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Text: Philippians 2:1-11

I once read in an article that said the famous author Alex Haley, author of Roots, has a picture in his office, which shows a turtle sitting atop a fence post. What a sight that must be! The turtle's poor legs would dangle far to the sides of the post, and there would be absolutely no way he could get down. In my mind's eye, I can see the poor turtle struggling for all he was worth; all to no avail.

The article went on to explain that Alex Haley kept the picture on his wall to remind himself of a very important fact: The turtle did not get on top of the fence post without some help. Haley says that every time he starts thinking about his fame and accomplishments, he reminds himself that he didn't get where he was without help. It was his way of keeping himself humble.

The seventh step of the Twelve Steps to recovery is about humility too. But first let me review the first six steps to recovery:

1) We admitted we were powerless over the effects of our separation from God and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2) We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3) We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

4) We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5) We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6) We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

And now I turn to Step Seven which says, "We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings." The core of this step is found in the words "humbly asked."

Humility is a difficult character trait to master, but one that is vital to a meaningful life. When St. Bernard of Clarivaux was asked, "What are the four virtues of the Christian life?" He replied, "Humility, humility, humility, humility."

Humility is not to be confused with humiliation, which is the act of making someone else feel ashamed. To humiliate is to hurt the pride or dignity of people by causing them to be or seem foolish or contemptible. Most of us are deathly afraid of appearing foolish. To make someone feel that way is normally an oppressive behavior.

Perhaps there is a place for foolishness in the faith. Pastor Bill Watson from Owenton shared with me yesterday that their church will have a Holy Humor Day in their church today. The worship service is dedicated to humor. For example, the worship bulletin is printed upside down and they start with the benediction and go to the doxology. Foolishness can have a place in the faith. We should not be so proud that we can't allow for a little foolishness.

And sometimes feeling foolish can be a step toward wisdom. A wise man once promised a biblical scholar a revelation of greater consequence than anything contained in the scriptures. When the scholar eagerly asked for it, the wise man said, "go out into the rain and raise your head and arms heavenward. That will bring you the first revelation." The next day the scholar came to report: "I followed your advice and water flowed down my neck. And I felt like a perfect fool." "Well," said the wise man, "for the first day that's quite a revelation, isn't it?" (Taking Flight, Anthony de Mello (New York: Image Books, 1990) p.70)

But real humiliation is not what the Bible encourages. Rather it calls for humility. Humility is the state of being humble. Humble people are generally thought to be unpretentious and modest - people who do not think that they are better or more important than others. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…"

Some people have a problem with the phrase "regard others as better than yourselves." Most parents try to instill self-esteem in their children by saying, "You are as good and as important as anybody in that school. Nobody at that school is any better than you are." I suppose this is a way of avoiding an inferiority complex in our children.

Paul's advice to "regard others as better than yourselves" is not related to worth or value as a person. Instead, it is a way of showing respect and humility. We are to treat other people as better than us, which is a matter of courtesy and servant leadership. Serving others is not humiliating, but rather it is a leadership born of humility.

Paul goes on to say, "Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." This line reminds us of a truth about most of us - we are self-interested. Our focus is on ourselves.

That is an understandable situation, especially when we have major problems in our lives such as an addiction or a life-controlling issue. It's easy to think only about our pain, our heartache, our troubles, our problems. When we are so self-absorbed, we are not able to break out of our cocoon and see ourselves from another perspective.

Paul advises us to look to the interests of others. It's the age-old advice to help others when we are in need of help. When we visit someone in the hospital, we find them ministering to us more than we minister to them. When we help others, we find ourselves being helped.

This is the quintessential attitude of servant-leadership. The best way to lead is to serve others. The best way to reach consensus is to really listen to another person's point of view.

I have just read Herman Hesse's book entitled, Journey to the East. It is the story of a band of men on a mythical journey to join a special order. The central figure of the story is Leo, the servant who does the menial chores for the group. But Leo has an unusual presence about him. His spirit and his songs sustain the group. All goes well until one day Leo disappears. Before long, the group falls into disarray, and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo.

After some years of wandering, the narrator finds Leo and is taken into the order that had sponsored the journey. There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as a servant, was in fact the head of the order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.

This story clearly shows that the great leader is seen as servant first, and that simple fact is the key to his greatness. Leo was actually the leader all of the time, but he was servant first because that was what he was, deep down inside.

Jesus was exactly that way as Paul explains in the next verse, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness."

These verses are very important ones in the doctrinal study of Christology, because it is one of the few passages that says something about Jesus being equal with God. There are very few such verses that affirm the doctrine of the Trinity. Listen to it again, "(Jesus) did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited…"

But the point of this passage was that Jesus, who was equal with God, "emptied himself…" The Greek word used here is "kenosis" and this passage is often called the Kenotic Hymn. This self-emptying is at the heart of who Jesus was. Self-emptying is a good definition of a proper humility.

We are called to just that kind of self-emptying. Mark 9:34-35 says, "On the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, 'Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.'"

Humility is not a false modesty. It is not pretending to think we are nothing. Some people think they have humility when all they have is bad posture.

Isaac Watts wrote the song "Alas and Did My Savior Bleed" in1885. He wrote, "Would He devote that sacred head, For such a worm as I?" That’s how I learned the song as a child, and I understood what it meant. However, newer hymnals say, "For sinners such as I?" True humility is not thinking of ourselves as a worm!

Charles Spurgeon said, "Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self. It is no humility for a man to think less of himself than he ought." Humility is having an accurate view of ourselves, including our strengths, our weaknesses and our limitations. Perhaps the best way to understand humility is attempting to see ourselves through God's eyes rather than our own.

Our problem with humility is that we have its opposite - pride. C. S. Lewis said, "According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. . . Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of Mind."

James 4:6 says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

In his book North by Northeast, Walter Cronkite recalls the following incident: Sailing back down the Mystic River in Connecticut and following the channel's tricky turns through an expanse of shallow water, I am reminded of the time a boatload of young people sped past us here, its occupants shouting and waving their arms. I waved back a cheery greeting and my wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" "Why, it was 'Hello, Walter,'" I replied. "No," she said. "They were shouting, "Low water, Low water.'" Such are the pitfalls of fame's egotism.

Ray Ellis and Walter Cronkite, North by Northeast.

Sometimes we can be proud of our humility. Dr. Harry Ironside was once convicted about his lack of humility. A friend recommended as a remedy, that he march through the streets of Chicago wearing a sandwich board, shouting the scripture verses on the board for all to hear. Dr. Ironside agreed to this venture and when he returned to his study and removed the board, he said "I'll bet there's not another man in town who would do that." (Donald Campbell, Daniel, Decoder of Dreams, p. 22.)

In the village synagogue, during the high holy days, the rabbi prostrates himself on the floor, saying, "God, before You I am nothing." Immediately the richest man in town prostrates himself on the floor, saying, "God, before You I am nothing." Right after that the town beggar prostrates himself on the floor, saying, "God, before You I am nothing." The rich man whispers to the rabbi, "Look who thinks he's nothing."

The folly is pride is told in an old story. The story is told of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond. The best of friends, the three would amuse themselves and play together in their waterhole. When the hot summer days came, however, the pond began to dry up, and soon it was evident they would have to move. This was no problem for the ducks, who could easily fly to another pond. But the frog was stuck. So it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck that the frog could hang onto with his mouth as they flew to another pond. The plan worked well--so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and mused, "Well, isn't that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it?" The frog said, "I did..."

I love the genuine humility in a story told by Leonard Sweet about a particularly uneducated and irritatingly zealous rural priest. A number of his flock circulated a petition declaring him 'unfit' to hold his post. The priest tried and tried to get his hands on a copy of the petition. When he finally found a copy, he quickly added his name to the bottom.

When we are honest with ourselves, we have plenty of reason for humility. Acknowledging our limitations makes us humble enough to ask for help.

In the end, we are all like that turtle sitting atop a fence post. We didn't get here by ourselves, and we won't go forward by ourselves. We have to humbly ask for God to help us and to walk along with us. The prophet Micah says, "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous ends its comments about Step Seven with this suggested prayer:

"My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen."