In looking at the passage for today, as you heard Roger share it earlier the part of Mark and Matthew also covering it, the Gospel accounts of Jesus entering in to Jerusalem. Well, as I sometime do, I did a little search on the Internet. It’s easy to do. You type in a word and it gives you all kinds of connections. But here’s something I found; I’d forgotten it I guess. Maybe it was just one of those things I never had realized. It’s based on a story of a woman who went into her office work one day. She had a fairly responsible position but her job was actually overseen and supervised by her boss as she called him. Whatever motivated the boss, he came out in front of—and it was an open workspace area—not a part of the office, and began to tell Mary or give her her annual job review you might say. But it was a public job review. And he began to tell her all of the things that she had done wrong, how he was disappointed with her attitude, and on and on and on to Mary in front of her co-workers.

That’s what humiliation means because that was the word I looked up. First, humility and then found humiliation. To live with pride, dignity, or self-respect of someone; to humiliate them, that’s what the boss did. That’s what Mary felt—that humiliation. And yet in the root word in the Latin base, it’s “humilis” which is also the base of “humility”. Two words so different and yet so close because the root word goes back to its base which means “worldliness” or “from the earth”—humus, the ground that is below us. The term “humility” is indeed one that gives us a sense of intrinsic self-worth in one sense. And emphasizes in our spiritual realm in our religious practice that we say a person “should be humble” or said Jesus rode in to Jerusalem humbly on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Humility as a religious virtue is much different than humiliation or shame. Almost the opposite you might say. Bruna Martinuzzi says in one of her articles that language is very powerful. “A word can mean many things to many people. Words have enormous power. They can bring laughter to your heart and bring tears to your eyes. Sometimes, the same moment. Words are strong. And one such word that is strong in the depth of our service today is the word ‘humility’. It is one of those words that are seldom in neutral gear. It’s one way or another. I have grown to love and appreciate it, but there are those who fear that humility also is synonymous with lack of self-confidence or timidity.”

Well, Jesus was a person who was a true and superb humble being. Not a person humiliated although the world tried and different individuals clearly were out to do that, leaders of the church of His day. But He chose a humble way. He was what we would call today in the modern vernacular a “humble leader”. That’s who Jesus was and that’s who Jesus is. Some examples of modern humble leaders comes from Jim Collin’s who said that David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard is one of those. He was a CEO, head of the company, but he shunned publicity wherever possible because Packard himself was quoted as saying, “You shouldn’t gloat about anything you’ve ever done. You ought to get up, keep going, and find something better to do.” People must naturally notice this as a merit, a quality, a virtue, a value. Edward Halifax calls a true merit to be like a river that runs deep. And “the deeper it runs, the less noise it makes.”

A humble person is one who does not shout for their own glory, does not stand up and point to themselves. Paul recognized that in our Scripture for today that’s based on Philippians, 2:5-11. For Paul is trying to point out not only the quality of humble leadership that Jesus portrayed but saying, “If you want to follow, you have to follow this way.” Paul says in Verse 5, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, (that’s Biblical language saying Jesus was God) did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Even the glory for Jesus is to bring glory to God. What a powerful statement! Paul is trying to summarize and say, “You should be in the same attitude; the attitude of how we think about what we do and what we say.” Shepherd Johnson, a Baptist pastor, said that throughout his ministry Jesus had emphasized the importance of serving others for the glory of God. That’s the foundation of service. In fact, even in Matthew 23 when Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant.” As Jesus did this, His disciples struggled with it. James and John in particular were the ones who didn’t quite understand it at their point of following Jesus. They wanted to be at the right and the left hand and side, the most important places. They wanted to be lifted up; they wanted to be proclaimed as one of the glorious leaders along with Jesus. Jesus said, “No, you are going to be a servant if you are going to follow me.”

In fact, Jesus lived it out not despite His words. It was at the Passover meal where they had gathered. And Jesus said, “We must have this meal together.” He knew, Jesus, that it was the last meal, the last supper. They did not know, the rest of them. But as they came in, they had been walking all day and in Jerusalem in that day it meant walking in sandals on dry ground, dusty feet, hot, tired feet. And it was customary for the host to have someone in place who would be a servant who would kneel and wash the feet of the guest. It was their custom. But apparently there was no servant available or Jesus simply took that position. For He took the basin and He knelt and He washed the feet of His disciples thereby driving it home for them to see what He meant when He said, “You will be, if you are going to follow me, a servant.” A humble servant, not playing it out for his own glory. This is a living example of what Jesus was saying. It is a living example of what we are to be and to do in our humility as servants of Jesus Christ.

Now that’s the principle of the message, and now I get to the personal point. For I have learned much in the last two years here at Grace United Methodist Church, just two years ago the first of March. It seems like ten going on twelve. Because there have been many lessons and we have learned them together. But the last two months have been, maybe, the most difficult. You see, I’ve wondered the last two months, with Nancy’s illness being diagnosed as a cancerous tumor, that she did not take and has not yet taken any stance that would say, “Poor me” or “Why me?”. Now, of course, if she were here today, she would say, “I don’t choose this. I don’t like it.” But simply because it poured out of her spirit, she said, “It doesn’t matter whether I live or I die, I know I’m with Christ.” It reminded me of an ancient Athenian Pericles and what he was quoted to say. “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”

Now, I will have to admit that I went through a time with that initial diagnosis Nancy was experiencing that I asked the question, “Why me?” and “Why now for Grace?” Haven’t we been through enough? Even some of you said to me it’s like a cloud or a shadow over Grace. It seems like it’s just another problem. Well, when I heard the diagnosis of nasal pharyngeal carcinoma, it felt like a boom had been loaded. That’s a sailing term. I’m not a big sailor, but I was on a sailboat one time when someone said, “Boom!” And it wasn’t a cannon going off or a firecracker. It meant “Drop!” Now it would have been easier if they had said that because the main sail, as if it is being shifted in the moving in the wind, comes from one side of the boat to the other and it’s not very high; it’s low. And that boom if it hits you, as it did me in the back of the head, you remember to duck the next time. Getting hit from behind and feeling the wind knocked out of you, that’s what it felt like. I mean, we had just come through this tough year where theft was discovered and another theft of a purse on the premises, changes in staff, and rebuilding our financial program from the ground floor, establishing checks and balances, protecting the integrity of people and therefore the congregation of Grace United Methodist Church. And Nancy had been principal in that rebuilding. It’s just a year and a half ago she came. Nancy was just redirecting her energies. We were talking about it in December where the first of the year she could now be free of all that she has been so diligently working on since her prior work, before being called to the ministry, was in business and accounting. I couldn’t do that; I can’t balance my own checkbook. Nancy was just redirecting her energies and we were getting inspired on how she could now do what she felt she was called to do—small group development, spiritual formation, disciplining, shepherding further the preschool, providing solid preaching and pastoral leadership which she did do through all of this. We were just making final decisions about a capital campaign preparing for the future of completing the facilities and building ministries and growing forward and feeling as if we could also reduce the debt further. And these major planning’s, which are still in place and we are moving forward, but it was to be doing it together, two pastors that work well together. I’ve had other associates and they’ve been good and okay and I’ve been an associate. I was probably good with one and not so good with another—senior pastor, that is. And I’ve seen how those teams don’t always work well. But this was a good one! We finally matched our gifts, thought that God had brought us both together.

It was sort of like, at that moment in December, riding in to Jerusalem. Now no cheering crowds; this was just Nancy and I talking in the office. But we felt like we had finished a long journey and we had arrived. For me there was a little bit of internal cheering and then almost clearly some humiliation. My plans had been blown out of the water when it was announced. The boom had been lowered; I’d been sucker-punched. “What am I going to do now,” I thought. Notice language—my, I—all those personal pronouns? Humiliation tends to come when you feel loss of pride or dignity or your ego gets bruised. It can happen to anybody and it was happening to me. It was happening to me because I had slipped in to the cultural view that I deserve it and I want it now, I want it all, and now is the time. We’d worked hard; this was our moment. I had at times thought it was up to me to come up with the answers for Grace United Methodist Church. I mean, that’s what a Senior Pastor is, right? The one who has the answers and the visions and all those kinds of things. But with Nancy I felt a sense of partnership; I wasn’t alone. There was a team approach. And now there is that sense of oneness, I’ll have to be honest with you. In fact, a sense of loss—loss of strength, loss of direction, at least for a moment.

And God has a way of timing things, though. Joyce and I had chosen to go off together for a couple of days at a cabin in Brown County in January just to get away and read and relax and enjoy the winter. It was at that setting, that family time; I got a call from Nancy finding out that what we thought was something of a cyst was now a tumor. And you know the rest of the story. I was reading a book called Humble Leadership, by Graham Standish based on the words and the teachings of the One who the world tried to humiliate, Jesus. This book is inside us. And I was enjoying it and appreciating it. And I found it further helpful in this time of transition of going through this battle together. In fact, let me read you some of Graham Standish’s words. “There comes a point in which leadership can break down precisely because of our success as leaders. When confidence turns to pride and arrogance, we lose sight of the people we have been called to serve and become consumed with following our own vision.” Graham Standish goes on and it says that “There is often a way forward that comes through this paradox by seeking to humbly follow God’s plans rather than our own.” He says, “Humble leadership is grabbing the teachings of Jesus and it means recognizing that what we have and who we are are gifts from God. And our lives should reflect our gratitude for these gifts.” Let me read that to you again. “Recognizing that what we have and who we are are gifts from God. And our lives should reflect that gratitude, our gratitude, for these gifts.

You see, for me, this awareness, this recognition gives me the hope and the possibility that we might radically think about this time instead of just responding, that we might creatively be open to God’s guidance and direction and grace instead of fretting and worrying and feeling a cloud is over us. When we learn such openness, God’s power and grace will flow through us. Now Standish goes on in another part of his book and says, “Humble leadership though can be personally dangerous for exposing our weaknesses and our powerlessness and our fear and our anxiety, our cultural need for strength affects Christian leaders with a pride that calls them to ignore Biblical teachings on humility.” This kind of leadership can be scary, anxiety producing because it means you have to live on the edge a bit more and there is the potential for failure. Leadership like this though depends upon seeking first God’s path, a path that may not be completely clear to us at any given time. Jesus—did He know fully what was going to happen when He rode in to Jerusalem or not? But it was based upon His humble leadership of not following safe paths of human convention. It gives us a freedom when you think about it to be creative as God made us to be creative. What it means is that we as church leaders need to say to the church, “We are not just going to keep going always the same way as we have gone before. There is a freedom to choose alternatives that God will open to us if we will be ready for them.” The more we lead in the spirit of openness to God, the more God increases our freedom of choice by offering many avenues and creative alternatives to what we have already been doing.

Now I know more than a few of you are saying, “That’s well and good and I am glad the pastor has finally come to grips with this and so will our other leadership we hope.” But some of you are saying, “I’m not a leader. This doesn’t pertain to me.” Let me assure you that in someone’s eyes, you are a leader. In the eyes of a child, the children that came in here this morning, the youth of our church, other adults, maybe the person sitting next to you or someone who knows you from a distance sees you in a way as a leader. And then if you don’t feel there is anyone that fits that category, if you are connected with Grace United Methodist Church, you are declared by the world to be a Christian and Christian’s are seen to be leading us somewhere. You are being watched. People are watching you and watching me and want to know how we are going to respond to this situation and that situation. The more you are known as a Christian, and particularly in this area from Grace United Methodist, the more people look to you to act and talk like the One that you say you follow—Jesus. You are a leader; you just may not know it. And we are to follow in the way that Jesus says we are to follow which is with that sense of humility that I spoke to you earlier.

Now before you back off of that and say, “Well, that’s well and good and maybe I can accept that in principal but let me tell you about my daily life. I just can’t do it. I don’t have the gifts, I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the training, I don’t have the knowledge, I can’t quote the Bible like other people can.” All kinds of reasons why you can’t, but that’s exactly why God came in Jesus—to show us a way to live, to give us the teachings, the examples. And why Jesus, when He left this earth said, “I will be with you. In fact, I will even send you the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate who will be with you to give you the strength and the courage and the wisdom as you need it to be a Christian, to be a leader, to be a humble leader.”

Palm Sunday was a watershed event for Jesus entering in to Jerusalem. And maybe we can take this as a watershed event with the announcement about Nancy. It’s a major change. I still as a human being recognize my sense of sadness and even a sense of disappointment, but the truth is, God is the one who is saying to us, “Not that I caused this, but I am there with you to go within the gate together.” We do not know why Jesus knew what He will face as He goes forward. Who of us can know what tomorrow will bring? And who of us may not still have the feelings that Jesus had when He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and said, “Lord, if there be any way I don’t want to go this way. Please take this cup of suffering from my lips. But not my will, yours be done.”

Just as Nancy would not have guessed two, three months ago that she would be in the condition she is today fighting this tumor, having all the help that she can have help her in fighting that tumor including our prayers. None of us know the specifics of tomorrow yet forward we must go together faithfully with our Lord Jesus Christ. Not just the Senior Pastor or our new associate whenever that may happen or change or staff or any of the staff, but all of us together entering the gate of the future that we have before us living out the plans that we have as God gives us those plans hand in hand as followers of Christ humbly leading in His name.

It will be displayed on the screen a prayer. And I would like for you to listen to it and be prepared to read it with me after you have heard it once. This is a prayer to God. “I’m yours no matter where you call me to go, what you call me to do and how you call me to be. I will seek Your will and way as I lead others to do the same.” Would you say that with me? “I’m yours no matter where you call me to go, what you call me to do and how you call me to be. I will seek Your will and way as I lead others to do the same.” One prayer said one time is effective but not complete. For me I hope I will repeat this numerous times. I offer it to you as a gift. If I’d thought about it, it was an inspiration that didn’t come up until Friday, I would have had it printed on a card and passed out to you. You may get that before next Sunday. But nonetheless, it is a prayer that I just simply offer to you that seems to strike at home to me that what we are in a matter about is knowing God’s will and trusting in God for the future and leading others to trust. Because if we think we are in control, we can not be humble in our leadership. We have to seek to kneel in a spiritual way before our Lord, be willing to be a servant, be willing to serve others even when it is not a pleasant thing to do, but to do so in the name of Jesus Christ.

So I offer this prayer and a model of who Jesus is for us today—a humble leader with humility being the center of what He did, what He said, and who He is. And it is to be the center for us. So one more time together, let us pray, “I’m yours no matter where you call me to go, what you call me to do and how you call me to be. I will seek Your will and way as I lead others to do the same.” Amen.

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

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