Rev. Kevin M. Pleas

John 3:22-30 March 22, 2009

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized - John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. Now a discussion about purification arose between John's disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John answered, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease."

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Henry Augustus Rowland, professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University, was once called as an expert witness at a trial. During cross-examination a lawyer demanded, "What are your qualifications as an expert witness in this case?" The normally modest and retiring professor replied quietly, "I am the greatest living expert on the subject under discussion." Later a friend, who was well acquainted with Rowland's usual disposition, expressed surprise at the professor's uncharacteristic response. Rowland answered, "Well, what did you expect me to do? I was under oath." (From Today in the Word, August 5, 1993)

When I came across this story it reminded me of an old Calvin and Hobbs cartoon. Calvin is talking to the girl from down the street. Very impressed with himself, he says: "I sure am great! I'm one of the greatest people who ever lived! How lucky people are to know someone as great as me. I'm great in so many ways! In fact, I'm so great that my greatness is..." At that point the girl can't take it anymore. She yells at Calvin, "You're not great! You're the most conceited blowhard I've ever met!" She storms off in a huff, after which Calvin reflects to himself, "When you're great, people often mistake candor for bragging."

Hearing these stories, it's pretty obvious that neither Calvin nor the professor are quite as great as they think they are. That's why the stories are funny. They've both been caught showing off the kind of narcissism we usually try to pretend we don't have. You probably know the story of Narcissus. In Greek mythology he was a handsome young man who the nymph Echo was in love with. Narcissus rejected Echo's "desperate advances," and as punishment, he was condemned "to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, [he] pined away [until he] changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus." (Wikipedia)

There is, they say, a little narcissism in all of us. It's actually healthy, psychologically speaking, to have a good solid self-love or self-appreciation at the core of our being and none of us will be entirely well balanced without it. When Jesus said we should love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to understand that loving ourselves, in a healthy way, is the presumption upon which our ability to love our neighbors is based.

However, hasn't it become pretty obvious that our current culture has become something less than well balanced? In our concern to encourage a healthy self appreciation, we have unwittingly become enablers of a highly, I would even say grossly, self-centered culture. At every turn we are encouraged to think of ourselves; our preferences, our desires, our wants and whims; from "Have it your way," to "Where do you want to go today;" from iTunes to Myspace to YouTube. I saw an ad recently that caught my attention. Did you know you can have your candy personalized? Get your own personal bonus bag of custom printed candy at my m&m's dot com. (mymms.com)

You know, I distinctly remember the first time I came across this whole idea of self centeredness. I've told you that, as a kid, I used to sing along with many of the old Broadway show tunes. There's one from the Sound of Music that always made me laugh. It's called "No Way to Stop It," by Rogers and Hammerstein. In the story, Captain Von Trapp is worried about the Nazis, who are preparing to invade Austria. The Baroness (Elsa) and Max Detweiler are trying to convince him there's nothing he can do, there's no way to stop it. But the message from the song they sing to him is fascinating. In the first two verses they say that the earth is "a crazy planet full of crazy people ... somersaulting all around the sky." Every time it circles on itself another day's gone by, and every time is rolls around the sun is another year. These things happen all by themselves no matter what we do and there's no way to stop it. What's fascinating though, is the conclusion they draw from this.

So every star on every whirling planet and every constellation in the sky,

Revolves around the center of the universe, that lovely thing called, I.

And there's no way to stop it.

No, there's no way to stop it and I know, though I cannot tell you why.

Just as long as I'm living,

Just as long as I'm living there'll be nothing else as wonderful as I.

I! I! I! Nothing else as wonderful as I!

As I said, this song always makes me laugh. But these days, far too many people seem to be taking it as gospel rather than satire.

The message of the real gospel couldn't possibly be more different. Jesus, we know, was the soul of humility. As Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, Jesus "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross." Humility was at the heart of all Jesus said and did, and we rightly honor him for it. But he was not the only one in the bible who displayed humility.

There is also the story of John the Baptist; the story Jane read to you a few minutes ago. It seems that sometime after Jesus had been baptized by John and had already begun his ministry, Jesus himself was found to be baptizing people on his own. John's disciples were offended. They complain to John that Jesus seems to have set himself up in prophetic competition and they want to know what John is going to do about it. This complaint to John implies that there was a rivalry between the followers of John and Jesus. There isn't any proof of this, but the fact that this story appears here in John's gospel suggests that a rivalry of some kind may have continued all the way up to the time of the writing of the gospel; otherwise why would John bother to tell us about it? It seems the gospel writer was trying to settle an argument that was still going on by saying that John the Baptist himself had said he was not the messiah. Since this gospel was written sometime around the end of the first century, it appears there were people who considered themselves disciples of John the Baptist for as much as a generation or two after the beginning of Christianity.

So, apparently there were parallel ministries going on between John and Jesus, at least until John was arrested. John had his own disciples, he continued to baptize. He continued to talk about the coming of the kingdom, but he did so, according to this story, with an understanding that his time was passing. The primary purpose of his ministry had been fulfilled in his announcement of the coming of Christ.

John, confronted by his disciples, argues the point in four ways. First, he gives them a little aphorism, a popular saying, that no one can receive anything except what God has given. He implies that being the messiah was not given to him, but to Jesus. Second, he reminds them that he had already said the he was the herald of Christ; one who was greater than he was, one whose sandals he wasn't worthy to stoop down and untie. Third, he tells them a parable using the image of a wedding. John isn't the bridegroom, he is the friend who stands by and rejoices at the bridegroom's voice. And finally, he puts the whole thing in a nutshell by saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease." In all this, John the gospel writer wants us to understand that John the Baptist was playing the role of "midwife" to Jesus' ministry; which, though important, was not the one Jesus had been called to.

It seems pretty obvious that John could have claimed the title of Messiah for himself, but he didn't. How's that for humility? But I'm not sure how people feel about the word humility these days. It's something we've come to associate with humiliation; with humbling ourselves in a way that allows us to be walked on and stepped over. But humility, in a spiritual sense, is a very, very powerful and very necessary part of our faith development. If we are people of faith, part of what we seeking to accomplish, whether we are always aware of it or not, is, just like John, the decrease of our own ego selves to make room for the increase of God in us. That's not a bad thing. It's what God intends for us. It is in fact the fulfillment of God's intention for us; that we embrace and embody God's ongoing ministry that came to the world through Jesus. When we call ourselves Christian, what it means is that we are seeking, increasingly, to embody in ourselves the spirit of Christ.

Humility is fundamental to the spiritual life. "It was John Riskin who said, "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinion. But really great men have a ... feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them; that they could not do or be anything else than God made them." Andrew Murray said, "The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised while he is forgotten because ... he has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and who sought not His own honor. Therefore, in putting on the Lord Jesus Christ he has put on the heart of compassion, kindness, meekness, longsuffering, and humility." And as M.R. De Haan used to say, "Humility is something we should constantly pray for, yet never thank God that we have." (Quotes from Today in the Word, August 5, 1993)

The world that we are in - many of the problems we're so concerned about, many of the challenges we're facing - if we look at them honestly, do they not reflect a lack of humility? Of course they do. They reflect an inability on the part of many to place the good of others above the good of themselves. And that is a recipe for disaster in human society. Truly, we are suffering from a lack of humility.

And so I'd encourage you, I encourage all of us, to bear in mind and heart what it is we are trying to accomplish as people of God. In order to make room in our lives for God's will to increase, our own separate will must decrease.

Amen