Tis a Gift to Be Humble

30 October 2011 Tis a Gift to Be Humble Matthew 23:1-12

My favorite modern version of the Cinderella story is told in the movie “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore. Even with its contemporary flair, Cinderella is still a principled young woman who, through no fault of her own, comes face to face with the harsh reality of a forced humility of sorts.

Finding herself living with a new step-mother and step-sisters Cinderella’s life goes from one of privilege to one of servitude. She becomes, for all practical purposes, a slave to her step-mother and step-sisters. Despite this, she humbles herself to her new status in a way I’m not sure many would. Her decision to live in obedience and humility is in response to her love for her father and her desire to honor him in her submission to her wicked step-mother.

She endures humiliation and physical suffering as she is repeatedly treated cruelly.
When it seems things cannot get any worse, they do. There is to be a royal ball where the young and handsome prince of the kingdom will choose his new bride. Her step-mother refuses to let her go and her step-sisters are particularly mean to Cinderella as they prepare to go to the ball with the hope of marrying the prince. They repeatedly taunt her about being unworthy.

But, this is a fairy tale! The story takes a magical turn when Cinderella not only goes to the ball, she is the one who marries the prince and is brought up from her humble station to become a princess. This is a love story that ends the way love stories are supposed to end, happily ever after.

Our gospel story this morning has the potential to have the same happy ending.
We hear Jesus warning us, if we do not change directions with our life we may wind up where we are headed. Never one to only tell part of a story, Jesus tells us the whole truth, opening for us the possibilities for a clear path to a better place.
Jesus lifts up several commandments or pronouncements along this new way.
First, we are to do what the scribes and Pharisees teach us. We are not, however, to do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. How often have we heard our parents, our teachers, our bosses say to us, do as I say not as I do. Perhaps we have said it too.

Is it obvious we humans can be so certain and clear about how we are to act, what we are to do to get along, what is good and what is bad, yet we have the most difficult time living our own message. I wonder why that is? Selfishness on our part, looking out for #1, taking happiness into our own hands, deciding for ourselves where our real pleasures lie, getting ours before someone else takes it all. It is pretty obvious where our allegiance lies when our actions do not match our words.

Secondly, in all things we are not to take on the character of these scribes and Pharisees. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others, yet are unwilling to lift a finger to move them themselves. They do all their deeds to be seen by others as if they are on a stage of respectability and play the part, acting it out in front of others, as if this in some way legitimizes their importance. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues.
If we are in doubt about their perceived importance we need only look for them at the power table in the local restaurant. For there they are holding court in the public arena. Their seat is always front row, center stage, on the 50 yard line. They love to be greeted with respect and have people call them by their title. They identify themselves with their social, political, or financial prowess and expect that we seek out their broad ranging opinion even in areas where they have no particular expertise. Simply by their reputation they expect to be recognized as an expert in all things great and small.

Thirdly, Jesus tells us the other things we are not to do. We are not to be called rabbi or teacher or father. We are not to be known by our title. We are to be known by what we do, not who we think we are. We are to call no one our father on earth in place of our Father in heaven. We are to make no gods from the stuff of status which takes the place of our God in heaven. Nor are we to be called teacher in place of our teacher, Jesus Christ. Rabbi, teacher and father are roles reserved for God and God’s anointed. To presume such titles becomes a matter of pride. Perhaps even idolatry and sin.

Fourth, and most powerfully, the greatest among us is to become our servant. Have we heard the echoes we are the greatest? Thinking and acting so we become the one who does not do what Jesus teaches to be right and true. Yet, despite our tendency to selfishness, we are the one who is to become servant. Servant to ourselves and to others. But, most importantly, servant to God.

How does that happen? Through grand titles, specialized training, unlimited resources. No, today’s scripture tells us, it happens when we humble ourselves. When we find ourselves in what seems to us an unjust world and like Cinderella we show our love for our eternal Father by honoring him in our obedience, not to ourselves, but to our Messiah, our Savior, our Lord. Then we will be exalted for all eternity.

Exalted not because of anything we have done but because of what God has done for us. God’s gift for us creates his appreciation for the humility lived by those of us who genuinely seek to serve God’s world and not our own. Can this be true? Does Jesus really expect our exaltation with God will come only through our humility? Yes, he does, and if we have any doubt we need look no further than scripture for our assurance.

In another list of clear commandments or pronouncements, the Beatitudes, Jesus declares, “Blessed are the meek,” and the “poor in spirit” and the “pure in heart.” It is they who shall “See God”, and be called “the children of God.” This is a contrary notion to be sure and begs the question. What good is servant hood to society and exactly how can it bring about our exaltation? We are looking for power and rank and status and a high public recognition of greatness aren’t we?
Well, perhaps once again we are asking the wrong questions. Perhaps we see ourselves as scribes and Pharisees and what God expects from us is something radically different. Perhaps it is time to stop listening to ourselves and our own ideas about worthiness and listen to what our true teacher has to say.
Servant hood is what Jesus teaches. If we would be great (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to be great) we must be a servant first. If we choose to exalt ourselves, to raise ourselves to great power, we will find ourselves brought to our knees. Yet, if we humble ourselves, becoming a servant to the Lord, we will be known as an heir to the kingdom of God.

Now, if this seems counter intuitive or unnatural you may be right. Humility is unnatural. As Mark Twain recognized, the moment a person seems to have achieved real humility, it is destroyed by the pride at having accomplished it. Truly, humility is not a natural thing. What scripture tells us repeatedly is it is a gift of God’s grace.

Humility is not in the order of creation, but it comes to us in the order of the new creation, it is our baptism gift. And, perhaps the greatest news of all, it is a renewable gift, for things lost in sin are regained in God’s ceaseless outpouring of love. A love for each of us despite what appears far too often, our faltering lack of humility.

But how might we realize when humility is Jesus’ desired response? There is much in our life that gives us a place at the head of the table. That realization may begin when we first understand to be selfless is in itself a dying to self, an act of faith. Often, as scripture teaches, humility takes the form of serving the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, and the imprisoned. Loving our neighbor and especially our enemy.

These active themes of what we are to do for servant humility should become clear this morning. When humility is genuine, it has a clear active quality to it. No one should say about us Christian’s, do as they say not as they do. For true humility requires that our actions do match our words. “The greatest among you will be your servant”, Jesus declares. The servant is a worker. It is for this active, effective servant humility that we should pray.

And could a servant come to be among the greatest?

Frederic Buechner thinks it is possible. He tells the story of the biblical slave, Onesimus, whom St. Paul once met in jail. Buechner tells how Paul writes a letter to Philemon as a request that the master take the runaway slave back and that he treat him as a brother in Christ.

He concludes, “It’s not known whether or not Philemon took the hint and let Onesimus return to be the old saint’s comfort for what time was left him, but there’s at least one good reason for believing that such was the case. Years later, when Paul was long since dead, another saint was in jail by the name of Ignatius. The Bishop of Ephesus had sent some friends to visit him, and Ignatius wrote asking if a couple of them could be allowed to stay. Ignatius in his letter used some of the same language that Paul had used in his to Philemon, almost as if he was trying to remind the Bishop of something. And what was the name of the Bishop he wrote to? It was Onesimus.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost of Discipleship tells us:
“Our activity must be visible, but never be done for the sake of making it visible. ‘Let your light so shine before [others]’ . . . and yet: Take care that you hide it! That which is visible must also be hidden. The awareness on which Jesus insists is intended to prevent us from reflecting on our extraordinary position. We have to take heed that we do not take heed of our own righteousness. Otherwise the “extraordinary” which we achieve will not be that which comes from following Christ, but that which springs from our own will and desire.”

Cinderella had it right. Active humility for the sake of honoring only our Father leads us to life in the kingdom of God. And Jesus has it right too. When humility is genuine, it has an active quality to it. An active quality that mirrors as best as humanly possible what God expects we are to become, a humble servant. Our servant life is to be lived out of our love for God. Not for the purpose of any reward at all. Only that we might have the pleasure of doing something solely for God.

The glass slipper that awaits us is being held by our prince, our prince of peace, and when the shoe fits, we will amazingly live happily ever after.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen
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