One New Humanity

Sermon for Proper 11 B (RCL), Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: 2 Sam 7:1-14; Psalm 89:20-37; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

“Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into
one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us”
(Ephesians 2:14).

My friends, it has been, and always will be, our Lord’s goal to build, to create, one new humanity out of the many tribes of the earth. Within his Body, the Church, He has always brought together people from every language, race and nation to worship together and to feast at the same Table.

This does not mean that it is God’s will for us to speak all the same language, or dress in the same manner, or eat the same foods. But it is God’s will that we learn to live together in a new and different way.

In the Gospel of Mark this morning, we are given a wonderfully clear and concise image of our Lord’s characteristic response to humanity: “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34).

When our Lord sees us flailing about in life, trying to make decisions, his compassion compels him to TEACH us. Oh, he also healed a bunch of people there in the communities around the Sea of Galilee. But it was then, and it is now, the fact of the matter that what we need most is a Teacher who will show us how to live.

And what is it that he has taught us? How is Jesus teaching us to live in this world? With humility.

And so I wish to submit today that humility is in fact the practical tool that Christ the Lord is using to build this new humanity.

St. Augustine had this to say about humility: “Should you ask me: What is the first thing in religion? I should reply: The first, second and third thing therein is humility.”

Let’s think realistically for a minute about hostility and the role of humility.

In any argument, in any disagreement, the battle lines are clearly drawn and each side stands sure of the rightness of their cause. Think about those situations where dividing walls are most commonly built: within families, at work, between groups of people.

The natural man “in the flesh” easily becomes defensive and is quick to play the victim. It is always someone else’s fault.

But the spiritual man, the wise person guided by the Holy Spirit, knows that there are 2 sides to every story, that none of us is ever blameless.

Abbot Pastor, one of the desert fathers, said that “[a person] must breathe humility and the fear of God just as ceaselessly as he inhales and exhales the air.”

Humility is a way of life. It is living with the continual awareness of our faults without being consumed by them, and without thinking of the faults of others. Someone suggested that a new version of the famous Serenity Prayer should go like this:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the PEOPLE I cannot change, the courage to
change the people I can, and the wisdom to know that the only one I can change
is me.”

We must understand humility as active strength, and not passive meekness. To be humble in Christ is not to be weak and timid. It is in fact to be brutally honest with ourselves and with others; to speak the truth in love. To be humble in Christ means that the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to take the first step in every area of conflict, even when that leaves us exposed and vulnerable.

One of the elders in the Egyptian desert was asked to describe humility and he said this: “If you forgive a brother who has injured you before he himself asks [for] pardon” (The Wisdom of the Desert, Thomas Merton, p.53.)

Remember that our Lord taught us that before we offer our gift at the altar, we must get up and go to the one estranged from us and be reconciled (Matthew 5:23). It is active humility that seeks harmony, because that can only occur if we do not go seeking to win the argument, but rather seeking to make peace.

Humility allows us to know that mixed in with every one of our good ideas is a few bad ones, and that we can never know the whole truth in any situation. Humility is our Lord’s tool for making peace and creating one new humanity.

It started of course with the division between Jews and Gentiles. That is the context for St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. But there is no reason at all to think that our Lord’s work was ended there. He is still at work today seeking to bring peace in all of the divisions that beset humankind.

The problem is that human pride is so insidious and deceptive. Even those who think that they are pursuing goodness are easily trapped by own pride. Just the other day on an estimate, a customer was telling me about their parish priest. They attend St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Merchantville, and their priest is attempting to bring back the Latin mass and the old Roman ways. He boldly declares to his congregation that he thinks the Second Vatican Council was a mistake and that it led the Church in the wrong direction. She confessed that she finds it a bit odd and feels that the Latin makes it impossible for her to participate.

So I asked her, Mrs. Fischer, the customer, doesn’t your priest teach the importance of obeying the voice of the Church? “Oh yes, he teaches that all the time.” But then, I suggested, isn’t his attitude precisely the very problem he is trying to correct? Did not the Church gather at the second Vatican Council and set forth certain clear guidelines? Isn’t he bound to follow these? And isn’t it the height of hubris for him to think that he knows better than Pope John XXIII and all the cardinals and bishop who gathered at the Council?

This happens all the time in our own church as well, of course. Folks will change the Prayer Book liturgies, adding little things here and there that they think were missed or left out when it was created. But, I ask, isn’t that antithetical to the very nature of the Book of Common Prayer? That is, the liturgy is not my invention, it is the careful creation of the Church gathered together in prayer and worship, and founded upon the most ancient liturgies of the few centuries of the Church. And most of all, who am I to change this, because I think my ideas are better?

This reminds me of the declaration of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indian tribe in the 1870s when his people were dealing with the new settlers from the East:

“We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God, as the
Catholics and Protestants do. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with
men sometimes about things on this earth. But we never quarrel about God. We do
not want to learn that” (Native American Wisdom, ed. Kent Nerburn, p.42).

May God have mercy upon us for our foolishness, pride and arrogance. In his compassion, may the Lord teach us all how to live as fellow members of the household of God, standing firm upon the sure foundation of love and humility in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.