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“The Height of Humility” All Saints Scripture Lesson: Matthew 23:1-12 Sermon Transcript for November 2, 2008 By Pastor Andy Kinsey
The Prayer of Preparation From the hour we first believed, O God, to the hour at hand may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable unto you, our Savior, Redeemer, and Friend. Amen. The Message I was reading the other day that, among all the spiritual qualities
of the Christian life, humility is one of the hardest to practice, yet
probably the easiest to imitate! The hardest to practice, yet the easiest
to imitate…
Or, do you remember Ted Turner’s comment? “If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect!” Oh, the humility! It’s been said that humility is like underwear: “Essential, but indecent, if it shows!” Among all the spiritual qualities of the Christian life, humility is the hardest to practice, yet the easiest to imitate. Just when I think I am being humble, I miss it! Has anyone seen humility lately? Where do you find it these days? I have been looking for humility, but I have not been able to locate it! It seems humility, along with truth, has become a casualty of our 24/7-highly competitive, youth-adoring, media-saturated, sports-loving society! It’s hard to find! After almost three years of campaigning, I ask if humility is recognizable, if even possible – so dull have my sensibilities become to all the rhetoric! Have you seen humility lately? All Saints Day: Introduction Today we celebrate All Saints Day – the Day in the life of the church when we recognize and remember those persons who lived the life of humility and service to others in Christ’s name, and who did a world of good in often quiet and unassuming ways. It’s a special day, and it’s a good time as a church to thank God for those whose lives touched us and influenced us with grace and truth over the years, and helped us to realize the importance of a life lived in the presence of God. It’s a special day: to remember and give thanks, to celebrate, and to reflect on our lives together. I share that bit of an “Introduction” because I would like to invite us as a church, as members of the Body of Christ, to think as a church today! I would like to invite us, as God’s covenant family, to affirm, to confess, with the church throughout the ages that we are both saint and sinner at the same time! As God’s people, we are a mixed bag of intentions and motivations, a hodge-podge of political persuasions and affiliations, a mixture of good and bad and ugly, a kaleidoscope of opinions and calculations. All under one roof! All worshipping the one true God! All singing together! All praying together! All preparing to receive the bread and the cup together! Therefore, as we worship this morning, I would like to invite us to think as the church, as the church of Christ, and to greet you, not only as Pastor Bob did, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but to greet you as Saints, as God’s holy ones! – And so, I greet you –Good Morning Saints! Good Morning! And I greet YOU as Sinners – Good Morning Sinners! Good Morning! All Saints and Sinners are present and accounted for! We’re all here! Communion of the Saints Now, if you are feeling a bit uncomfortable with the title “saints,” that’s okay! You are not alone! Even though in the Apostles’ Creed, when we say we believe in “the communion of the saints,” I have the feeling most folks don’t see themselves as saints. Right?! Saint Frances of Assisi, yes! But me, a saint?! Or, that person, a saint?! We hesitate! I can remember my grandmother would make requests using the vocabulary of sainthood. She would say, “Would be a saint and clean up the barn?” Or maybe: “Would you be a saint and take out the trash?” And before I knew it I was a saint! Not really! But is that all there is to being a “saint”? Surely, there is some deeper commitment, some greater impulse required of a saint than picking up our room? Surely, there is… And yet, surely, there are saints here in our midst this morning! You can see them throughout this place if you look. You can feel their presence. And our job is but simply to recognize and celebrate them! But that is also our problem, for the problem is that real “saints” often go undetected and unnoticed. And Jesus’ Teaching It’s what Jesus is saying in our passage from Matthew’s Gospel: True saints, or real saints, don’t peacock their achievements in front of others, and they don’t wear their piety on their coat sleeves. They don’t insist upon the recognition of their deeds in pubic, and they don’t have need of special treatment or placement in the community. That’s not why they do what they do. Instead, real saints fly under the radar screen. They do what they do in quiet and unassuming ways – not looking for fanfare, but living out the gospel by serving others. Have you ever seen the show on television “Extreme House Makeover”? I think one of the reasons this program is such a mega-hit is because it takes the time to find the “real” saints – the real folks who give and who love without reservation, and who sacrifice without expectation –They give, they love, they sacrifice – without ever wanting recognition! They are the ones who qualify as saints, who represent the height of humility, not by exalting themselves but by doing the quiet but daily work of the kingdom! The Height of Humility: Not exalting ourselves but serving the Lord by giving to others! Without fanfare! Without applause! The real saints! Now many who come out of the Roman Catholic tradition may know that the process by which candidates must pass for sainthood is quit rigorous. It is a very strict, and some would say, “sanitizing,” process. In fact, I have the feeling when we use the word “saint” we probably have in mind persons who are “sinless” or “perfect”. Such is our picture of a saint! But if that’s the case, what do we do with persons in the Bible? After all, have you ever heard of St. Peter and St. Paul? Peter denied Jesus three times, and Paul persecuted Christians and cheered on Stephan’s death. Hardly saintly behavior! And we haven’t even mentioned other saints like Augustine (a rebellious and promiscuous youth) or Aquinas (a glutton)! But it raises a very basic biblical point: All saints come first to God as sinners! Warts and all! We all first come to God as sinners, as persons who have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23)! No saint is ever without sin! In fact, if we think we are without sin, we can be certain we have missed the mark! We can be certain we have missed the point. And we can be certain we probably lack humility, for humility requires the truth that we see ourselves as God sees us! On Halloween, we put on masks to hide and conceal who we really are. We pretend to be someone we are not. (That’s not how Halloween started out by the way, but that’s what it has become!) We dress up and pretend. But today, on All Saints, God invites us to take off our masks and reclaim our identity as Christians, exposing who we really are and what we really care about, realizing we all stand in need of God’s forgiveness, and recognizing that none of us – none of us – stands above or below anyone else! Reflection I certainly don’t know for sure what Jesus would make of the electoral process in this country (as he lived in a context very different from our own), but on the basis of what we read in the New Testament, we can only imagine that Jesus would have little patience with the arrogance and the spinning that now characterize our public life and breed the kind of suspicion and cynicism we now take as commonplace, that sees truth as a ping-pong ball to be batted around! As the Scriptures reveal, and as our passage suggests, the greatest difference between Jesus and the religious leaders who opposed him was humility – that quality that makes all us realize we all belong to God – Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free (Galatians 3:28). We all – saint and sinner – belong to God! And it’s time we as the church celebrate that! It’s time we realize that besides “Joe the Plumber,” there is “Mike the Youth Worker,” and “Linda the Sunday School Teacher,” and “Lynn the Caregiver,” and “John the Committee Chair.” Here are the persons who do the work of the kingdom day-in and day-out! Without fanfare! Often, without applause! Humbling themselves, serving others! And what makes them saints is not that they exceed the rest of us! No! What makes them saints is that they simply serve without looking for reward and demonstrate the kind of love that doesn’t concern itself with the outcome. What makes them saints is how God has blessed them, and worked
through them, and set them apart – as persons who have now gone
before us in faith and who now stand on the sideline cheering us on to
finish the race, to persevere (II Tim. 4:7). Amen! E-mail Comments to: Pastor Andy Kinsey
Copyright Grace United Methodist Church.
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