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During the Advent and Christmas season we have emphasized a good deal the incarnation, that God became human which event glorifies "flesh" and our humanity. Now we are hit with this Epiphany lesson from Jeremiah 17:5-10, which strikes at trusting in humanity and humanism. However, we should not jump to any conclusions or get on the defensive until we have examined this passage.

We need to recognize that this is a poem of contrast. It is a contrast between those who trust in self and those who trust in God. In verse five Jeremiah says, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man." Jeremiah likens such a person to a shrub trying to live in a desert with no soil or moisture to feed and nourish it. In verse seven is the contrast: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord." He likens this person to a tree planted by water with deep roots in good moist soil. In verse ten, he explains that our worth lies in the fact that God cares for him: "I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doing." This is affirmed by saying God searches each individual mind and tries the heart, judging us by what degree we trust God or self. This emphatically denies universal salvation, which is the weakness of much of today's humanism.

Let me tell you honestly that I approached this sermon with fear and trembling. Yet, I think the word of God needs to be spoken regarding a case for or against "Humanism." Let me share with you something of my background. Like many of you, I was schooled in a classical, liberal arts education in which I studied Dewey, Emerson, Thorndyke, Locke, Hegel, Spinoza, Hume, Rousseau and all the other humanists. Judging them on the criteria of their reasonableness and their brilliance, they made good sense. But you must understand that I read them, as most of you read them, from my Christian background. I was presuming that the prerequisite of all of this was the Christian faith. Let me say that most of these philosophers wrote their humanism presuming it to operate within a culture that was Christ-centered historically.

Now the problem has been that, in our times, people have read these humanistic thoughts without the context of a Christian background and without any assumption that Christianity is presumed. What happens, of course, is that when you deal with humanism without the background and the foundation of the Christian gospel, you produce frustratian and despair. You produce something that is totally inadequate and that inevitably evolves into an atheistic humanism like Marxism, Moaism, Secularism and Communism. Our age, as one French philosopher said, "is an age that is concerned - no, not just concerned; it has an obsession - with man."

A French biologist has defined modern humanism with a good analogy. He said, "There was a man who discovered he had a shadow. Watching its lithe motion, he assumed that the shadow was alive because it followed him faithfully. He then decided it must be his servant, but gradually he began to believe he was imitating the shadow. He took increasing time and care for the comfort and welfare of his shadow. In fact, when he would sit or lie down, he would take great precaution to make sure he got his shadow exactly in the right place in the chair or bed. He awkwardly maneuvered everything in that direction, but eventually the man became, in effect, the shadow of a shadow. This is the weakness of modern-day shallow humanism, read from the twentieth century perspective which has no presumption of a Christian background.

You can look at it historically. Our century could be seen as a drama in two acts. The first act was primarily a confident expectation of the good and the potentiality of humankind. It was assumed that humanity was getting better and better until, ultimately, it would reach perfection. But the Second World War came along and, suddenly, we had to face the horror of humanity's capability for cruelty and evil. Suddenly we became disillusioned with humanity. God was not included in this first act.

In the 1950s we began this century's second act. This was an effort to take a more realistic look at the dignity of humanity. But the problem is we are having to do it amidst the dehumanization of institutions, growing technology, and computerization. This, too, is a humanism without God. But there has been more "humanism" among what we call Bible-thumping, Bible-believing literalists than anybody else.

As a boy I saw it in the culture in which I grew up. Good men, who were active in the church, would say that all you needed to believe was the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." That, they said, was Christianity in a nutshell. Even as a boy, I wanted to scream out, "That is heresy!" That is presuming goodness measured by how I react to my fellows without a relationship with God. So we can't suggest that the so-called liberal philosophers and educators are the only atheistic humanists of our time. It has been an integral part of every one of us.

I have heard hundreds of evangelical preachers on TV and radio argue that humanism is the greatest threat that Christianity has to face. These members of the theological conservative God-squad mobilize themselves for a war against humanistic philosophy, which they believe is rearing its ugly head everywhere. They call humanism the "Gog" or Satan come down from the North, as outlined in Revelation. Fundamentalists have built colleges and high schools, knowing that is one way you can raise money. They believe that humanism is threatening us, and the only way we can escape it is by sending our children to a "Christian school." They build church buildings from the income of the student tuitions. They can build education buildings for the church without the church putting any investment into it. They have frightened people until they have become paranoid, looking for humanists under every bush. Let me tell you emphatically that neither the fundamentalists nor the liberal philosophers have a very good definition of humanism.

With all the noise and fury that goes on from both sides, I realize that it is hard to say anything positive about humankind without being misunderstood. But God has laid this on my heart to say: I think that the gospel is about being human. I think that Jesus came into the world primarily to deliver us from the dehumanizing behaviors and tendencies of society and to make us into human beings as he willed us to be when He created us. I think that being saved means realizing our potential for humanness rather than becoming or trying to escape an evil world. In short, I believe that Christianity is about achieving humanity and building on the premise that true humanness can only come through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. So I decided, with God's pushing, that He and I would preach this sermon. I am going to bypass what Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dewey or Hegel or any other brilliant philosopher has said. I am going to ignore the pronouncements of the moral majority or Jerry Falwell. What I want to do is open the Bible and share with you what it says about humanism in Jeremiah 17:5-10.

A professor who teaches at an Ivy League school recorded this: "It was late one Thursday afternoon in a seminar, at a time when all the students were drowsy and just waiting for the bell. I asked them what they wanted out of life. Immediately this sociology class came alive. One boy said, 'I want to become human, fully human.' Then he stood up, which was unusual behavior in this kind of informal setting. 'We all want to be human', he said. 'We don't know how to be human and nothing I've heard in this class up to this point has provided any hints.' That is a good question. Let's presume that young man's question is the question of every human being or every being. How can I become fully human?"

I. Our Infinity is with our Maker, not the Made

Our infinity, that with which we should compare ourselves, is with our Maker, not things made. The Psalmist wrote, "When I consider the heavens, the works of thy hand, the sun, the moon and the stars and all thou hast made, what is man that thou art mindful of him? What is the Son of Man that thou carest for him?" But don't compare humanity to the sun, the moon and the stars and the heavens, for God has made us like God, "a little lower than the angels." Don't compare yourself to creation. If you do, there is frustration, despair, failure, and defeat. I am not supposed to compare myself to a computer. I can't do a lot of things a computer can do. Nor am I supposed to compare myself to a sun or moon, there is no pattern for humanity there. Rather, I am supposed to compare myself to God.

To compare ourselves to creation is to become disillusioned. For example, the sociologists list four points of dehumanization in modern times. The first is the expendability of man. That dehumanizes. Well, if I compare myself to a napkin, a computer, or an automobile, then I am expendable. Everything is disposable in our society. But compare yourself to God, who is not expendable. The second dehumanization is changed meaning of work. Today we feel as though we are part of an assembly line with no purpose. If all I am supposed to do is draw a check, rather than glorify God, then I am dehumanized. The third point is the technological revolution. If I compare myself to a robot on the assembly line, and if the robot can weld faster than I can weld, I am going to come up short. Finally, the fourth dehumanization is regarding a human as a thing instead of a person. If I see myself only as a number, when I go to the bank or to the social security office, then I am not a person, but a thing! I am not merely a statistic; I compare myself to God because my infinity is with my Maker, not what is made.

All dehumanization is caused by comparing self to something made, even another person. "I might be bad, but I'm not as bad as so and so." If you keep comparing yourself to anything that is made, rather than God, you are going to become disenchanted and you are going to be dehumanized. People say, "I need to get in touch with myself." The only way you are going to get in touch with yourself is by getting in touch with God and especially God in human form as revealed in Jesus.

When I discover God in Jesus, who became a man, I discover not only God, but I discover my humanness. So to discover divinity, I have got to discover humanness. When I discover divinity, I have discovered humanness. Only in Jesus was there ever a perfect person.

II. Our Human Worth Is That God Cares For Us

Our human worth is not that we are human, but that God cares for us. My worth is not that I was made by God or that I am a human being. No, what makes me of value is that God cares for me individually. He thinks about trees, but he thinks about all the trees in the world. He thinks about tomatoes, but He thinks about all the tomatoes. Jeremiah says "that humankind uniquely is thought about by God; he searches my mind and my heart." That is my glory, not whether I succeed by automation standards of the computerized world in which I live, but that "God loves me and has crowned me then with glory and honor because I am loved and known by him."

III. We Only Discover Our True Humanity
by Trusting in and Knowing God

We only discover our true humanity by discovering Jesus. I don't watch a lot of television, but for some strange reason I was watching "St. Elsewhere" last week. One of the patients in a psychiatric ward was a brilliant man who thought he was a bird. He even ate birdseed and worms. He had never seen clearly any example of humanity, so in his frustration, he had become a bird. Finally, he decided he was going to become himself. But the problem was that, within himself, was not a perfect example of humanity. He had no role model, no prototype. He looked into himself and at the end of the show, he dove off the roof of the hospital, clinging to his illusion rather than his reality. It was easy for him to believe he was a bird. But to become a human was difficult, because he didn't know what a human was supposed to be like.

Eugene O'Neill said the same thing almost fifty years ago in his play, "Long Day's Journey into the Night". Edmond looked about at his mother and brother, who were drug addicts, and his father who was an alcoholic. They were his only models of humanity and he says, "You know, it would have better had I been born a seagull." We are frustrated when we look to anything but Jesus for an example of our humanity.

Let us return to the conversation in the Ivy League classroom. The young man has just said, "I want to be human. We all want to be human, but we don't know how to be." The professor says, "What do you mean by human? Can you describe the traits of humanness? Can you list the characteristics of humanness?"

The boy answered, "It means to be loving, infinitely loving, sensitive, infinitely sensitive, aware, totally aware, empathetic, completely empathetic, forgiving, graciously forgiving. I could go on but I would only be elaborating on the obvious. Everyone in here knows what I am talking about when I say humanness. You do, too, so stop putting me on." "Okay," the professor said, "I was putting you on. I do know what you mean by humanness. But I must probe a bit further. You know something of love, not a lot, but you know something of love; you know something of empathy and you have a little forgiveness in you. Even you possess these traits to a limited degree. You obtained them somewhere and somehow. Were you born with them? Were they built into your biological structure? How did they come about?"

"Oh, you're putting me on again," said the student, "This is a sociology class and you are a sociologist, and you know whatever qualities of humanness I possess are obtained oy the process of socialization. If I am forgiving, it is because I associated with forgiving people and took on their traits and likenesses. If I possess a sense of awareness to life, it is only because I interacted with people who lived in this way. If there is any love in me, it is because I have been loved by others. You know all that, so stop trying to put me on."

The professor said, "What I am trying to do is to drive you back to a simple definition of socialization which you learned in the introductory class of sociology. Do you remember what it said? Socialization is the process whereby a homo sapiens becomes human. We taught you that if, at the moment of birth, you were separated from all human beings and raised by wolves in a forest, twenty years later you would possess none of these traits you have so eloquently suggested are evidence of humanness. All the traits that you listed in your attempt to describe humanness would be lacking. You would not even have a consciousness of self, for, without social relationships, you would never develop the reflective capacities that are essential for self-awareness. It is only by adopting the perspective of a significant other that you become conscious that you are an existing person. In short, without interaction with human beings you would have the form of a man, but none of the traits." The professor continued, "What I'm trying to tell you is that the traits of humanness are gained by associating with someone who possesses them. If you have an intimate and sustaining interactive relationship with somebody who is very loving, you will become loving too."

Finally, the boy said, "Yes. I know that, but you don't understand. If I want to be fully human, want to be a total actualized person as Abraham Maslow describes it, if I am to become everything that I potentially am, I must have a relationship with somebody like that. And I don't know anybody like that! If I only become as human as the most significant person I relate to, then I can never become fully human, because there is no one I can relate to who has achieved this status. In fact, you say society is supposed to socialize me. I feel as though society is dehumanizing me at every turn." The professor writes, "It was a perfect set-up. I knew it and he knew it." I said, "Yes, that is the problem but there is a person like that."

"His name is Jesus. Read the New Testament. Read it honestly and openly. Read the gospels specifically. Learn about Jesus and as you learn about him, ask a very simple question: doesn't Jesus possess the fullness of humanity? He is the only person who has ever lived who was perfectly human. No cynic or skeptic has ever been able to attack the fact that 'He was perfect'. Isn't He infinitely loving, graciously forgiving, totally empathetic, infinitely aware of people in the world in which he lives? Well, you might ask 'How can this guy who lived two thousand years ago help my humanization or my relationship here now?' You know the answer because we know that this Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive and present among us, lives among us. You can know him. You can have that kind of relationship with him. He was the only perfect man and I can relate in him and I can become like him."

And only as I become like him can I become a real human being. For socialization of society dehumanized me. Only Jesus humanizes me. Wouldn't you like to be fully human? You can. Jeremiah says, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord for he will give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruits of his doings."