Human Offerings that can Border on the Miraculous

DAILY BYTE

We’ve been talking about the challenge of living a humble life this week. And through looking at the Gospel of Luke, it seems the only way it’s possible for us to live truly humble lives is for us to live them in the context of community that promises to uplift us when we are in a position that is humble. When we’re broken. When we’re wrong. We don’t need to have our wrong thrown back in our faces – we need to be called friend. In the famous Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book, Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace with Marriage, she says, “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and to be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on the miraculous.”

The only reason that I let my spouse tell me what to do…sometimes – the reason he is able to critique the way I make the bed or argue – is because I know that he has vowed to stay by me – to uphold me – to walk with me in love – no matter what I say or do. And I can pretty confidently say that he knows the same to be true for me. These are human offerings that border on the miraculous. Seeing humility in one another, it seems, allows us to see the face of God.

The passage for today from Jeremiah sounds pretty harsh. God is “accusing” God’s people of changing “their glory for something that does not profit.” It says, “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

That’s not easy on the ears! God is appalled – even angry. And we might think – why would we want to listen to a God who gets so angry and says such terrifying things?

Well, we can hear them because they are desolate, grief-stricken words that come not out of selfishness or intent to abuse, but out of deep love. God speaks so harshly because God so deeply wants us to remember our relationship with him – remember that when we turn away and decide our ways of doing things are better and that we are maybe even better than God. When we think that we don’t need him – God cries out – that he is faithful to his promises to us no matter what ridiculous, frustrating, and sometimes terrible things we say and do. He’s still waiting for us to remember the fountain of living water that God has promised will never run dry.

It’s okay to be humble in the presence of that God. It’s okay even to bow down. Because that God loves us and promises never to leave us. If it weren’t so, we would never be able to have a relationship with God because we would always be in a power struggle to see who was better. And we would always be wondering whether, or not, he was going to leave.
Bowing before God is not about humiliating ourselves – it’s about recognizing that our God is humble, and we must be humble, too, to be on his level.

Do you want to trust in that kind of a God? Do you want to be part of a community that can be humble and faithful like that?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

Jeremiah 2:9-13 (NRSV)

Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children’s children. Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, remind us of the fountain of living water that you offer us today. Show us where to find it and how to drink from it, even if that means getting on our knees. Teach us to trust in your promises for us, and allow that faithfulness to strengthen us, so that we can live lives that look like yours – humble lives that reach out in loving commitment to others. Amen.