Sermon for Sunday, June 13, 2004  

HUMILITY
6th in a Series on "Building Your Life on a Solid Foundation"

By

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: James 4:5-10 

⁵ Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, "God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? ⁶ But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

I have mentioned before that Judy and I are fairly disciplined about getting to the rec center two or three times a week for our physical well being as for our mental health. I find that when I am committed about exercise that I have more energy and need less sleep as well as just feeling better and feeling better about myself.

About a month ago I was at Goodson Rec Center late one afternoon doing my regular routine. I usually do the bike or Stairmaster for twenty minutes and then some weights or weight machines. I have been doing this for many years now and even at the ripe old age of 61, I can still do 65 pushups and 12 or 13 chin-ups. I would show you my biceps if I could get them out of my clergy robe conveniently this morning.

Well, this day I was on the Stairmaster and working up a sweat and something felt funny, not quite right. My gym shorts did not feel like they were fitting correctly. I tried to take a look behind me without appearing too obvious and finally I figured out that one of my socks that had been in the dryer with my gym shorts was hanging down about halfway out of my pants-sort of like a furry black tail!

I quickly removed it as unobtrusively as I could and put it in my pocket and went on to finish my workout.

We are talking this morning about humility. Humility is, in my opinion, one of the foundation stones of a healthy and balanced life as followers of Jesus Christ. The Bible writers certainly saw it that way. In one of my favorite verses in the book of Micah, humility is a REQUIREMENT from God for a healthy spiritual life! The verse is one that you know well and is one that we are recommending being very visible in our new building.

"What does the Lord REQUIRE of you but to do justice, to act with kindness and to walk HUMBLY with your God?"

The prophets and the wisdom writers talk a lot about the importance of humility, and the book of James contains a quote from Proverbs. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Or elsewhere Proverbs tells us, "Inordinate pride will lead to a fall."

This does not mean it's wrong to love oneself or to feel good about yourself. It just means that we are to keep that in the right perspective and, as Paul says, to not think TOO highly of yourself. It means to realize that you are a good and beautiful creation of God but that YOU are not the center of the universe, God is, and it is not about you, as Rick Warren says in his best selling book, it is about how you and I can be servants and can make a difference with the gifts God gives us.

Humility means not being overly impressed with ourselves. There is a story about Dr. Jim Forbes who is the pastor at Riverside Church in NYC now. He was speaking a few years ago at First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs. Dr. Forbes comes out of the African American Pentecostal tradition in America and is able to bring the best of that spirit-filled energy into mainstream Protestant faith. Dr. Forbes was on the sidewalk in front of First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs about to go into the building to prepare for being the guest speaker when a matronly church member pulled up to the curb, got out of her car, called Dr. Forbes over and asked him to find a parking place for her as she went on into the church to hear the guest speaker.

Dr. Forbes, gracious and kind, as he is, said quickly that he would be happy to park her car for her and then a few minutes later when he entered the sanctuary in his robe, the elderly matron was deeply mortified to see that the African American man she had just recruited outside to park her car was the guest preacher for the day!!

That story is just so characteristic of Jim Forbes and some of you will have a chance to hear him in just a few months when he is in Denver to speak at a gathering next April of large UM churches from across America.

It is not wise to think too highly of yourself, the Bible tells us, because God has a way of helping us keep things in perspective and keeping us balanced-whether it's with a stray sock hanging out of your gym shorts or in some other way. There is a true story about President George Herbert Walker Bush when he was campaigning for election a few years ago now. He was visiting a nursing home at one campaign stop and was in the hallway greeting people. As one of the residents approached President Bush the President stuck out his hand and smiled warmly and said, "Good morning sir. Do you know who I am?" The other fellow smiled back and looked carefully and said, No, I don't believe I do, but if you ask that lady at the nursing station, she'll be able to tell you."

And I guess political campaigns have many opportunities to teach humility. When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was campaigning as well and was at a political gathering in a high school gymnasium. There was a food line there and he was in line with everyone else. When he came to the serving table he was given a plate with some mashed potatoes and corn and a scrawny looking little piece of chicken. The governor was really hungry and he stopped and looked at his plate and said to the lady behind the counter that he sure would like another piece of chicken if that was possible. She told him she was sorry, that the rule was one piece of chicken per person and he already had his chicken and he should move on.

The governor did not like to pull rank but this time he was hungry. He thought for two seconds and he said, "Madam maybe you don't know who I am. I am the governor of this state and I would like another piece of chicken."

The lady stood up a little taller and said, "Sir, maybe you don't know who I am. I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move on down."

I think part of practicing humility is being able to laugh at yourself and I believe that story is one that Governor told on himself.

What is the opposite of humility? Arrogance? Self-absorption? Pride? The Greeks had a word for this: hubris or pride. And one of the most memorable things our guide said to us two months ago in Greece was the line on the front of your bulletin. She was telling us the story of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and his waxwings were melted and he was killed. Christiana said, "In Greek mythology pride and arrogance are always punished by the gods."

The is true in the book of Genesis also when one of the temptations offered to the man and woman in the Garden of Eden is to become like God, knowing everything, and because they forget that they are the creatures and not the creator, because they lose their humility, they are banished from the garden.

Humility means other things according to some other spiritual leaders. Mother Theresa used to say that what helped her was to remember that there is in her and each of us the capacity for terrible evil as well as for enormous good. There is a Hitler inside each person is the way she put it. And that truth is captured in the statement on your bulletin cover from the mother of Dr. Gil Caldwell, UM minister here in Denver: "There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it does not behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us!"

I think it also helps us practice humility to be aware of our own mistakes, our own fallibility, to know that we can be petty and selfish and insensitive. One fellow who was celebrating fifty years of marriage was asked by a reporter to tell the secret of living a long and happy life together, said this: Whenever he found himself becoming overly critical of his wife he would just look at himself in the mirror and say to himself, "Remember you're not such a great catch yourself."

One other gentleman in that same situation of celebrating an anniversary said his secret to a happy and long and successful marriage was being able to say those three magic words to his wife on just the right occasion. The three magic words are: "I was wrong." You could even make this a ten-word statement; "I was wrong that time but I'm not usually wrong!!"

Humility. It means being able to see and say when we have been mistaken and ask for forgiveness and to remember that none of us gets through life without being forgiven and without being forgiving.

Two other brief points about humility. There is another insight from scripture that says you and I are only able to do the good we do because we all stand on the good deeds and good examples of people who have gone before us. We owe a great deal to others in our lives. We stand on the shoulders of others who have helped us and sacrificed for us and given us a head start. So we cannot feel overly proud when we have been part of something good because we could not have done it all by ourselves. Judy and I try to get back to our hometown in Texas every few months to be with her aging parents. When we are there, I try to get to the church there where I grew up and was confirmed and to remember the people who were influential in my becoming a Christian and becoming a minister. Several months ago I sat in the chapel in that building and gave thanks for Sunday School teachers and pastors and others who helped me get a solid start as a disciple of Jesus. When we remember all those who have helped us, we will be able to practice humility very easily.

Finally we are able to build on the foundation of humility when we commit ourselves as disciples of Christ to be servants as Christ was a servant. "I have not come to be served but to serve", Jesus said. Or in Paul's words in Philippians, he did not hold on to an elevated status with God but humbled himself even to death on a cross. And he gives us powerful examples of what it means to be a servant leader when, in the upper room on the night of Passover, he takes a towel and basin and washes the feet of his friends and says, this is how you are to be with each other. You are to do what is necessary to serve each other, even the dirty and undesirable tasks. Christ is calling you and me to be his servants, to be servant leaders, to do what ever it takes for the common good, and that will not be possible if we are self absorbed and arrogant, that will only be possible if we practice the humility that Christ himself has shown us in his example.

Let us reaffirm that commitment to his kind of humility as we kneel at the table where Christ is our host. Amen.

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