A Humble Heart is a Simple Acknowledgement of Reality
Sermon - Humble of Heart - Ash Wednesday
Today is the first day of Lent and Lent is a time of preparation, where we reorder our hearts, minds, and bodies to walk with Jesus through the trials and temptations, but also His surpassing hope and life on the otherside. At the end of this season, we are faced with the joys of God's love at the Last Supper and the trials and temptations of our sinfulness on Good Friday. Even the very best disciples fell terribly short in these moments. So how can we prepare ourselves to dine with Jesus, to suffer with Jesus, and ultimately to be resurrected with Jesus? One of the fundamental ways is humility. We need to have humble hearts as we approach Jesus, trusting in him more than anything else and knowing our littleness before the grandness of God’s all-surpassing goodness.
When I say we should be humble, any number of things may come to your mind. You might be thinking that we need to lower ourselves, we would be a doormat, we should be timid or something like that. That is not really what humility is.
Humility before God is ultimately about recognizing reality. If we truly recognize our situation and relationship before God that should lead to us being humble as we live into that reality. If we were to start at the start and recognize that God created us, that God gave us all of our talents, and that God even gave us the capacity to work hard, improve, and grow, we would recognize his height and glory and our littleness and how much we owe and should be thankful.
If we were to recognize the wisdom that went into creation, the wisdom that went into us, and that wisdom which upholds everything, then compare it to our lack of understanding, our own inability to sort out politics, history, and relationships. We would recognize the grandeur and need for his wisdom to guide all things.
If we were to recognize that each of us was created with a purpose, to do good and to lift up others as well as ourselves. Yet, we have struggled with our created purpose to be good at most moments rather than having it as a normative habit. We would realize that we need God's goodness and love to transform our hearts and minds into what we were always meant to be.
In Psalm 51 that great psalm of repentance, is David's simple realization of who he is and how much he needs God. Our repentance should come from the same place. It is a recognition of how much we have fallen short and how little we know. We must draw close to the only one who can help and knows better, trusting in his forgiveness and guiding hand. The story of Jonah is the exact same thing, but in this book, we come face to face with the sin of a nation and thankfully the leadership leads the way in repentance and helps everyone to turn to and depend on God - so at least for a moment the city is transformed.
The gospel reading from Luke on the surface is about humility to others but ultimately it is about how our humility to God changes our relationship with others. It starts with Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was importantly a day of rest, but just like us, the religious leaders had turned something good into an excuse to prohibit helping people. Yet, our humility towards God and the realization of our undeservingness should lead us to love another as we love ourselves. We don't know another person's relationship with Jesus, but we do know we have all fallen short so already that leads to a kind of welcome and invitation to anyone. We can know at least to some extent the grandeur of our brokenness. True recognition of what we can see should lead us to lift up others and to serve them in such a way as we serve Jesus in them.
Jesus shows us in a very human way the joys of this humility and the consequences of pride. He talks about seats of honor at banquets, we might have some understanding of this from weddings, and award ceremonies, but these are not commonplace for us. It may be helpful for us to imagine it in a workplace: imagine someone lifts themselves up as a manager, but without the right classification, training, or acknowledgment. So, what would happen? They are publicly brought to the a base position (They are still important and in the company but there is a depromotion). Or we could imagine it in this church. If anyone new or in the pews, even a new priest were to step into a leadership role and just start telling people what to do without building trust and relationships, what would happen? - I have seen this happen in churches - people leave, they start being discontented, and those people have to be publicly brought to a lower position.
Yet imagine the opposite, if the boss or owner of a major company goes down and works in the mail room or cleans the floor - what would that do? Not only would that uplift those working beside him but likely the boss and owner would be lifted up too, even by the workers.
I have experienced that in this church. I have often thought I need to do everything. I have the energy and the youth, right? Yet, many of you have stepped in and said to me “You have more important work, or are too busy and need rest”. I love doing everything even the humble work, but I have seen many of you lift me. I know I can still grow in my humility. I am saying this as an example of what can happen and what God does when we show true humility and recognition of our place in relation to him.
We can live humbly because we know this is the truth of our reality. I see this even in my own life. Sure, I have had many successes in my life, but in many ways, I am still that little dyslexic, accident-prone, nervous little boy failing at school, especially as I approach God. It is only due to him that I have become anything, that I have overcome anything, that I can do anything and the same is true for each of you.
It is important to have a humble heart, to recognize the truth of our place before God, because ultimately, that is how we are lifted up by God. It takes a humble heart to put ourselves at Jesus' feet at all times, but it is only when we kneel before Jesus that he can teach us, lift us up, and make us walk. It takes a humble heart to put off control, to cast off our desires, and will, but it is only then that God can take control, fill our needs, and guide us. It takes a humble heart to follow and not seek our own way. It takes a humble heart to work under someone, so it takes a humble heart to join the work of the Holy Spirit. I could go on. Humility and the accompanying repentance is an essential part of the way we approach, know, and grow in our relationship with God. So, this Lent, humbly turn to God, kneeling at his feet, following and watching for his work.
