I’ve been making my way through Helmut Thielecke’s book of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer. At one point he says this:
Some poor fools say, “The greater one makes God the smaller man becomes–until finally he becomes so small that he considers himself a worm.” This self-deprecation, they say, is typical of the Christian way in which man approaches the Orientally exaggerated colossal figure of his god. In reply I would ask this question: Isn’t it obvious today that the truth is the absolute opposite of that statement? The more God is banished from life the more forlorn and worthless man becomes, the more he becomes merely a game beast to be hunted and killed. And I venture further to ask: Where in the world does man have any higher dignity than here–where the Son of God discovers human nobility deep beneath the surface of depravity and vice, finds it even in the possessed, the insane, the tainted and infected, and gives his life to them? Isn’t it true that every beaten and oppressed man, borne down by anxiety or guilt or inferiority feelings, begins to lift up his head and take a new lease on life when he comes in touch with Jesus of Nazareth (106).
While on the surface this passage does not seem to cohere with John the Baptist’s statement “let me decrease so that he might increase,” I think Thielecke puts his finger on a Western, Christian tendency that is found in many of our churches. We seem to have the false idea that, by setting forth some falsely humble stance of ourselves and displaying God as the all-knowing, all-present, all-loving one, we do him a favor. But while emphasizing his attributes in this way, we miss his character. God’s character is such that the least among us (including you and me) are worth his knowledge, his presence, and his love. It is both the subject and object of God’s work that tells us where his heart is–and his heart is with his creation, particularly with his people. As a result, we decrease by increasing our reflection of his knowledge, his presence, and his love. We don’t disappear, but become more apparent through communion with Jesus.
