Servanthood Required

“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Mark 10:43-45

In our Bible Study this week, somebody mentioned a time when she often missed church because on the weekends, she had to care for her mother who had developed Alzheimer’s.  She said it was a time when she learned to become a servant to another person, someone who often wasn’t very nice to her.

I respect this lady for her devotion to her mother during a difficult time.  I’m sure it was made easier because she was able to remember times when her mother had cared for her lovingly, times before her brain became affected by disease.  Often in our daily life, we are all called to be servants to people who seem rude or mean, and we find it hard to love them and excuse them, because we don’t see a reason for their behavior.  They don’t have a faulty brain.

It’s good at those times to remember that all of us are afflicted by the same disease which sometimes causes us to act out in ways that appear selfish and incomprehensible.  That disease is called SIN.  I’m not saying we submit to abuse from another, but we can give them the benefit of the doubt.  Sometimes people act badly when they’re tired, they’ve had a bad day, feel out of control or somebody just “pushed their buttons.”  Sometimes they act badly because they’ve learned bad behavior from others, or feel insecure, or have had to deal with trauma in the past.  There are a million reasons.  They don’t excuse sin, but they help to explain it.  It is a kind of brain affliction and we all suffer from it to one degree or another, and sometimes we all need to be forgiven.

Sometimes we decide to avoid people who irritate us, annoy us, don’t appreciate us.  That’s not the best solution.  Getting to know another sinner (remember that’s someone just like you), may lead you to see their good qualities;  it may allow you to influence them in a positive way;  you may come to love them, even if you don’t always like them.  It may even lead them to give you a second chance on the days you need it!

In the verses above, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that servanthood is required.  We should probably start practicing today.

For more on being a servant, view these posts:

The Willing Servant

Being a Servant

Get Ready to Get Dirty

 

Get Ready to Get Dirty

“But Jesus called to them and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you;  but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave;  even as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’.”  Matthew 20:25-28

The sermon at the Christmas Eve service at St. Paul’s was entitled, “Jesus Got Dirty.”  The Son of God was born, not in a sterile hospital room, but a stable, filled with animal smells and rotting straw.  He was welcomed by sweaty, travel-worn, unwashed people.  Think about it …. if a feeding trough was the cleanest place to lay a newborn, what were the rest of the surroundings like?  Jesus, the purest person ever, was willing to get dirty to serve us.  Why?  Well, there was no other choice.  Justice had to be satisfied, and it had to be satisfied by a human being.  So Jesus came down into our mess in order to redeem our lives.

This should tell us something important about service.  If we’re to be servants, there are plenty of times when we’ll get dirty.  Sometimes the dirt will just be the everyday grime of life — cleaning up the garage, washing the feet of the elderly, changing babies and cooking meals.  Other times, we’ll find ourselves dealing with the mud created by sinful behavior, selfish decisions and untidy circumstances. Often we won’t know what we’re getting into until we’re mired in that mud as well.

Serving isn’t easy and it isn’t neat.  We’ll deal with death and divorce, disease and distasteful duties. The people we’ll serve won’t always be “nice” or even appreciative. We’ll get dirty… but Jesus was willing to get dirty for us … are we willing to continue His work and get dirty for others?

AFLC 2019 Bible Study for Women

Every year the AFLC(Association of Free Lutheran Churches) Women publish a Bible Study written by a WMF (Women’s Missionary Federation) member.  I wrote the 2017 study which was on the book of Acts.  This year, the study was written by Beverly Enderlein and is entitled, God’s Servants Teach Us Life Lessons.  Since our theme this month is Servants of the Lord, it seemed like an opportunity to highlight it.  Here are the chapters:

LESSON 1 A POOR WIDOW…Obedience brings blessings
LESSON 2 RUTH…The Romance of Redemption                                         LESSON 3 THE WOMAN AT THE WELL…Jesus Satisfies completely and forever
LESSON 4 A LITTLE FAMILY IN BETHANY…We Shall Rise Again
LESSON 5 HANNAH…A Godly Mother
LESSON 6 ADAM AND EVE…The Problem of Temptation
LESSON 7 JOSEPH…God Working Out His Perfect Plan (Part 1)
LESSON 8 JOSEPH…God Working Out His Perfect Plan (Part 2)
LESSON 9 NEHEMIAH…Build A Strong Wall of Christlike Living
LESSON 10 STEPHEN…How to Die Victoriously
LESSON 11 DORCAS…Showing My Love For Jesus in Practical Ways
LESSON 12 MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS…God Keeps His Word

For further study on servanthood, you might like to purchase this guide, or just use the topics to do some research on your own.  The Bible is full of examples of servanthood, and we can all learn from good role models.

If you are interested in purchasing this study, or learning more about the Women’s Missionary Federation, you can go to this link for more information.  Happy studying!

https://www.aflc.org/women/resources/bible-studies/

The Mind of Christ

“….complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind.”  2 Philippians 2:2

In this letter to the church in Philippi, a church Paul obviously loves, he tells them that nothing would please him more than knowing they are in agreement, or having the same mind.  Then he goes on to tell them exactly whose mind they are to have– not their own but Christ’s!

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Philippians 2:5-8

The mind of Christ means having a humble spirit, willing to sacrifice for others.  Paul explains further that being of one mind with Christ means they will:

“Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit” Philippians 2:3

“look…to the interests of others.”  Philippians 2:4

“in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”  Philippians 2:3

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we were all in our right mind (Christ’s)?

 

Remembering to be Humble

“So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.”  Genesis 24:59

“Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died and was buried under the oak below Bethel.  So it was named Allon Bacuth (oak of weeping).”  Genesis 35:8

I was quite excited on the first full day of the Via de Cristo weekend I attended many years ago, to be assigned to sit at the table of Deborah.  After all, everyone has heard of Deborah, right?  Deborah, the judge;  Deborah, the warrior;  Deborah, the woman who was famous as a leader in a patriarchal society.  What a role model!  Who wouldn’t be honored to sit at a table named after her?

But my bubble burst when I read the card on the center of the table closely.  I discovered that I was not sitting at the table of Deborah the Judge–I was sitting at the table of Deborah the nursemaid.  You probably don’t know who she is — I sure didn’t.  She is only mentioned twice in the Bible (see the verses above), and only once by name.  Frankly, I was disappointed.  I resolved that secretly, I would continue to think of my table as the table of the “famous” Deborah.

In the years since that weekend retreat, I’ve come to rethink that position.  I’ve read the two references to “my” Deborah and what comes between them.  Do you realize that Deborah served Rebekah and her family for over eighty years?  She must have been greatly loved and greatly mourned for her death to be noted at all.  She was buried with honor under a venerable oak, symbol of long life.

If I am honest, I must admit that I’m a lot more like Deborah the nursemaid than Deborah the judge–in fact most of us are.  We may not be the star of the story, but we can be humble, faithful servants to the people around us.

Using our Talents

In my home, over an inner doorway is a plaque.  It’s very plain, not very tall but somewhat long and on that plaque it says:

To Whom Much Is Given Much Is Expected

I’ve had this for several years now and it’s to remind me to be faithful with the talents and gifts that God has given me.

The saying is what I call an “off-quote” (since it’s not exact) of Matthew 25:14-28 more commonly referred to as the Parable of the Talents.  Instead of copying it all here, I’ll give you a synopsis.  A wealthy gentleman was leaving the area and he entrusted three servants with differing amounts of gold, or as the coin was called back in the day, talents.  One received five talents, the second received two talents, and the last servant received one talent.  It doesn’t seem like the servants were given special instructions about what to do with the money they were given, but the first and second servant put the money to work and increased the amounts.  The third didn’t do anything.  When the Master returned he called each servant to account for what they did.  The first two servants had doubled the money and the wealthy Master says to both of them:

‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

The third servant was fearful.  He was afraid to lose the Master’s money so he had hidden it (kept it to himself) so he wouldn’t lose it.  I’m afraid the Master was pretty rough with him:

‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This parable is tucked between two other parables.  The chapter starts with the parable of the Ten Virgins and ends with the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.  All of it is an explanation of the Kingdom of God.  It starts with how we need to be ready for the Bridegroom and then moves to what we are to be doing while we wait and the last chapter deals with what happens to the persons that don’t obey the warnings.

I believe this section describes what we are to be doing:

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

These are our “talents”.  This is what we are to do.  We need to take what we are given from the Lord and increase it by giving it away to others.

So, I’m ending this blog with a confession.  Do I do this?  No, not the way I think the Lord would have me do.  I have a long way to go but I’m learning to listen to the Master’s voice.  I’m learning to hear it, so when he tells me to use my “talents” I can hear him.  This blog is an example.  I’ve been thinking about this topic ever since the first of the month and the topic of Obedience.  I need to be obedient and write what is on my heart.  That is something He has called me to do.  I am a reluctant writer.  This does not come easy to me, but I feel that anything the Lord calls you to do, isn’t going to be instantly easy.

I know that if I obey and keep doing what the Lord has directed me to do He will increase it.  I’m going to wrap this up with one more quote, this one from Luke 16:10:

 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Being a Servant

Brother, let me be your servant Let me be as Christ to you Pray that I may have the grace To let you be my servant, tooWe are pilgrims on a journey We are brothers on the road We are here to help each other Walk the mile and bear the load I will hold the Christlight for you In the night-time of your fear I will hold my hand out to you Speak the peace you long to hear I will weep when you are weeping When you laugh I’ll laugh with you I will share your joy and sorrow Till we’ve seen this journey through

When we sing to God in heaven We shall find such harmony Born of all we’ve known together Of Christ’s love and agonyBrother, let me be your servant Let me be as Christ to you Pray that I may have the grace To let you be my servant, too

© 1977 Scripture in Song

Beth Ann’s post reminded me of this song, which has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I’m sure you can go to you tube if you want to listen to it.  As part of the church, we are servants to one another and to others.  Once again I think, who wouldn’t want to be part of this?  Who wouldn’t want to have that kind of purpose and companionship?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35

 

What About Us?

I’ve been thinking about this month’s theme.  How the church is not a building, it isn’t a structure of brick, stone or wood.  The church is made up of people doing God’s will in this world.

Of course, everyone knows about missionaries that serve overseas and put their lives on the line to preach the Gospel.  What about us?  We know about preachers that are called to different churches to shepherd God’s flock.  What about us?  We know about people who go out of their way to have a ministry to others, food banks, clothing banks, soup kitchens, youth ministries, pregnancy ministries and I’ll even throw in the policemen and women, firefighters, EMS personnel.  What about us?

What about us everyday, wake up, go to work, come home people.  We go through life, work at a job that, maybe, serves people but not like those who put their lives on the line every single day.  We don’t always feel like we are the “Hands and Feet of Jesus” in our world.

I have to say that we really are.  You never know what kind of impact you make on the people around you until it becomes clear to you one day.  One day when I was home on a vacation day I got a call from a co-worker.  Their husband had just died that morning.  She was very upset, as she was the one who found him.  I was very sympathetic during that call and all of a sudden she asked me to pray for her.  Now I could have said that I’d keep her in my prayers, but I prayed for her right there on the phone.  My point of telling you is this:  I was never one to “preach” at work but she knew I was a Christian.  She came to me for comfort and I was able to help her with comfort from the Lord.  I felt blessed that day.  The Lord was tapping me on the shoulder and said “See, you do make a difference.”

We are the hands and feet of Jesus wherever we go.  We need to always keep this in mind.  I love this song by Matthew West and now I just saw the video.  In each of our own “little worlds” there is something we can do, someone we can help.  Check out the song: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=912BMCNU

 

 

Whose Feet Have You Washed?

“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20:26-28.

 

In a few days our congregation, and many others will be celebrating Maundy Thursday, commemorating the institution of Holy Communion.  It is customary during the service to hear how before the meal, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

 

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.  He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.  Them he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”  John 13:3-6

 

This would have been astounding.  It was customary at the time for the lowliest servant in the household to wash the dirty feet of those coming in from dusty roads.  Even peers did not wash each others feet, except on a rare occasion as a sign of great love.  I don’t know what would serve as a comparable example in our world – maybe being honored by having the President of the United States over to dinner, only for him to get up after the meal and say, “let me scrape and wash the dishes and take the garbage out for you”  How would we react?  Probably like Peter, protesting, “Oh no sir, we can’t let you do that!”

 

Jesus did this to give us an example of humble servanthood.

 

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” John 13: 14-15

 

Jesus calls us to a life of sacrifice and humility.  Whose feet have you washed?

To be continued ….