22C22.    Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29.  “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”   The less we occupy the center of our lives, the more room there is for God to be at the center.  The less we are what our lives are all about, the more God is able to be what we are all about.

Luke 14:1, 7-14.   “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  The Latin root of the word humble is humus which means soil, dirt or earth.  On the one hand, humble can mean that we are as low as one can go; on the other hand, humble can mean we stand with our two feet on the ground or truth of reality.  That second meaning allows us to stand in our almighty God from whose love of us we can draw a strength that no one can take from us.  When we recognize the poverty of living on our own without God, we can instead choose to live in the riches that God has for us.  Secondly, when we try to achieve on our own what we seek to have for ourselves, we will have nothing that is worthwhile.  However, when we work in the power of God for what God wants us to achieve, we will have an overabundance of everything that is good.  Humility is not demeaning ourselves but rather living and working with God so that our personal worth is truly genuine and lasts forever beyond the grave.  Don’t spin your wheels in the mud of this world’s ways but gain the traction that only the solid earth of God’s life in us can give.

Psalm 68.    “God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.”  “In your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.”

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a.   The Old Testament image of God at a distance on the top of mountain in a dense cloud is in contrast to the Jesus who walked among his people healing their illnesses.  Our God is the God who dwells within us and in our midst close to us and intensely engaged in our lives throughout the day each day.