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Humility and GracePreached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX Third Sunday after Trinity, 2009 by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults
1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble
yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, Two themes come out of this wonderful selection from the first epistle of St. Peter: humility and grace. For St. Peter tells us: “ for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). That got me to thinking, “What does it really mean to be humble?” Turning to Merriam-Webster, I discovered the following: “1: not proud or haughty: not arrogant or assertive; 2: reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission <a humble apology>; 3 a: ranking low in a hierarchy or scale.” That’s helpful, I think. Let’s put this into the context of St. Peter.
Please do not think that our position is that wealth is bad, or that one must be proud and arrogant to be successful. God forbid. Pride and arrogance are not necessary ingredients for worldly success. It is, however, difficult to avoid them when one has labored long and hard and now is seeing the fruits of one’s labors. The temptation is to say or think, “Through my hard work and through the strength of my arm has all this come to me.” Indeed, success does not come without hard work, without the sacrifice of long hours, toil and sweat. There is no doubt about it. But the point is, without God’s gracious Will, all of that can come to naught in the blink of an eye. It is in those moments that we Christians, if we are indeed humble, that is, “reflecting, expressing, or offering a spirit of deference or submission” to God, are blessed. Even in those dark, dreadful, and heart-rending moments, we are blessed. If we are humble, offering ourselves up to God in submission and gratitude, even for our afflictions and trials, we always have something that non-believers don’t. That “something” is grace. That “something” is the complete, unshakable, inexhaustible belief that we have a heavenly Father that loves us. Even when it doesn’t seem like it, even when our whole world seems to be crumbling around us, even when our heart is aching from grief, or disappointment, or regret, we know that we have a Person (capital ‘P’) who loves us. Even when we, against our better spiritual training, say “Why, God, why?” we know that He loves us. We know that all things work together for good for those who love Him, as inconceivable, mysterious, cruel or just plain nonsensical it may seem to us at the time. Despite all this, we know that God loves us. It is in the center of that love that we take our refuge. When things are horrible, we retreat into the safety and security of God’s love. Then, if we have the humble and penitent heart, He gives us something we can’t have by ourselves: the grace to continue, even cheerfully. Contrast that to those who have only their limited human resources at their disposal. Formidable as they may be, at some point, they too will fail. It is then they face their own “dark night of the soul,” yet without the spiritual resources needed to persevere on the battlefield. It’s as if, to quote the old saying, they brought a knife to a gunfight. At this point, people like this have a problem. Using the concepts of atheist philosophers such as Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre, we run into the idea of “existential despair.” That is, to the non-believer who is unaware of the profundity of God’s Love, there is a point where all of life does not make sense and thus is ultimately meaningless. According to Sartre, the most important thing in life was for the human to make a choice, a bold and courageous choice, thereby affirming both his selfhood and the glory of his human-ness. By making a choice, one would define who one is. OK, OK. This is not at all bad. It is highly desirable that we affirm who we are by making choices, hopefully good ones. Yet, we in the Church know from history and from our own life experiences that we often choose amiss. Humans, having a fallen nature, usually choose something that accords with their own will, or they choose something that is aligned with their own selfishness. While there are those enlightened ones, even pagan, who have make noble and self-sacrificial choices, this unfortunately is not the norm. Simply turn to history and read the sad story of mankind for the answer. Choice is good. Choice is wonderful. Yet, we must choose properly. The ONE choice we must make for our soul’s eternal welfare is that of God’s Will for our lives. Again, our most fervent prayer should be, above all else, that God’s Will be done in our lives. This, we will submit to you, is the ultimate expression of humility. It is the one that will yield to us the most grace. Why is it important that we make this choice? Why not just go along, trying to be a “good” person? Who really needs all this God stuff, anyway? Why can’t I just affirm my own strong, courageous existential being to the world and boldly go on? The answer, of course, is that you can. God will allow you to do what you will. A person can be stronger than God, if only in his adamant refusal to enjoy the blessings of God’s love in his life. One again, there is a problem. In so doing, one will find, eventually, that he is engaged in an unfair battle. That is, the odds are greatly against “going it alone.” Why? Because we are facing an Adversary who is much stronger, much smarter, and infinitely more malignant than anything we can imagine. We are facing an Adversary who thrives on human pain, suffering, hate, and despair. This is the one against whom St. Peter warns when he says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Please be so kind as to observe the language here. It is “devour.” Satan wants to eat our souls, even your individual soul. He doesn’t want to sit down and fellowship with you, or have an Indaba discussion group with you, or even negotiate with you. He wants to devour your soul, period. He wants total victory and your complete despair in Hell forever. Sounds pretty bleak, yes? It would be if God hadn’t built into the human soul the ability to draw grace and faith from Him, in order to resist the influence and power of the Devil. In that wonderful line, St. Peter tells us to “resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:9 ). In exactly the same way that the obstinate, perverse soul can resist God successfully for a lifetime, even so can the humble, receptive soul receive grace and faith to resist the Devil and all his subtleties. The wonderful, glorious aspect about our spiritual battle is that we have the resources to not only contend with our enemy, but win. Not by ourselves or in ourselves, but with the free grace of God so graciously poured out on us we are more than victors. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God, entitled to grace and peace and love, now and forever. It does not come to the arrogant. It does not come to the proud. It does not come to the haughty. After all, they have their sufficiency. It does come to the humble, to the receptive and to those who are lowly in their own eyes. Then, to that blessed soul, the Apostle tells us: “after you have suffered a while, (God will) perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (1 Peter 5:10). This is the destiny of the humble. This is the destiny of those who love God. Glory be to God the Father, and to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, now and forever. AMEN |
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The
Apostle writes: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble” (1 Peter 5:5). That is, with the proud or haughty, God is not
pleased. In fact, Peter tells us he is “opposed” (NAS) to the haughty
and proud; or, as the NKJV terms it, He “resists” them. It isn’t just
that He opposes them; He actually “resists” them. Also, we learn that
God gives grace to the humble. Putting these thoughts together, we see
that God resists those who refuse to be humble and actually does not
give them His Grace. While the proud and arrogant may enjoy many things,
such as an extravagant lifestyle, an excess of wealth, and a very
favorable opinion of themselves, what they will not enjoy is the comfort
of God’s Grace. The proud and arrogant usually rock along quite well in
life, patting themselves on the back for their success and living large,
until some major life shock happens. Then, they face the dark pit of
despair alone, without the “peace that passeth understanding” which
enables us Christians to survive and thrive in a fallen world. That is,
when things go wrong, terribly, terribly wrong in their lives, upon what
do they draw for strength? It may be many things, all of them
counterfeits for true peace, simply because their own arrogance and
self-sufficiency has cut them off from true grace.