"Humbling Himself to Raise Us Up"

Remember the childhood game king of the hill? When I was a kid, we played it a couple of different ways. One way was if and when we were fortunate enough to find a pile of dirt somewhere. We could charge up the pile of dirt and push and shove each other, trying to maintain a place at the top. A dirt pile was a pretty good place to play king of the hill.

The other way we played it was on a floating dock down on the river. The dock was probably 15’ by 15’ square, and so it was hard to defend against several other players. It was also slippery when it got wet and it was usually good for a couple of really good scrapes on the leg or some splinters.

Life in the world is a lot like playing king of the hill. People scrambling around, trying to gain the advantage, competing with each other, pushing others down to enhance themselves, their own image or their own position, and it’s just part of the game if someone gets hurt.

Psalm 113 reminds us of the greatness of God, His glory is above the heavens. He is exalted over all the nations, from the rising of the sun until its setting. He is enthroned on high. Yet this God, who is over all things and who made all things, stoops down to raise us up, to bring hope to the poor and needy of this earth.

God is not like the vain rulers of this world who are puffed up with their own pride and selfishness. God does not play king of the hill. Though he is indeed great and exalted over everything, he cares for the most miserable creature. He stoops down to look at the beggar on the garbage pile, the criminal in the prison cell, and even the unborn child. Jesus tells us that he even numbers the hairs on our heads. He knows and cares about us down to the last detail.

Maybe you are thinking, "Yeah, nice stuff pastor. But wait a minute. What about all the human suffering, all the sickness, all the crime and poverty and hunger in this world? You don’t have to go to a third world country to see sorrow and suffering. It’s right here, all around us. Explain that, will you?"

The psalmists were often asked by the unbelieving world in the face of misfortune and calamity, "Where is your God?" Where is God in a world where millions die of hunger and disease? Where is God when we ourselves face tragedy and disease and death? Where is God when we are faced with the reality that our lives are but a breath in the whole picture of history? We humans have struggled to explain why God allows suffering and misery.

Tribal people often think of the creator god as a god who is far away. In one African tribe, it is said that a woman was once pounding rice with a long-handled pestle. She reached too high on the upstroke and punched a hole in the sky. The creator god was so annoyed that he moved far away.

There are many stories like that one that explain the absence of the creator god, but the bottom line to all of them is that God is too far away, too busy, or just plain uncaring about this world to bother intervening.

The Deists believed that God was like a watchmaker who let the world run on its own. He does not miraculously intervene to alter nature’s laws. The end result is a concept of God like that of the African tribesman – the concept that God is distant and uncaring.

Classical Deism held that a human's relationship with God was impersonal: God created the world and set it in motion but does not actively intervene in individual human affairs but rather through Divine Providence. What this means is that God will give humanity such things as reason and compassion but this applies to all and not individual intervention.

But Scripture gives an altogether different answer to the question of God and human suffering. It wasn’t God that abandoned us. It is that we human beings have turned away from him, like a rebellious child turn away from his parents.

God created us in love for a life of fellowship with him. But the devil tempted Eve by questioning her understanding of what God had told her. "Did God really say……..? That little ploy worked. It continues to work. Like rebellious children, we want to be free from God. We want to live without Him. We want to do our own thing. This is the source of misery and suffering in the world.

But rather then remaining a god far away, God stoops down to us in love. The Good News of our text is that God is not like we are when we play king of the hill. Even though we cannot approach his holiness, even though He is beyond our ability to comprehend, He "looks far down upon the heavens and the earth."

God the Son left his throne on high and entered the filth and sin of this world. He was born as one of us in the shame of a stable and lived a life of personal poverty. Jesus humbled himself to help the poor and the needy. He touched the leper and wept with the grieving.

Jesus tenderly invited us to himself with the words of Matthew 11:29; "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Isn’t it amazing that the Lord of the universe would call himself "lowly in heart?"

Jesus is no king of the hill, lording his majesty over us. Instead, he stoops down under us and takes up our load of sin. He goes down to what the NIV calls the ash heap, what the KJV calls the dung pile, or what Good News calls the garbage dump, in order to lift us up from the darkness of sin and death.

He took our load of sin upon himself – he took our load of sin to the cross so that he might raise us up. In His resurrection, we too are raised. By faith in Him, we are exalted and we sit with the Prince of the universe, high above the power of death and the devil. (Eph 2:6)

Jesus continues his mission of love for those who are suffering here on earth through those of us who are still here on this earth. Jesus continues his work through the Church. God’s mission, showing people the love that God has for us through what Christ did for us on the cross is the reason the Church exists.

Sure, we come here to hear the proclamation that our sins are forgiven. We come to feed on Word and Sacrament. We come to worship our Lord and Savior. But God’s purpose is that we focus beyond ourselves and focus on His mission, seeking His will, and surrender ourselves to Him.

Our faith in Jesus’ incarnation leads us to care for the needs of those around us. Because the Holy Spirit has worked the gift of faith in our hearts, we believe that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

And because we believe the Word became flesh, because we believe that Jesus humbled himself so he could raise us up, may we also extend ourselves in his name to the poor and suffering.

Our Lord didn’t play power games when he lived in this world. He came down from the mountain into the lives of the lost, the poor, the needy, the weak, and the defenseless. He sacrificed his all to raise us up. By the power of the Holy Spirit, may we also give of ourselves to raise up others.

We don’t believe in some distant, uncaring God. So we follow in Jesus’ footsteps not being detached or disconnected from the sufferings of this life, but going to people in their suffering in order to lift them up in Jesus’ name. Amen.