Friday, October 22, 2010

It's hard to be humble

Remember that old song "It's hard to be humble"? It's true, though not for the reasons the song had. The truth is that humility comes from standing on a razor's edge of self-consciousness and selflessness.

In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from this week's lectionary Jesus introduces us to two people through their prayers. The Pharisee's prayer is a congratulating God on doing such a good job of creating him. It is hardly a prayer of humility! On the other hand, the tax collector simply asks for mercy. Both prayers arise from the person's conscious view of themselves. The one as the epitome of righteousness, the other as a sinner.

This is where self-consciousness is important. Just how good are we? We may put on a good show, but do we really live as God would have us? How often do we compare ourselves somewhat smugly with those who don't, in our eyes, do as well as we do? When we are truthful with ourselves we are more like the tax collector than the pharisee.

Yet oddly, we can, if we stay in that place, form a perverse pride in how bad we are. We look around and are sure that no one is as great a sinner as we are. While it is true that we are hopeless sinners, so is everyone else!

This is where the selflessness comes in. After we confess our sin we are to turn away from ourselves and focus on God. Repentance doesn't do us much good if we turn in a full circle to end up facing the same old direction. Focusing on God instead of our self means that we are facing a new way and our feet are on a new road. As long as we focus on God and not on ourselves we keep our way straight.

Inevitably we look up one day and congratulate ourselves on being so good and the whole cycle starts again.

It really is hard to be humble.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Our God is a Stubborn God

I officiated at a funeral last week in which the adjective that most described the person we were celebrated was "stubborn". It was never said in a pejorative sense, but the family and others were very clear. This man was stubborn.

That got me thinking. There are a lot of stubborn people in the Bible. People who argue with God, who run away, who do their own thing in spite of anything that God might say. But that didn't take me far enough. I ended up talking about God's stubbornness.

After all we are talking about a person who kept on trying to make things with Israel work for centuries. God sends judges and prophets to shout, cry, whisper her love for the people. Always he is there waiting for them to turn around and finally see.

Then there is Jesus who surrounds himself with twelve men who just don't get what this whole dominion of God thing is about. He preaches, heals, tells stories, he even explains in words of one syllable and they still don't understand. Does he give up? Not a chance.

Then there is my own experience of God. Every time I tried to make a career anywhere else but in God's service I was patiently, but inevitably dragged back into the church. God out stubborned me (and that's a miracle in itself).

Paul talks about how God doesn't want anyone to be lost. Our God is a stubborn God. Stubborn in love. No matter how far we wander God stubbornly refuses to give up on us.

There is a reason we call God the rock of our salvation. He is as stubborn as a rock.