April Sharings -- Humility begins with a rootedness in God

“Humility begins with a rootedness in God—ourRoot—and our recognition that only God and God’s will matter” (N. Graham Standish)

During the late ‘60’s being a revolutionary and livingin a counter-cultural way was all the rage. Even the church was affected by those whose passion was forsocial witness and political action in the name ofJesus. Many believers tried to live out a “radical vision” of the Christian faith in a variety of ways. Iwas never one of those. At times I wanted to be, but I simply lacked the courage to be revolutionary. Times have changed, and yet the need for a radical witness to the Gospel of Christ remains. Today in the United States the practice of and growth in humility is counter cultural. In a society that takes pride in achievements, power, and prestige, and where two of the most powerful idols threatening to seduce us are production and consumption, walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8) is revolutionary.

There is no one more revolutionary than Jesus who,according to Paul, “though he was in the form of God,did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself” (Philippians 2:6-8). During Holy Week we encounter the humility of Jesus who is obedient even to the point of a degrading death on a cross, that the world might be redeemed and that we might be called to a new way of life. Humility, rooted in a grateful heart, opens us to God as he forms us into a new creation and leads us in the narrow way that is Christian discipleship.

Our culture does not reward humility, and yet that is the way of the Christ who empties and humbles himself for our sake, and it is the life to which we are called, a life of humble service as we set aside our own desires and agendas for the sake of God and neighbor. Andrew Murray, a British pastor and missionary in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, said that humility is “the first and chief mark of the relationship of the creature to God, of the Son to the Father, the secret of blessedness that allows God to be all in all.” May we pray with John Wesley: “I am no longer my own, but thine. Let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.”

Gratefully,
Pastor Tom