Beyond the Patio

You Can Be That Servant
Luke 17:5-10

After playing the first few games of the new hockey season this year, a coach of one of the Junior Hockey teams in B.C. said that his players needed to start playing as a team rather than as a group of individuals hoping to be noticed so that they could qualify for a College Hockey scholarship.  He pointed out  that if they were going to win any games, their minds needed to be on the team crest in the front of their jerseys rather than what  was on the back of their jerseys.  Of course, their individual names are on the back of their jerseys. In team sports the team has to take precedence over the individuals and until they gel as a team their individual efforts can actual be a detriment to the team’s success.  When they do come together as a team then their individual skills work together in a common and positive effort.

Unfortunately, The Church is often plagued with the same problem.  People are attracted to religion because what it can do for them. Much of what passes for religion today promises wholeness and spirituality through the elevation of the self. All you have to do is listen to the number of personal pronouns used in testimonials  and songs in religious revival.  As someone remarked about some of those songs, they go up the scale do, re, me ….. and they get stuck on ME.

Jesus  showed us by his way of life that to be fully human was in loving and serving others.  His life and death is a portrait of servant leadership and he urged  his followers to do the same and to become part of a common  and positive effort in  serving others especially the poor, the weak, the sick and the lonely. He told his disciples at one point that whoever wants to become great among them must be their servant, for the Son of Man came not to be served but to give his life for others.

 In today’s Gospel (Luke 17) Jesus emphasizes once again the servant ministry.  His words seem pretty harsh referring to them as slaves of all but then slavery was common in those days and so he uses the slave as the image for what it is like to truly serve.  When they have done all that they were told to do then they are to realize that is was not done with the motivation of gaining self worth or to get recognition or a special thanks.  On the other hand in doing it they were to find out what means to be truly human and truly alive. What the world need most of all are people who are willing to serve. If you were willing to give yourself in the way that Christ has shown us, we can be that servant.

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When I am confronted with the Serving life of Jesus, I think of what has been done in recent years in some of our churches to restore the vocational diaconate which is basically a serving ministry that is  essential for the church in the world .  It had been neglected for many years .  There were deacons but the diaconate was like a stepping stone to the priesthood. People were ordained deacons and probably a year later ordained priests. As deacons they were sort “quasi-priests” or priests in training.  A number of years ago before I was retired from active church ministry, I was the chairperson of a Diaconate committee in the Diocese of New Westminster.  The committee after months of work came up with a proposal to restore the important ministry of a truly vocational diaconate in the that Diocese.  Our proposal was eventually accepted and happily the ordaining of vocational deacons started to take place.  These deacons were to become leaders and supporters of the church’s whole ministry of service to others.  Some modern deacons are employed by the church but most are Church volunteers who exercise  their ministry through secular employment or volunteering in the community.  They may be counsellors, teachers, health care workers, social workers, teachers, managers in a large company, cashiers in a supermarket, or the one that serves you in the coffee shop.  In these and many more occupations deacons are involved in an intentionally caring and compassionate ministry to others.  There are some deacons that may be volunteers in a local food bank, in an outreach program in their community, in projects like Habitation for Humanity providing housing for those who otherwise would be unable to afford it,  in programs of world relief and development and in many other programs that work for peace, justice and the wellbeing of all people. When we gather as a Church, deacons are models and animators of the servanthood of all the baptized people who are to exercise this Christ-centered servant ministry in their homes, schools, work places and communities.

Our servant ministry takes place primarily in the world rather than within the walls of the church building.  It is indicated in our baptismal ministry that we are to seek and serve Christ in all persons, love our neighbour as ourselves, strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.  This is servant ministry and generally takes place outside the walls of the church.  There are a couple of images that stand out for me in this regard: a sign appeared in one church directed toward members that stated “If you spend more than 10% of your time in this building, you are neglecting your ministry.”  In another Church there was a sign over the exit door and as people exited the church building the sign had one word “Entrance” with the implication that when they left the church building they entered their ministry in the world  I always liked the form of dismissal at the end of the service in one of the forms of liturgy that was used in the sixties.  It was:  “Go! Be what you are – the church in the world” .

I remember at one time when I worked outside the parish ministry as an Addiction Counsellor in a Government run clinic, and then as a Stewardship Consultant on the national level of the church, I was giving a presentation on interpreting the needs of the world to a group of clergy.  I was asked after the presentation , “How long has it been since you left the ministry?”.  I answered that I didn’t think that I had left the ministry.  He said, “Well you know what I mean”.  I’m afraid that I did know what he meant. From his perspective, if you weren’t centered in a parish and spent all you time doing ministry there, you were not doing ministry. However, from my perspective I was still acting on my baptismal and diaconal covenant of being a servant in the world.

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There is a phrase in the Second Epistle of Timothy which is appointed as the Epistle reading this week that reads that Paul was appointed an apostle for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. I believe that we find that promise of life in the servant ministry of Jesus. Jesus said that those who were willing to lose their lives would find it.  This doesn’t just mean in the hereafter.  It meant right here and now. They were to find true life and meaning in the loving, giving, caring life of the servant and in their work for peace justice and the well-being of all people. The ones who were willing to follow Christ’s way would know satisfaction and happiness even though they may face discomfort and difficulties in their pursuit of it. Today we may find that in some difficult pursuits or even on the simplest level.  We do find joy and satisfaction in serving others in ways that may be costly to us and in making sacrifices in our work for justice and peace.  Or, it might be just in caring for another person in a special way.

Bass Mitchell one year in Lent gave this reflection related to the servant ministry 

I know a man who every day after work went over to his neighbour, a shut-in who was unable to take care of himself. This man took him groceries, bathed him and shaved him. He could have used that time to do any number of other things he enjoyed. Instead, he gave up a lot of his time and money to take care of this other man. It was nothing forced on him. He chose it. And he was one of the most joyous and life-filled persons I have ever known. Those who live only for themselves, never experience real life. Only in giving up your life, in bending down and picking up crosses for the sake of Christ do we find real joy and life. (Lent 2, Sermons by Bass Mitchell). 

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The only way that we can live in the power of Christ’s life is by taking on the kind of life that has been revealed to us by him. We need to continue the life of the servant in the world today. Our partnership with others in this servant ministry has to take precedence over our individual desire for recognition and importance.  However, in exercising our skills and talents in this partnership of service we experience another kind of greatness.

Martin Luther King Jr. preached a sermon on the new norm of greatness on February 4, 1968. He said:

Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be recognized, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you will be your servant . That is your new definition of greatness. And this morning the thing that I like about it is that by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everyone can be great. Because everyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t need to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

Yes! You can be that servant.

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