Some of the details of the following story probably got embellished over the years, but basically it’s a true story about an event that really happened.

Many years ago, a lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walked timidly without an appointment into the president’s outer office at Harvard University.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Cambridge. She frowned.

"We want to see the president," the man said softly. "He’ll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We’ll wait," the lady replied.

For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always dreaded doing. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they’ll leave," she told him. And he sighed in exasperation and nodded.

Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was killed in an accident. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."

The president wasn’t touched; he was shocked. "Madam," he said gruffly, "We can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "We don’t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars worth of buildings at Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now.

Then the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to build a university? Why don’t we just start our own?" Her husband nodded.

The president’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment as the couple thanked him and walked away. Soon they were in California establishing a university as a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about, Leland Stanford, Jr.

The president of Harvard learned the hard way not to judge the worth of a person by what appears on the surface.

Maggie and I met such a couple back in 1982. They had a rustic one-story house in the middle of an apple orchard in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, just north of the North Carolina state line.

Miriam’s blue gingham dress was usually covered by an apron. And Sam almost never wore his homespun suit. He was always in overalls at home. He looked more like a hired hand than a gentleman farmer. Both were soft-spoken and the very picture of humility.

But don’t judge those books by their covers! Sam and Miriam Levering were both lawyers and confidants of world leaders. They were instrumental in getting the United Nations to adopt the Law of the Sea Treaty, and both headed organizations devoted to world peace and international law. They were Quakers devoted to the simple life, but there was nothing simple about their minds, and nothing small about their hearts.

They have both passed to their reward, and are sorely missed by those of us who knew them. They were giants, but (like Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford) you couldn’t tell just by looking at them. These people had humility.

Humility is a great gift. The scriptures time and time again relate how God loves the humble. From Zephaniah, "Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice, seek humility;" and "I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord: the remnant of Israel."

And from Psalm 146, "The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down."

From Corinthians: "Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise, not many influential, and surely not many well-born. God chose the absurd to shame the wise; he singled out the weak to shame the strong. He chose the lowborn and despised, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who were something."

Finally, from Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."

God doesn’t judge a person’s worth by external appearances. God doesn’t judge a person by surface or extraneous things like clothes, accent, skin color, the length of one’s hair, or the thickness of one’s wallet.

Neither does God judge a person by the success they have achieved in this world. Today’s readings tell how God reaches out with love and healing and blessings to the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, the blind, strangers, orphans, widows, the weak, the despised, the sorrowing, and the persecuted.

Jesus illustrated this with his whole life, befriending tax collectors, prostitutes, beggars, Romans, fishermen, Samaritans, and even (are you ready for this?) women!

That’s one reason we made this an inclusive church. Oh, there are very good practical reasons for wanting to recruit the wealthy and influential into the church, and we certainly would welcome them if we ever found any. We don’t discriminate against them. (Jesus didn’t.) But our main mission, like his, is to the outcast, the rejected, the despised, the persecuted, the alienated.

But just because we attempt to follow the example of Jesus in His inclusivity doesn’t mean we have no standards. We do, and He did. God does judge us. He just uses a different standard than that of the world. And while we do not judge (only God does that), we do hold up the standard God expresses through the scriptures.

Let’s take another look through today’s scriptures and try to detect God’s standard. First, Zephaniah: "Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice," and "They shall do no wrong and speak no lies."

From the psalm, "The Lord loves the just, ... but the way of the wicked he thwarts."

And to all those low-lifes in Corinth, Paul says, "God it is who has given you life in Christ Jesus. He is our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption." In other words, "When you were called, you were nothing, but by accepting that call you have become holy, set apart by God to do His good works on earth."

Finally, in the Sermon on the Mount, it isn’t just the poor and meek who are blessed, but also the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. And it isn’t those who are persecuted for any old reason that are blessed, but those who are persecuted for the sake of holiness, and because of Jesus.

It isn’t those who go along to get along, but those who stand up for Jesus who are told, "Be glad and rejoice, for your reward in heaven is great."

So God does have standards. And so must we. Ours is not an "anything goes" religion.

"But," you say, "isn’t God infinitely merciful? Doesn’t he forgive us all our sins?" Yes, He is, and yes, He does. But being a Christian does not mean being baptized and then going on living like it doesn’t matter.

Being a Christian means giving our life to God and letting Him rule it. It means living according to His will, not our own. Now, we are never going to succeed completely. That’s where forgiveness comes in. But we at least have to try! That’s the standard. You at least have to try.

When we read scriptures like those for today, some of us come away with the message that God is an inclusive God who embraces all manner of rabble. The preferential option for the poor, liberation theology, and all that.

Others will come away with the message that God is a holy God who embraces the pure in heart and is hell on evil-doers.

Both are true. Neither by itself is complete. This is a complex message, this Gospel of ours. If we are a worldly success, we must worry that maybe we have compromised too much. If we are proud of our accomplishments, perhaps we have not humbled ourselves sufficiently to God: "Let him who would boast, boast in the Lord."

If we are among the dregs of society and, because of it, are bitter and unhappy and resentful, perhaps we have not succumbed to the mercy and grace and joy which God pours out upon the likes of us, but persist in shutting Him out with our stubborn pride.

If we persist in what we know to be sinful ways, if we ignore the call to holiness, if we seldom attend church, if we’re always too busy to pray or read the scriptures or go to Mass or visit the sick or perform works of mercy, then perhaps we have committed too little to Christ. Perhaps, in our pride, we have refused to humble ourselves to God.

Becoming a Christian is more than undergoing a ritual. It’s more than identifying with a denomination. It’s more than membership in a parish. It’s more than being a "good person."

Being a Christian is nothing less than humbling ourselves before God, putting God at the very center of our lives, putting ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, asking about every decision "What would Jesus do?" and making those decisions as if they mattered, because they do.

This is not subjecting ourselves to a life of misery, boredom, and deprivation. It is rather opening ourselves to a life of joy and peace and happiness. "Blest are they who hunger and thirst for holiness. They shall have their fill." Jesus told us that he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly.

In a minute or so, we will examine our consciences, confess our sinfulness silently to God, and receive General Absolution, God’s forgiveness of all our past sins. Let us at that time, in humility, commit to reform our lives, put Jesus in control, and become among the pure in heart who will see God. Then let us leave here renewed in the Spirit, reborn to a life of service to God and God’s people. You belong to God. Will you give yourself to him? Do it now, completely and without reservation. The joy of the life of grace awaits you. Amen!

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