Messages 1984 to 2000
A rarely mentioned quality of God.
Sermon delivered mid 2000
By Rev Dave Lampron
Tonight, with your kind indulgence, I would like to speak to you of God. More specifically, I would like to expound upon one of God’s Attributes, which is hardly ever identified, but which is so remarkable, yet so generally subordinated and neglected, that It has hardly ever been mentioned either in the Bible or in any sermons devoted to His Being and Nature.
We often hear that God is Love, and surely the greatest Attribute of God is His Love. We often also hear that God is the Author of all Truth, and this is certainly also indisputable inasmuch as He is the Creator of all that is. But there is an Attribute of His that is rarely if ever mentioned, yet is as real and as significant to our understanding and appreciation as any other which forms a part of His Nature and Personality.
In addition to God’s Love and Truth, we hear of and acknowledge His Goodness, Wisdom, Kindness, Mercy, Forgiveness, Solicitude, Sympathy, Tenderness, Omniscience, Majesty and Omnipotence. But it is to none of these magnificent Qualities to which I wish to refer at this time.
And when I identify this Quality, many of you will at first be startled when your souls take in and begin to respond slowly but surely in silent affirmation of this Attribute, which somehow has always remained quiescent and almost neglected altogether in any of our considerations of God’s wondrous Nature.
But before naming this Quality of God, it may be legitimately asked, “How does one learn and come to appreciate many, if not all, of the Attributes of God, let alone the one under discussion?” Well, I would suggest to you one of two ways, perhaps among others either through observation or through direct experience.
In terms of observation, we have an indirect source to consider in the personage of Jesus. We have learned through the Bible and other sources that God commissioned Jesus to be a message bearer, a revealer of His Being and His Desires for humankind. But in order to equip Jesus with this sacred Knowledge, God first had to reveal His True Nature to him. And how did He do this? Through filling Jesus’ soul with His Divine Love in answer to Jesus’ own prayers for soul unity with God. And in Jesus receiving this Love, at the same time, inherent in Its reception was a composite revealment and soulfully communicated awareness within Jesus of God’s many other Divine Qualities. To enlighten Jesus, God had to give of Himself, not only to reveal His Will for humankind but also to have His actual Personal Qualities both exampled and revealed much more clearly and accurately to His children. As Jesus himself declared about this Love, “The Father is in me and I am in Him,” which was Jesus’ way of explaining how God’s Divine Love had permeated his own being and had made him soulfully aware of God’s True Nature. And in possessing this Love Substance, Jesus wished not to do otherwise but reveal that Nature to others in the deportment of his own altered life and being.
And when we study the Bible and learn of the qualities that Jesus himself displayed, in most instances, we had the actual Soulful Qualities of God manifested through his own living and teachings, many of which I have mentioned earlier. And, so, among these many qualities that Jesus revealed in his own life, there is one quality that is not named but rather often identified by reference to “the meek or lowly Jesus.” But we know what that really means, don’t we? And if this wonderful quality was so conspicuously manifested by Jesus, and so often, we can be rather assured that this quality, among others, is first and foremost an Attribute of God Himself.
Yes, dear ones, as paradoxical as it may at first strike us, one of God’s Greatest Attributes is His Humility! What, you say, “Humility”? How can this be? How can the “First Cause,” the Creator of all there is, the Alpha and the Omega be referred to, let alone be understood, as being the Greatest Exemplar of Humility in all of creation? Aah, but hold on! Think of free will for a moment. Aside from the Gift of Divine Love, is not God’s greatest Gift that of conferring free will upon humankind? He who could require us to do His Will not only does not; He gives us the completely free exercise of the human will even above His Own Desire for us to choose Love and Harmony over hate and discord. And why? Because, in the exercise of His Great Love, He places the exercise of our freedom and desires above His Own. If that is not Humility to the highest degree, I know of no higher definition of the term!
Now, earlier, I mentioned at least two ways one can come to have an appreciation of God’s Qualities, and particularly His Attribute of Humility is what I have in mind. The first way is indirectly by observing and following the life of Jesus, realizing that what came forth from him was the product of the Divine Love he possessed working through him. But why be satisfied with indirect observation and merely some degree of intellectual appreciation? Every child born of woman, both here and in the spirit world, now has the same choice and means available to him or her to discover the Soulful Qualities of God directly through prayer! God did not merely wish to share these Qualities with Jesus. He wanted and continues to want all His children to also know Him as the Loving, Humble Father that He really is. He wants to fill our souls with the Very Substance of His Own Soul so that we may partake of His intended and complete Bounty. And when we go to Him and earnestly and soulfully pray for this transforming Love of His, He will never turn a deaf ear to us. To the contrary, it is His dearest Wish that all His mortal children be gifted with portions of His Very Soul Substance and not be satisfied with only a finite image of that Soul. But this is not given without our own exercise of our free wills requesting this most precious Gift. And so, dear friends, I will conclude by urging you once again to enter the Holy arena of the “Grand Experiment!” Our Father is humbly waiting for us ever so patiently and lovingly to embrace us in His Arms of Love. Let us follow His Great Example by reaching out to His Great Soul with our own best exercise of prayerful humility.
AMEN.