Untitled Sermon (7)

I want to talk about humility today. Maybe you noticed that I’ve started engaging a bit more with other Christian traditions, and in the last one I offered criticism to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. I hope it was fair and helpful, but there is a danger when you start getting interested in theology that as you gain knowledge and develop strong distinctive convictions that you will fight with those you disagree with and become prideful.

I do want to keep talking about this stuff but it’s got to be done the right way. A lot of the internet apologetics that address these things is really prideful. Weak arguments are masked by confidence and triumphalism, people insult each other and it is often just not content that is renewing your mind via a transformation into the image of Jesus. Instead it is conforming you to the world, making you either fearful or prideful, or both.

If I’m going to engage with this type of question, I need to do it humbly, and if you’re going to listen to me or anyone else that’s doing something apologetic or polemical, you need to think about humility and pride as well.

There are three things I want to suggest to you for your own pursuit of humility, and also that I want you to hold me accountable to. If you think I’m not doing any of these three things remind me of them in the comments.

First of all, focus on Jesus’ dying for our sins. Second, if I am offering a criticism I should look for ways I am guilty of whatever it is I am criticising. Third, I should try hard to listen to other people.

First thing, let’s talk about the bronze serpent. Israel in the wilderness were whining and complaining. They were offering criticisms - there’s no food, there’s no water. Actually we do have food that God has miraculously provided, but it’s worthless. The criticisms are not accurate, they contradict themselves, and they totally overlook how God is sustaining them and blessing them, and not just with ordinary bread, but with bread from heaven, which foreshadows Jesus himself. Receiving manna every day should have caused them to worship God and recognise he is our provider, and that man doesn’t live by bread alone but every word that comes from God’s mouth. Jesus is the word made flesh so that we can have life through uniting with him, we receive his life through faith. But because of their critical attitude the Israelites missed the point, and instead of life they get death from venomous snakes. The lesson of the manna is repeated with the bronze serpent. You look on it and live. Again it foreshadows Jesus, he says he must be lifted up like the snake was, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. There’s two ways this cultivates humility. One - we recognise our own mortality and sin. Apart from God saving and sustaining us we die. In our heart we have hated and grumbled against God, the greatest good. We’ve said what was good was bad, what was beautiful was ugly, what was heavenly bread was worthless food. That is essentially what we are doing whenever we sin. We say I know what is better than loving and being loved by the creator of heaven and earth - my vice is better. The second way it cultivates humility is because it focuses our attention on the highest good in the world - God himself. We see the greatest love, the Father giving us Son for us, the Son suffering and giving his life for those who hated him, the love behind that sacrifice is so beautiful. When you see something trancesdent like that it humbles you. I remember when I saw the grand canyon, i had been telling my friend a story but when I walked round some shrubbery and saw the majestic scene before me I was silenced. The awe of its beauty took my attention from whatever I had been waffling on about, off me and onto something incredible. It’s possible for knowledge to puff is up so that when we are at church listening to a sermon, or listening to something on youtube, we notice mistakes or problems we have, or even look for them, and miss the opportunity to be in awe of Jesus. SO let’s all commit, first of all in pursuit of truth and knowledge of God and godly reformations and corrections of our lives and the church, that we will focus on being in awe of Jesus, not focus on just offering criticisms and only seeing the problems.

Ok, so second thing. I should be mindful of my own complicity with what I am criticising. Jesus says no disciple is above his master, but when the training is complete we will be like our master. And then he asks why you see the speck in our brothers eye but not the log in our own eye. First take the log out, and then you will see clearly to take out the spec. If I want to be fully trained, I need to be aware of my problems, not be distracted by other peoples problems. Also, if I do want to help other people with their problems, which is a good thing, then I will only be able to do that if I myself am experiencing godly changes in my life and recognising and receiving help with my own weaknesses. Every time I think it is worth pointing out a problem with another Christian tradition, or even a different religion or atheism or something. I want to reflect on in what ways I am or have been struggling with that same issue. I did think about the way Protestants might be out of step with the Bible or the early church with relics but I didn’t think about myself personally. I didn’t think about the way I offer honour in inappropriate ways, either because I don’t give enough or I allow it to distract me or others from Jesus. I’d like to do that next time, even if it doesn’t make it into the video. I think if all YouTube apologists and their viewers did this it would help us to develop humility and other virtues generally and the image of Christ.

Third, listening to others. Philippians 2:3 says ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves’. One way we can value other people above ourselves is to view them not as people that need me to correct them, but people I can learn from. If I view myself as their teacher that might lead to pride. If I act like their student, it will help me practise humility. This doesn’t mean I should pretend to believe they are right about everything and I am wrong. Humility is not pretending to be uninformed or pretending you can’t make conclusions and just need someone to give you all your conclusions. But it is accepting that you might be wrong, or that you have misunderstood something, or at least that you have more to learn and this person can help you, inform you or inspire you. SO I want to pay attention to the comments, and I also want to film conversations with people that I disagree with, especially Christians I disagree with.

Will you join me in this and commit to being inspired and in awe of Christ rather than puffed up by knowledge and fixated on mistakes, to be considering yourself and your traditions problems and errors and not just pointing to another group’s problems, and to be seeking to listen to others and hoping to learn something from them. If you want to go on this humility journey with me then let me know in the comments and hit the subscribe button.