PROPERS: PROPER 17, YEAR C
TEXT: LUKE 14:1, 7-14
PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, PENSACOLA, ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2019.
ONE SENTENCE: True humility, grounded in an awareness of being beloved, is a great Christian virtue.
It has been said that sincerity is the hardest virtue to fake.
That may well be true, but humilityis certainly not far behind.
My Old Testament professor at Sewanee was a big bear of a man. He had fierce red, blood-shot eyes, and his voice occasionally thundered like an Old Testament prophet. We knew the times when we would should just put our pens down and cease our note-taking. He had gone from teaching to preaching. And what he said was a gift.
He focused an entire semester on the Book of Genesis. It was a tour de forceof that book and an experience of teaching for which I continue to be grateful.
But, one day he ceased his lecture on Genesis and took the class through a tour of what he called the purple passagesof the Hebrew Scriptures. Those were the most significant and beautiful passages in the Old Testament.
One of those purple passageswas from one of the Minor Prophets – Micah; the sixth chapter, verse 8:
He has told you, O Mortal, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. A pretty good recipe for a well-lived and faithful life.
The Old Testament professor, William Augustine Griffin, wanted us to internalize that passage.
Sadly, it is a passage that is lost among many professing Christian leaders.
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Jesus gets that point across in the lesson today.
He has been invited to a dinner at the home of a prominent Pharisee. The Pharisees were, of course, one of the prominent religious groups in Judaism of that time. Pharisees were leaders in the covenant community.
Jesus was apparently very observant. He watched as the various guests took their seats at the dinner – some taking seats of honor, close to the host.
It was at that moment, after watching the seating ritual, that Jesus spoke, telling the people a parable:
"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Jesus, like the prophet Micah hundreds of years before him, was emphasizing the importance of humility.
It is a Christian virtue well-worth developing.
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But… but…
There is humility, and there is humility.
There is genuine humility, and there is inappropriate humility. And by inappropriate, I do not mean that which masks – though, thinly – a deep and profound arrogance. That characteristic is artificial humility and beyond the pale. False and intentionally misleading. It is something I am not addressing with this comparison.
The inappropriate humility, about which I am speaking, is different. It is grounded in a deficit of self-worth. One is humble because that person does not feel worthy to be anything but humble. It is a self-negation based on lack of feeling valued or loved as a human being.
The person which has such an inappropriate humbleness goes through the motions of true humility – in this parable, taking a lower seat at a banquet. That same sense can lead one to not share an opinion, not speak-up, not express doubt or objection, because the person does not feel worthyto do so.
Such a sense of inappropriate humility may come from any number of sources – being berated as a child; the indirect effects of chemical dependence in a family; or being abused or mistreated as a spouse. There are countless sources, and a therapist can describe each scenario. The therapist has probably encountered them all.
At the root of that humility is a tragic deficit of Christian understanding: That as a child of God, you are loved and treasured exactly as you are. The person actshumble because he or she does not knowthat Christian fact – has not heard it, does not know it, and has not internalized it. Sure,that person thinks, that’s true for other folks, but not for me.
But it is.
True Christian humility springs not from a deficit of love, but from an overflowing spirit that recognizes and accepts that God’s love – despite any human experiences – is abundant, copious, and never-ceasing. A truly humble person is able to step back from the seat of honor because that person knows his or her true worthis not dependent on a seat of honor. That sense of worth is guaranteed and is a part of his or her foundation.
You have heard me tell the story of the great theologian Paul Tillich’s sermon, You are accepted. It is perhaps the most powerful sermon I have ever read.
Dr. Tillich reaches his sermon’s climax when he talks about the fruitless and frustrating striving of the Christian seeking to prove his or her self-worth. It is continuing, ongoing, without end. It is a tortuous struggle, and one that can only lead to frustration.
He goes on to say:
Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!"
And when you are able to do that, you will have found the foundation for true humility.
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