Preacher asks what it takes to be humble
John H. Adams, The Layman, June 27, 2008
SAN JOSE, Calif.– The Rev. Cindy Rigby, preaching on the “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God” theme of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s 218th General Assembly, told commissioners Thursday afternoon that “God isn’t very specific about what it is that we should do” — especially about being humble.
Justice is easier, she said, citing issues she thought Christians should address, including “global warming, violence in Zimbabwe and equitable distribution of global resources, but this requirement that we walk humbly with our God is a lot harder to get our minds around.”
The praise ensemble from Community Presbyterian Church in Danville, Calif., leads singing. “We associate that with being ‘doormat-ish,’ ” Rigby said. She referred to Numbers 11:1-9, when Israel had to live off God’s sustenance (the manna). Instead of gratitude, “The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.’
” “There’s something about our impression about what it means to walk humbly with our God that isn’t quite right. … Surely God has nothing against a satisfied palate,” Rigby said. “We may not believe God will make us rich, but we do believe God wants to bless us with garlic and big salads.”
Humility begins to take shape, she said, when Christians realize “most people on the planet Earth are not surrounded by the perpetual plentitude that we have today.”
Rigby noted that the Apostle Paul, saying Christians should regard others as better than themselves, “set the humility bar pretty high, or should I say pretty low. To walk humbly is to sacrifice what we might want to be, or have, and put others first.”
She said the basic problem is that Christians are called to change the world by abiding in Christ and not by their own means.
“Let this mind be among you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5),” Rigby said. “Jesus never claimed to be a missionary. His self-emptying was not a strategy to get his foot in the door and to change the world, but to love it.”
Christ’s incarnation, she said, was like the “prince becoming the pauper. He gathers manna with us because He really does need to eat.
“We eat His body, we drink His blood. Our comings, our goings, our doings are grounded in His love.”
Rigby quoted Letty Russell, a feminist theologian, as leaving the PCUSA because of “creeping clericalism.”
“Appetites are somehow driving us back toward Egypt,” she said. “We have the opportunity right here right now to repent of our complicity in the destructive systems of the world.”
“May God grant us the grace to share together in the mind of Christ, to empty ourselves of our privilege … to look at others as better than ourselves,” Rigby concluded.