God’s humility

26Dec
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
  did not regard equality with God
  as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
  taking the form of a slave,
  being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
  he humbled himself
  and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.
  
Therefore God also highly exalted him
  and gave him the name
  that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
  every knee should bend,
  in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
  that Jesus Christ is Lord,
  to the glory of God the Father.
-Philippians 2:5-11


It’s the “most wonderful time of the year” as the Christmas music that’s been playing at your coffee shop since before Halloween reminds you. Over and over. Yet, for far too many of us, it’s not. If you feel like you’re on a hamster wheel spinning with Christmas preparations, year-end reports, travel planning, managing expectations and frustrations, well, you’re not alone. So let me invite you to stop for ten minutes, sit quietly with a cup of tea or a coffee, and reflect on something miraculous. God’s humility. The One who was in the form of God “emptied himself taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” The Greek word for what’s going on here is “kenosis” which means “self-emptying.” God in Christ comes into the world not as a royal prince or a wealthy merchant or a fierce warrior or a mighty hero, but as a slave. Why did God choose this way of being in the world? I think it’s because God is showing us that God will be known to us only through our vulnerability. God will be made known to us only as we drop the insatiable demands of the ego for power and control, safety and security, affection and esteem. God comes to us a servant, not as a ruler. What a concept! And it is this same humility that is the “mind of Christ” that we are called to take on. 


Now, humility does not require us to be pushovers. It is, rather, a sign of inner strength. Humility does require us to acknowledge that we don’t know what we don’t know and to always be seeking to know more. That’s another way to think about faith: the never-ending search to know more, the never-ending search for deeper Divine connection. To use slightly different language, humility helps us to avoid the snares of the Devil. 


St. Moses the Black, whose icon appears above, lived a life of violence and crime in 5th Century CE Egypt until he underwent a dramatic conversion experience and became a monk and later abbot of a desert monastery. In his Ecclesiastical History, written about 70 years after Moses's death, Hermias Sozomen sums up Moses's legacy as follows:


So sudden a conversion from vice to virtue was never before witnessed, nor such rapid attainments in monastical philosophy. Hence God rendered him an object of dread to the demons and he was ordained presbyter over the monks at Scetis. After a life spent in this manner, he died at the age of seventy-five, leaving behind him numerous eminent disciples. 


Moses was “an object of dread to the demons” because the demons know nothing of humility. While this language strikes our contemporary ears as exceedingly odd, it makes a profound point. Evil knows no humility. Evil knows only arrogance and conceit. That tracks, doesn’t it? 


Tonight we celebrate the birth of the Our Savior who came into the world in the humblest of circumstances. The story we will hear tells us that he was born among farm animals to poor parents who were travelers on the road. His birth was first announced by God’s messengers to shepherds who in that culture lived on the margins and were often considered to be pretty shady characters. These “little ones” would be the first to hear the Good News, not kings or princes. Their humble hearts were ready to receive Christ when the rich and the powerful were not. Let’s let the shepherds be our role models. As we let go of our anxious egoic needs for control, as we become open and vulnerable, we can begin to “take on the mind of Christ.” The Christmas story not only happened two thousand years ago, it happens again, over and over, in every heart humble enough to welcome the Living Christ. On this night, let it be so for you and for me.

 


Musical Reflection - What if God was One of Us? - Joan Osborne


Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Humility

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