October 28, 2007 "Humility"

A GOOD MAN LOST AND A BAD MAN SAVED

(Luke 18:9 NRSV) He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

(Luke 18:10 NRSV) "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

(Luke 18:11 NRSV) The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

(Luke 18:12 NRSV) I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'

(Luke 18:13 NRSV) But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

(Luke 18:14 NRSV) I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."


Here is an interesting poem that I found in my files this past week. It is called, “Being Sure.”

In an airport one night
With several long hours
Before her flight.
She hunted for a book
In an airport shop,
Bought a bag of cookies
And found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book
But happened to see,
That the man sitting beside her,
As bold as could be,
Grabbed a cookie or two
From the bag in between,
Which she tried to ignore
To avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies
And watched the clock,
As the gutsy cookie thief
Diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated
As the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, "If I wasn't so nice,
I would blacken his eye."
With each cookie she took,
He took one too,
When only one was left,
She wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face,
And a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie
And broke it in half.
He offered her half,
As he ate the other,
She snatched it from him
And thought....ooh, brother!
This guy had some nerve
And he's also rude,
Why he didn't even show
Any gratitude!
She had never known
When she had been so galled,
And sighed with relief
When her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings
And headed to the gate,
Refusing to look back
At the thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane,
And sank in her seat,
Then she sought her book,
Which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage,
She gasped with surprise,
There was her bag of cookies,
In front of her eyes.
If mine are here,
She moaned in despair,
The others were his,
And he tried to share.
Too late to apologize,
She realized with grief,
That she was the rude one,
The ingrate, the thief!

How many times have we absolutely known that something was a certain way,
only to discover later that what we believed to be true....was not? We call such things misperceptions.

Here was a well-meaning Pharisee who thought that he was good enough. He avoided the things he should and did even beyond what was expected. His problem? He was full of himself, which left no room for mercy or compassion for another. His religion, then, was a failure, for it was a religion that excluded instead of included. He was a good man lost. He was self-reliant. He didn’t need a savior.

Then there was the bad man saved! How, you might ask? Because he saw himself for who he was – a sinner! He was not full of self. He was utterly reliant on God to forgive him and to restore him. He needed a savior. He was truly humble!

There are 5 things that you and I must exhibit in order to be truly humble.

Ground yourself in God’s love

Let me share something with you from the book that the Ladies’ Bible Study is reading. It is Max Lucado’s 3:16. Susan read part of Chapter 4 to me this past week. In that chapter you will find the story of George Matheson:

George Matheson learned to depend on his [God’s] love. He was only a teenager when doctors told him he was going blind. Not to be denied, he pursued his studies, graduating from the University of Glasgow in 1861 at the age of nineteen. By the time he finished graduate seminary studies, he was sightless.
His fiancée returned his engagement ring with a note: “I can not see my way clear to go through life bound by the chains of marriage to a blind man.”

Matheson never married. He adapted to his sightless world but never recovered from his broken heart. He became a powerful and poetic pastor, led a full and inspiring life. Yet occasionally the pain of his unrequited affection flared up, as it did decades later at his sister’s wedding. The ceremony brought back memories of the love he had lost. In response, he turned to the unending love of God for comfort and penned these words on June 6, 1882:

O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be. (Lucado, pp. 35-36).

You will find the complete text of this hymn on page # 480 in our hymnal. George was a man who understood God’s love, even in the midst of a painful rejection, he relied on the God who loved him without condition. That same God loves you and I the same way. We can’t win God’s love. We can’t lose God’s love. We can resist it, but God still loves! We must immerse ourselves in such a love.

Admit your mistakes

We are all sinners. We continue to sin after we become believers. We are not perfect, but we are perfecting! Admit your mistakes, identify with them to the point that you dare not judge another, because, when you point a finger, you’ve got 3 pointing back at you! This helps us to keep an open mind and an open heart.

Remember, "Always Keep An Open Mind And An Open Heart, Because - You Just Never Know - You might be eating someone else's cookies!”

Learn from your mistakes

Admitting your mistakes is the start, but not the end. If you admit them but never do anything about them, then you are what the Bible calls a “Fool.” A fool never learns from his or her mistakes. A wise person does learn from his or her mistakes. Proverbs 16:21 says, “The wise of heart is called perceptive. Verse 22 continues: “…folly is the punishment of fools…”

Mistakes show us our continuing need of a savior. Mistakes show us what needs perfecting. Mistakes help keep us humble. Remember our marquee: “Be humble or stumble.”

Boast of the things of God – not the things of self!

The Pharisee was stuck on himself. How much better to be unstuck on self and stuck on the power of God. Really, God is the only one worthy of praise. It is God that enables us to have, do or be anything!

Finally serve with dignity – not out of fear

Serve, Baby, serve. That should be our motto. But serve out of love for a God so great, not our of fear of punishment or fear of failure. Serve with dignity.

John Fischer writes for “The Purpose Driven Life” daily devotionals, which can be accessed online (purposdrivenlife.com/devotionals; you can sign up to receive one everyday, free, by email). Back in February, he wrote the following article named “Someone Else’s Problems.”

Evangelicals often put being saved and going to heaven in the same sentence, as if heaven were the only goal of our salvation. But the truth is, we are saved to serve. Heaven is important, but heaven can wait. God saves us because he has a job for us to do in his Kingdom here on earth. If heaven is the whole point of our salvation, then what do we do while we wait? Change the channel on our Christian entertainment?

It’s amazing how many of our own problems dissipate when we begin caring about other people’s problems instead of focusing on our own. We’ve picked up some very bad habits from our culture. We have a tendency to be preoccupied with our own needs and constantly trying to fulfill them. Advertising plays into this self-indulgence, promising that one more product will be the thing that will finally satisfy us. The truth of the matter is: Getting will never come close to the satisfaction that giving affords.

Think of someone you know who is truly happy and I venture to guess you will find that someone busy serving others. If, in fact, our troubles will never go away (and I don’t believe they ever will in this life), then to focus on them and try to solve them is going to be nothing but a broken record. Make one problem go away, and watch another one crop up immediately. To give ourselves to the task of attending to the problems of those around us may not make our own problems go away, but it will make them less of a drag. Focusing on our own problems can lead to anxiety, frustration, and even depression. Focusing on other people’s problems leads to usefulness and a greater sense of health.

So today, when we are tempted to look in, to our own needs, let’s look out, instead, to the needs of those around us and see if our own needs diminish by comparison. Who knows, we may even forget about ourselves in the process.

Jesus hung on a cross and thought of those who were putting him there, and even pleaded their case before his Father, because he knew they didn’t realize the full impact of what they were doing. Can you imagine having even a fleeting thought about someone else if you were in that much pain yourself? But that’s just the thing about Jesus: He was always thinking of someone else.

Jesus came to serve. He did it by thinking of you and me. He served with dignity, even when he hung on the cross in the most undignified manner of torture. That is true humility. Only a humble man could do that. That is the power of humility grounded in God’s love. And we have access to that same love through Christ – available to the best of us and to the worse of us! Praise be to God.