Walk Humbly

The scriptures for this sermon are:
Micah 6:1-8
Matthew 5: 1-12

Three sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.

The first said, “I built a big house for our mother.”

The second said, “I sent her a BMW with a driver.”

The third smiled and said, “I’ve got you both beat. You remember how Mom enjoyed reading the Bible? And you know she can’t see very well. So I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took elders in the church 12 years to teach him. He’s one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot recites it.”

Soon thereafter, mom sent out her letters of thanks:
“Milton,” she wrote one son, “The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house.”
“Gerald,” she wrote to another, “I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the BMW. And the driver is so rude!”
“Dearest Donald,” she wrote to her third son, “You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was delicious”.

Outside of my mother’s house there is a tree that has been growing for over fifty years at least. It is massive, the trunk thick and strong and the branches extending to the heavens filled with big, green leaves. However, sometimes I have noticed that after winter has gone and spring begins not all of the branches bud. Sometimes there is a branch here or there that has nothing on it and it becomes dry and frail. The rest of the tree is beautiful but if someone doesn’t prune the dead branches, it will damage the rest of the tree as it dies.

This process isn’t so very different from what we have to do as good Christians. If we want to be healthy and strong we have to constantly reassess our lives and consider what needs to be different about ourselves. Sometimes we fall into bad habits that drag us down and take over our lives. That’s why it is important to pay attention to the advice we are often given in the bible such as verse 8 in Micah 6 where we are told to “Act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God”.

Humility is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in a Christian’s life. Many of us want to be humble and try to be, but it is so much harder than Jesus makes it seem. One of my favorite Steelers player is Troy Polamalu, a Greek Orthodox Christian is considered one of the most humble football players in the NFL. However, about six weeks ago in a game he forced a fumble and when he saw he was about to be tackled, he did a backward pass to try to pick up more yards and the guy he threw it too just managed to catch it. After the game when he was asked about it, he answered, “The play at the end of the game was incredibly arrogant and selfish and foolish of me. I represent something bigger than myself: my faith, my family, and my team. I’ll try to never let that happen again.”

First of all, it takes a lot of guts to admit you are wrong. Second, even someone who tries to be humble and faithful can have moments of pride and selfishness. The lesson Troy learned is one that comes to all of us at some point in our lives. God does not enjoy a prideful person and from personal experience when you ask God to teach you to be more humble – he takes you up on that offer pretty quickly!

But the main reason we should be humble is because we are only here through God’s power and grace. We are told often in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that it is those who suffer who hold God’s favor. It is those people who understand how sinful, arrogant and selfish they are as human beings who receive God’s mercy and grace. Those people inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the meek, the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn.” The Lord tells us how to be humble as well, the more we thank God and give him praise, the more aware we become of how little we have done to earn what we enjoy in life.

Humility and a passion for praise are the way we grow in grace. The Bible is full of self-humbling people who bow down before God, and people giving praise to God for their blessings. The healthy heart is one that bows down in humility and rises in praise and adoration. The Psalms strike both these notes again and again. Also, Paul in his letters both articulates humility and breaks into many praises. As the years pass Paul mentions in several letters to churches how he is the last of the apostles, the least of all saints and the foremost of sinners! And as his self-esteem sinks, so his rapture of praise and adoration for the God who so wonderfully saved him rises.

Without a doubt, learning to praise God all the time, for everything that is good is a mark that we are growing in grace. One of my professors who had once been in stage four of prostate cancer often told us how painful both the cancer and the treatment was during that time of his life. He told us that between bouts of agony and fear, in which he had to stuff his mouth with bedclothes to avoid biting his tongue, he would say aloud over and over again: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth" (Ps. 34:1). He said that the only way he knew of to get through the pain was to find joy in the Lord who is always good and beautiful.

If we want to grow in grace, we are to acknowledge that it is only with the Lord that we are able to do anything. It seems like such a simple thing, but all of us are tempted to take credit for what God has brought about in our lives. But if you want to grow in grace, try to be humble and always remember to praise the Lord for what you have been given.

Amen.