God's Via Positiva #8 | Say Amen to The Invitation

0:00 Scripture reading comes from John chapter 13 verses 1 through 17. Hear these words. and now before the festival of Passover Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and to go to the father having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end now the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, to betray him. And so during supper, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, he got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. and then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that he had tied around himself then he came to Simon Peter who said to him Lord are you going to wash my feet and Jesus answered him you do not know now what I am doing but later later you will understand and Peter said to him you will never wash my feet and Jesus answered well unless I wash you you have no share with me Simon Peter said to him well Lord not only then my feet but also my hands and my head and Jesus said to him one who has bathed does not need to wash except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.

1:59 For he knew who was about to betray him. And for this reason, he said, not clean, though not all of you. For he knew who was about to betray him. So after he had washed their feet, had put on his robe and had returned to the table, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, for that is what I am. And so if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, well then you also ought to go and wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their masters, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. For if you know these things, Fifth Avenue, if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them this is the word of god for the people of god thanks be to god Well, when I was a kid, don't let my height fool you, when I was a kid, I loved to watch basketball. To be more specific, I loved to watch God's basketball team, the Philadelphia 76ers.

3:35 I was convinced that I was going to be the next Allen Iverson, short but mighty, on the basketball court. And I remember that my dad would sometimes walk by the TV room and he would ask what I was watching. And when I told him that I was watching the Sixers, he said, oh, come and get me when they only have two minutes left. Nothing happens until they only have two minutes left. And this has always been something that's been funny to me, because I don't think what my dad was saying in that moment was that the rest of the game didn't matter. But what I think he was saying was that at the moment that last two-minute mark hits, all of the pressure and the momentum has led up to that moment that everything that has happened in that game all of the sudden comes to life anew and that full court press comes out. Maybe some of you are thinking go Gators in this moment.

4:33 nothing happens until the last two minutes well friends as we approach this text from john's gospel we are officially at that last two minute mark that everything in our lenten lives all of the pressures all of the momentum has come to this point and we know this because the the author of John's gospel gives us something of a clue about this. Maybe you heard it. One of the first things he says in verse one is this, having loved them, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them until the end. Something that is missed on the surface of that text is that the word end, the word end in Greek doesn't exactly mean like your favorite Disney movie has just concluded and the words the end appear on the screen. No, the word end in the Greek means something more like perfection, something more like completion, something more like purpose. And so maybe we could translate these words from John like this, that when he loved them, he loved them completely, completely. In fact, this is the same word that Jesus will use in his last fateful words upon the cross. It is finished. You see, I think John is jumping up and down, yelling at us to pay attention right at this moment. We have hit the two-minute mark, dear friends. Do you want to know what the ministry of Jesus is all about? Well, John says, look no further. Do you want to know the key to everything that I have been trying to tell you?

6:41 you're about to find out. All of the drama, all of the dialogue has been leading up until this moment. And what is it that Jesus does? What does it mean for Jesus to love his disciples completely, perfectly? What symbol does John give us? Jesus washes their feet. he washes their feet okay now any good new yorker can appreciate a foot washing i think like any decent and civilized person and i know all of you are decent and civilized people that whenever it is that you go to a dinner party at your friend's house and maybe you exit your front door in manhattan you walk down the street get on that subway stop make it all the way to Brooklyn. Get out to Brooklyn. Walk into your friend's house. What is the first thing that you do, friends?

7:45 you take your shoes off. Exactly. But now imagine we are living in the first century New York. We don't have our fancy Reeboks, our Nikes, our Adidas, but instead we're walking in sandals, Manhattan to Queens, and as we walk into the home of our friend, we will naturally need not just to take our shoes off, but to have our feet washed. And now do you think it's going to be the head of the household who washes your feet? Well, of course not. Of course not. They're in the back deciding what wine goes best with dinner. They're deciding what kind of conversation will fill the atmosphere that evening, they would be the ones eating at the same table as their guests. They would never be caught dead washing the feet of these people. Such a role was reserved for a servant, someone of a lower class, someone who in no way was ever expected to dine with those in the upper echelons except Jesus. Here, friends, is this humble God washing the feet of those who have gathered around him. And now I think humility is a pretty churchy word. We like to talk about humility in the church. And yet I think it's often difficult to remember just how radical this claim is. You see, humility of this kind was not something that was found in the Plato's, and the Aristotle's, and in the best Greek thinkers of its day. The gods did not wash people's feet.

9:43 Gods were meant to be given the glory that they deserved. These ancient people thought the Christians were crazy. In fact, Paul will go on later in 1 Corinthians to say that this gospel message was thought to be foolishness to the Greeks. But here's the kicker, that humility, like all other Christian virtues, can get bent out of shape by the mess of the world. that maybe we like humility on paper. Yeah, take it off the box. But I think it's hardly something that's easy to make sense of. I think to some of us, maybe humility feels like you walk into that job interview, and the person who holds your future in the palm of their hand, sitting across the table, asks you about your weaknesses. And so you say, oh yes, let me tell you all about my weaknesses. Let me tell you all about how good I am at being bad at this.

10:53 Friends, humility is hard work. Like forgiveness, humility means giving something up that is rightfully ours. Whether it be payback or vengeance, whether it be glory, for the sake of somebody else, even when they don't deserve it. I think we often don't like humility because we are taught to claim everything that is ours never leave the money on the table well C.S. Lewis was one of the most winsome Christian writers of the 20th century and he wrote a really short book that's called the screw tape letters maybe you read it in college he satirically depicts a demon called Wormwood, who is tasked with tempting a Christian convert, simply known in the book as the patient.

11:52 And in the book, it's a series of letters that this demon, Wormwood, looks for advice from a much more experienced, savvy, and senior demon named Uncle Screwtape. And so one day, Wormwood receives a letter from his uncle Screwtape. You have a problem, he says. This Christian is no longer temptable. This convert's dream of a noble Christian life, well, they have given way to something that the demon says is much more difficult to poison, humility. well says screw tape there is only two ways to poison humility the first way that screw tape makes up is to make a person very proud of their humility think back to our candidate for that job to have them recognize the excellence of their humble posture but there's also a second way and maybe it's even a more corrosive way to make a person think that humility means self-effacement, that to be humble means not just to stoop low, but to be humble means to think lowly of yourself.

13:17 One of the ways that I think humility goes wrong in this world, friends, is when we baptize our own insecurity and when we call it a virtue. Maybe you've encountered this. Maybe sometimes you've looked at yourself and thought less of yourself than you ought to. Maybe less of yourself than God thinks of you.

13:41 You see, Jesus stooped low to wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus was humble, but he was not modest. Jesus was humble, but he was not timid. Jesus was humble, but he was not self-effacing. You see, humility only can grow in the strong soil of self-confidence. It is always about telling the truth about ourselves, regardless of when it conflicts with the norms and standards of the world around us. This is why Peter has such a difficult time allowing Jesus to wash him, right? He is so worried about the social conventions and expectations of this world that he doesn't want to let Jesus do the very thing that he must do. You will never wash my feet, Lord. He was so nervous about how the world would see Jesus that he would rather Jesus hide the truth of who he is. But God is no liar.

14:48 I was walking this morning around the streets under the cherry blossoms, and my wife asked me, she said, okay, this is all very theological and good, but what does this actually mean? She said, what does humility look like in practice? And so my mind kind of fluttered and raced, and I didn't know how to answer her very pragmatic question. And then I thought of one example, and it was a strange one. I remember the first presidential campaign that I was ever probably old enough to know the consequences of. It was the 2008 election between John McCain and Barack Obama, and even though I wasn't old enough to vote yet, I remember watching town halls. I remember sitting and listening to these men talk about their visions for our nation. I remember one scene in particular at a town hall in Minnesota where Senator McCain was answering questions.

15:52 And the questions began taking a more and more apocalyptic turn. We're scared of Obama, many in the audience said. He's an Arab. He's a Muslim. This audience clamored. And at these words, the applause in the room seemed to grow and the tension in the room seemed to grow as they seemed to want this senator to vindicate and confirm their fears, fears that I'm afraid had metastasized into racism. But with a calm and compassionate and confident face, I remember that senator simply shaking his head as he said, no ma'am, he's a good man. a good man and there is no reason for you to fear him and at that moment I remember the audience in this room began to boo and began to jeer at Senator McCain he's a man that I just happen to have very serious disagreements with fifth avenue presbyterian church i wonder if humility in the words of brene brown is about having a strong back and a soft front i don't want to make a martyr or a messiah out of any politician i'm convinced that that saviors are never on the ballot but i think that there is a picture of humility, and humility always shows us something of God. That humility is always about telling the truth because it is the shape of truth itself. A truth not used to clobber or coerce, but a truth with a soft front and a strong back. Humility is a truth that is so confident that is so unafraid to cut gently against the grain,

18:01 unafraid to wash the feet of another person, that humility is truth, unafraid to go to the cross. Amen.