"It's All about Humility"

For Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

(graphic from ChurchPowerpoint.com, used with permission)

Lectionary Scripture - Luke 17:5-10 (NRSV)
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

It’s All about Humility

The worship resource my denomination makes available for the above scripture says that a small amount of faith can bring big results. It also says that faith exists for the purpose of bringing life and bringing grace to oneself and others. Faith however is not for purposes of demonstrating or obtaining power which at its core is fickle, impulsive, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, and capricious. Such displays of counterfeit faith defeat the purpose of genuine faith. Why? Because genuine faith exists for one reason alone and that reason is to deepen our relationship with God and with one another. The resource therefore asks that we closely examine our motivations when seeking an increase of faith. Part of that examination must include discerning if we want God to do something that we ourselves should do. We’re then asked to reflect on a time when we experienced an increase of faith and how it helped in the situation or circumstance and what was subsequently accomplished. Hopefully this contemplation leads to understanding when it is appropriate to ask God for increased faith and when it is not.

For me, when I see displays of counterfeit faith, I am often intrigued. I remember traveling to a congregation some years ago to preach. Church school classes were still in session so I decided to wait in the lobby until classes were finished. It wasn’t long before I started hearing one of the teachers emphatically yell the name of God every few words or so. God’s name was being used appropriately but the pronunciation was loud and angry. It carried the kind of intensity of when someone uses “God” in a swearing tirade. I then imagined being in that adult class and probably blanching each time the fool repeatedly yelled “GOD!” Before long, I recognized who was teaching the class and smiled to myself. I smiled because I knew the individual’s longstanding reputation for being full of himself. In fact, it always amazed me the number of people willing to follow this person year after year given his blatantly obvious self-serving, self-aggrandizing, impulsive, temperamental, capricious personality style. Furthermore, he never really did any heavy lifting as a minister. For that stuff, he always cajoled, ordered, or intimidated someone else into doing it for him. In my estimation, there was little about his faith that was remotely genuine. I suspect however that he would say he has the richest spiritual life of anyone he knows.

Fortunately, there have been many other people in my life whose faith I can gladly affirm as genuine and even as real as mustard seed. They are people devoid of any ego dynamics related to control issues. They are devoid of needing to impress others, or impress themselves, or seek high office, or for that matter seek any kind of position or influence over others. Extending compassion is, and will always be, their first order of business. They are persons so humble and comfortable in their own skin that it would take a tree uprooting itself and being cast into the sea before they’d get ruffled or nicked by someone’s careless insult. Honesty, integrity, humility, and generosity define their way of being in the world. One needn’t ever feel self-conscious in asking for their help and support. These people of faith live in ways so utterly foreign to those whose lives comprise drivenness for position, influence, achievement, power, or riches. People of real faith – people of genuine faith – seem like aliens from another planet for they see the world so utterly and wholly different from the rest of us. They realize that we are caught up in an eternity, an eternity in which the current ills will last but a short while. Year after year, this is the faith I want and the faith I seek after. Jim Wallis of Sojourners is someone who exudes that kind of faith for me.

Wallis’ faith became an inspiration for me when we were arrested together in Washington D.C. in December 2005 for protesting cuts to the federal budget. The House of Representatives wanted those cuts, which would have harmed the most vulnerable persons in our society, so at the same they could also wanted generously decrease taxes upon the richest of the rich; talk about robbing the poor to pay the rich. Wallis wasn’t going to have it and neither would I. He therefore summoned people of faith from around the country to protest and be arrested in Washington D.C.

The evening before our arrest by Capitol Police, Wallis led a prayer service vigil at a local church. The intent of the prayer service was to keep our spirits and faith motivated for the next day’s protest. Wallis closed the service that evening with a text from Hebrew Scripture in Habakkuk. It’s a scripture he carries with him at all times. It reads as follows, "Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay." The vision of course is nothing less than God’s Peaceable Kingdom. After the scripture, we joined hands and sang the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome." Following a benediction, we were asked to turn to each other and say, "Hope to be arrested with you tomorrow." Laughter and hugs followed as we left the church sanctuary. These people of faith made the protest a peaceful success the following day.

Thanks Jim for your faith and for your courage. To me, they are the real stuff, nothing counterfeit about them. They are more than mustard seeds. They are the boulders, uprooted trees, and obstacles that must be placed in the way of counterfeit faith whenever and wherever we find it. Long and short of it my friends, ask for the genuine article, i.e. genuine faith, whenever and wherever you need it. For God will supply and provide.

"Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay."