I'm struggling a bit this week in preparation.
Admittedly, the idea behind the series (If GOD IS LOVE and LOVE IS... patient, kind, etc. THEN GOD MUST BE... patient, kind, etc.) is somewhat artificial in the sense that, while true, it is not primarily what Paul had in mind when he made the 1st Corinthians list. He had the love of the Corinthians for one another in mind, as the core cure for the division coming about by the mis-use and abuse of spiritual gifts.
The artificial nature of the series hasn't mattered much up to this point. It was fairly easy to preach a message on God being patient. It wasn't hard to put together a sermon on how God is kind. It was actually quite interesting to prepare a sermon showing God is not (the bad kind of) jealous. But I'm having a little bit of a problem deciding what to do with the next two descriptions of God's love.
God does not boast. God is not proud.
My original intent was to take each phrase separately. But when I started to doubt my ability to put together a sermon solely focused on "God does not boast" and realized how similar the next line really is, I decided to combine these 2 into 1 sermon. But what will I say?
God does not boast. God is not proud. Hmmm.
My attempts at preparation so far have taken me down many different paths (I won't list them all, since they mostly proved to be fairly dead ends!), but one place they led me was to historic catechisms. The first question is often something like: What is the purpose of people (paraphrased)? And the answer is usually given as something like "To glorify God."
I can see how this Q&A, drilled into the minds of school-aged children, could lead one to the conclusion that God is quite obsessed with his own superiority. I can imagine them imagining a God who is so self-obsessed that he craves (needs?) creatures to worship Him (I do, however, have a pretty hard time imagining the trinitarian God like this!). So BOOM, God makes angels. They praise Him 24/7. But it's not enough. He makes rocks and birds and fish and beasts... but alas... they are not very good at worshiping Him... at least not to the degree He demands. So He makes people sorta like Himself (just not quite as awesome). Why? So they can praise Him. But they mess up and so He begins a process of fixing them up. Why? So they can praise Him forever and ever.
And we end up with all the angels and people surrounding God in heaven singing "I could sing of your love forever" forever. Literally forever. And God just soaks it all in. He's finally got what He always wanted... constant congratulation... persistent praise.
I can see this leaving a sour taste in children's mouths (and more importantly, their hearts). It does the same to me.
God does not boast? Does He?
Boasting is rhetorically extolling oneself excessively. Does God really do this? It'd be interesting to read through the entire Bible with the sole-purpose of studying what kinds of things God says about Himself. My hunch is that God spends hardly any time praising Himself. Do others urge us to praise Him. Yes. Does He sometimes make it clear who He is and who we're not? Sure. But is God obsessed with extolling Himself? I don't think so. More often than not... God does not boast. He proves who He is with actions moreso than with words.
God is not proud? Is He?
The word here translated as proud or arrogant means inflated. Does God have an inflated ego? A big head? This one is a little bit tricky like the sermon on jealousy. There is, I think, a positive kind of pride (delight in one's good character and/or accomplishments). But here we're talking about the negative kind of pride (over-evaluation of one's character and/or accomplishments). When we put it that way... is it even possible for God to be proud? Could He over-estimate His character? No, it is infinitely good! Could he over-estimate His accomplishments? No, all His works are beautiful! It seems it would be impossible for God to be proud in this sense.
But isn't it arrogant of God to want us all to worship Him all the time? Have we really eliminated that "problem" just by defining our terms a bit?
I think it becomes necessary to think about worship in a way that could potentially be fresh for some people. To me, worship is not really an ACT that God requires of us. It's not really a THING God craves. God didn't make us so that He could GET people to worship Him. He made us so that He could GIVE us life and love and relationship.
Worship is just the word we use to describe the proper way creature relates to Creator.
So I'm not sure I really like some of the typical catechisms. They might mislead us into thinking that God is boastful and proud. They might leave us imagining God as self-obsessed and needy (needing praise). They might cause us to think of God as obsessed with His own superiority. I actually Calvin's catechism better (that the chief end of man is to know God) or even the 2nd phrase in the more common (Westminster) catechism (that the chief end of man is to enjoy God forever). Those are relational phrases. God is a relational being. God is other-oriented. God is not boastful (putting others down). He is loving (lifting others up). God is not prideful and self-obsessed. He is humble and self-humiliating.
We see this best in Jesus. "Jesus Christ is God not boasting." (Hufford) Notice the manner in which Jesus entered the world. Notice the temptations He didn't fall into. Notice how in his ministry he failed (much to the chagrin of some modern day Christian apologists) to go around boldly declaring how great He really was. Rather than lifting himself up, he got beneath people. Rather than demanding service, he served.
And when he finally was LIFTED UP, it was in the most humiliating way. He was lifted up on a roman cross. What an opportunity to boast! What an opportunity to show he had reason, more than any, to be arrogant! But instead... he stayed... stuck on a cross. Completely humiliated. That's my God.
Does God boast. God didn't.
Is God arrogant? God wasn't.
He refused to extol himself. He instead humbled himself.
No need for more rambling. I think just typing all this out has helped put my sermon together. Maybe what I just typed basically is my sermon