Proper 17C

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

Said by the Greek philosopher Epictetus.

Interestingly, Epictetus started life as a slave, born in the year 50,

but his owner gave him permission to study and eventually he made his way as a Stoic philosopher

teaching on ethics in Rome,

until he was banished of course, as the Emperor at that time banished all philosophical study from Rome.

Epictetus is still known for his pithy teachings,

written down by his students.

"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."

"He who laughs at himself, never runs out of things to laugh at."

along with hundreds more.

I chose the first one,

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows."

because it gets at the heart of the first parable for today from the gospel of Luke.

Jesus is speaking of humility.

Knowing our place in the world

and not over-estimating ourselves,

not devolving to prideful or arrogant behavior,

believing that all honors are for us.

Humility requires a radical self-awareness,

knowing who we are in the moment

all our gifts and imperfections,

which can be especially hard to do,

if we think we already know who we are, even if it is not true.

Humility is a gift of the Holy Spirit

and it starts with self-awareness.

Part of the issue for the men in at the banquet,

is that their self-awareness was way off.

They all thought they deserved the best honor,

for one reason or another,

but surely, the one who invites the guests gets to decide who gets the best honor.

They were trying to control something outside of their ability.

They thought they were the best, and were willing to put themselves before others.

It is so much easier to go to the extremes and perceive the world in black and white

than to suss out the fine textures of color in the middle.

People can be prideful and arrogant or completely self-denigrating,

but the truth of the matter is that most of us fall in the middle.

We know we are good, even occasionally great, in some areas of our lives,

but we know we make mistakes in other areas.

Humility then comes as knowing all of ourselves and acting out of that knowledge.

True humility is a radical self-awareness, a balance of self-confidence and self-awareness.

Just like many of the other fruits of the Spirit,

it can be hard to work on gaining more humility.

By the time most of us reach adulthood,

we think we know ourselves pretty well.

And as Epictetus said,

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

Thankfully, if we continue growing in Christ,

if we push ourselves past what we think we already know,

we can learn more about ourselves,

and in doing so, strengthen and deepen,

our relationships with God and others.

There are many avenues open to each of us in pushing past what we think we already know

and learning new things about ourselves.

Always my first suggestion,

prayer.

Praying to God to show you new aspects of yourself

and to learn about yourself in new ways,

will undoubtedly lead to insights from God.

One of the many practices suggested in the summer reading book,

Sacred Rhythms, by Ruth Haley Barton,

is called the Examen.

One form of the examen was made popular by the Jesuit priest, Ignatius,

however, there are many ways of practicing the examen.

The basic idea is a daily, or near daily, examination of your day,

your interactions with others and your actions,

in the light of Jesus' teachings.

This kind of practice brings how you are acting out your belief in Jesus,

and your example of following him,

into sharp relief.

Naturally,

the drive for humans to learn about ourselves

goes way beyond religious practices.

Psychologists, behaviorists, sociologists, doctor, researchers,

all have come up with ways of raising our self-awareness

and broadening our understanding of ourselves.

One way I learned about at the conference I went to in May to raise self-awareness,

is called the Johari Window,

created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham.

It is a tool used by some psychologists to help people raise their self-awareness.

The Johari Window is a square with four quadrants.

The first is what is known by ourselves and others, what is out in the open,

the second is what is unknown to ourselves, but known to others, typically our blind spots.

The third quadrant is what is known to us, but unknown to others, the things we hide from others,

and the last quadrant is what is unknown to both ourselves and others, things that may be revealed over time.

Filling out a Johari Window is an exercise done in community,

as others are involved in learning about ourselves.

However we dive into learning about ourselves,

It is only by knowing ourselves can we learn humility.

Humility is a virtue, a gift of the Spirit, which certainly can change us.

Jesus is a wonderful example of humility throughout the gospel stories.

As God on earth, certainly everything belonged to him.

He could have taken every honor and human glory as rightfully his.

And yet,

yet he did not.

He humbled himself as a poor backwater human being.

There was no worldly honor in being a carpenter from Galilee,

and he shared his life and love with us.

Such a gift!

So we would know who we are and whose we are,

interconnected people

in relationship with God.

Amen.