“The Humble are Lifted Up”
Luke 1:26-38
Last weekend, I read a post on Facebook by an old classmate from high school.
It said that another classmate--named Sean Hodge--had passed away.
Sean Hodge…
Sean Hodge…
It took me a minute or two, but I remembered Sean.
I hadn’t known him very well.
He was a year ahead of me in school.
The last image I have of Sean is as a young (and what I interpreted as a bit of a cocky) high school kid walking home from school with a smirk on his face after getting off the school bus.
I haven’t seen him since.
That image seems like it could have been yesterday.
It’s frozen in time.
But, it was not yesterday; it was a little over 30 years ago.
And now he is dead.
He died of a sudden heart attack.
It really hit me.
Life is just a vapor.
And the older I get, the more this becomes a reality.
Sean’s death has been bothering me all week.
In any event, I was unaware that I was a friend of Sean’s on Facebook.
So, I went to his profile and started reading about his life.
I could see he was married to a girl who had graduated in my class.
Sean had a beautiful, happy family—two teenage girls.
I tried to find out what he did for a living, but he hadn’t written anything about it.
I looked to see where he went to college; all it said was that he graduated with his undergraduate degree from Colorado State.
It was only when the obituary came out that I read that Sean had then gone on to graduate from a prestigious medical school and had been practicing as a doctor for the past 20 years.
Why did Sean not list his doctoral work on his profile?
Why did he not say he was a doctor?
Why didn’t he use his status to brag to the world.
I mentioned this to his best friend.
His answer was “That’s because Sean was so much more than a doctor.”
One comment about Sean in the obituary stood out to me. It said: “He was interested in a wide range of issues and was always ready to discuss and argue for his perspective of favoring the underprivileged and less fortunate.”
Imagine that.
What a humble guy--that kid walking home from school with a smirk on his face turned out to be—not cocky at all; the exact opposite actually.
I wonder how often we misread other people?
I wonder how often we assume the worst about someone, just because we haven’t taken the time to get to know them?
Sean was a quiet kid, a year older than me.
He did always appear to have a smirk on his face.
So, I figured he was full of himself.
But one of his friends who knew him well in high school wrote: “Sean taught me to respect quiet, smart people.”
So, that’s what Sean was.
He was a quiet, smart person.
A uniquely humble guy who cared deeply about the underprivileged and less fortunate.
You know, the Bible talks a lot about the humble and the underprivileged and the less fortunate.
And sometimes, I think, we might take it for granted that a person has to be underprivileged in order to be humble.
But that’s not really true, is it?
In any event, for 2,000 years people have been asking the question: “Why did God choose Mary to be the mother of His Son?”
Could it be that her qualifications were that she was humble, she loved God, and she was willing to offer herself completely to God’s will?
Legend has it that Mary was not the first person to be asked by God to bear His Son, but rather she was the first person to say “Yes.”
There is no way we can know if this is true, but let’s imagine it is for a moment.
How many others did Gabriel approach before Mary?
How many others said, “You are out of your mind!!!”
How many others were not willing to take the risk?
How many others turned down the privilege of giving birth to the Kingdom of God?
How many others said “No” before Mary said “Yes”?
Mary said “Yes” to God Who wanted to dwell within and through her.
And in a very real sense, this is the same thing God asks of us.
God doesn’t just want to be “with us;” God wants to be within us—distinct yet inseparable!!!
This is what Mary’s “Yes” was about.
She said “Yes” to being a vessel for the divine and the holy.
She was given a choice to allow God to work through her and she said “Yes.”
The same is true for Moses, Deborah, Elijah, Esther, Isaiah…
Is the same true of YOU?
How about me?
The truth of the Gospel is that we human beings are created to be tabernacles, containers of the holy.
We are filled with divine possibilities—all of us.
But what good is it if we don’t allow these divine possibilities to be birthed through our lives, our actions, the faith and grace God offers us?
And what causes us to say “No” to God?
Is it pride?
Is it that we want things on our terms; we want to be in control?
Pride is a dangerous thing.
It eats away at our soul.
It convinces us that we are better than others or that we “ought to be” better than others; we deserve more.
It’s what gets in the heads of corrupt politicians and greedy CEO’s.
But as we see all too often, these people are all eventually humbled.
If not right away, then at their death bed, for that is the great equalizer—is it not?
The proud eventually fall.
In Philippians, the Apostle Paul—once a very proud man writes the following: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not on your own interests, but to the interests of others.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ…He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.”
This is a call to humility.
Why not humble ourselves before God and allow Him to use us?
When the angel Gabriel first greeted Mary we are told that she “was troubled at his words.”
Then he told her something we hear over and over in the Bible “Do not be afraid.”
After that, he told her what she was being asked to do—give birth to the Son of God.
“How will this be,” Mary asked, “since I am a virgin?”
Then he told her about how it would happen, and that nothing is impossible with God.
And how did Mary respond?
“I am the Lord’s servant.
May it be to me as you have said.”
That is a humble response.
One time some of Jesus’ disciples were having an argument about which of them would be the greatest.
Jesus, knowing their thoughts said: “Whoever is least among you all—is the greatest.”
In a world where so many of us are clamoring for attention…
…in a world where so much of what we do is all about “Me, me, me…”
…in a world where so many of us live in prisons of self-absorption, God is offering us a radically different way!!!
For to be truly great is to say “No,” to self and “Yes” to God.
To be truly great is not to be the one who is served, but to be the one who serves willingly.
This is what Jesus taught and it is how Jesus lived.
In Matthew Chapter 20 Jesus said to His disciples: “You know that the rulers of [the people] lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
How have you responded to God’s call on your life?
Are you serving or are you seeking to be served?
Are you working to try and impress others or are you living to try and make life better for others?
What are you doing to help give birth to the Kingdom of God right here and now?
Mary has led the way.
She said “Yes” to God’s vision for her life and for the lives of everyone who will call on her Son’s name.
She followed.
Now it’s our turn.
Do we have enough courage to be as humble as she?
Let us pray: God, please help me to remember who I am and that my life is a gift and that anything good ultimately comes from You.
I want You to birth the divine possibilities living inside of me.
Help me to be strong in faith, filled with love for You and other people, and humbled to the dust by Your grace.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake I pray.
Amen.
