March 30: A World Full of Real People
♫ Music:
Day 34 - Monday, March 30
Rung #25: ON HUMILITY
Scriptures: Philippians 2:3; Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:4 & 8
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Poetry:
Moby Dick
by Dan Beachy-Quick
No reverie begs “light” in the blind eye.
Reverie says: dig this depth-of-blank
Deeper. Dig deeper
With the Whale below the white-capped waves—
A twitch of his tail, a twitch of his white tail
Birthed from ocean-bed the wave
That broke calm water into each cracked plank
Of the harpooner’s boat, made that man sway,
And cast him on the spear his arm meant to cast
At you. Beneath the sun’s evil weight
Men burn nightwards but never darken
Past night. There’s always the moon’s hook
On still water to deny them.
But Whale, you dive down
Until the ocean’s ground begs you solid, “Stop.”
Whale, you do not stop.
You beat your head against the jagged rocks.
Blind in depths so dark light itself is blind,
You knock your head against the rocks to see
And scratch the god-itch from your thoughts.
Flame is jealous of flame, once lit, it ever
Reaches higher. You wait, match-tip, White Whale.
I see how you wait in silence for silence
To say: write it in, tell me who I am now.
A WORLD FULL OF REAL PEOPLE
My husband and I have a rule in our marriage that’s helped us so much: we go into every conflict with the assumption that the other one meant well.
This baseline approach has gotten us over so many rough patches! But it’s not something we started our marriage with—it’s something we learned over years and years.
It struck me as I meditated on today’s Bible passages that humility is actually the virtue that undergirds this approach to one another—and I know that, in whatever small way we’re able to approach one another in humility, we’re able to do it only because the Holy Spirit has helped us.
I’m starting out talking about marriage, but that’s only one small piece of the larger web of relationships that make up the Lord’s church.
Living with one another in harmony, as Paul commands, means living in humility. Why? Because humility means believing that other people are just as real as you are.
You are important, but you are not most important—you can’t be, not when there are so many others who are just as real as you.
So you have to “live in harmony with one another” and “associate with the lowly” and “count others more significant than yourselves” and “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love.”
All of these bits of humility are bound up in love and in actually seeing other people as real people.
And, of course, the person who most exemplifies everything in these verses is our Lord Jesus Himself. He didn’t scorn to associate with the lowly (and we are all lowly compared to Him). Nothing He did was out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. He, our big brother, had such brotherly love for us, and His tender heart had room for us all.
Even in the most extreme moments of His suffering here on earth, Jesus could look out at His tormenters and say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
I also think about Mary, particularly given the beautiful art piece depicting the nativity that goes along with this devotion. She, following the example of her Son (though she’d barely gotten to know Him yet), was willing to labor in the darkness, in obscurity, in humility…out of love.
How does this fit in with this week’s theme of “acquiring peace of soul”? Well, there is peace in accepting who you are. In looking at who God has made you to be—limited, weak, dependent—and echoing His words in saying, “This is good.”
Being who you are—who you really are, in the sight of God—is humility.
And that leads us to the ability to obey the commands in these verses. Humility lets us live in harmony with one another. It lets us see one another as real people, it lets us be patient, not jumping to assume that the other person meant harm, but asking for help in understanding one another.
Of course, we must exercise wisdom at the same time—not everyone in the world means well, and Proverbs has lots to say about how to deal with “the fool.”
But, especially when it comes to our fellow members of the household of God, we ought to at least start by assuming the best. Because, of course, our fellow believers are not just fallible mortals—they are fallible mortals in whom God Himself is accomplishing a great work. It is worth approaching each other with our eyes open to see what the Holy Spirit is doing in one another—even amidst the wreckage and sin that still hasn’t been shed completely from our souls.
And that work of humility is work. The repeated command to be a “living sacrifice” in the song “Lay Down Your Life” reminds us that we must be active in our love for one another—no dead sacrifices here!
But we can have hope that we might be able to do this impossible task: to really love one another, in humility and in truth.
Why?
Because we do not labor alone. Our Lord and Brother has gone before us, and His Spirit is working within us.
Through Him—and only through Him—we will be able to find peace, both within our own selves, and with one another.
Thanks be to God!
Prayer
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
(From the BCP)
Jessica Snell
Biola Class of 2003
Freelance Writer and Editor
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.To learn more about the themes of this year’s Lent Project, please go to: https://ccca.biola.edu/lent/2020/#day-feb-25
About the Art:
Icon of the Nativity (also known as the Volpi Nativity)
Unknown Greek Artist
First quarter of 15th century
Egg tempera and gold on wood, priming on textile
Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
Gift of Petros Andreadis in Memory of Rena Andreadis
The Volpi Nativity (so-called after the name of its former owner) is a Cretan icon that belongs to the 15th through 17th centuries, a period when the subject matter of the Nativity as represented here became especially popular. The treatment of the landscape suggests a complex system of stairways cut into the harsh, barren ground indicating at once the descent of the Son of God and our spiritual ascent made possible by his incarnation and our prayerful devotion. Surrounding the central image of Mary and Jesus at rest, following the birth, are vignettes of angels (top), shepherds tending their sheep (center right), and the magi following the star (center left), each responding to knowledge of the arrival of the Christ. At the bottom left is pictured the apocryphal scene of Jesus’ first bath, a prefiguration of his baptism by John, while Jesus himself rests snug in a coffin-like manger wrapped in strips of cloth like a body ready for burial, foreshadowing his coming death. A cross stretches up from where Jesus lies through a rift in the barren ground, with angels looking up and down in recognition of the way the incarnation links heaven and earth. Meanwhile Joseph, faithful protector, is confronted by a cloaked figure down below, flanked by a recumbent dog (a symbol of fidelity) and a restless, rabid wolf, suggesting the battle between good and evil that ensues. An ox and ass peer down at baby Jesus, signaling the choice that has to be made to accept or reject him. This icon represents the final flowering of Byzantine art under the emperors of the Palaiologan dynasty (1261-1453) when there was “heightened interest in naturalism and narrative detail,” revealing “cross-influences between the Byzantines and Western crusaders who occupied Byzantine territories in the 13th century. Crete, which fell to the Republic of Venice in 1211, became a major center of icon production where artists worked for both Greek and Italian patrons, creating paintings in a hybrid style…which combines Western and Byzantine imagery.”
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/67234.html
About the Artist:
Unknown Artist
About the Music:
“Lay Down Your Life (12:1-15:13)” from the album Romans
The Lyrics:
Lay down your life
As a living sacrifice.
Brothers and sisters, let me say to you
That you are part of a whole.
There is a gift that God has given you–
To everyone his own, each fiddle plays a role.
To all let love be true,
And bless those who curse you.
Live in peace with all,
And serve the Lord through Jesus.
Lay down your life;
May it be holy and acceptable to God,
As a living sacrifice.
And what about the reigning government?
Should we obey the Lord instead?
You need to see that God’s in charge of it:
Of every president, of every ruling head.
So obey!
Let all in love be sealed
For in love, the law’s fulfilled;
Awake! The hour has come,
So put you on Lord Jesus.
Lay down your life;
May it be holy and acceptable to God.
Be not of this world but be transformed
By the renewal of your mind.
May we be
A living sacrifice
As for the one whose faith is not so strong,
Take heed you do not make him fall;
In times when neither one is right or wrong,
Then do not hold a grudge, and neither should you judge.
To all let love be first
And especially to the church;
Jew and Greek, both strong and weak,
Love each like Jesus.
Lay down your life;
May it be holy and acceptable to God.
Be not of this world but be transformed
By the renewal of your mind.
In time you will discern
What is good, perfect and acceptable to God.
And in God’s design,
He will help you find
His will – divine.
As a living sacrifice.
About the Composer/Lyricist:
Cody Curtis is a Christian who composes and performs music. Cody graduated from Union University (2009) with a BM in Music Theory and Literature and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2011) with a degree in Music Composition. He is currently collaborating with his wife, Melody, on a hymns album, which should be out in 2020. For the past year Cody has served as music director at a local church in Greensboro, NC. He is currently training to be one of the elders there, a position which will include teaching God's word both through music and exegetical preaching on Sunday mornings. He and his wife live in Greensboro, NC, where they both continue writing and recording music for God's church and for His glory.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Cody-Curtis-Composer-6873388506/about/?ref=page_internal
About the Performers:
Psallos is a team of Christian artists - songsters and singers, ministers and musicians, thinkers and theologians. Led by composer Cody Curtis (DMA) and in partnership with Union University, Psallos exists to provide the Church with intentional, artistic songs of worship that are consistent with God's word, rich in sound doctrine, and intelligible for the sake of edification. The proclamation of Scripture, particularly the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is at the core of its mission.
https://www.psallos.com/
About the Poet:
Dan Beachy-Quick (b. 1971) is an American poet, writer, and critic. He is the author of seven collections of poems, most recently Variations on Dawn and Dusk (longlisted for the 2019 National Book Awards), and other books including A Whaler’s Dictionary, a collection of essays about Moby Dick. His honors include a Lannan Foundation Residency and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including The Boston Review, The New Republic, Fence, Poetry, Chicago Review, VOLT, The Colorado Review, The Paris Review, and New American Writing, and in anthologies including Best American Poetry 2008. He attended Hamilton College, the University of Denver, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Drawing material from a wide range of sources, Beachy-Quick's poetry is often united by a focused engagement with the fabric of sound and the pattern of echoes. He has taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Colorado State University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Beachy-Quick
https://english.colostate.edu/faculty-staff/dbeach/
About the Devotion Writer:
Jessica Snell
Biola Class of 2003
Freelance Writer and Editor
Jessica Snell, alumna ’03. Jessica is a freelance editor and writer. Her work has appeared in Focus on the Family, Christ and Pop Culture, For the Church, and more. She lives in sunny Southern California with her husband and four children.