Daily Lesson for August 15, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 106 verses 6 through 12:

6 Both we and our fathers have sinned;
we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.
7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name's sake,
that he might make known his mighty power.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry,
and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe
and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.
11 And the waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed his words;
they sang his praise.

Those people whom I most admire and want to be around and also emulate walk with humility of spirit, knowing they have been saved by a grace that comes not from anything they themselves did to deserve it. These people live their lives without hubris or airs and do not think too much of their side of their relationship with God. Ask anyone of them and they would deny humility.  What they would simply say is what Paul said to Timothy, "I am chief of sinners".

This goes not only for individuals but also for nations. Writing in the context of the beginning of WWII as the hubris of Nazi Germany grew more and more visibly grotesque, Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, "No nation is free of the sin of pride. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that there are 'Christian' nations, who prove themselves so because they are still receptive to prophetic words of judgment spoken against the nation."

A humble nation is one which understands its contradictions, acknowledges its shadows, and accepts its critics.  It is a nation whose canons include words like those by the poet in today's lesson, "Both we and our fathers have sinned."

I want to be around individuals who know they have sinned. And I want to live in a nation which also knows and acknowledges it has sinned. I want this because those who are unaware of their own sin and capacity to go on sinning are really annoying at best, and at worst outright dangerous. On the other hand, I want to be around those who know themselves to be sinners and live in a nation which is honest with its own sin because doing so opens me to be more honest about my own contradictions, shadows, and sin.

And therein is the road to salvation and the path towards doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.