Believe #29: Humility
Reinbeck UMC
November 19, 2017
(Automatic===Video- “O Lord it’s hard
to be humble”)
Automatic I don’t know about you, but I really don’t
have that problem… I mean I don’t have the problem of “being perfect in every
way.” Humility is a different story… I think we all struggle with that at one
time or another. And if you think you have humility down pat, let me know…
because I probably need to preach a sermon on pride next week.
Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes,
then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble.”
What is humility? I like to think of
humility as just being realistic or honest in self-perception. Humility is not
thinking ourselves more important or less important than we are. Humility is
not puffing ourselves up, but neither is it putting ourselves down.
C.S. Lewis defined humility this way: “True
humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
Jesus lived a life of true humility. He was so sure of God’s love that he was
able to consistently see the needs of others and treat them, as he would want
to be treated… Hm… that sounds familiar doesn’t it? That’s the golden rule.
"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Or the second great commandment, “Love your
neighbor as yourself.” That’s humility.
On the 2015 season of The Voice TV
show, one contestant told Pharrell and Lionel Richie, “There’s no song I can’t
do.” His coaches looked at each other. Then, Lionel Richie—who has 4 Grammy
Awards and has sold over 100 million records—said to him, “If you’re really
good, they’ll tell you. Don’t you ever tell them.” To his credit, the young
contestant realized he needed to bring a level of humility to his performance.
We might say Humility is never saying
how good we are, but being so much like Jesus that others can see God’s
goodness in us.
I said Jesus lived the perfectly humble life.
I think there are two directions to his humility.
The horizontal axis is t way he treated
others. Take today’s story. Let’s turn to Luke Chapter 14. Jesus didn’t have
any problem hanging out with the powerful people of his day. He was at the
house of a Pharisee having lunch. The best seats were near the host of course.
And he was watching people vying for those prime seats. Could it have been the
disciples? Remember their discussion about who was greatest in the kingdom of
God?
If he took his own advice, Jesus was
sitting at the foot of the table and he gave a lesson in humility. Starting in
verse 8, He said, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not
sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has
been invited by your host” It would be like going as a guest to someone's
birthday party, and presuming to sit down right in front of the cake in the
chair with the balloons are tied to it. Jesus continued, “Then the host who
invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and
then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.” That would be
humiliating… which is quite different from humility.
Jesus recommended, “But when you are invited,
go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say
to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.” Jesus concluded saying, “For all who exalt
themselves (by sitting at the head table) will be humbled, and those who humble
themselves (who sit at the card table off to the side) will be exalted.”
• Let’s
think about that. If you spend the whole party telling your stories, and can’t
give anyone else the gift of listening to them… you are due to be humbled.
• If
you always have to be first in line, you can never say to someone, “here be my
guest.” You are due to be humbled.
• If
you think you are indispensible at work or at home and you think it is your
responsibility to share your vast expertise with everyone whether anyone asks
or not ...That’s a lot of pride! And you are due to be humbled.
Jesus is warning that anyone who thinks
the world revolves around his or her belly button will soon discover otherwise.
And those who willingly put others first, have a special place in God’s heart.
It was with humility that Jesus
approached the fishermen, woman at the well, the Pharisees, the lepers, the
centurions, and every person he encountered. It was an act of humility to wash
the disciples’ feet. It was an act of humility to allow himself to be tortured
and killed.
The horizontal axis of humility is the
way we treat others.
“For all who exalt themselves will be
humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
How was Jesus able to exhibit such great humility toward others? Because
of the vertical axis of humility is our humility before God. Jesus first
humbled himself before God. ,
Paul does a wonderful job of explaining
it in Philippians 2. Let’s turn there. Starting at verse 6. “Though he was in
the form of God”… Jesus was God.
“(He) did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,”
… He was willing to climb down o ff the throne of heaven and do something
radically humble.
“Being born in human likeness. And being found in human form”… as one of
us… completely human from infant to death.
“He humbled himself and became obedient to the
point of death— even death on a cross.” Even though he was God, Jesus prayed,
“Father, not my will but thy will be done. ... NOT MY WILL BUT THY WILL BE
DONE. Jesus humbly submitted his humanity, even his life to God. That is
perfect humility before God. For us it is knowing that God is God and we are
not. For us it is praying… “Not my will but thy will be done.” … “Thy kingdom
come.” …“I am thine o lord I have heard your voice.” … “Here I am lord send
me.”
Micah
6:8 has one of the most succinct exhortations on humility in God’s presence.
““What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk HUMBLY with your God?”
The horizontal axis of humility is a
profound sense that God is God and you are not.
Finally, humility before God leads to a
profound transformation in life. When we are proud we hold on to what we have
done, what we have accomplished, how important we are. But when we humble
ourselves before God, admitting that God is God and we are not, we are
naturally filled with gratitude to God. Humble people are naturally more
grateful people. If we are filled with pride, we believe that we are the source
of all good things and there is no need for gratitude, just another layer of
pride. If we are the important one, we can’t walk humbly with our God. If we
are the most important person around we can’t love our neighbor as our self.
In humility, we realize that everything
is a gift from God.
As James puts it, "Every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above.”
Being humble gives us the perspective
that everything we have “better than we deserve, Praise God.” Humility is the
ground of gratitude.
One African tribe expresses gratitude by
saying, “I sit on the ground before you.” When someone wants to make his
gratitude known, he goes and just sits quietly for a period of time in front of
the hut of the person to whom he is grateful.
That is what we do in worship each
week. We humbly sit on the ground before God expressing our gratitude. Today I
want to do it literally. I want you to take the Know, Grow Go insert that you
have and a pencil as we sit before God in gratitude.
Let’s just sit on the ground before God
in silence for a moment I hope those who can will join me literally on the
ground up here, but others may stay in your seats and bow your heads to the
ground.
We sit on the ground before you humbly
without words O God.
We sit on the ground before you God.
Now, take the know, grow go page and write in
the left hand column anything you have whined or griped about recently:
frustrating people, annoying circumstances, wanting something you couldn’t get
(such as an uninterrupted nap), or having something you wished you didn’t have
(such as a cold). I k now the space is small, if you need to you can use the
back. Write down your gripes and ask forgiveness for your pridefulness in
believing that you deserve more.
We sit on the ground before you God.
On the right Colum, write everything for which
you are grateful.
Now one last thing. As Jim begins playing
softly in the background, which list is greater: Your gripes or your gratitudes? In the box,
write a one-sentence prayer of thanksgiving for all your blessings.
We sit on the ground before you God in
gratitude.
We humbly offer all that we have. We
humbly offer a portion of what you have given us as our weekly offering. We
humbly offer our estimates of giving representation our hopes for what you will
do in our church in 2018, we offer gratitude for all that you are and all that
you do. Receive our offering O God. AMEN
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