Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, UCC                                July 31, 2011

Sermon preached by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel

Zephaniah 2:1-3, 3:9-13                

Zephaniah’s message from God was this: Gather together, seek God, seek righteousness and humility. This sermon is part of a larger series on the minor prophets. These prophets make up 12 brief books in the Bible. These messengers of God were not merely mouthpieces that God spoke through. The prophets had incredible empathy for the heart of God. They had a particular insight into the abandonment that God felt when God was betrayed. It was out of this deep empathy from which the prophets spoke.

During the time of Zephaniah’s prophecy to the Hebrew people, it was popular for them to speak about the coming Day of the Lord, and how surely they would be saved on that day, and all other nations wiped out. They thought they were pretty great, and everyone else should really be more like them. Zephaniah gave them a wake-up call. He told them to gather together, seek God, seek righteousness and humility.

Humility comes from the root “humus,” organic matter that has remained stable over long periods of time. Humus cannot be manufactured. It is very basic in one sense,  but also teeming with life and possibility. In the compost heap is rotting food, paper towels, coffee grounds, and a whole lot of hope. Humus, Humanity and humility are all interconnected. On Ash Wednesday (kick off of Lent each year) we say, remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. It’s humbling. It’s true. We are created beings. We are not God. We are made of flesh and we will die.         

        I can remember a situation in which I was upset, and a person who was looking out for my best interest told me, just put on a good face. He advised me to look happy and confident even though I was feeling sad and frustrated. I tried. It didn’t work. We can be confident in ourselves as children of God. But part of that confidence is having the faith to be real. I know who I am in Christ, forgiven and recipient of grace. Yet I’m also very human, broken and flawed. Out of our knowledge of who we are in Christ, we don’t need to shine a light on ourselves. Christ’s light emanates from within.          

Robert Fulghum’s list of most important things to know in life captures the foundational, basic, humble things in life. He wrote, “All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten: “Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed we water: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed--they all die. So do we.”^[1] 

Humus is where growth occurs. It is fundamental, it is the place where new life emerges. Practicing true humility is to practice resurrection, it is to help make things and people grow. Humble people are not lacking in pride or self-esteem, rather they are like humus, they are down to earth.  Humility grounds us.

It feels great to give big gifts. But we don’t always have big gifts to give. It takes humility to take out our loaves and fish and hold them out. God can do a lot with the little we offer. That’s when we realize that the gift given in humility is a greater gift than the one offered in pride.

        Fulghum wrote about his love of dandelions. “If dandelions were rare and fragile, people would knock themselves out to pay $14.95 a plant, raise them by hand in greenhouses, and form dandelion societies and all that. But they are everywhere and don’t need us and kind of do what they please. So we call them ‘weeds,’ and murder them at every opportunity.”^[2] I’ve been spending some time pulling weeds. I’ve pulled my share of horse tails, blackberries, and dandelions. But dandelions leaves make a salad, blossoms make wine, they are favorite of bees, and of children. How many have received the humble gift of dandelions from a child? A gift given unabashedly, lovingly, from one who is savoring the moment and bursting to share it.

Humility requires us to lighten up and not take ourselves too seriously. It is related to the word humor. When we are able to laugh at ourselves and find amusement in the midst awkward situations, we are not just exercising our sense of humor, we are also showing humility. Humor, of course, can be used to criticize or put others down. Some comedians are pretty sarcastic and make us cringe. Many stand-up bits are not really appropriate to quote in church. But plenty of humorous people make clever observations about life and point out the odd things people do, and it helps us lighten up.  At the time of trial or embaressment it seems that we’ll always cringe at it’s memory. When we can look at ourselves more lightly, with humility, we can smile about it. It’s good when we can say “I can laugh about that now.”

In a sermon, Rabbi Susan Lippe preached: "When you hear the word humility, you might be imagining a doormat . . . Humility isn't about becoming a doormat. It is about becoming a threshold. . . It's about making a space for others to enter. . . In order to be humble, I don't need to see myself as less than other people. I just need to realize that other people are AS important as I am. Each person is as unique and precious as I am.”^[3] 

When we dig deeply into the well of strength and courage that is inside us, gifted to us by God, when we are grateful for the life God has given us, when we love ourselves, then we can be truly humble.  When we know who we are in Christ, then we don’t have anything to prove. We can feel comfortable saying I don’t get it, we can cry in public, we can lose the contest.  Because when we have a proper view of ourselves in relation to God, to others and to the earth, loving ourselves but not loving ourselves more than we love others, then we have humility. Humility is not about me, it’s about how I can nurture the humus of others.

Zephaniah told the people not to gloat over the misfortunes of the other nations. Dr. Beatrice Bruteau, in an essay about the moral role of the United States, wrote: “Whatever nation, or combination of nations, assumes the position of superpower has by that very fact acquired the primary responsibility for the viability of the planet.”^[4] Our nation could use some humility in it’s relationship to the earth. We could use some humility in our relationships with other nations. We could use some humility before God. With humility, we could recognize how deeply interconnected we are with the earth, with all people around the globe, with the sacred. With humility, we could perhaps take ourselves less seriously, realizing that our nation is not any more important than any other nation. With humility, we can take the light off of ourselves, we can see the beauty in the other, and take joy in this amazing world God has created.

(“The Glowing Painting” by Dale Turner.^[5]) May we be so humble.