Look Both Ways
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
October 14, 2012
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Romans 12:16b
Mark 12: 38-44
Let
us pray,
Help us to see
despite our eyes
Help us to think
outside our minds
Help us to be
more than our lives
For your eyes show us the way
Your mind knows the truth
Your being is the life.
Amen.
So
this week our passage from the Marks of a True Christian is the second part of
verse 16, "Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly." Taking a
look backward at where we've come, beginning with Romans 12: 9:
9 Let love
be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love
one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do
not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice
in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute
to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless
those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice
with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony
with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;[1]
There
are so many good humility passages in the New Testament. The great hymn of
Jesus' humility from Philippians of course, I chose that for the call to
worship this morning. There were other's, too, but I finally decided upon this
one, because it really I think gets at the heart of some of the issues with
"haughtiness and lowliness" and how Jesus always seems to turn our
preconceived notions upside down. At first glance, Part 1 seems to show the
haughtiness of the Scribes, and Part 2 the Lowliness of the generous widow. Here
we go, Mark 12: 38-44
38 As he
taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes,
and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have
the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They
devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They
will receive the greater condemnation.”
41 He sat
down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the
treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came
and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then
he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow
has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For
all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty
has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
It always seems to happen that my
work at Blue Ridge seems to coincide and inform my sermons, but this week I had
to fight against it on two counts. One, after our big win last week, we've been
trying to work hard all week to keep our boys humble and hungry. Success and
the cockiness it seems to breed is one of those things that can destroy the
things that we have built this year, so that has been on my mind. The other is
we've been reading The Iliad in my
World Literature class, where Achilles and Agamemnon just cannot get on the
same page because of their hubris, their pride, their seeing their own
importance above that of the army that they lead and serve within. I had to
beware of falling into the trap of going with these ideas because I learned
early on in my study this week of this passage that the "haughtyness"
of this passage is very different from the cockiness we were fighting against
with the boys, and the selfish pride we were seeing in Achilles. Instead
haughtiness deals with an inward view of self that does not usually manifest
itself in cockiness and selfishness, but rather in a warped misunderstanding of
self and others.
The word haughty, if we were to
translate it exactly from the Greek, because it is two words in Greek,
"hoopselos" which means "high, lofty, or exalted" and then "opinion of self, to think to
feel". Is haughty a pretty good translation of that: having a high opinion
of yourself? I think Haughty does a pretty good job getting at that idea. The
other side of it then is lowly, "tapeinos" means, "of low
estate" or " low to the ground," in a state of "grieving or
pain." Does lowly cover that? Yeah for once, I'm good with the
translation. Even "associate with" comes from a word that means,
"run with" and "hold company with." Associate is a pretty
good word as well, broad enough to encompass the idea of both spending time
with someone, but also being of the same state as them, being seen with them.
It goes farther than just spending time with the lowly, but being associated
with someone means that you are thought the same of as them. Have you ever
played a "word association game." You know where someone says a word,
and then the first word that comes to your mind you say. I play games like that
with my students all the time. I'll say a word and then they'll all write down
whatever comes to their mind first. Like I could say baseball, and then they'd
say like Orioles, then they'd get an automatic A for the day, and those who
said Yankees would get an F, and maybe asked to leave. No, but you get the
idea. That's what association means, not only do you hang out, spend time with
the lowly, but are to be thought of in the same breath as them. Association is
a strong word when you think of it like this, raising the demands on the
"True Christian' again, very high standards, but of course they are, they
are like Jesus.
Look at the Call to Worship
Philippians 2:5-8.
5
Let the same mind be in you that was
in Christ Jesus,
6 who,
though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but
emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he
humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
This is the perfect picture of Christ's example of humility,
of not being haughty, but instead associating himself with the lowly, yes as
lowly as human beings, and all of the human beings. If you look throughout the
Gospel accounts of Jesus' life you get to see Jesus interacting with all types
of folks. He's visited at his birth by Lowly Shepherds, and gift bearing Wise
Men, Kings from the East, the ruler Herod shakes in his boots, there is a wild
man crying in the wilderness, wearing his animal skins, born to a Carpenter,
and his wife Mary, from the humble town of Nazareth, but travels to Egypt,
Jerusalem, Tyre and Sidon, to name a few places. His followers are made up of
fishermen, reformed tax collectors, revolutionaries, zealots, and converted
prostitutes. He visits people in their homes, he heals the sick, the demon
possessed, the bleeding, the lame, the blind, the dead, the dying, the leprous,
paralyzed. He has conversations with Priests, Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees, Centurions,
Soldiers, Governors, Regents, Puppet Rulers, traitors, more sellout tax
collectors, widows, children, orphans, adulterers, you name it Jesus chose to
associate with them. The question that keeps coming through my mind is this
one, did Jesus see them as types like that? Did Jesus see them as high low and
in between? Did Jesus see some of them as high and other's of them as lowly,
and if so which ones? This seems to be the question for us this morning because
if we look at ourselves, and then we look both ways, we'll see people. Do we
see some of them as higher than us and some of them as lower? What do we base
that distinction on? When we get the call to go associate with the lowly, and
to not be haughty, do we know who that is talking about? We know exactly who
the haughty and lowly are, how very haughty of us. . . what is our basis?
Our culture sometimes makes the
distinction between, "high" and "low" based on visible
tangible material things. What are some of those distinguishing features?
Income- Rich vs. Poor? Employment: High Salary vs. Low Salary? Blue Collar vs.
White Collar? Part time vs. Full Time? Job vs. No Job? Or is it Success: Winner
vs. Loser? Is it looks: Hot vs. Not? Thin vs. Fat? Is it stuff: the size of
your house? The make of your car? The size of your TV screen? I could go on and
on. . . is having these things mean that you are high, and not having them
means you are "lowly?" If you see the world in these terms and you
look both ways, you will always find people on both sides of you, some with a
better job, some with a worse, some with a bigger more expensive house, some in
a shack, some more successful some less. So this is calling us then to focus on
those below us on the spectrum and place ourselves in and around them, be seen
with them, be associated with them. Looking downward rather than upward, being
there with the lowly. Hanging out with the poor and as so many of our world
call it "give back." Again like most simple answers I think this
simple understanding is missing the boat.
To get at why I want to look at the
gospel passage. By all accounts the scribes would be considered the winners,
the highly thought of. They are religious professionals, highly educated men of
letters. People come to them for their wise judgment, according to the law.
They are seen as experts in their field, and people come from miles around to
hear what they have to say on topics of importance. It says they walk around in
long robes, the trappings of success and authority, it says they like to be
seen and recognized in the markets, not just in their place of business, but
out in public. Their fame exists outside of the walls of their place. They sit
up front where people can see them, and they have great seats when they get
invited to all the parties and banquets. They are V.I.P's, but then Jesus gives
their ugly, hidden, dark side, the stranger face that they do not show in
public, but is all too true, they take the property of widows, but they say
long prayers so that no one notices. Despite all of their highness when it
comes down to it they are lower than low because they are living off the
generosity and goodness of poor widows, while exploiting them. Are they the
high or the low?
Then you have the widow of the
second part. The poor widow who has nothing comes in while so many more people
are giving large sums of money. She barely puts in a penny, a penny in two
parts even. We don't even have half pennies anymore. But yet she is the one who
has given more than all the others because the others gave a little out of
their abundance, but she gave out of poverty giving all. Who is the lowly and
who is the high?
The truth seems to be that you just
cannot tell by surface oriented material based standards of distinction, so who
do you associate with? The poor widow, who seems to be squared away, or the
rich scribe, whose success is supported based on feeding off of people like the
poor widow. Who is in the more need? Think about the list of folks Jesus
associates with, it is hardly easily discernible in term of who is lowly and
who is not. He associated with all people. Doesn't that save us from being haughty.
We do not think highly of ourselves, and we do not think lowly or highly of
others. We look both ways and we don't see high
and low, we see people and people, creations of God, made in God's
image. I would suggest that if you see in terms of high and low, there is no
way to not be considered haughty, unless you put and see yourself all the way
at the bottom. . . but wait, perhaps that is it. What is further down than the
cross? What is more lowly than that act of supreme sacrifice? Betrayed, beaten,
abused, condemned, left their hanging, nails through your hands and feet,
carrion for birds. Can we aim that low? Can we associate ourselves with that
pit of despair? Are we willing to give up all of the things that give us status
in this world, or are we too haughty? Mark 10: 20-23:
“Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus,
looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own,
and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then
come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went
away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus
looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who
have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
He goes on to say that it is more difficult for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Hmmmm, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Who are the lowly
and who are the high? Christ gave up all, giving up the courts of heaven to
become human, giving up the thrones of humanity to become a wandering teacher,
giving up the freedom of the poor to become condemned to the cross, and giving
up the cross, descending into Hell, low and low and lower. Not haughty, but
yet, I will close this sermon with the second half of the Philippians hymn:
Philippians 2:
9 Therefore
God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and
every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Be not haughty, but associate with the lowly, boast not of
anything except in the cross of Jesus Christ. Here is the question of
association, when people think of Christians in this world do they think of the
lowly humble suffering servant Christ, or do they more think of the haughty
know it all scribe? When people think of us, you and I, when they play the word
association game with us, are we associated with Christ, or are we also much
too haughty for such a distinction? May we be given the strength to be so weak.
Amen.
[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989
(Ro 12:9-16). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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