Easter 7 (NL4) John B. Valentine
Philippians 2:1-13 May 17, 2026

“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HUMILITY?”

Whatever happened to humility?

Seriously ... WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HUMILITY????

I was watching a basketball game on TV the other night ... something I don’t usually do now that the Warriors aren’t playing ... and started keeping score ... not of the score of the game itself ... but of gestures of pride versus gestures of humility displayed betwixt the players.

On the “pride” side ... there’s the standard fare ....

• the chest bumps ...
• the high fives ...
• the fist bumps and the like.

But then again ... there’s ...

• the three-ball flurry ...
• the googly-eyed trey ...
• the sharpshooter ... gunslinger ... thing ... and
• the hang-on-the-rim-for-three-seconds-while-flailing-one’s-legs-after-a-dunk thing.

Then again ... on the “humility” side ... there’s ...

• the finger-point recognizing an assist by one’s teammate ...
• the backslap acknowledging a teammate’s great play ...
• and maybe the group celebration thing which acknowledges that “we’re all in this together.”

Want to guess which side won??

Honestly ... whichever team may have tallied the most points in the actual game ... the “pride” side won. And it wasn’t even close!

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But it’s NOT just in the world of basketball that humility is so passe’.

• In politics ... it’s the “arms up in victory” thing ...

• In football ... it’s the end-zone celebration thing ...

• In soccer ... it’s pulling one’s shirt up over one’s head and sliding into the corner ...

• In fashion ... it’s pausing long enough for every paparazzo in the crowd to get the pic of your practically-perfect outfit.

• In comedy ... it’s the “mic drop”.

And don’t get me going on social media!

I mean ... really ... if you look at any and all of those folks who classify as “social media influencers” ...

Those folks who make a living as ‘digital content creators’ by sharing their so-called “expertise” in the fields of entertainment or lifestyle or politics or whatever ...

The ONE thing that seems to be a constant among them is their abject LACK of humility!

Their “job” ... as it were ... involves “curating their image” so as to appear authentic and approachable and credible ... not to actually BE authentic and approachable and credible.

In fact ... I ran across a Reddit thread this week which was an extended conversation among a bunch of influencers about how best to “appear humble” ... “Appear humble” ... go figure ...

Because “being humble” means shifting the focus away from yourself ... whereas being an “influencer” in today’s world means putting the focus totally upon oneself.

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Actually ... it was this morning’s Bible lesson that sucked me into a black hole of thoughts about humility this week.

You see ... in that lesson we heard read from Paul’s letter to the Philippians ...

Paul is writing to a community of folks whom he loves with his whole heart about who they ought to be and how they ought to behave as people shaped by the Gospel:

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty 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.”

And the why and the wherefore of that?

Because that was the way Jesus was and is for you!

“Who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.”

And what word ... what thought ... what concept do the first part of that and the second part of it share in common?

Pretty obviously ... it’s “humility” ... is it not???

To Paul it’s pretty clear:

Humility is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and a child of God ....

“Being a Christian” means “embracing humility” ...

Could the same be said about us???

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It had to be back in like the late 1970's or early 1980's now that a fellow named Bob Hudson wrote one of the most well-known Christian camp songs of all-time .... entitled “Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord”.

Any of you remember that song from days now past??

Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.
Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.
And He will lift you up ... higher and higher.
And he will lift you up.

In fact ... that may be the only song I know the lyrics to in German ... and in Spanish ... AND in English ... other than “Happy Birthday”.

But what is that song about ... folks?

Ostensibly its about "being humble" ... right? After all ... that's the title of the song.

But is it really?

Isn’t it REALLY about being lifted up???

Isn't it about us mentally saying ...

"Okay ... Jesus ... I'll take the steps down to the basement ... but the only reason I heading there is because I know you’ve promised to be there waiting for me at the elevator that will take me all the way up to the penthouse!"???

It’s selfishness and achievement disguised as selflessness!

And I suspect that much ... if not “most” ... of what passes for humility among Christians these days is of the sort which says "Jesus, I'm glad you brought me to the penthouse because both of us know it's where I've really belonged all along."

But the kind of humility that Paul references here in Philippians 2 isn't like THAT at all.

You see ... when we talk about humility nowadays ... WAY too often we confuse it with self-deprecation ... beating ourselves up.

But true humility isn’t about trying to make ourselves small and insignificant and unimportant ...

After all ... there’s something a little bit oxymoronic about “trying to be humble”.

Rather ... true humility is grounded in the awareness that we are involved in ... engaged in ... something that is FAR bigger than ourselves.

As C. S. Lewis once said: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”

It’s the recognition that we are a part of something that is far bigger ... far broader ... far more important than “Me, myself and I”

Sans mic drops ... sans chest bumps ... sans end-zone dances ... sans anything.

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Somewhere along the line ... I once read this story about a man who couldn’t keep a job.

He was an organist and a music composer ... by all rights a very talented organist and composer ... but for the life of him ... he couldn’t keep a job.

You see ... he was a church musician ... and a whole lot of the pieces he composed and played were considered too showy ... too noisy ... too ‘contemporary’ to be played in church.

And inevitably ... after a while ... the congregation would start to grumble ... and then church council would start to grumble ... about the quality and the appropriateness of his music and his musical selections ... and ... rather than try to fight it ... he’d just move on.

(I’m so glad that churches today don’t grumble about music anymore.)

Anyone want to venture to guess the name of that fellow?

It was Johann Sebastian Bach. Have you ever heard of him???

Once ... when the pastor of one of those churches was relaying the concerns of the congregation to his organist and choirmaster ... Bach purportedly said:

“The main purpose of my music is NOT to make people happy. The main purpose of my music is to glorify God.

“Some people glorify God with music that is simple and plain and structured. I haven’t chosen to use a simple style ... but my music comes from my heart as a humble offering to God. This honors God no matter what musical style I use.”

The main purpose of my music is NOT to make people happy. The main purpose of my music is to glorify God.

In fact ... if you’ve ever been privileged to see one of the original Bach manuscripts ...

At the very top of the page of most every one of them are the letters JJ ... which was shorthand for the Latin ‘Jesu Juva’ ... “Jesus Help Me.”

And similarly ... at the end of every one of them ... the letters SDG ... Soli Deo Gloria ... to the Glory of God Alone.

And all those JJ’s that he wrote ... and all those SDG’s that he wrote ... were Bach’s way of reminding himself that God was and is the source and the center ... the gift and the giver ... the one and alone one who is deserving of our praise.

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You see ... humility isn’t thinking less of yourself.

It IS thinking of yourself less ... because you’ve come to know that there’s something more that matters more.

Which leads me to wonder .... what if we to dare to sign the whole of our lives SDG???

SOLI DEO GLORIA!