Sermon/Reflection 29/10/17 Mindset 3– humbly seeing God.

 When I picture humility I tend to hear two voices. That of Charles Dicken’s character Uriah Heep, in David Copperfield, “Ah! But you know we’re so very umble…. And having such a knowledge of our own umbleness, we must really take care that we’re not pushed to the wall by them as isn’t umble.” and that of Country and western singer Mac Davis singing “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 looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, but I'm doing the best that I can.” Today we have three very different pictures of humility. Unfortunately they are all male because that’s what the scriptures give us. It’s just as well it’s men because we only have a very limited number to choose from and if we started using women as examples we would be here till at least Christmas and that’s coming quick enough as it is. Or maybe not. True humility, while extremely attractive never promotes itself and so I am sure that the most humble people in history we don’t even know about.

 Numbers 12:3 says “Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.” In his second letter to the Corinthians St Paul says “I ...appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away! Jesus of course, (according to Paul) “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:8) Jesus himself declared “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 23:12)

 This last gives the key to biblical humility I think. It is the idea that humility or humbleness is about thinking and acting as though we are less than or equal to everyone else. Every child knows this instinctively. For centuries children were treated as possessions and even after that the rule was that they be seen and not heard. That never seems to stop them (and by them I mean us) stating the truth the way any adult should. Unfortunately many, if not most, move out of this into a period where in order to try and establish our own identities we see our own acquired knowledge as making us “greater than or equal to”.

Hopefully we then transition back out of it like Mark Twain. “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

I had a Mark Twain moment with my parents myself. After I had apologized to them my father’s response was transformative for me. He asked for my advice about something. We had a mutual moment of acknowledging that we were less than or equal to the other.

 This is why, I think, that Jesus includes the second of the two great commandments “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” True humility is about equality. We know that the only way to see God is to see love. The only way to show God is to show love. And the only way to do that is humbly. “...and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) Amen.