We’re taught to value independence and self-reliance. We’re taught to be proud when we can make it on our own. The mythology of our national history tells us to work hard, apply ourselves, and let the potential within make us rich. The “American Way” is to grow out of our humble beginnings into prosperity, personal power and social capital. There’s a British comedy on PBS that I’ve just discovered, called “Keeping Up Appearances.” The TV series follows the life of a woman named Hyacinth Bucket (bouquet, as she pronounces it; the rest of her family answer to Bucket). Hyacinth is obsessed with etiquette and breeding. She’s the matriarch of a family that she wishes was more sophisticated, more classy, and more polished. They’re the sort of folks who leave their shirts untucked and watch television in their underwear. She’s the sort of person who polishes her empty milk bottles so that they don’t look unsightly on her front doorstep. Hyacinth Bucket bans the use of the back door, because the proper way to enter a home is to come and be announced at the front door. Her family is rather satisfied with being working class common-folk, for which Hyacinth is constantly ashamed. She spends her days hiding and disguising the pedestrian truth of her family. Hyacinth equates modest means with social failure, so she does everything she can to appear to fit in with those she considers her betters. “Keeping Up Appearances” describes that trap that all of us can fall into, when we equate social standing with meaningful living. The images that we see in the media and promoted in advertisements reinforce the idea that life is made meaningful by the things that we buy. The search for a meaningful life is all too often encapsulated in the financial stretch to live in the right neighborhood and drive the right car and take the right vacations. I remember back in the day when mobile phones used to require external antennas mounted on the back of the car. The little cork-screw antenna quickly became recognized as a status symbol. People began mounting antennas on their car without owning a mobile phone, because they wanted to appear to be in that technologically hip, financially flush class of persons who owned the first generation of mobile phones. It’s the attention that we learn to crave. It’s the regard of our peers that seek. We take pride in being recognized as persons of means and standing and control. Our culture promotes self-actualization, self-sufficiency, and instant gratification. Being humble is counter-cultural.

But we must walk humbly with God in order to allow God to guide us. Our egos can get in the way of God working in our lives. So we must set aside our desire to control and possess, and allow ourselves to be an instrument of the one who created us. St. Francis of Assisi wrote a prayer that begins with the words, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.” Another translation says, “Make me a channel of they peace.” With humility, we must allow ourselves to be used as a tool of God for the work of God. Like a channel, we must empty ourselves of our pride and anything that would be an obstacle for the peace of Christ to flow through us. A couple weeks ago I heard Pastor Ignacio Castuera from Southern California speak to a group of Reconciling United Methodists. Ignacio suggested that in his study of religion, he sees two strands of faith that cut across different religious traditions. In Islam, in Judaism, and in Christianity, people of faith divide into two camps. One camp is comprised of those who “know the truth,” and the other is comprised of those who are continually seeking greater understanding of truth. The folks who “know the truth” see their faith as a calling to defend truth. They see themselves as protectors of that truth, defenders of the faith, prosecutors and persecutors of diversity, divergence and dissension. The Spanish Inquisition, the Taliban, the ultra-orthodox Zionists, these are examples of those who claim to know the truth and therefore must protect it aggressively from any hint of heresy or doubt. The other camp of the faithful are those who embrace humility in their faith. They recognize the limits of their own understanding, and they seek always to learn something new. The search for truth is always unfolding before them. They anticipate that there’s always more to learn, so at no point should we ever cut ourselves off irrevocably from those with whom we disagree. Because it’s in the midst of disagreement that we’re most likely to recognize some new truth, to see with new eyes from a new perspective, and to grow in our faith and love of God. Humility separates the faithful from the faithful. Those who lack humility and insist on their own way find themselves most at odds with people within their own faith community. Faith that persecutes or prosecutes is prideful arrogance. A life that abuses others denies the unfolding of God’s truth in each person and in each creature that God has created. The gospel reading for our Ash Wednesday Service this past Wednesday came from the sixth chapter of Matthew. To officially open the season of spiritual reflection and self-discipline, we read these words:

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

The difference between an exercise of spiritual renewal and an act of self-righteousness is often in the dose of humility with which we practice it. When we walk our path humbly, seeking God’s will in our lives, then we open ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When we set aside our egos and desire for control and attention, then we free ourselves to accept the gift of God’s wisdom and strength in our daily living. Humility is the key that God offers us to share the good news without making it sound like bad news. In humility, we may remove all obstacles of our own stubborn pride, and allow the peace of Christ to flow through us.

God’s wisdom reminds us that all the things that we can accomplish will never be enough to give our lives meaning. All the possessions we can collect over the course of a lifetime will never be enough to satisfy the longing of our hearts. God leads the humble, because the headstrong and overly proud won’t be led. God is continuing to reveal the divine nature all the time, so we must not be so arrogant as to believe that we have ever learned all that there is to learn of our relationship with God.

As a closing, I invite you to pray with me the Prayer of St. Francis found in your hymnal as number 481.