2021.05.23 | The Gift of Humility
“The Gift of Humility”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
Pentecost Sunday
May 23, 2021
Acts 2:2:1-21 (NRSV)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, a holiday ripe with meaning, and rich with traditions.
We celebrate this day with Christians around the globe by donning red vestments and garments, lighting candles and serving birthday cake for the church, sounding horns and noisemakers, and doing all kinds of crazy things to mimic the mystery and movement of the Holy Spirit.
On a local level, we celebrate Pentecost today as a congregation by presenting and dedicating our individual and household pledges to the ministry of Eden United Church of Christ for the coming year, and we continue a practice begun by our Hebrew ancestors of dedicating our offerings for the year ahead.
Our Hebrew ancestors and modern Jews also call this day Pentecost, in English. The Hebrew term is “Shavuot.” This holiday began as a celebration that the wheat harvest was complete, and it was a time when Jews brought their offerings to the Temple to express their gratitude to God for the harvest and for the gift of the Torah that God gave to Moses and the Hebrew people at Mount Sinai.
In addition to the Christian Feast of Pentecost being linked to the Jewish celebration of Shavout, this day (and the biblical story of Pentecost) is also linked to the ancient Hebrew story of Babel, found in Genesis 11. The story of Babel provides an accounting for the diversity of languages and nations extant around the globe.
According to Genesis 11, the differences in tribal identities, language, and ideologies were the result of self-interest. Remember how the visionaries said, “Come let us build a tower, let us make a name for ourselves…” Meanwhile, God envisioned a construction project that fostered harmony rather than hegemony amongst the people.
Unlike the story of Babel, the story of Pentecost describes a time when God’s people came together without compromising their cultural identities, and forged a common mission to share the gospel with all the world. They were moved to do this by opening their hearts and minds to the movement of the Holy Spirit, and committing themselves to the mission of Christ’s church.
II
We don’t need to be Bible scholars in order to identify contemporary examples of Babel or to illustrate the need to revive and recreate Pentecost in our time. We need only to think of the historic and ongoing conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East, or closer to home, the ubiquity of NIMBYism in our nation. (NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard.) For example, many agree that there is a need for more sober living environments for people leaving in-patient recovery programs, but few welcome such programs close to their property lines.
I suspect that we agree--the world needs a lot more Pentecost and a lot less Babel. But how do we achieve Pentecost in our own time?
Elaborate theories and strategies abound. Current efforts to achieve some semblance of a modern Pentecost fill the front pages of national papers, and include examples such as the Paris Climate Accords, the Korean Peace Agreement, and COVAX.
Great tomes have been written and will continue to be written about the strengths and weaknesses of each agreement, and who will (or won’t) benefit from the various iterations of these proposed agreements.
A great deal of midnight oil will be burnt and much sleep will be lost as the fine points of these agreements are hammered out, and words are parsed. And yet, the turn key for each and everyone of these agreements, and the test of whether or not anyone lives up to these deals rides on one thing.
That one thing is not difficult to name, and it’s not expensive to buy, and yet it continues to elude so many--especially the richest and most powerful people and nations. What is it?
Answer: humility.
Without humility, there is no giving or receiving. Without humility there is no common ground. Without humility there is no true exchange of ideas. There is no give and take. There is only give or take. There are just two or more entities standing their ground, sharpening the point on their respective ideologies, and taking from others--at the expense of all. This lack of humility is killing us, and it is keeping us from experiencing the abundant life that God intended for all.
III
Since humility is more of an idea or even a verb, rather than a commodity that can be traded on the mercantile or a thing that can be put on a shelf to view, I’ll offer three examples of humility that are much needed in our time.
The first is personal humility, and it is the turn key for all other forms of humility.
To exhibit personal humility one must realize and demonstrate that I am not the center of the universe. The world does not revolve around me. I do not know all that there is to know, and I do not have all the answers or all the tools needed to solve every problem. I am willing to approach group problems inductively, mindful that I likely have as much to learn as I do to impart to others. I’m willing to examine my own assumptions, receive constructive feedback, learn, adapt, change, evolve. I am willing to share power, to receive as well as give.
Personal humility is something that we strive to teach children at an early age, but it is a lifelong process--a spiritual practice--that requires time and intention and persistence.
A second form of humility that is much in need today is cultural humility, which is the ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented (or open to the other) in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the person.
Cultural humility is different from other culturally-based training ideals because it focuses on self-humility, rather than on simply acquiring knowledge or awareness of other cultures. This practice was identified and first cultivated in the physical healthcare field and adapted into other helping professionals and helps caregivers learn more about the experiences and cultural identities of others, in order to increase the quality of their interactions with clients and community members.
When we express cultural humility, we acknowledge that our culture is not the only way, or the better way--ours is simply a way.
A third form of humility that I’ll mention today, since this is the culmination of our stewardship campaign is philanthropic humility. One must exhibit both a personal posture of humility and cultural humility to effectively exhibit philanthropic humility. Donors who exhibit their generosity in this way ask persons and organizations in need of resources what they need and how they would go about resolving whatever issue they are addressing with their project. Donors don’t assume that they understand the problem being addressed or the best way to tackle it. Instead, they listen, they learn, they collaborate, and everyone is blessed as a result.
As we prepare to dedicate our pledges for the coming year, this is a helpful way to frame our gifts to the mission of the church. Let us not only give our gifts to finance the ministries of the church, but let's also humbly give our gifts trusting our leaders, our institutional partners, and the beneficiaries of our ministries to be good stewards of our gifts, and thereby foster creativity and collaboration to the glory of God.
In that spirit, I encourage each of us to offer our pledges of time, talent, and treasure in a spirit of humility, and trust that God will be glorified in and through the giving and receiving of our gifts. Thanks be to God. Amen.