On the Way to Capernaum

As with some other concepts, there are very great differences between what the Greeks and the Hebrews thought about the idea of “servant”, and a further great contrast with the way in which Jesus uses the word.

In Greek thought, the servant was despised.

He was a low one, beneath any citizen.

The highest place was the thinker who just sat still.

The true citizen is born to rule, not to serve.

If anything is done, it is only for one's own good, or perhaps for the good of the city.

If such service involves any self-sacrificing behavior, it is loathsome and should be avoided.

I've met lots of folks who think that the Greeks were right.

“What's in it for me?” is their motto.

The Hebrews developed differently.

With them, service is not unworthy.

There is that command to love one's neighbor as oneself.

As the years went by, however, the good idea began to get twisted around so that their work is meritorious, that is, it earns favor with God.

Very early, the church began to discover that Jesus was taking the old tradition of Israel very seriously indeed.

Jesus was acting out the role of the Suffering Servant as Isaiah had described it. [Isaiah 42, passim]

“Surely he has bourne our griefs and carried our sorrows...he was bruised for our iniquities.”[Isaiah 53]

As the Philippians poem that we read on Palm Sunday each year says:

Though he is God, he empties himself and takes up the status of a slave and is become man. He further humbled himself with an obedience that meant death on a cross. [Philippians 2:5-11]

For Jesus, service is obedience to the Father's will, humiliation in the eyes of the bystanders, and death at the hands of those who do not understand.

Mark says, The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.[Mk.10:45]

So these are serious things here.

But do they refer only to Jesus, or does this apply to us: obedience, humiliation, death to the old?

No, that does not sound like fun.

A seminary prof said with great seriousness that we ought to ordain only those whom we cannot persuade to do something else, since what a pastor will face is that troublesome!

In the same way, those who would be lay members of the church need to get into this with their eyes wide open.

We are all in for a difficult time.

Neighbors may think us a bit kooky.

We may decide that some of the organizations to which we belong take too much time and are not really compatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We may feel a strong need to be with our fellow Christians whenever we gather for worship, instead of lolling in bed or shopping, or whatever else on Sunday morning.

We are going to have other Christians talking with us about what we would otherwise consider our private business, that is, how we use our time, money, and abilities....and we are always asking about the welfare of another.

We are going to have a pastor reminding us again and again about the gifts that each of us have received from God,

the tasks and responsibilities that come along with the gifts,

and proposing that if we want to live in the community of the Good News that we think and speak and act in certain ways and avoid others.

We will be invited into another way of life.

Yes, all of this can be downright uncomfortable and a lot of work

as we begin to discover what it means to be a servant in the way that Jesus means it.

We'd rather talk about things, appoint a committee to investigate,

declare that it is someone else's job,

decide to mind our own business,

find that there is a conflict with my social organization...

or any of a number of other excuses instead of saying

“Because I have heard the Gospel, I will do what is needed.”

Test cases:

(1) Many years ago, our Synod helped to get the Shepherd of the Streets program started here in Williamsport.

But I also remember the year that the paltry $1,000 for the Shepherd was cut from the Synod's budget in order to continue funding a lobbyist in Harrisburg.

We know how it works: talk and talk, complain about what the government should do, but no money to actually do what is needed with people... no money to be a servant.

[Of course there are more twists to the story, for another time.]

(2) About 25 years ago when the congregation I was serving then was in the midst of budget building, and things were a little tense, I handed each council member a sealed envelope containing a printout of their personal giving.

I didn't put anyone on the spot, but simply asked each person to open his/her envelope and think how their family's financial contributions matched up with the blessings they had received from God.

There was a very uncomfortable silence around the table that night.

But it did get everyone thinking about the right basis for decision-making.

(3)Sometimes yard sales are merely to line the pocket of the one putting it on, but our bazaar is different.

Except for two small bills, all of the proceeds of the bazaar are given to programs or organizations that directly help people.

The women have already met to plan how to divide that $1,100 in order to do the most good.

Little talk; mostly action.

(4)Stephen Ministers met this week and the topic was how difficult it can be to do good things.

We told stories from our experiences about awkward scenes, hesitations, and frustrations in trying to accomplish what the program sets out to do.

But we did not say that we would stop doing things because of the difficulties.

We'll recognize them, and go on, by the grace of God we will be working around them or through them.

And we ended the session by hand-writing greeting cards to all our special needs folks, ...a positive, good thing.

James urges us today: Show by your good life that your good works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.” [James 3:13]

Jesus adds, “Whoever wants to be great...must be servant of all....”

No, it is not easy, this obedience, this humiliation, this death to the old.

But it is the life to which Jesus calls us, and the way which he shows us. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.