Exhibits Christ-like Servanthood
When we use our gifts as servants of the Lord and servants of each other, whether gifts of hospitality like Harry or our Worship Welcomers, or mercy or teaching or anything else we are touching lives in ways greater than we know.
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This message is part of the Becoming a Healthy Disciple series; if you like this one, you might like other messages from the series.
So far in our series on Becoming a Healthy Disciple, we’ve talked about the importance of experiencing God’s empowering presence, engaging in God-exalting worship, practicing spiritual disciplines like Bible study, prayer, reflection, learning and growing in community, the support and accountability of being connected to a small group, and committing to loving and caring relationships. Why are these things important? Why do we need to both practice these things and share them with others?
This week in America… on Wednesday, the suspect in a racially motivated shooting that left two African-American grandparents dead at a Kroger supermarket in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, first tried to enter a black Baptist church, but couldn’t get in. On Friday, a suspected terrorist was arrested for sending pipe bombs to the homes of two former US Presidents and other well-known Americans. Saturday morning, an anti-Semitic man armed with an assault rifle terrorized a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA killing 11 people and injuring six at a baby naming ceremony. Four police officers serving their city were among those shot.
Anti-Semitic acts were up 57% in 2017, the single highest increase since data started being collected in 1979. We need to ask why such things are happening. What is motivating this kind of behavior?
What role can we take to prevent such acts of violence, hatred, fear, and ignorance, and to be influences for good?
What can each of us do through our choices, actions, decisions, words, and support to help build and strengthen the communities where we live?
How can we serve one another in love? How can we love our neighbors; all our neighbors?
Abraham Lincoln, as always, put it so eloquently over 150 years ago: “From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia…could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”
The terrible acts of fear-based hatred and violence that we’ve witnessed this week are the complete opposite of how God calls us to live as healthy disciples. We’re to serve our communities and one another, not to hate or terrorize. We’re called to be servants of Christ because that’s the example Jesus gave us to follow. A healthy disciple exhibits Christ-like servanthood. Listen to today’s gospel lesson from John 13:12-17.
“After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.’”
This is similar to what Jesus says in Mark 10:42-44, “So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.’”
Jesus believes and teaches that those who are great are to live as servants. Jesus came to serve and to give, and serving and giving are among the primary purposes of our life. Jesus says we’re to be servants of God.
When we’re young we think and dream about what we want to do or who we want to be when we grow up. Different people have different dreams. Whatever we imagined doing, I doubt there are many of us who said, “When I grow up, I want to be a servant.” Jesus makes it clear serving others helps to train us away from arrogance, envy and resentment. Rick Warren says, “If I have no love for others, no desire to serve others, and I’m only concerned about my needs, I should question whether Christ is really in my life. A saved heart is one that wants to serve” (Purpose Driven Life, p.228).
We’re all called to be ministers, to be servants.
Henri Nouwen wrote, “No Christian is a Christian without being a minister. Whatever form the Christian ministry takes, the basis is always the same: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Those of us who are called to lead in the church or in our nation are called to be servant leaders. In his book, Servant Leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf asks (p. 329), “Who is the servant leader? Is not every servant a leader because of influence by example? Walt Whitman may have answered this when he wrote, ‘We convince by our presence.’ Servant leaders differ from other persons of goodwill because they act on what they believe.”
In service we use our gifts, “goods and strength in the active promotion of the good of others and the causes of God in our world.” Serving others helps to train us away from arrogance, possessiveness, envy, resentment, or covetousness. One person contributing or failing to contribute can make a significant difference.
There’s a poem called The Power of One that says in part:
One vote can change a nation, one sunbeam lights a room.
One candle wipes out darkness, one laugh will conquer gloom.
One step must start each journey, one word must start each prayer.
Our hope will raise our spirits, one touch can show you care.
One voice can speak with wisdom, one heart can know what’s true,
One life can make a difference, you see, it’s up to you!
A priest received a letter marked, “Please give to Harry the Usher.” It was handed over to Harry, and this is what it said. “Dear Harry. I’m sorry I don’t know your last name, but then, you don’t know mine. I’m Gert, Gert at the ten o’clock Mass every Sunday. I’m writing to ask you a favor. I don’t know the priests too well, but somehow I feel close to you. I don’t know how you got to know my first name, but every Sunday morning you smile and greet me by name, and we exchange a few words: how bad the weather is, how much you like my hat, and how I am late on a particular Sunday. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to remember an old woman, for the smiles, for your consideration, for your thoughtfulness.
“Now for the favor. I’m dying, Harry. My husband has been dead for sixteen years, and the kids are scattered. It’s very important to me that when they bring me to church for the last time, you will be there to say, ‘Hello, Gert. Good to see you.’ If you are there, Harry, I will feel assured that your warm hospitality will be duplicated in my new home in heaven. With love and gratitude, Gert.”
When we use our gifts as servants of the Lord and servants of each other, whether gifts of hospitality like Harry or our Worship Welcomers, or mercy or teaching or anything else we are touching lives in ways greater than we know. We know we’ve reached a level of spiritual maturity when we stop asking, “Who’s going to meet my needs? Who’s going to serve me?” and start asking, “Whose needs can I meet? Who can I serve?” Mature believers are more concerned about serving and reaching out than about our own convenience and comfort. As we grow as disciples our attitude starts to shift from, “I’m looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me,” to “I’m looking for a place to serve and be a blessing.”
The prayer of Saint Francis expresses this other-focused, ministry-oriented spiritual maturity so well. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace! Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal life.”
Robert K. Greenleaf’s idea for the book The Servant Leader came out of reading Herman Hesse’s Journey to the East. The story is about a band of men on a mythical journey. The central figure of the story is Leo who accompanies the party as the servant who does their menial chores, but who also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They can’t make it without the servant Leo.
Eventually the narrator, one of the group of men, is taken into the religious Order that sponsored the journey and there he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as servant, was in fact the head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader. The story says that the great leader is seen as servant first, and that fact is the key to his or her greatness. This was true of Jesus and of others like Mother Teresa who led like Jesus did. Leo was actually the leader all the time, but he was servant first because that was what he was, deep down inside.
Reading the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples makes me think we should give everyone at BBC hand towels when they become a member of the church to remind ourselves that becoming a part of Christ’s church is signing up to be a humble servant.
Questions for Discussion & Reflection:
- In this past week, how have others blessed you in their service on your behalf? List the many ways you’ve been served, and note especially the names of the individuals who gave of themselves for you. What can you do in this coming week to express your gratitude for their service?
- Read Romans 12:9-13. How does this paragraph reflect the servanthood principle of being “givers more than takers”?
- Read Romans 12:14-16. How do these verses reflect the servanthood principle of being “listeners more than talkers”?
- Read Romans 12:17-18. How do these verses reflect the servanthood principle of being “peacemakers more than troublemakers”?
- How would you assess the status of your servant heart today? What cleansing and restorative work needs to be done within you in order for you to become a healthier servant of Christ, exhibiting His heart, attitude, and behavior in the coming week/month/year?
6. Write out a prayer to the Lord focusing on your thoughts from the above questions and reflections.