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S. Pentecost 12.25 Prov. 25, Luke 14

‘Take away the dross from the silver and the smith has material for a vessel; take away the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.’

What is dross, exactly, and how is taken away?

This was a very good question someone asked in our Tuesday morning bible study. I think dross is one of those words that not many people know but most pretend that they do know it; because we’ve heard it in church, and it seems like we should know it, so we’re chagrined to admit we don’t know it, really…

Fortunately, we had a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines at our study and got an authoritative definition that dross is the ‘gunk’—the dirty, nasty, worthless shtuff clinging to ore which is ‘refined’ by fire, melting it to its molten core making the gunk rise to the top to be skimmed off so you’re left with pure metal that now can be employed to good purpose.

And as the scriptures like pictures, this is a very good picture of the dross Solomon was speaking of in his proverbs. But Solomon is not talking of literal metal. He’s talking about people, specifically the children of God in our fallen state. We were created pure silver, lovely, for good purpose, but sin has corrupted and corroded our original pure state and made us bad. That dross of sin’s wickedness is what has to be taken away so we can stand in the presence of the King.

Spiritually speaking, ‘dross’ is pride, self-regard, self-centeredness, self-concern that swamps all other loves and desires. Pride is what makes us survey the world and wonder how it can bent to serve our purposes, whims, and aims—to glorify me. This is how scriptures understand pride, how the church fathers describe it. It’s something different, deeper, and more malevolent than the common secular definition which basically equates pride with “arrogance” or “high self-esteem”.

C.S. Lewis, a great philologist and lover of the the word, points out that the world equates “pride” with glory-seeking, always looking for recognition of our inherent goodness, desperately seeking compliments and praise. The English especially take a dim view of this sort of thing—maybe because they hate giving compliments so much? But Lewis says that is not really ‘pride’ in the biblical sense, and in some ways is actually opposite of the biblical vice.

In his wonderful little sermon “The Weight of Glory” Lewis tells his audience of Oxford college students and dons at St. Mary’s Church in the dark early days of WW II 1941 that, while the world in which they live takes a very dim view of those who seek glory—who yearn to be praised by the True King—and calls that a vice, the vice of pride, the very worst one, it may surprise them to learn that the holy scriptures see the longing for glory as a virtue, perhaps the greatest one.

He notes that we see this in small children, undisguised. They long for nothing so much as to be praised by their parents, teachers, superiors. Like dogs (and some cats 😉 a pat on the head and a “Good boy! Good girl!” will set their hearts ablaze with joy and happiness.

Now, Lewis goes on to note, Jesus is always telling us that we should be like little children. But it is not children’s selfishness, or possessiveness that we should emulate, obviously. But it is their desire to be praised by their Father in heaven, the One who made us, that we are to seek above all other virtues.

And the wonder of it all is the holy scriptures promise us exactly this as the sum of all glory and grandeur for which we were made and from which we have fallen—that, at The Last, the King of Kings and LORD of All, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier will look on us and say “Well, done good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Master”—always already’s doing this in Holy Baptism, in fact.

Or, (and this is a big ore 😉 he will look on the goats on his left hand and say “Bad dog! Woe to you who hate me, depart from me and let me never set eyes on you again.” It’s all in the parable we heard from Luke 13 two weeks ago and in Matthew 25, Jesus’ description of the Final Judgment.

Now, pride—in the biblical sense, is putting ourselves forward for our own works or achievements as that which justifies us and gives us well-deserved glory. It is in this sense that Luther derides a ‘theology of glory’ that seeks God’s praise as something we have deserved by what we are or do… 🙁

And this is not to be confused with Lewis’ Weight of Glory—which is un-merited, un-deserved praise from God, his praise and love for us simply because we are HIS own and HE bought us back at great cost to himself!!! It’s not what is in us by our works or nature that is glorious. It is what God has put into us by his only begotten Son that is glorious!

So, Jesus says, quoting Solomon, when you find yourself at the King’s banquet, don’t put yourself forward. PRIDE, simply put, puts ourselves forward thinking God loves us because we’re great, and that’s WICKED! That is the dross that must be consumed. FAITH believes we’re great only because God forgives and loves us for Xt’s sake, and hides in the back 😉

And the fire turns pride into faith is the fire of suffering and the cross, the dying that Jesus did on Golgotha and that he shares with us in Holy Baptism, which shows our sinful pride as the dross that it is and—in the fire of Christ’s love—is brought to the surface to be skimmed off.

At the end of Lord of the Rings, when the battle is won (largely by Gollum biting off Frodo’s ring-finger and then stumbling into the fire of Mt. Doom—because even Frodo couldn’t let it go, thus fulfilling the quest unwillingly) Frodo and Sam are standing sheepish before the King who calls them to himself and seats them next to himself…

They do not see anything particularly good in what they’ve done. They see only their weakness and unworthiness which has humbled them. But when the King praises them and raises them to his side, this is the glory in which they bask—the undeserved praise of the King who turns out to be their old friend Strider who bore them up in the darkest days.

That we are here today, at all, seeking the King’s mercy and forgiveness, singing his praises, is only because the weight of our sin has become unbearable! This we know all too well! Yet, Jesus rewards us as if we’d been seeking to share his dying and rising simply out of love for his great glory, all along…!

And he calls you now, to come to his Table—like one of King Arthur’s knights, as one Body with him!—to wear the crown he won on Golgotha as your own. Oh, the glory of it all! Let it not be lost on you, but wear it well, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.