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"O
Lord, It’s Hard To Be Humble" Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler
– September 1, 2013 Centenary United Methodist Church
Micah 6:6-8; Luke 14:1, 7-14
This morning we are
going to discuss a personal skill that remains among the least
considered in most societies.
That skill is humility.
Some years ago, Mac Davis wrote a song that described the
challenges that come to some people. It
begins with, “O Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in
every way. I can’t even
look in the mirror; Cause I get better looking each day.
To know me is to love me” and so on. When audiences hear it, they
laugh at every verse. There is a lot of truth, however, in Mac’s words.
Consider how hard it was for Jesus. In the Gospels
there are numerous references where Jesus tried to keep secret his
supernatural abilities.
For example, when he healed people, he often gave strict orders
to the witnesses not to tell anyone what they had just seen.
(Mark 7:36) After
the experience of Peter, James and John on the Mt. of Transfiguration,
Jesus told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of
Man is raised from the dead.
(Matthew 17:9) If there was ever a
man that had a right to radiate his pride and flaunt his notoriety, it
was Jesus. He could not
hide. We can hardly imagine
what it would be like to receive our sight when we had born blind.
How could anyone experience healing like that and remain silent?
Even though his
fame spread everywhere, he never lost sight of his purpose.
He stayed humble with his abilities and even admitted that “the
Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58).
He died never seeing a
church building, never hearing a choir sing the great anthems of our
faith and never knowing that anything he said would be remembered.
He left the memory of his ministry in the province of our
Creator. It is quite
mysterious that much of what Jesus said has been preserved for over
2,000 years, through early Christian persecutions, through the Dark Ages
and through the vast divisions in the Church during and after the
Reformation. Jesus relied
totally on God to allow his
verbal seeds to germinate in the minds and hearts of believers that
heard them. If there was a
desire by Jesus to be remembered – it came in the form of attaching his
memory to what his listeners did everyday – eating bread and drinking
wine. In our lesson
today, Luke wrote of an episode where Jesus had been invited to a dinner
at the home of a highly respected Pharisee.
This was a common practice among wealthy Pharisees.
They often invited Rabbis to their dwellings in the hopes of
hearing some pearl of wisdom fall from their lips.
During these gatherings, the general public had a standing
invitation to attend. As people were
finding their places to sit, Jesus noticed that a number of them were
eagerly taking the best seats
close to him and their host.
This observation inspired the Master to tell a story about a
wedding feast where a number of the guests were taking the best seats,
presumably near the bride and groom. Jesus suggested how
embarrassing it would be if the host had to ask them to move because
their seats had been reserved for others.
“It is better,” Jesus said, “to sit in the
cheap seats and later to be
invited by the host to come forward and sit in
the orchestra section.”
In spite of Jesus’ lessons and example, people find humility
missing from their highly prized values. In Western
cultures, people find little encouragement to remain humble.
We continue to be bombarded with
the opposite message.
In the business world, for example, when people are searching for
a job, they are taught that their résumés have to capture the
imaginations of those doing the hiring in a matter of seconds.
The current work
environment has made job-seekers become competitive.
They are told that interviewing for a job is not the time to be
humble. The message is:
“Get noticed!
Attract attention to yourself. Be your own advocate.
No one will find you of value if you do not value yourself.
Get out there in the public eye!
Tell the interviewers how better off their company will be if you
are part of their culture. ”
Given these
pressures from society, who in their right mind wants to appear humble?
Why would anyone among us be motivated to allow our skills and
accomplishments to go unnoticed?
Some people crave recognition, validation and being appreciated.
In fact, some people define themselves by such accolades.
When we were in the
States in June, Lois needed a battery for her wristwatch.
We went to a jewelry store that services watches.
While we were waiting for the technician to install a new
battery, I said to the store owner, “Cell phones keep the exact time.
Are these devices taking a bite out of your watch sales?”
He said, Absolutely not!
We have not seen such a surge in watch sales as we are right now.
People are using them to make
a fashion statement.
I have fifteen to twenty watches in a case especially designed
for them. The occasion
dictates which one I will wear.
The entire
advertising industry is geared to appeal to our insecurities, our
feelings of inadequacy and fears about our health.
We are made to feel that we need to make a statement about who is
living under our skin. We
see young, attractive models tossing around their silky hair
demonstrating the results from a particular product.
The marketing evangelists
try to convince us that our confidence will be heightened if we have
teeth that are Clorox-white.
We find drivers having a
spiritual experience while sitting behind the wheel of a particular
car. Is there a point to
remaining humble?
Absolutely there is, particularly, if we are people of faith.
Micah understood what humility will do.
He wrote, “What God requires of us is this:
to do what is just, to show constant love and to walk in humble
fellowship with our God.”
(Micah 6:8) That is a three
point sermon in a nutshell.
None of those three points had
anything to do with influencing others or what specific memories about
us that we would like preserved. Always remember that Jesus changed
human history when absolutely no one at the time was aware that
such a thing was happening.
An invisible presence is always operating behind the scenes as human
consciousness evolves. In God’s
reality insignificant people
can become giants while
people that become well-known by writing countless books, speaking in
front of large audiences and featured on major talk-shows, come and go
in one or two generations.
If they are remembered at all, such popular people often become only a
casual footnote in human history.
How should we interpret these occurrences? None of us
needs to help God with the process of Creation.
God has and will always be the sole Creator.
When we are living humble lives and we have no need to impress
anyone, that is when God uses our faithfulness to change our
environment. God can work through anyone in any circumstance when
humanity is ready to experience its next level of spiritual evolution.
For example,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was most reluctant to take any leading role
in the Civil Rights Movement.
It took a group of lay-people to tell him that it was time for
him to become involved. He never dreamed that he could become a
game-changer in the world. There was a
series of very curious, seemingly unrelated events that took place
immediately following Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech.
George Raveling was a 26-year old volunteer that had only planned
to attend the rally two days before the event.
He had no idea that he would find himself standing next to King
as he delivered the speech.
George was the first person to greet King after he finished his address.
He asked him if he could have his 3-page manuscript.
Without hesitation, Dr. King handed it to George as he turned to
greet an approaching Rabbi.
What is so
unique about this sequence of events is that George preserved that
manuscript where the words, “I have a dream” do not appear.
There is an asterisk in the manuscript near the end of the final
page. This is the place
where King began to speak extemporaneously from his spirit.
His adlibbed words turned a four-minute talk into a sixteen
minute masterpiece that will go down in history as one of the most
remarkable speeches ever delivered.
His unprepared words changed the consciousness of a nation,
and countless other societies.
Think about the origin of that burst of consciousness that
totally caught Dr. King by surprise. Centuries
ago a small group of men decided that the Bible had to become known as
the Word of God.
This was done to prevent Rome’s
version of Christianity from becoming tainted by other sects that were
blossoming everywhere. What is
seldom asked by Biblical scholars concerns the source of inspiration
that came to the various writers of the Scriptures.
These men had no Bible to guide their thinking.
Could it be that God’s inspiration is not
locked up in a book of words,
but rather pours forth from individuals when their passion for a new
sense of community will no longer allow them to remain silent?
In other words, the source
of Dr. King’s stream of
consciousness is available to us today.
God does strange and
unexpected things through people who have become humble disciples of
Jesus Christ. We never know when
something we do or say gives form to an idea or value that God can use
to transform the consciousness of others.
There is nothing more powerful in human history than an idea whose time
has come. Ralph Waldo Emerson once expressed the spirit of humility
beautifully when he wrote, To laugh often and much: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded |