In
my first semester of seminary, I took a class on different practices of prayer.
My professor started our time together by telling us a story about Stanley
Hauerwas, a noted theologian and ethicist, and—much more importantly for me—a
fellow Texan. Hauerwas, who is currently working as a professor at Duke
Divinity School, was asked by the president of Duke University to give an
invocation at the opening of a meeting for the Board of Regents. The president
told Dr. Hauerwas that this was really just a formality that had to be
observed, and since the school had a strong religious heritage, he needed
someone with a strong religious background to lead prayer. On the bright side,
though, this would give this seminary professor a wonderful chance to rub
elbows with movers and shakers, so performing this formality could really help
further his career.
Well,
even after that heart-swelling pep talk, Hauerwas agreed to lead the Board of
Regents in an opening prayer. He was introduced after the official welcome by
the school president, and once he had made his way up to the podium, he bowed
his head and lifted up a prayer that went something like this:
“Lord,
this prayer is really just a formality that has to be observed, and if we
could, we probably do away with it completely. But since this is a school with
a strong religious heritage, we recognize that certain obligations must be met,
no matter how useless a ritual they may be. So hear our prayer, Lord, and let
all be in agreement that our obligations to you have been met. Amen.”
Can
you guess who was never invited back to a Board of Regents meeting at Duke
University?
My
professor told this story to remind us to always remember the importance of
prayer, that it is much more than a formality or obligation. Instead, it is a
wonderful opportunity to speak to God and to invite God into our lives. But
this story has another lesson as well for us: the lesson of humility.
Dr.
Hauerwas called the president of Duke University and the entire Board of
Regents out for forgetting why they were doing what they were doing and for
whom they were doing it. That school was founded as a place of teaching and
equipping new leaders for work in the mission and ministry of God, both in and
out of the pastoral field. Everything about this institution was designed as a
way to give glory to God and spread the Gospel message to the world. Everything
about this institution was supposed to revolve around giving God what is due to
God.
And
yet now, when the movers and shakers of the entire university are gathered
together, the opening prayer—the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the
invitation for God to be blessed through every thought, word, and deed—is
viewed as a necessary formality, a shallow ritual that must be played out. This
used to be the most important act of the gathering because it centered everyone
on God and focused everyone’s minds on the Kingdom. Now, it was just another
bullet point on the agenda that filled the time before they got down to
business.
But
true humility before God can never leave prayer as just another bullet point on
an agenda.
In
our New Testament Scripture lesson today, Jesus deals with this very issue and
tries to warn his disciples against falling prey to this kind of pride by
showing them two examples of it.
The
first example comes from his teaching on the legal experts. You see many of the
religious leaders of his time had lost sight of the true reason for following
the Law that God gave them. They had begun using their status as a means to
exert power over others, to enjoy privileges that were refused to others, and
to move up the social ranks of life. The Pharisees who were the experts of the
Torah for their communities were using the Law of God for their own purposes
and their own gain instead of using the Law for its true purpose: to bring
honor and glory to God.
Jesus
says, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to
walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with honor in the markets.
They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. They are the
ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long
prayers. They will be judged most harshly.”
Like a kid who buys a yoyo and then uses it to whack his sister
when she’s not looking, these religious leaders have completely disregarded the
true function of God’s word. They take what is meant to be an aide for worship
and right living and use it instead as a tool for self-gain. And they do it
because they have forgotten the very foundation of God’s law by which
everything they teach and do was to be judged. The long flowing robes that
signify religious office have become sources of vanity instead of equalizing
apparel. Instead of lifting up all honor to God as God’s due right, they vainly
take for themselves the crowd’s deference in the public places. Though they are
meant to be servants of all, they demand the honored places wherever they find
themselves, even in the houses of worship. They take, and take, and take for
themselves as they see fit, while those pushed to the margins of society slowly
perish at their feet. The worship and honor of God is not their goal; the Law
has instead become the means for furthering their own cause.
But true humility before God can never utilize the Law as a tool
for self-gain.
The second example of this pride comes from Jesus’ examination of
the offering box at the temple. You see, during the season of Passover, which
everyone was preparing for at this time, Jews from all over the known world
would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to worship and give a sacrifice at the
temple. This was a way to honor God in the city that God had given them and in
the place where God was thought to reside. Since this was a rather busy time of
year, many rich people would have made it a point to bring their offerings
before God when the most people possible were present. This was great
publicity, and great publicity is exactly what these people needed.
Because for you to be a rich Jew in Jerusalem during the time of
Christ meant one thing: you were in cahoots with the Romans. The only people
who were able to amass enough money and property to truly be seen as rich were
the ones who had paid off the tax collectors, made friendly with the Empire’s
goons, and were in some way supporting the occupation of Jerusalem. Otherwise,
what you had would be seized and given to those who would play the right kinds
of games with the oppressors. These people would give lavishly, and give
openly, so that everyone could see what they were doing and so that everyone would
see that they were good God-fearing Jews.
But God was not the reason they gave. They gave for status. They
gave for appeasement. They gave out of obligation to the nation in which they
lived. But like the guy at Starbucks who tosses his change into the tip jar and
pockets the bills, these rich people were giving out of their excess. They gave
what they did not need and what they would not miss. Their offering was not
giving God the best of what they had; it was tossing in their spare change.
But true humility before God can never be content with just giving
what one can easily spare.
Unfortunately, this Gospel story lacks a Stanley Hauerwas type of
character who blows the roof off of the legal experts’ and the rich peoples’
pride. Instead, our Scripture lesson ends with a poor widow woman coming up to
the collection box. In my mind’s eye, this poor widow is not the older woman in
rags that is often lifted up in this story. She is not bent over double and
wrinkled all over with wisps of white hair escaping from the gray cowl she has
draped over her head. Instead, she is a young mother of two who has come to
give thanks to God that even though her husband was taken from her and even
though she has no home for her kids or food for their bellies, they are still
with her and are for the moment still healthy. For two small coins, even though
they are only worth a penny, she could buy a small piece of bread for her
children, but instead she gives all she has as an offering to God, for she
knows that the creator of the universe is due all glory, laud, and honor.
This poor woman gently places the barest fraction of what others
have tossed with ceremony and flourishing into the collection, and yet Jesus
praises her for her act of worship and humility. She gave nothing less than
everything, and she was lifted up as the shining example for all because of
this.
Because, friends, true humility before God means giving God all we
have and all we are.
Earlier in this chapter, one of the legal
experts who got it right asks Jesus a very pointed question. He asks what the
most important commandment was. Jesus’ reply comes straight out of the Torah: ““The
most important one is this: Israel,
listen! Our God is the one Lord, and
you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with
all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself.
No other commandment is greater than these.”
This is what true humility means. It means
following God’s word not because prove we are better than others or to further
our own place in society, but because God is due all of our worship, praise,
and obedience. It means giving to God from our poverty, not our excess, for God
has given us the best God has to offer and deserves nothing less than the best
we have in return. It even means making sure to spend intentional time before
board meetings in earnest prayer to invite God to be center of all we do.
So may we work hard to cast off the pride
that can so easily encompass us. May we always remember Jesus’ teachings
against the ways of corrupt legal experts and his urging to give from our
poverty rather than our excess. May we hold the story of the widow and her two
small coins close to our hearts, that we can remember what it is to give
everything to the One who deserves it. And may we remember that true humility
always means loving the Lord our God with all we are, and giving God everything
we have, for that is what God is due.
Amen.
Wonderful! Great message!
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