22nd March 2026

Lent week 6 (The 5th Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

Choosing the Way of Humility - The Desert as a Place Without Pretence

Readings: Matthew 20:20-28, Philippians 2:5-11 & Romans 12:9-21

Let me start by asking you a question:- How’s your prayer life these days? … Be honest. On a scale of 1-10? … 

Personally, I’m not up at the 8-9-10 end, or even anywhere near it, and believe me, I have a lot of things I need to be praying about.  I’m not going to embarrass you by giving me your score, but would I be safe in saying that we could ALL do at least a little better?

Well, I have good news, and it concerns Wednesday afternoons after Easter.  We’re going to do “The (24/7 Prayer) Prayer Course”.  8 simple sessions, based on the Lord’s Prayer, which is as much a pattern for prayer as it is a prayer in itself. The course is written by Pete Grieg, and designed to help every single one of us, me particularly.  

Session 1 is entitled “Why Pray” and is a general introduction with a 40-minute video and a discussion time.

Session 2 is about adoration

Session 3 is about petition

Session 4 is about intercession

Session 5 is about unanswered prayer

Session 6 is about contemplation

Session 7 is about listening (very important)

And the last session is about spiritual warfare.

There’s also a book available.  It’s called “How to Pray – a simple guide for normal people”. The Kindle version is £2,99, and the paperback version is about £13 if we buy it in the UK.  We have to go over there at some point quite soon, so if you’d like me to pick one up for you, whether you intend to do the course, please let me know.

I bought the Kindle version.  Let me read you a short except from the introduction.

Every pilgrim gets a stone in their shoe eventually. 

You wake up in the morning thinking “Is this really all there is to knowing the creator of 100 billion galaxies?”  

You read the book of Acts and ask “Why isn’t it like that anymore?”

Your world falls apart and you desperately need a miracle.
You stare up at the stars and feel things bigger than religious language.

You say to yourself ‘If this thing is true, there’s got to be more power, more mystery, more actual personal experience.”

And so, finally, you turn to God, half wondering whether you’re any more than half-serious, and you say “Lord, teach me to pray.”

And he replies, “I thought you’d never ask!”

So, will you join me on April 15th?  (We’ll be taking a week’s break after Easter.)

OK.  Let’s get to the matter in hand, because we’re following a series about the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the very early centuries, and I’ve already used up a lot of my time. Let’s pray…

“Choosing the Way of Humility” is our subject.  Humility isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally, and it could definitely be said to be counter-cultural these days. ….

What did you think about our reading from Romans just now? Wasn’t it powerful?

Jesus was THE classic example of humility, and of the integrity that goes with it. He was, is, an example that reorientates us to the fact that success is found in going lower, not in getting bigger - that success looks like service, not celebrity. Only Christianity makes the claim that the all-powerful God was "humble”, humble enough to become a servant, humble enough to die a shameful death on a Roman cross.

Honour one another above yourselves says Paul. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. … Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. … Practice hospitality….  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. … Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. … Do not be conceited. … Do not take revenge. …. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. …. Overcome evil with good.

Those words were written by someone, who, despite having been a man of great Jewish status and stature, after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, made a radical transformation from pride to sincere humility. 

He wrote them with authority, because he was practicing what he preached. He described himself in his first letter to the Corinthians as "the least of the apostles". Four years later, writing to the Ephesians he said "I am the very least of all the saints" and another year after that, to Timothy, he said "I am the foremost of sinners".

We see that as Paul matured in his faith, he increased in humility. He was transformed from the arrogant man we read about at the beginning of Acts, to a man deeply aware of his shortcomings, but nevertheless living a life to fully glorify God as best he could. And as he did, his security moved away from himself and his accomplishments, and he became more deeply anchored in the person of Christ.

That gave him right to say this to the Philippians, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death —  even death on a cross!

Therefore, he goes on, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Lord Acton famously said that "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". So very true!  And yet Jesus models a different way to hold power: the more power you get, the more you get to serve.

Jesus was, and is, THE most important and powerful man who ever lived, but unlike those sons of Zebedee that we heard about in our first reading, James and John, whom he nicknamed the “Sons of Thunder”, and unlike the important and powerful men we read about in the news today, playing with other people’s lives and livelihoods like cards in a game of poker, he didn’t need to puff himself up, or grab people’s attention, …, he was content just to BE. He was, after all, as we just heard Paul tell the Philippians “In very nature God”.

He was Paul’s example, and he should be ours. The closer we grow to Christ, the more the fruit of humility will blossom in our lives.

That humility will enable us to keep God in his rightful place, to recognise him as the maker of the universe and as the Lord of our lives. 

Conversely, our lives get out of kilter when pride gets us to try and place ourselves as the centre of our universe. It’s SO easy to do. It happens subconsciously. In fact, it has been humanity's snare since the very beginning. The first temptation was to disobey God and attempt to "become like God" by eating the forbidden fruit.

Apparently, humility features a lot of the writings of those Desert Fathers and Mothers. They believed there was a lot to be gained by becoming aware of your own sinfulness and brokenness, to keep throwing yourself on the love and grace of God, and to refrain from judging a fellow brother or sister. This, they believed, also sets you free from the prison of always needing other people's approval.

So to close this morning, if you watch Monty Don’s Gardener’s World, as we do, he always ends the program with a list of “jobs for the weekend”.  Here’s a job, not for the weekend, but for this week:- consider how WE might cultivate a heart of humility? 

There’s a Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition that I’d like to close with. 

Father, I am no longer my own, but yours. 

Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. 

Put me to doing, put me to suffering. 

Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, praised for you or criticised for you. 

Let me be full, let me be empty. 

Let me have all things, let me have nothing. 

I freely and fully surrender myself to your glory and service. 

And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. 

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it also be made in heaven. Amen.