August 29, 2010
Luke 14:1, 7-14
+ As you know I was in Minot Friday and Saturday at the meetings of Commission on Ministry and Diocesan Council. Saturday night several of us went out for a much-needed drink and during the course of our conversation, I proudly proclaimed that I had completed my sermon for today on Tuesday.
“So, what are you preaching about?” one person asked.
“I am going to preach about humility,” I said.
There was a very long pause and then, finally, someone, obnoxiously I have to say, said, “You? Are preaching about humility?”
And then they all laughed uproariously.
I still don’t understand the joke.
But, yes, today, we get to hear about humility. For those us who were listening closely to this morning’s Gospel—and I hope you were—we might find ourselves struggling a bit with Jesus’ words. And if we aren’t struggling—if those words don’t make us uncomfortable—then maybe we should be. They are uncomfortable words, after all. Jesus is making clear to us that, if we neglect the least among us, if we consistently put ourselves first—if we let our egos win out—we are truly putting ourselves in jeopardy.
What we do here on earth—in this life—does make a difference. It makes a difference here, and it makes a difference in the next world. It makes a difference with those we neglect. And it makes a difference with God. And we should take heed. We shouldn’t neglect those who are least among us.
But probably the most difficult aspect of our Gospel today is when Jesus summarized everything in that all-too-familiar maxim:
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Jesus is not pulling any punches here. He is as clear as day.
Humble yourselves. If you do so, you will be exalted. If you are arrogant and full of yourself, you will be humbled.
I will admit, there have been times when I have been a bit arrogant. There have been times when I have been a bit full of myself. And I can tell you that each time I have, I have been very quickly put in my place. I have been humbled in those instances. As I rightly should have been.
Humility and pride are too often huge issues for all of us Christians, whether we are laypeople or clergy. For those of us who have spent a good part of lives in church, we have known too many arrogant, self-centered, conceited Christians in our lives. They sometimes are on the Vestry, in the pews, in the kitchen, or in the pulpit.
Pride is ugly. It doesn’t do anyone any good, especially the prideful one. But to be fair, it’s easy enough to do. It’s easy enough to fall in that ugly trap of pride. When we encounter those prideful Christians, we need to be careful how we deal with them. Because we need to remind ourselves: “there but for the grace of God, go we.”
Sometimes, the most prideful Christian we encounter, isn’t in the Vestry, or around us in the pews, or in the kitchen or, even, the pulpit. Sometimes, the most prideful Christian we know is the one we find staring back at us from our mirrors.
Pride is an easy trap to fall into as Christians. We know we are loved by God. We know we, as Christians, through our Baptisms, have a special place in relation to God. It’s easy sometimes to feel smug and self-assured. And when we are fully immersed in Church work, it’s easy for us to think that the success or failure of the ministry of the Church depends on us.
We’ve all heard it, “If I didn’t do it, who would?”
“If I didn’t do it, everything will fall apart.”
And sometimes, this might be true. But, it is a dangerous road to take when we start thinking everything revolves around us.
And for clergy, they are in an even more vulnerable place. As often as I fall into the pride trap in my life, I am lucky because I have a very clearly defined circle of family and friends who put me in my place very quickly whenever I find my head getting a little too big for its own good. Whether it be my parents, my friends and colleagues, or any number of you, I can always depend on them to either subtle or not so subtly remind me when I am getting a bit too much for myself.
As clergy, we occasionally find ourselves being praised and treated with a sometimes undeserved respect. And although I have found my vocation to the priesthood a very humbling experience, there are times when we might find ourselves feeling very smug over a job well done.
That’s true with all of us, as Christians. It’s easy to fall into that ugly trap of believing everything is about us. It’s easy to convince ourselves that the world revolves around us and only us. Life, after all, is a matter of perspective. And from our perspective, everything else does in fact revolve around us.
But our job as Christians is to change that perspective. Our job as Christians is to, always and everywhere, put Christ first. It is not all about us. We are just a breath. We are just a blink of the eye in the larger scheme of everything. We are born, we live, we die. And then we are gone. And, without Christ, that is all we are. There is no hope, there is no future, there is no us, without Christ.
Christ gives us our definition. Christ gives us our identity. Christ gives us our purpose. This is what it means to be a Christian.
And this is what Jesus is getting at today, when he talks about the humbled being exalted. Who knows better than Jesus about humility? He, who humbled himself by becoming one of us, who humbled himself to the point of actually being betrayed, humiliated and murdered, knew a few things about humility.
When dealing with my own pride, I have found a very helpful exercise based on a saying by one of my patron saints, the priest and poet, Blessed George Herbert. George Herbert would pray, each time he preached, that he would be the window pane through which the Light of God might shine. Or, as he himself put in the opening stanza to his poem “The Windows”
Luke 14:1, 7-14
+ As you know I was in Minot Friday and Saturday at the meetings of Commission on Ministry and Diocesan Council. Saturday night several of us went out for a much-needed drink and during the course of our conversation, I proudly proclaimed that I had completed my sermon for today on Tuesday.
“So, what are you preaching about?” one person asked.
“I am going to preach about humility,” I said.
There was a very long pause and then, finally, someone, obnoxiously I have to say, said, “You? Are preaching about humility?”
And then they all laughed uproariously.
I still don’t understand the joke.
But, yes, today, we get to hear about humility. For those us who were listening closely to this morning’s Gospel—and I hope you were—we might find ourselves struggling a bit with Jesus’ words. And if we aren’t struggling—if those words don’t make us uncomfortable—then maybe we should be. They are uncomfortable words, after all. Jesus is making clear to us that, if we neglect the least among us, if we consistently put ourselves first—if we let our egos win out—we are truly putting ourselves in jeopardy.
What we do here on earth—in this life—does make a difference. It makes a difference here, and it makes a difference in the next world. It makes a difference with those we neglect. And it makes a difference with God. And we should take heed. We shouldn’t neglect those who are least among us.
But probably the most difficult aspect of our Gospel today is when Jesus summarized everything in that all-too-familiar maxim:
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Jesus is not pulling any punches here. He is as clear as day.
Humble yourselves. If you do so, you will be exalted. If you are arrogant and full of yourself, you will be humbled.
I will admit, there have been times when I have been a bit arrogant. There have been times when I have been a bit full of myself. And I can tell you that each time I have, I have been very quickly put in my place. I have been humbled in those instances. As I rightly should have been.
Humility and pride are too often huge issues for all of us Christians, whether we are laypeople or clergy. For those of us who have spent a good part of lives in church, we have known too many arrogant, self-centered, conceited Christians in our lives. They sometimes are on the Vestry, in the pews, in the kitchen, or in the pulpit.
Pride is ugly. It doesn’t do anyone any good, especially the prideful one. But to be fair, it’s easy enough to do. It’s easy enough to fall in that ugly trap of pride. When we encounter those prideful Christians, we need to be careful how we deal with them. Because we need to remind ourselves: “there but for the grace of God, go we.”
Sometimes, the most prideful Christian we encounter, isn’t in the Vestry, or around us in the pews, or in the kitchen or, even, the pulpit. Sometimes, the most prideful Christian we know is the one we find staring back at us from our mirrors.
Pride is an easy trap to fall into as Christians. We know we are loved by God. We know we, as Christians, through our Baptisms, have a special place in relation to God. It’s easy sometimes to feel smug and self-assured. And when we are fully immersed in Church work, it’s easy for us to think that the success or failure of the ministry of the Church depends on us.
We’ve all heard it, “If I didn’t do it, who would?”
“If I didn’t do it, everything will fall apart.”
And sometimes, this might be true. But, it is a dangerous road to take when we start thinking everything revolves around us.
And for clergy, they are in an even more vulnerable place. As often as I fall into the pride trap in my life, I am lucky because I have a very clearly defined circle of family and friends who put me in my place very quickly whenever I find my head getting a little too big for its own good. Whether it be my parents, my friends and colleagues, or any number of you, I can always depend on them to either subtle or not so subtly remind me when I am getting a bit too much for myself.
As clergy, we occasionally find ourselves being praised and treated with a sometimes undeserved respect. And although I have found my vocation to the priesthood a very humbling experience, there are times when we might find ourselves feeling very smug over a job well done.
That’s true with all of us, as Christians. It’s easy to fall into that ugly trap of believing everything is about us. It’s easy to convince ourselves that the world revolves around us and only us. Life, after all, is a matter of perspective. And from our perspective, everything else does in fact revolve around us.
But our job as Christians is to change that perspective. Our job as Christians is to, always and everywhere, put Christ first. It is not all about us. We are just a breath. We are just a blink of the eye in the larger scheme of everything. We are born, we live, we die. And then we are gone. And, without Christ, that is all we are. There is no hope, there is no future, there is no us, without Christ.
Christ gives us our definition. Christ gives us our identity. Christ gives us our purpose. This is what it means to be a Christian.
And this is what Jesus is getting at today, when he talks about the humbled being exalted. Who knows better than Jesus about humility? He, who humbled himself by becoming one of us, who humbled himself to the point of actually being betrayed, humiliated and murdered, knew a few things about humility.
When dealing with my own pride, I have found a very helpful exercise based on a saying by one of my patron saints, the priest and poet, Blessed George Herbert. George Herbert would pray, each time he preached, that he would be the window pane through which the Light of God might shine. Or, as he himself put in the opening stanza to his poem “The Windows”
Lord, how can man preach thy eternall word?
He is a brittle crazie glasse:
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.
I love that image. And we can do so much with it. The idea of being a window through which the light of God shines is wonderful for us. Because we realize that no matter how dirty the pane is, no matter how cracked or warped the glass might be, God’s light can always shine through. We don’t have to be the clear, clean window pane. We only need to be enough of a “brittle crazie glass” that God’s light will get through in some way. And by letting Christ’s light shine through us, we are truly putting Christ first.
So, when we find ourselves falling into the pride trap, we need to stop and remind ourselves to put Christ first. When we find ourselves seeing the world as revolving around the all-mighty ME, we do need to stop and remind ourselves that Christ is at the center of our lives and, as such, our world revolves around Christ. When we find ourselves shining with the glow of self-pride and self-contentment, remember that the light shining through us is not your light, but the light of Christ and that any reflection others have of our works is accomplished only through that light. When we find ourselves becoming prideful, stop and listen to the voice of Christ as he says to you, “those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Christ wants you to be exalted. Christ wants to exalt you. But this can only happen when you come before Christ as his humble servant, as his humble disciple, as his humble friend, serving Christ in those poor and needy people around you. This can only happen when we place Christ at the forefront of our lives
So, let us put Christ first. Let us humble ourselves before Christ. And let the light of Christ shine through us in all that we do.
Amen.
I love that image. And we can do so much with it. The idea of being a window through which the light of God shines is wonderful for us. Because we realize that no matter how dirty the pane is, no matter how cracked or warped the glass might be, God’s light can always shine through. We don’t have to be the clear, clean window pane. We only need to be enough of a “brittle crazie glass” that God’s light will get through in some way. And by letting Christ’s light shine through us, we are truly putting Christ first.
So, when we find ourselves falling into the pride trap, we need to stop and remind ourselves to put Christ first. When we find ourselves seeing the world as revolving around the all-mighty ME, we do need to stop and remind ourselves that Christ is at the center of our lives and, as such, our world revolves around Christ. When we find ourselves shining with the glow of self-pride and self-contentment, remember that the light shining through us is not your light, but the light of Christ and that any reflection others have of our works is accomplished only through that light. When we find ourselves becoming prideful, stop and listen to the voice of Christ as he says to you, “those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Christ wants you to be exalted. Christ wants to exalt you. But this can only happen when you come before Christ as his humble servant, as his humble disciple, as his humble friend, serving Christ in those poor and needy people around you. This can only happen when we place Christ at the forefront of our lives
So, let us put Christ first. Let us humble ourselves before Christ. And let the light of Christ shine through us in all that we do.
Amen.
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