Spiritual Practices: “Humility”

Palm Sunday                                                                                       03/25/18—Highland—Meute

Spiritual Practices: “Humility”

Philippians 2: 5-11; John 13: 3-16

Pearl: Humility brings us into equal footing with each other and is a magnetic witness.

Function: To urge worshippers to humbly serve each other and everyone by being genuine with their true selves (Jesus loved and accepted people as they were).

The Pharisees were one of the groups of religious power-brokers when Jesus walked this earth. These were the people who Jesus clashed with the most. They were the most religious people of his day.

1. One of their flaws was that they put on “religiosity” in order to appear so very spiritual but in reality were just like everyone else. Jesus told a parable about these most religious people who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt…
   1. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’ Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’ Jesus commented, ‘This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself’ (Luke 18: 9-14, The Message, p. 1896).
2. This story of Jesus is compelling still today. The problem of “putting on appearances,” dawning “glittering images” as did the Pharisees of Jesus’ day still persists. It is the problem of hypocrisy.
   1. The Pharisee was not being true to himself, anyone else, or his God. He was living a lie. He thought that he was righteous. He thought of himself as one of the good guys.
   2. He had constructed an elaborate façade but he was not fooling anyone.
   3. Putting on spiritual facades is a hazard for Christ followers today and it actually works against making the church the welcome place that it needs to be in order to fulfill the law of love which Jesus preached and taught every moment of his ministry.
3. Why do you think that Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem on that day we now call Palm Sunday, “humble and riding on a donkey’s colt?” It was not only a humble donkey but a young donkey at that!
4. Jesus was on a mission to model humility. He wanted to meet people where they were. He wanted to minister to people exactly how they were, in all of their messiness. He didn’t come to give an inoculation of God, he came to bring transformation to the core of people’s being.
   1. He called out the practice of “posing” and advocated a life of humble transparency and honesty before God and before others.

Humbly coming before God and before others as you truly are makes for a spirituality with which God can best work.

People of faith are most powerful when they stop play-acting and stop dressing up or sugar-coating their messiness, their brokenness, their struggles, and their pain.

1. It is best for people of faith to be real.
2. Put down pride. This is largely a “pride” thing. People want to feel better than somebody. So people find someone, anyone, who they can look down on (“Thank you God that I am not like other people”).
   1. Don’t fool yourself! You are like other people.
   2. Everyone is the same for we all stand before the Holy God.
      1. Good news! Your Holy God accepts you as you are. Warts and all. Problems, failures, sins, doubts, questions, general orneriness, and all!
      2. The famous German theologian Paul Tillich pared down all of his theology and biblical knowledge to this simple principle: “accept that you are accepted.”
         1. You don’t have to put on airs. You don’t have to construct some kind of false self, some “glittering image.” Christ never asked for this.
         2. It is what the most religious people of his day did and he called it out for the sham that it was.
      3. The one who was most holy, Jesus Christ, did not put on any airs. He did not play the game! And he was called out for it. You might say he was crucified for it.
         1. They said over and over, “Look at him! He eats with sinners.”
         2. They were right! He did eat with sinners. He even sat at the table in the home of a leper.
            1. Lepers had to call out “unclean” as they walked the streets so that no one would accidentally touch up against them.
            2. Jesus did not distinguish between the “clean” and the “unclean,” the “in” and the “out,” the “righteous” and the “unrighteous.”
               1. Actually he did teach one day that the righteous were those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the prisoner, cared for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the immigrant, and so on.
            3. Humility is about being honest with yourself in who you are: no different from any other person deep down.
               1. Mother Theresa said: “If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace because you know who you are.”
               2. Knowing who you are! There it is! Humility is being honest with yourself, with others, and with God!

Humbly coming before God and before others as you truly are makes for a spirituality with which God can best work.

So on that night of the Last Supper with his disciples, before his suffering and crucifixion, Jesus stripped himself down to his undergarments, took a towel and a wash basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet.

1. This was one of Jesus’ most fundamental and important lessons for life in his Father’s name.
   1. There was great power in what Jesus did. He humbled himself.
   2. And he welcomed everyone at his Table. He did not discriminate among his followers. They distinguished among themselves. They wondered who was the greatest among them. Two of the closest disciples actually asked if they could sit on his throne with him when he brings about his reign. And they were a diverse group. He even washed the feet of Judas, his betrayer.
   3. Jesus knew every one of his disciples. He knew what they were thinking. He knew them through and through.
      1. They were a representation of every people who have ever lived.
      2. Jesus demonstrated extravagant acceptance within his own group of followers.
   4. He washed their dirty feet. He did not turn away from their filthy feet. And proverbially, he did not turn away from their truest selves in all of their uncleanness, either.
   5. Humbling self is a lot about being transparent and open with your truth. The Church is called by Jesus Christ to accept everyone in their truth.
      1. We have a long way to go but we have to start now.
      2. The Church, in pride, has for too long put on “glittering images” turning many away.
      3. Many are turned away for the wrong reasons. And sadly the church turns away many of its own when they reveal their truths as well.
      4. People must know, they need to know, we all need to know, that God accepts us as we are.
   6. Humbling yourself before others, and before God is a way to serve God by serving others.
      1. In humility as we are real and true with each other we serve each other. We help each other.
      2. When you truly see yourself as equal with another you are more compassionate.

When Jesus washed the feet of his disciples he then said that they were to follow his example and that his followers should wash one another’s feet as well.

1. And so as the church is prone to do it took him literally and we have foot-washing ceremonies all through the church on Maundy Thursday. I am not belittling them. Many have told me how moving they are.
   1. But more than likely Jesus meant that his followers were to be willing to show each other their dirty feet! That is, that his followers should be real with each other and open with each other and transparent with each other.
   2. There is no need for putting on appearances. No one is holy except God alone: no one!
2. Being real with each other is an act of humility; humbling yourself is the door to serving others.

Such humility is a powerfully compelling witness and it is a way to welcome everyone into God’s family. And God’s true family is a wildly diverse family where even…weird Uncle Joe is welcomed!

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (Phil. 2:5)