Lamentations 1:1-6
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10
“Guard
the Good Treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in
us.” 2 Timothy 1:1-14
“Oh
Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror ‘cause I
get better lookin' each day … Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin'
the best I can!”
Mac Davis, 1997
Sometimes it is hard to be humble when things are
going our way, but just when we think we’re riding pretty high, someone – or some
THING – lets the air out of our balloon.
If we’re lucky, a slow leak will allow us to drift gently back to earth. There are more often times, however, when the
balloon pops and we crash hard when we get a little too full of ourselves.
There may be no more humbling statement in the Bible
than Paul’s words to Timothy: “Join with me in suffering for the gospel,
relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works but according to His purpose and grace” (2
Tim 1:8b-9).
“Not
according to our works”. So we should bear in mind that, even though
we have each been endowed and entrusted with certain spiritual gifts unique to
each individual, none among these gifts is “personal awesomeness” – and certainly
not
“personal favor”! Consistently, we are
reminded throughout the Scriptures that it is The Lord alone who is truly “awesome”. Our works, the very ordering of our lives,
are merely responses to the awesome
deed that atoned for the sins of the entire human race without our having to
ask.
Being so completely and unreservedly loved, then,
sometimes it may be hard to be humble; yet “humility” is a spiritual strength,
a discipline, and a mark of spiritual maturity that may be among the most
misunderstood (and perhaps least desired) of the virtues, much in the same way
we confuse “meekness” with “weakness”.
Humility not only keeps us sufficiently in our proper place but also is the
virtue which reminds us how and where to appropriate our trust, our faith; not
in ourselves or our accomplishments, but in The Lord alone.
Humility as a virtue, then, is defined as a “firm attitude, a stable disposition, the habitual
perfection of intellect and will” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1804). Both are necessary responses as spiritual
disciplines when we fully embrace our Lord and His teachings and as we commit
ourselves not to our own understandings or our desired interpretations of scriptural
precepts - but striving as though there is always more to know … because there
is. No one among us knows “just enough”. As it is written in the Proverbs (3:5-6); “Trust in The Lord with all your heart, and lean
not on your own understanding. In all
your ways, submit to The Lord, and He will make your paths straight”.
Jeremiah’s Lamentations
is a profound prayer of acknowledgment and confession after intense
soul-searching of what Judah once was by the Hand of The Lord, and what Judah
had become by their own hands in surrendering their faith in The Lord in favor
of trust in their own desires and confidence in their own demands. Oh, I’m sure they still “believed” there is a
God; but they were so busy loving themselves and neglecting one another that they
completely forgot how to love
The Lord and their neighbors.
Jesus’ admonishment, according to Luke, is also a bitter pill to swallow. Yet Jesus takes the time to remind His
followers that “doing good” (the 2nd General Rule of United Methodism)
is not something for which we should ever seek recognition or even acknowledgment
from others. Rather, we do “only
what we ought to have done”. That
is, what should have been done in the first place should never have been
neglected nor should it be assumed that “someone else” will take care of those
things which demand the attention of the Church.
The broader context of Luke’s Gospel necessarily includes the apostles’ request for an
increase in faith. Such a prayer might
seem worthy of recognition and a Divine Pat-On-The-Back for such loyal servants
of The Lord seeking to be even more loyal.
Yet with one broad stroke, Jesus teaches us humility. He gut-punches us by reminding us that we are mere
servants, “slaves”, “bond servants” as St. Paul often refers to himself – to The
Lord AND to one another.
If genuine humility is lacking in us, what is also
lacking is the kind of faith which justifies and sanctifies. Lacking any real sense of humility, we can
actually convince ourselves that we are due something, that if we are not happy
or even just satisfied, someone owes us what we think we have been cheated out
of.
Faith cannot function well within such a state of mind
and heart and being. We are owed
nothing. We are entitled to nothing, and
we are not due any extra wages for obedience, for doing what we should have
been doing all along; for what we demand for ourselves in the here-and-now and
try to “take”, our Lord says, “You have received your reward already” (Matthew 6:1-21).
So then it becomes a matter of whether we believe we
can “take” what we want when we want it, or if we possess the patience
and humility to “receive” what is offered to us when it is offered to us
– not according to what we think we are entitled to, but what The Lord Himself
decides He wants us to have – and this according to our genuine need
rather than according to what we desire.
For it is also written, “What is prized among humans is an
abomination in the sight of The Lord” (Luke 16:15b).
It is Jesus’ statement and parable in Luke 16 that leads us to Luke 17.
Recall that Jesus says, “Since [the time of John the Baptizer], the
good news of the Kingdom is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter by force”
(16:16). And then Jesus tells the story
of the rich man and poor Lazarus. The rich
man died after having received all the good things this life, this world can
offer; yet because he somehow believed he was entitled to these riches for
himself, he stepped over and completely neglected poor Lazarus who lay at his
gate “covered
with sores” (16:20).
We know how the story ends. The rich man is tormented in Hades while
Lazarus rests in the “bosom of Abraham”. All this is in accordance with the Law of
Moses and the prophets, just as Abraham had chastised the rich man
(16:31). Though Lazarus was in dire need,
he did not receive by begging nor did he try to take in this life all he had
hoped for (just morsels!). Yet when he received what was finally
offered, as opposed to the rich man who
took all he could gain for himself with no thought of what he should have been doing – according to
the Law of Moses - Lazarus’ hand was full.
It was the rich man who finally came up empty after having been so full
for so long.
The assurances of the Kingdom cannot be “taken”. In humility (no thought of self-worth or
self-entitlement) and abiding in sufficient faith, the Kingdom will be “received”
in due course and according to the will of The Lord – and no other. Humility fully trusts this to be true.
The assurance we have is what is offered only to those
who “wait
for The Lord” (Psalm 27:14)
with patience, with humility, with strength of heart and mind … with faith. And the assurance offered to those faithful to
The Lord in the fullness of humility? “I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
There can be no greater gift offered to any of us than
that of a heart hungry for our Holy Father and His Eternal Word … for His purposes and not for our own
personal gain. The state of this nation –
and the state of the Church today – are clear indications that we have so set
our own hearts on what we want and when
we want it that we are inclined to “take” more than we are open and patient
in our humility to “receive”.
Let this time of celebration, then, be a time in which
we learn – together - to wait patiently for The Lord; for whatever it is He
chooses to entrust to this particular congregation must be “received” not
only as a blessing … but as a calling, a purpose beyond ourselves. St. Peter and St. Paul both agree that “The
Lord shows no partiality” (Acts
10:34; Romans 2:11) but “welcomes all who fear Him and do what is
right” (Acts 10:35). That is, doing “what we should have been doing
all along”.
This IS the Gospel of The Lord, and is the work of Christ
in the world today.
Amen.
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