vainglory. We thus begin to aim our goals in life toward pleasing others.
Vainglory is a sin that tends to afflict the pious, as well. For example, many years ago, my family and I were on vacation in Duluth, Minnesota. It was a sunny Sunday morning, and we’d all gone to church. Right after the worship service, we went to a restaurant for lunch. My family and I were all sitting there in our Sunday best. Others in the restaurant were sitting there in t-shirts and shorts and flip-flops. I honestly began to feel a little bit superior. My wife and I actually talked about it later. She said she’d had the very same feeling. That, my friends, is vainglory. That’s what people outside the church are complaining about when they use the phrase, “Holier than thou.”
John Cassian was a fourth century Christian monk who once wrote, “One who would not be taken in by the vices of the flesh can be all the more vulnerable to vainglory.” Because they are not defeated by the more carnal sins, they might be tempted to think they are better than others, and that their spiritual lives are superior to those who fail in more obvious ways. Vainglory is thus a sin that afflicts devout Christians in particular. Devout Christians pray daily, worship regularly, and study their Bibles diligently. And in the process, they often come to see themselves as being superior to those who do not. That, my friends, is the sin of vainglory.
I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s this sin of vainglory that is killing the Christian Church. People who are not involved in the life of the church tend to take offense at those who are involved in the life of the church when those people come to view themselves as being somehow superior. If you think about it, that’s a pretty harsh criticism of the Christian faith. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much the opposite of the image we ought to be trying to project.
Jesus addresses the sin of vainglory in the passage we read from the gospel according to Matthew. He says, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogue, so that they may be praised by others…But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret…And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogue and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others…But whenever you pray, go into your room, shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
There’s more, but I think you get the picture. Jesus is addressing the sin of vainglory here. Do not do your good deeds in order to be seen by others, or to impress others. Do your good deeds in secret, and your Father will reward you in secret. Jesus is not speaking against devotional practices here; he is speaking against the ways in which they are being practiced. In other words, Jesus is not so much concerned about the method…as he is concerned about the motive.
What is our motive? Why do we take part in devotional activities? I think the fourth century theologian John Chrysostom lends some insight here. He once wrote, “Why do we pray? We pray not to instruct God, but to prevail with God; to be made intimate with him by continuance in supplication; to be humbled…and to be reminded of our sin.” In short, our devotional activities are aimed at attaining intimacy with God. If they are aimed at impressing others, they are all for naught…for we come to suffer from the sin of vainglory. Thus, in the kingdom of God, we are not playing to an audience of many. We are playing to an audience of one; and that one…is God.
Ladies and gentlemen, I firmly believe that if all of us could come to live our lives that way – not playing to an audience of many, but playing to an audience of one – many of the world’s problems would simply go away. If everyone lived their lives with the primary goal of pleasing God, there would be no more pride; there would be no more envy; there would be no more violence; there would be no more crime. Instead of needing to have the best of everything, we would thus be freed to make the best of everything. I think that in the long run, we’d find ourselves to be a whole lot happier. And truth be told, isn’t that what we really want? Amen.
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