Mahaffey looms large in my lineage and family story. The Mahaffeys are an Irish clan that happens to be on both sides of my family tree. My paternal grandmother Leona was a Mahaffey. My maternal great-great grandmother was Carrie Mahaffey, daughter of John C. Mahaffey, son of Alexander Mahaffey who was born in 1833 and fought in the Civil War. I don’t expect you to know any of this, I only say this as Alexander’s Springfield rifle is at my mom’s house in my old room.

The coat of arms of the Mahaffeys is a mailed-arm holding a broken spear over 3 clovers and the Latin phrase “Factus Non Victus” means “Broken Not Defeated.” I used to hate that phrase as I wanted to be undefeated! How about just, “Non Victus” with a full spear? It didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem American.

I soaked in the stories of our country growing up. I love this country. We started as a rebel movement. We defeated the greatest army the world had ever seen, winning independence from the British. Then we beat them in the sequel in the War of 1812. In the myth of our country, we forget what a surprise these victories were. To us here on this side of history, it seems like victory was never in doubt. Of course America would win, that’s what we do.

We helped win two world wars. The Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, following the attack on Pearl Harbor said, “I fear that we have awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with terrible resolve.” I heard WWII stories on the knee of my grandpa. We are the world’s giant that can’t be defeated. Even our sports history shows how we’ve dominated. The Miracle on Ice, when the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team defeated the Russians. How the Dream Team in basketball dominated the Olympics and won gold in the 90s. If America had a family crest, it wouldn’t read “Factus Non Victus” broken not defeated… it’d just read “Non Victus.” Not Defeated. Our history seems to support this story.

To make matters worse, there’s a book written about the Mahaffeys. In this Mahaffey book, the historian wrote, “The family are not noted especially for brilliant achievement, but has been represented in all the walks of life. Some have held positions of trust and honor; most of them have been good citizens; honesty and sobriety have as a rule marked their course.”[1] This must have been what led my grandmother to say to my bride-to-be at our wedding shower, “Our family has a bit of a dumb streak.”

What the heck, family?! Get your act together! Make something of yourselves! Have a little drive and gumption! WIN! Achieve! Be giants! Sing how you’re Proud to be an American, where at least we know we’re free!

Then we have today’s readings. Sirach is found in the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha is made up of books that were popular in early Christianity and held by Judaism, but didn’t make it into the Bible. This book was lost from 400-1900 and was discovered again in writings found in Qumran, Masada, and a synagogue in Cairo.[2] This book stresses the wisdom of a good character. Wisdom lies in prudent speech, honesty, diligence, choice of friends, avoiding sin, not seeking retribution, and lifting up wisdom itself. “The beginning of pride is sin and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.”

Jesus must have been formed by that book. In our Gospel of Luke reading, he gives some advice on where to sit at a party. He then concludes his advice saying, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Oh geez. This is hard for me to hear. I’m competitive. I like to be seen as competent. I am driven, and I want to be undefeated and great.

I haven’t always been confident. I found my confidence in college. I was an officer in the Ohio University Advertising Club. I ran for the office of publicist, the person who would advertise the ad club. I won the vote over three people—who are still working in ad agencies today. I won because I was humble and had a plan. I made a simple pledge: The campus would be blanketed in fliers for our club. I would work harder and design and print more fliers than any other club on campus. And that’s what I did.

When I was up for re-election, I got cocky. I walked in and exalted myself. I said how great a year we had and all the new members were thanks to me and getting the word out. I said how I was the best and how I would continue to be. I didn’t have any new ideas, I just got up and boasted, and I lost. I lost bad.

I learned a lot in that defeat. I learned that pride doesn’t suit me. Pride went into the room, and I fell for as Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” My friends were there and helped me eat the humble pie that was served, and I became better for it.

Humility isn’t celebrated in our culture. It’s not lifted up in our history. We feel that our country is the greatest country in the world, and we take pride in that. Yet if we exalt ourselves, we will be humbled. I do think that this country is great, but there is room for improvement. We can be proud of something, but not prideful. It’s a hard line to tow. We can be humble and still be proud. The difference is that when we a prideful we can no longer see room for improvement. Like a man who once said to me, “Why bother having a confession in the liturgy? I have nothing to confess.” When it gets into our nation, we see this pride in phrases like, “America, love it or leave it.” We see it in our faith in sayings like, “Turn or burn.” Humility is being open to correction. Pride says that everything is perfect and cannot improve.

It has taken me a long time to embrace the family motto: Broken not Defeated. I’m at my best when I’m following it. Learn from failure. Do the humble work of service, not to win souls. Not to exalt my pride or ego. Not to gain more followers on social media or have all our posts go viral. To live into the brokenness and seek the places of service and not of honor.

On this Labor Day weekend, I would like to tell you about the humble work in front of us. Two words you will hear repeated over and over again: Safety and Structure. The moderators will focus on safety and make sure we have a comprehensive plan in place to cover health scares, fires, and even active shooters. A plan to make sure our kids are safe here in church and our volunteers are vetted. Council will look at our 9-year-old structure and see where we can improve and where the energy is. What needs to stay and what needs to go. This is our work this year, because we’re looking to serve our church and community better. We aren’t as prideful to think that there isn’t room for improvement.

Humility is a counter-intuitive way of life that Jesus is laying out and that Sirach and people of faith have been following for a long time.  It’s not flashy or trendy. But it just might save your life. For Jesus lived the life of a servant. He was God-in-the-flesh but never acted like it. Instead he washed feet. He did simple things with intention. And for those things we killed him. And while he was broken… Easter Sunday showed that he was not defeated. Amen.

Works Cited

^[1] Mahaffey Descendants, Published 1914, October 23, 2007, accessed August 14, 2019, https://sites.rootsweb.com/~bbunce77/Mahaffey1.html.

^[2] Intro to Sirach, New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV with Apocrypha. Oxford University Press, 2007.