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this week
Sermon, by Pastor Joel
January 12, 2025
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The context of this sermon is
100% written by a human
Every time John the Baptist shows up in our gospel, he is compelling. For me, he is perhaps one of the most human characters in our gospel story – and also one of our best role models. John the Baptist doesn’t care what other people think – as his bombastic language suggests. He doesn’t worry about small stuff – as his style of dress suggests. He is clear about his purpose and won’t be deterred from his values. His human flaws of being rude and brash only bring him more to life. Of all the people we meet in the gospel narrative, he never wavers – from God, his purpose, and, of course, from Jesus.
And no more so than this morning, when he scoffs at the people who think that he might be the Messiah. The one who is coming, he says, is far greater than I. “I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” And there is John, baptizing people in the River Jordan, when Jesus approaches and asks John to do the same for him. Our gospel this morning doesn’t go into details. But in Matthew, we hear that John protested because he didn’t feel it was appropriate. And Jesus said to him, “In this way we will do all that God requires.” And so John baptized Jesus.
Why is John such a powerful character? I would argue it is because he is the quintessential humble servant. He is someone who could have seized power – he had his throng of adoring fans. He could easily have stepped into the limelight. He could have been swept up in his own acclaim. And yet, he held fast. He showed humility, perhaps his greatest power, and certainly provided a good lesson for us all.
Is humility a quality we admire? In other people, absolutely. We enjoy the company of the humble person who doesn’t feel the need to brag, who shows an openness to other people, who seems comfortable with themselves and what they don’t know. People who score high on humility, research suggests, are more other-centred than focused on themselves. That alone makes them pleasant company.
And yet, parents don’t exactly look at their kids and say, I really hope he or she is humble when they grow up. In fact, society tells us that the successful path is to do the opposite of John – to seize power, to attract the limelight, to bask in acclaim. To be humble is to be weak, a wall flower, and less than. When we talk about someone’s humble clothes, we don’t mean elegantly simple. When we say someone has a humble manner, or a humble house, the sense of that description is less than. Do we see humility as central to success, as evidence of a security of self that is enviable? For what is a humble person - and who was John – but that? Certain and sure-footed, released from the chase of external validation, and true to what was inside himself. That was John – the humble servant.
What does humility achieve in the world? Humility in CEOs has been linked, in studies, to a willingness to listen, to admit mistakes, to consider other perspectives, and to remain open to other solutions to a problem – all skills that come in handy in complex situations. The humble CEO empowers more employees – that is, they bring out the best in people.
Other work suggests a link between humility and happiness. Being humble appears to improve well-being and increase life satisfaction. Perhaps that is because humble people have a closer and warmer social circle; perhaps it is because their outlook on life is less self-critical or judgemental. I expect it is both.
How can we practice humility if it doesn’t come naturally to us, as we might assume it did for John the Baptist? (And who knows? Maybe he had to work at it too, for a time.) I suppose our first steps would be to listen more carefully to others, to avoid even the humble brag, to remain open to what we don’t yet have figured out, and to worry less about personal accomplishment and more about contribution.
In a 2014 research paper, a team of business researchers referred to Humility as the disposition of a person that reflects “a self-view that something greater than the self exists.”
“A self-view that something greater than the self exists:” Could even John the Baptist have put it better? In that River Jordan, John finally saw for himself the power of that greater thing, in the divinity of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit appeared above him as a dove, and the voice of God named him. And he would know that man – as we do – to be the humble servant he had been. Not a king, even though a kingdom was his for the seizing. Not a dictator, even when his followers might have wanted him to take control. Not a braggart, immune even to the Devil’s tempting him in the desert. And indifferent to those who would push him off his path of purpose, even when those people were his closest friends - like Peter - and meant well.
Let us look to the model of John the Baptist, whose humility was never weakness, but only strength. His willingness to humble himself brought him closer to God. Humility is also a gift: an awareness that something greater than self exists, and that we are not alone.
Amen.
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