Pastor Sherry’s message for August 31, 2025

Scriptures: Jer 2:1-13; Ps 81:1,10-16; Heb 13:1-8,15-16; Lk 14:1-14

I begin today by playing the acapella version of “Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord” (by The Acapella Company; see YouTube music).  These folks have very effectively combined the verse from James 4:10 (NRSV) :  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you!—with our Gospel lesson and with verses from “Amazing Grace.”  It’s beautiful, isn’t it?  It seems that the way to elevate ourselves in God’s eyes is to be humble.

Consider this example from, “A radio conversation between a US naval vessel and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland.

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER  USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES’ ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS.  I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT’S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER- MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.”

(Borrowed from www.thepastor’sworkshop.com, 8/28/25)

Slightly embarrassing, wouldn’t you say?  The aircraft carrier captain had to humble himself or risk running aground on rocks, sandbars, or perhaps icebergs.  Having come from three generations of US naval personnel, I know that the worst offense one can commit in the Navy is to run your ship aground.  Any ship captain unfortunate enough to do this is immediately relieved of his command and can kiss his career in the service goodbye!

The Proverbs often point out that God hates human pride (8:13) and the Psalms(149:4) insist that He…crowns the humble with victory.

This is the point of all of our readings today.  Let’s examine them together.

A.  In Luke 14:1-14. Jesus appears intent on teaching the Pharisees a lesson on etiquette—but it’s more consequential than that.  He has been invited to dine at a Pharisee’s house. The Gospels record several of these occasions, each of which provides a lesson for the haughty religious leaders.  In this case, the host has set a trap.  It’s the Sabbath. They produce a man with “Dropsy”—what we today call “Edema,” serious swelling of the arms and legs—and watch to see what Jesus will do. This side of the Cross, we know Jesus will heal the guy, because He came to bind up the broken-hearted and to set the captives (of illness) free.

He asks the religious leaders (vv.3-4, NLT): Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?  When they remain silent, He asks them another question (v.5): Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath?  If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?  Of course events and needs occasionally necessitate that they work on the Sabbath.  (They defined healing as work.)  The religious leaders remain silent because their hearts are hard—they are blinded by their sin of pride.  They believe they know better than God’s own Son how folks are to behave on the Sabbath. 

The Lord then provides a lesson for the guests at the dinner, the “Parable of the Impolite Guests”:  In those days, there were no place cards to reserve seating.  Think about wedding receptions today.  The bride and her mother work tirelessly to be sure those seated next to each other are friendly and get along.  Woe be unto anyone who comes in and moves the place cards around to suit themselves! But Jesus observes that in their pride, these guests rush to put themselves in the seats of honor, the 4 middle of three seats on each side of a table; or if the seating arrangement were U-shaped, the seat of honor was at the bottom of the U.  Jesus watched these guests exalting themselves; each one was only thinking of himself.  Jesus instructs them to seek the least favored place and then be happily surprised when the host invites them to accept a more honored place.  He then summarizes His lesson in verse 11—>For those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves will be humbled.  We please God by being and behaving humbly.

(Darrell Bock, The NIV Application Commentary, Zondervan, 1996, pp.392-393.)

Jesus’ lesson for the hosts is similar: Serve the needy, not those for whom you feel a social obligation, for such humble service pleases God.

B. The writer to the Hebrews (13:1-8, 15-16) lists out for us behaviors, such as the following, that should characterize all Christians:

1. Love each other, as we are all brothers and sisters;

2. Show hospitality to strangers (and entertain angels?).  A clergy wife told me recently that her pastor husband encountered a homeless man at the mall, playing a guitar with an open guitar case to catch donations.  The young man was an excellent musician, and the pastor—a guitar player himself—was impressed.  So he complimented the man and dropped a $10.00 bill in his guitar case, and then walked away.  Thinking the young man may have been an angel, his wife asked him when he recounted the incident, “Why didn’t you invite him home for a shower and a meal, and offer to allow him to wash his clothes?”  She had remembered this verse from Hebrews 13

3. Remember those in prison and those mistreated;

4. Remain faithful in marriage;

5. Do not love money, but be satisfied with what you have;

6. Have no fear, because the Lord is our helper;

7. Remember your leaders who taught you the Word of God;

8. Praise Jesus often because…(v.8):  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

We are also to continue to humbly do good, and to share with those in need, because (v.16): These are the sacrifices that please God.

C. In Jeremiah 2:1-13, the Lord is lamenting, through His prophet, how His Chosen People have deserted Him.  He poignantly reminisces about the “springtime” of their relationship with Him.  He protected them in the wilderness.  He brought them into a rich land.

But once they inherited the Land, they forgot Him (Read the books of Joshua and Judges).  Even the priests and the pastors deserted Him!

The people of Jerusalem and Judea fell into the 3 evils that universally and historically lead to a nations’ collapse:  (1) Spiritual apostasy—they abandoned the One, True God; (2) Moral awfulness—instead of behaving like a people group set apart, they joined into pagan sexual rituals and chose to serve false gods they could manipulate; and (3) Political anarchy.  As we think about these three causes of national collapse, consider where we are as a country today: Spiritual apostasy?  Check.  Moral degradation?  Check.  Political anarchy?  Almost.  In recognizing this, we can appeal to the Lord to help our country turn back to Him.  This takes concerted prayer and country-wide revival.

(Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p.29.) 

So how did the Southern Kingdom specifically and thoroughly offend God?  They rejected Him for idols and pagan deities, and they built shrines to these false gods and worshipped them.

Interestingly, God Himself humbly asks them (v.6): What did your ancestors find wrong with Me that led them to stray so far from Me? They worshipped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves.  This is certainly a strong condemnation from the Lord!  Almost again, as in a law court, He is asking what He’s done or not done that justifies their defection.  He, the Creator of the Universe, is humble.

So too was Jesus, as He humbled Himself and endured a criminal’s death on the cross for our sakes. 

God concludes, in verse 13, that in their pride and arrogance, “My people have done two evil things:  They have abandoned Me—the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.”  Rather than humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, they adopted gods they could manipulate, gods whose worship included sexually immoral behavior, gods made in their image rather than in that of the Lord.

D. The portion of Psalm 81 that we read today (1, 10-16) is a call to celebrate God because He delivered them from bondage in Egypt and blessed them.  But as the author, Asaph, continues, it is clear that God is severely disappointed in them (vv.11-12): But no, My people wouldn’t listen.  Israel did not want Me around. So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.  Who had become their God?  Just like Satan in his fall from heaven, just like Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God, they succumbed to their pride and decided for themselves who they would let act as their gods.  And like the lamenting Lord in Jeremiah 2, God states that if they would just return to Him, He would both subdue their enemies (protect them) and provide for their needs.  Humility before God is key. 

Remember Micah 6:8: He has shown you, O man [O woman], what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.   There it is: Be just and merciful toward others, and walk humbly with God.  Our pride has no place in our relationship with God.  Our God could rightly shine forth with all pride and arrogance, but He doesn’t.  We are to be like Him in this, to be humble.  Like the aircraft carrier’s captain, we hold onto our pride at a serious potential cost.  Like the impolite banquet guests at the Pharisee’s house, we are to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord so that He may lift us higher and higher.  Amen!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams