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"If
my people will humble themselves . . ." January
5, 2003 The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower You may want to turn to 2 Chronicles, to chapter 7, and place a
finger there and save that place. In
a few minutes we're going to look at our Scripture passage.
A sermon ought to always be grounded in Scripture and have explaining the
Scriptures as its main focus. But
we're going to introduce our topic first as I tell you about something I bring
into pastoral counseling situations at times.
And that is the analogy of how people can be like hermit crabs.
When I'm counseling someone, oftentimes I tell them about hermit crabs
and remind them. If you are a fan of the Discovery Channel, then you already know
that what hermit crabs do is they find some empty shell down on the ocean floor
and they move into it. And then
they're very happy and they eat their little hermit crab food and grow until
they get to be too big for that shell. And
now they're cramped, and confined. There's
no more room for growth any more. And
now the little hermit crab is faced with a crisis: Either remain cooped up in a shell that's too small or go
scampering across the ocean floor to find another, larger empty shell.
The reason that that's a crisis is that a hermit crab is never as exposed
and vulnerable to danger as it is when it has left the security of one shell and
before it has arrived at its new shell. I say people are like that. We
get in our little world with our little familiar routines, and our habits, and
our ways of viewing things. Everything
is very growth-producing for a while until we can't grow any more within that.
And now we face a crisis: Do
we leave the security of a particular way of viewing things, leave that and
allow ourselves to risk becoming exposed and vulnerable in seeking a more
inclusive way of viewing life? Or
do we stay in our cramped surroundings? People oftentimes choose to stay with something that is very
uncomfortable and worse than uncomfortable--sometimes a terrible circumstance.
But they stay because it's familiar.
They stay because it's preferable (though bad for them in some way)
preferable to being exposed, and vulnerable, and therefore in danger. Now this last week I began to wonder if maybe churches aren't like
that, also, just as people can be like hermit crabs in that particular way.
I began to wonder is it possible that churches grow very, very well with
a set of routines that are very familiar. I
was talking to an elder at another Presbyterian church once upon a time, and
this is what she said. She said,
"Will, don't ever change the order of service on a Sunday morning.
Don't ever change, because you see I'm so busy all the rest of the week
and Sunday morning--that one hour on Sunday morning--that's my one time where I
can come in, sit down, and I just like to turn off my mind."
That's what she said! "I
like to turn off my mind. I don't
want to have to think about anything. I
know when to stand up. I know when
to sit down. So don't change the
order of service because I'll have to start thinking about what I'm doing." Well, I want you to ask, do we get so comfortable in what's
familiar that that becomes our little shell?
And maybe it works for a while. But
sooner or later, what is routine, and comfortable, and familiar doesn't work for
us any longer. And it can be for a
variety of reasons. One of my
favorites is suggested by the famous quote from H. L. Menkin.
H. L. Menkin said this: "For
every complex problem there is an answer--there is a solution--which is concise,
clear, simple and wrong." And
you wonder, you know, is it the case that churches, for complex issues, do we
settle for answers to those that are concise, clear, simple and wrong? Well, we settle for it because it makes us feel better.
("Oh, we've got a solution for that.")
It doesn't work, but we've got an answer for everything!
And all of a sudden we realize, you know what?
We can't grow any more with answers that are concise, clear, simple and
wrong. And then we've got a
decision to make: Do we want to
stay with what is familiar and comfortable, but confining and constricting?
Or are we going to leave the security behind and go out and allow
ourselves to find something new, something bigger, something that will allow us
to continue to grow? Rather than risk that, there are churches that get stuck with some
shell. I mean, it can be a
conservative church that's stuck and it can be a liberal church that's stuck.
There can be conservative churches that are stuck in the 1950s and
liberal churches that are stuck in the 1960s.
I'll let you decide which you think is preferable.
I mean, what would be more confining--"Leave It to Beaver" or
Jane Fonda? I don't know! But either way, you say, "Why would a church be stuck like
that?" Well, it's because the
confining and familiar routines are being preferred over the risk of finding
something better, but being vulnerable in the process.
Now, our question is, is that how it is not just for hermit crabs, and
not just in the psychological development of individuals, but is that how it is
for churches, too? And with that as our question, we want to look this morning at 2
Chronicles 7. So you may want to
turn with me to chapter 7, verse 11, where we read this: Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house.
All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his
own house, he successfully accomplished. Then
the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, "I have heard
your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain or command the
locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who
are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and heal
their land." You know, there is so much in this passage--in just this brief
passage--that we could comment on. But
I want us to focus on that one word "humble."
The verb "humble yourself," the imperative, "humble
yourself." I'm not a Hebrew
scholar. I'm not an expert in that
area, but there are four main Hebrew words that are translated in our Bibles,
all four of them translated as "humble."
The four are: anah (pronounced aw-naw') aniy (pronounced aw-nee') shaphel (pronounced shaw-fale) and kana (pronounced kaw-nah') Now, let's say that together.
Repeat after me, "anah" anah
Good! "aniy"
aniy "shaphel" shaphel and "kana" kana Very good! We all know
some Hebrew now. Now, right here,
of those terms (and those are the most common Hebrew words for
"humble"), the one that is here translated "humble" is the
last of those, kana. And originally
that term, before it meant "humble yourself," it's earliest meaning
was "bend the knee." And
it's oftentimes true that Hebrew terms begin with some very, very elementary
picture of an act like "bend the knee."
That's what it really originally meant and came to mean "humble
yourself." "Bend the
knee." Now, in present-day America, the idea of bowing, the idea of
submitting, of surrendering, of humbling yourself--that's not that popular of an
idea. In America today we have all
sorts of influences that tell us, "No, no, no. You should always be lifting yourself up, advancing yourself,
looking out for number one." We
have self-esteem classes in all of our schools and self-esteem sermons in a lot
of our churches. So we're going to
look at something that is kind of contrary, in a way, to the American mood at
present. And that is the idea of
not lifting yourself up, advancing yourself.
Not looking out for "number one."
But instead, of bending the knee, of submitting yourself.
And the first thing we want to recognize is, now what does that
term mean? It means
"submit," it means "lower yourself," it means "come
down before the Lord." It
means "surrender yourself." And
in that way, the Bible is fairly typically represented by this passage.
This is a fairly common sentiment in Scripture.
Jesus said, "The exalted will be humbled and the humble will be
exalted." In James 4:10 (you
may know this verse): "Humble
yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will [what?] lift you up."
We know that. "Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will
lift you up." You know,
running all through Scripture we have this idea (here worded slightly
differently), but it is this: "If
my people will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked
ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and heal their
land." Now we want to understand that the admonition to humble yourself
and the promise "I will hear from, heaven, forgive your sin, and heal your
land"--the admonition and the promise belong together.
If you want to understand what the Bible teaches about humbling yourself
before God, you have to understand that there's the admonition, but there's also
the promise: "Humble thyself
in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up."
Wherever we are told to bring ourselves low before God, it is not with
the thought that then God is going to leave us there, but rather with the
thought that God is going to lift us up, that God is going to turn and hear our
prayer and heal our land. There is
the humbling yourself before God, and there's being brought up.
So we misunderstand Scripture when we take either the admonition without
the promise or the promise without the admonition.
Do you understand? If you've
just got "humble yourself" only, or if you've got "He will lift
you up" only, then you misunderstand the biblical teaching at this point.
Churches have done that. In
the past, in Presbyterian churches and others, if we go back a while, it was
very, very common for the preacher to stand up there and be very angry with
people, and shake his finger and say, "God wants you brought low!"
And "You are bad and evil in God's sight."
"Sinners in the hands of an angry God."
And the impression everyone would get is, "Oh, my gosh!
God wants to bring me low just in order to leave me down there." But that's not it. That's
just the admonition without the promise. That
was a misunderstanding. Some of us
today still maybe carry influences of that earlier kind of preaching around.
If you're someone who believes that as a Christian you need to be a
doormat, you need to let people walk all over you, why is that?
Well, you say, "God wants me to be humble.
God wants me to have a servant's heart, and to be self-effacing."
You know, some of us have somehow or other received an influence that has
the admonition without the promise. And
it is not true that God wants you to be a doormat.
However, I think given the American climate at the present time,
that's not nearly as big an influence in churches as the other reality--you
know, the promise without the admonition. "God
wants to lift you up!" "God
wants to exalt you." "God
wants you to have a new refrigerator!"
And so, whatever it is that you think you deserve from God, just tell
God. "God, this is what I
need--that new refrigerator . . .
that new car . . . that new job. . . that new circumstance."
One version of this is called "name it and claim it" preaching.
"Name it and claim it" theology.
And if you watch Christian television, you're probably very, very
familiar with this, amen? Do you
understand what I'm talking about? Now,
why is it that that's so popular on Christian television?
Well, it goes like this: "God
wants you to have a new refrigerator, so send the check to our television
ministry and I'll put in a good word with God.
Write on the check what color of refrigerator you want . . ."
People are very, very eager to support ministries that tell them
"you can get whatever you want from God.
God wants to lift you up. Just
send money to our show and we'll make sure you get the new whatever it is."
No one has ever gone broke preaching a "name it and claim it"
theology. But, you see, that's the
promise without the admonition. You know, the real biblical teaching is both "humble
yourself" and "God will lift you up." That's the real biblical teaching. There is bringing yourself low.
Now, it's not "submit yourself to the drought."
It's not "submit yourself to the locusts."
It's not "submit yourself to any of the circumstances."
It's "submit yourself to the Lord." Is there a difference? Well,
there is. Because the submission,
the humbling that is being recommended is not saying, "Well, I guess this
is just my lot in life. I guess
this is just how my life has to go--with that clunky old refrigerator.
I guess if I was going to get a new refrigerator, God would have given it
to me a long time ago." No.
We're not told to submit to the circumstances.
But in that circumstance, we're told to submit to the Lord, which places
us, then, in a position where He can lift us up. Now, can this ever be true of churches? Well, I think it can. And
if it is ever true of churches, then the two things that the church would need
to consider are the first half of humbling yourself before the Lord and the
second half. The first half of
humbling yourself before the Lord is get honest about the precariousness of the
situation that you are in. Here God
speaking to Solomon and He says, "If I have stopped the rain or if I have
sent the locusts, or if I have decreed that pestilence is going to be on the
land, then if my people who are called by my name will humble
themselves"--and that's going to require saying, "Lord, we're facing
something that we cannot defeat on our own."
That's the first thing. Get
real. Stop living in denial.
Admit that you're in a situation that requires divine help.
And then the second half is, and say, "and, Lord, we know that
you are bigger than the circumstances we face. We know that you are stronger than the circumstances we face.
We know that you are Lord over those circumstances."
Now, the good news that I have for us this morning (which is also the bad
news I have for us this morning). The
good news and the bad news is, for Faith Presbyterian Church, we don't get to
decide whether we are going to be a church in transition right now, a church
exposed and vulnerable. We don't
get to decide because from the minute that our previous Senior Pastor left, we
became a church moving out of its previous shelter, moving out of its previous
circumstance. We are a church on a
new adventure right now. And that
decision has already been made. So
we're better off, really, than the church that's trying to decide, "Gosh,
are we going to stay in our little shell or are we going to move?"
No. That decision has
already been made. We're already
out. Now the question is, are we
going to admit that we need God's help in finding the new place that He wants to
lead us to, or are we going to say, "Oh, we can do that.
Oh, that's not a problem. God,
go help the other churches that are sort of having trouble, because I mean, we
can do this. We can find a new
Senior Pastor. That's easy." Well, I want to encourage you to consider that we are really in a
precarious place in our history as a church right now.
We're exposed. We're vulnerable. And
we need God as much now, if not more, as we ever have. So I want to encourage you--and this is where I want to end
up--if you are somebody who has never prayed regularly (and I mean every day).
If you've never prayed every day for this congregation, I want to
encourage you to start doing that. I
want you to say, "You know what?
I'm going to pray that God's hand of blessing, that God's hand of
guidance, would be on Faith Presbyterian Church."
And if you're someone who has done that--who says, "Oh, yeah, I pray
for my church every day"--I want to say you know what?
Now is the time to pray more. Now
is the time to pray more than you have before because we are out of our hermit
crab shell. We are on our way to
our new hermit crab shell. And we
need God's help. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that for every admonition that
you have in your Word for us, there is a promise. Lord, we thank you for your promise that if we humble
ourselves and seek your face, that you will hear from heaven and heal our land.
And it's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray.
Amen. The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Interim Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on January 5, 2003.] |
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