ADVENT AWARENESS: HUMILITY

Malachi 3:1-4; Deuteronomy 8:11-16

December 6, 2009 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

I love Advent. It’s like a great introduction to a book that prepares the mind for the new ideas and learning to follow. It’s the opening act that whets the appetite for the main attraction. It’s that first sip of fresh squeezed orange juice that advertises the gourmet breakfast to come. It’s the opening scene of a great movie that so fully engages your attention that you’ve forgotten the troubles of the day. Advent is both escape and engagement in the same moment.

In the traditional (and somewhat dull) language about the church year, we describe Advent as a season of preparation. As I enter my fiftieth Advent, I am struck by the inadequacy of this description. I find it disheartening to ponder the thought that 50 seasons have not been enough to prepare me for whatever Advent was supposed to get me ready.

Well, we do know what this preparation is about. We’re getting ready for Christmas. But Advent preparation isn’t about getting ready for that family celebration on Christmas day. It’s not about putting up the lights, sending out cards, buying presents or preparing the food. Advent, we know, is about anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ. It’s both about getting ready to mark the day of his birth in Bethlehem long ago, and receiving his presence in our hearts and lives today.

What is it about human beings that we need a season of preparation for receiving Christ again in our lives? Why is it that with the great introductory chapter of last year’s Advent, the chapters written with our lives in the year that follows fail to live up to expectations? Why is it that the joy begun in Advent doesn’t have the staying power through the year? How is it that we understand the prophet only too well when he says, “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” After so many Advents, shouldn’t we be ready to say, “Come, Lord Jesus,” without worrying so much about what Jesus will find?

As I said, I love Advent; but there is this tension, that while it ought to be an anticipation of a great meal or a happy engagement; it holds as well a sense of personal disappointment, a sense of our own inadequacy. Advent, while being a time of great joy, calls forth also a feeling of humility. “Who can endure the day of his coming?” We long for it and yet we fear it.

We are not fond of humility. As a 17^th century English lawyer named John Selden observed, it’s a quality we much prefer to see in others than to adopt for ourselves. We confuse it often with low self-esteem, shame or humiliation, all of which, counselors regard as unhealthy for human development. If you were to study the Greek words for humility in ancient sources, you would find that they always have a negative connotation, linked often with the poor and those of inferior status.

The Bible, however, turns this on its head and says mostly positive things about the term. Micah links it to justice and love when he says, “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” Psalms and Proverbs speak of humility as a condition for learning; a sentiment which advertising executive John Dooner seemed to agree with when he said, “In a humble state, you learn better. I can't find anything else very exciting about humility, but at least there's that.” I Peter, Colossians, and Philippians all endorse humility as an aid for healthy relationships. And numerous places speak of humility as the proper posture before God.

I found this other reference in Deuteronomy which shed a new light on humility for me. The Hebrew people have been led out of Egypt by Moses, wandered in the wilderness for forty years and are now on the verge of entering the “promised land.” The text says that the wilderness experience was to “humble [them] and to test [them] and to do [them] good.” As they are about to enter into a time of great prosperity, God says, “Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God….”

This is why humility is so important. It helps us remember. We come to Advent with a little uneasiness primarily because, as human beings, we are good at forgetting. Where humility concerns our own status in life, our egos, our sense of personal success; we forget a lot. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this sentiment, but it bothers me every time: “I’ve worked hard to get where I am.” It’s not that I don’t believe that the speak worked hard. It’s the sense of entitlement I often hear behind that statement; the sense that if others worked as hard they would also be successful. Hard work may be necessary for success, but it’s never the sole reason for it. I’m bothered by the forgetting behind the claim; forgetting the debt to others that helped along the way, forgetting the lucky breaks that happened, forgetting the resources that were gifted to them. I sometimes think, “What if we really did live in the kind of world that demanded we earn everything? What if God were like this?”

Malcolm Gladwell, in one chapter of his book, Outliers: The Story of Success reports some telling facts about hockey players. In Canadian leagues, it turns out that 70% of the players on the top teams are born in the first half of the year. Gladwell claims that this is no accident. The cut-off date for age is December 31. It may not matter so much for players in their twenties, but you can see the enormous advantage that a child who is almost six might have over one who just turned five. In a physical game like hockey, the younger and likely smaller child will turn to other pursuits. You see the same phenomenon in baseball where August birthdays far outnumber July birthdays around a July 31 cut-off date. The point is that success is much more complicated than individual effort. In claiming full credit, we fail to acknowledge other people and factors that have blessed our lives.

And this is how we come back to Advent each year. Maybe it’s been a good year. Maybe we’ve been more faithful than previous years; but in the face of this “Who can endure the day of his coming?” we are humbled. Not humiliated, not denigrated, not put to shame, but humbled in the best sense of that word. And in humility, we can remember.

There is no other way to approach God, to welcome God into our lives. Advent seems to me more about remembering than preparing; remembering the God who gives us life and breath, remembering the God who is not afraid to enter our world, remembering Jesus Christ, who humbled himself in order to live among us, remembering his love, which not even death on a cross could take away. It’s in humility that these things touch us.

I like how Steve Doughty breaks down humility. He links it first with genuine repentance; not a wallowing in the mire of our own sin, but a repentance that sets us free, breaking through the barrier of self-righteousness and giving us courage to connect to the “world’s wider wounds.” Humility reminds us of our “dependence” on others, but even more on God. This dependence gives us courage to attempt things beyond what we might otherwise think possible. For we know that by God’s grace many things are possible. And humility creates in us an openness to others beyond ourselves, undergirding the spirit of hospitality, acknowledging the “incompleteness of our understanding” and thus welcoming the ideas of others.

In humility, we remember not so much the inevitability of our failures as the certainty of God’s love. We remember not the achievements we have won in this life by our own efforts, but the goodness of God who blesses, sustains and teaches us the real qualities of an abundant life. We remember not the countless times we have turned our backs on God, but the gentle and sometimes not so gentle tap on the shoulder that turns us around and sets us back on the path of life.

This is why I love Advent, because we are not walking away from the manger, but bowing before it. We are made more aware of approaching the table of our Lord, of sharing in the feast which he has prepared. Here, we discover a humility unrelated to shame, one that rejoices in the sort of meal that knows we could not have prepared it, that enjoys a wonderful book that we could not have written, that is made alive by music we could not have sung. This is Advent, not the self-abasing preparation that fears the coming of our Lord, but the celebratory remembrance of God’s goodness and anticipation of wonderful things to come. It is not a denial of our sinfulness, but the recognition of God’s grace and power to redeem, even the lost. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Doughty, Steve. Walk in Integrity. Upper Room Books: Nashville TN. 2004.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Little, Brown and Company. 2008