September 2, 2007 – 14th Sunday after Pentecost
Grace and peace to you from God and from Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
We stayed in all “all-inclusive” resort while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. It was really great. All meals were provided; you could have whatever you wanted. All the sporting equipment, windsurfing, snorkeling, all drinks, ice cream and desserts and entertainment too. Debbie and I went to the evening show, and while we were waiting a band played. I didn’t ask Debbie to dance right away, so a tall, dark and very handsome young man in his early 20’s very gallantly asked Debbie. Before I knew it, a lovely young lady who worked in the activities area asked me to do the Merengne with her. It was really fun for a couple of 50 something’s like us to be partnered with two young people in their prime. The next day, I asked the young lady for beach towel and she said “I remember dancing with you last night”. She smiled, hugged me and gave me a little peck on the cheek. Her boss, very playfully said “Senor, I’m sorry, but when we said all-inclusive – it doesn’t refer to that.”
It looks as though Jesus’ banquet table is all-inclusive as well. He tells the leader of the Pharisees to invite the poor, the crippled, the beggars and all who can not repay him to the banquet table. More than anything, his advice is to take the lowest possible place at the table and to do so in humility.
What does it mean to be humble? We say that a plain house, unadorned, not fancy is a humble home. We call a person who dresses modestly and is not loud or calling attention to himself or herself a humble person.
Now being humble doesn’t mean that you should be filled with self loathing or a false modestly. It simply means that you don’t vaunt your achievements, your social position or your wealth before others. You never make another person feel that they are less than you are. You never intentionally put someone down.
The center of Christian humility comes from our gratitude to God. We are not self made but what we are and who we are comes to us as a gift from God. Think about it for a second. We say that she is a gifted teacher, or he is a gifted guitar player or athlete, a gifted leader, or politician. Implied in the very use of the word gift is the recognition that the achievement is not result of accomplishment but comes from outside the person. In the church we call the giver God and the gift itself is called a grace. Grace we define as something unearned, undeserved, unmerited.
Martin Luther saw this concept as basic. In his explanation to the 1st article of the Apostles’ Creed he said: God has given me and still preserves my body and soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and sense; reason and all mental faculties. Let’s look at the rest its on page 1162. Luther taught that everything we have come to us from the provider – God. God does this out of love. Since all that we have is a gift from God – our whole lives are to be spent in gratitude, praising and thanking God forever. God is the gift giver – we mostly just receive.
Do we remember that at all times and keep it in the forefronts of our minds? Of course not! We are prone to being proud and prone to usurping the credit for ourselves.
St. Paul talks about it this way in the 2nd chapter of Philippians. “Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. Care about them as much as you are about yourselves.” Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We are to see his face in everyone’s face but most especially we are to see the face of Jesus in the face of the poor, the lonely, the rejected, the blind, the crippled or the lame. Jesus referred to all these as the “least of these.”
It isn’t easy to do.
It doesn’t come naturally to us to be humble. Yet we all know it is simply the world which tells us it’s what you have that defines you. Some years ago there was a cutesy sound bit, self-styled proverb which passed itself off as wisdom. It went: “the one who dies with the most toys wins!” Toys presumably meant possessions, wealth, status riches all that this world affords. But to those of us who walk by faith, the adage makes no sense. “The one who dies with the most toys” is still dead. the one who dies having loved, served, given away the most from their substance has honored God and really understood what make life meaningful.
In Jesus’ name
Amen
Who We Are