SERVE: Pick up your broom and follow me

SERVE: Pick up your broom and follow me

RUMC

3/25/12

          Here we are in the 5^th week of the servanthood series.  It has almost flown by.

·        We talked about the Biblical basis for servanthood[i]

·        Our natural distaste for servanthood[ii]

·        We talked about servanthood not being as difficult as we think because it means laying down our life 25¢ at a time.[iii]

·        Last week Robyn got us started on characteristics of a servant talking about the importance of being content rather than resentful in our servanthood.

This week I want to continue with more characteristics of servanthood.

When I started researching this series, I checked the thesaurus to see what it had to say about the word "servant."  Synonyms include, "attendant, dependent, domestic, drudge, help, helper, hireling, menial, minion, retainer, serf, server, slave, underling, subordinate, lackey, stooge, vassal and assistant."

What does the Bible say, though?  What Does Jesus have to say about the qualities of a servant?  Charles Swindoll points out that the Beatitudes make a pretty good summary of Jesus' perspective on the characteristics of a Christian servant.  Let's take a look at them.

 

 

Jesus starts with BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT.  Jesus is not talking about the financially poor, or the politically poor, or the oppressed or the downtrodden.  Jesus says "poor in spirit."  The Hebrew word for poor actually has a spiritual component built into it.  One who is poor, is thought of as a person who is humble, knows that he is helpless, and therefore puts his whole trust in God.  That is the first characteristic of a servant: ONE WHO HUMBLY DEPENDS ON GOD.

What a great way to begin a servant's description: total humility.  It is the humility captured in the third verse of the great Augustus Toplady hymn "Rock of Ages." 

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;

 

How counter cultural is that in this culture of self-service?  In this culture of independence?  In this culture of self-sufficiency?

Yet, Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."  You may remember that Jesus adds a reward to each beatitude.  This one reads, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  Humility or poverty of spirit is absolutely required in order to be included in the kingdom of God.  Humility is an indispensible condition of kingdom living.  Humbly depending on God is the first essential characteristic of those who would come to be servants in the kingdom.

 

 

Jesus continued, "Blessed are those who mourn."  The word Jesus used for "mourn" is the strongest word he had available to him.  It conveys the sorrow of a broken heart, or the ache of the anguished soul.  It is mourning over the loss of a close personal relationship: spouse, child, or parent. 

Alternatively, this Greek term can convey a deep empathy for the hurts and losses of others.  It is the ability to connect with, and empathize with, someone who has experienced that devastating loss.  It is sincerely caring for the hurts and sorrows of others no matter what the cause.  Therefore, the beatitude might read, "Blessed is the one who cares intensely for the hurts and sorrows and losses of others.  Not mourning for our own loss, but hurting for the troubles of those around them."

We live in a world in which people have completely ignored a robbery or assault on another person.  It would never happen here, we hope, but we have all heard stories of people in large cities beaten to death and no one even calls 911.  That is so unlike Jesus who came to bear our grief and comfort us in our pain.  It is also unlike the servant Jesus describes in the beatitudes.  "Blessed are they whose hearts break for others who hurt, for they shall be comforted."  The reward is, "They shall be comforted."  Isn't it interesting that Jesus does not identify the source of comfort.  Perhaps comfort comes from the one Jesus calls "the comforter," or it might even come from the people we serve, as someday we find that the tables have been turned.
So, a servant is compassionate.

So far, we have found extreme humble dependence, and great compassion to be servant characteristics.  Let's see that else we can find in here.

Jesus goes on to say, "Blessed are the meek."  Not blessed are the weak.  Blessed are the MEEK.  This word meek is as about as far from weak as it could be.  Perhaps a better word for us would be, "gentle."

·        Wild stallions were described with this word we are translating as gentle, when they were ready to ride.  (That is certainly not weak)

·        Ointments that ease the pain of wounds were described as being gentle using this Greek word.

·        Those who treated others respectfully and with dignity, even when they were of a lower social class were described as gentle using this word.

Far from being weakness, we are talking about having our strength under control, being calm in a heated atmosphere, having s soothing effect, and maintaining one's composure so others might keep their dignity.

The same word is used to describe Jesus in Matthew 11 "Take my yoke upon up you and learn from me, for I am gentle (same word as meek) I am gentle and humble of heart." [iv]

The promise that goes with this beatitude is, "They shall inherit the earth."  Now I do not think that means there is going to be a great property transfer to the gentle people.  I do think it means that in the end meekness wins out over force.  Gentleness wins out over might. So, a servant is gentle.

The 4^th characteristic of a servant is, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness."  I referred earlier to the stories we have heard where a terrible crime was completely ignored.  That is doubling up the wrong: one for the crime, and another wrong for not stopping it.  This beatitude says that they are actually tripling up the evil act.  Once for the act, another for not reporting it and another for not doing something ourselves.  There many times where people just ignore something bad right under their noses.  Jesus is saying a servant would never do that.

·        The housekeeper had better not just ignore the dirty socks on the floor.

·        The waiter had better not tell you "tough noogies" when you inform them that your dinner is not properly prepared.

·        My mechanic had better not see something that is about to fail on my car and forget to tell me about it.

·        And a servant of Christ cannot stand by and watch wrong being done without acting.  The servant cannot watch theft, abuse, prejudice, or hatred without trying to do the right thing.

The servant is so anxious for things to be right that they are willing to do whatever it takes.  Even at risk to themselves.

The reward, Jesus says, is that those who do right, "will be satisfied."  The Greek word here is derived from the Greek word for fodder, as in animal fodder.  The word picture is of animals contentedly grazing in the sun on the owner's pasture, fat and happy, like we were after that prime rib dinner Friday night.  Doing the right things does not leave us empty, but fills us with all of God's good things.

 That's ½ of the beatitudes and we have learned that

·        humble dependence,

·        great compassion,

·        strong gentleness

·        And doing right are characteristics of servants.

 

Number 5, Jesus says Blessed are the merciful.  Chessed, the Hebrew word for mercy has a long and rich history of use in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament where people were called repeatedly to show mercy just as God shows them mercy.

That word chessed, however, is more than feeling sorry for someone.  It is feeling sorry with them.  It is getting in their skin and feeling their hurt.  But it is more than feeling.  The prophets talk about dong mercy.  They are talking about the kind of mercy that isn't afraid to roll up its sleeves and get dirty.  Visiting the dump people in Juarez Mexico, is doing mercy, so is visiting our friends at Parkview.  Sitting beside orphans in Haiti, is doing mercy.  So is sitting next to a child who has few friends. Eating lunch with the hungry and homeless in Waterloo, or companioning a friend through the deepest grief of their life are both "doing mercy"

The reward for those who are merciful is "they shall receive mercy."  Those who remain aloof and detached when others are hurting will receive the same treatment from God.  Can it be any clearer than that?  Servants of Christ are merciful.

 

 

Jesus says Servants of Christ are pure in heart.  It is about time Jesus came back to an inner characteristic.  While I was writing I began thinking, "this is easy.  I am compassionate and gentle and I seek the right over the wrong, and I am merciful.  I began to think I was in the clear.  Not quite!

Pure in heart means that my motives matter.  It is not enough to do the right thing.  We must do the right things for the right reasons.  It is not enough to act like a servant; servanthood must grow from a pure heart inside of us. 

Christ's promise for the pure in heart is, - "if your motives are pure, you shall see God."  If your right behavior flows from your right motivations, there is no doubt about your destiny.  You will stand before God and hear those magnificent words, "Well done good and faithful servant."  Could there be a better reward than that?  I hardly think so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Jesus adds, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Let me define this in the negative:

·        Jesus does not mean blessed are those who avoid conflict

·        Or blessed are those who ignore conflict

·        Those who will bow down to anything in order to have peace

·        It doesn't mean blessed are the passive

 A peacemaker is just what it sounds like.  One who actively and proactively seeks healthy relationships with others.  I have to admit the church has not always done that.  The history of Christianity is hardly peaceful.  We don't know who the author was, but this little poem tells us what peacemaking is not.

Believe as I believe--no more, no less;
that I am right (and no one else) confess.
Feel as I feel, think only as I think;
Eat what I eat, and drink but what I drink. 
Look as I look, do always as I do;
And then--and only then--I'll fellowship with you.[v]

 

We know people like that, don't we?  And they are not peacemakers.  That is really is too bad because Jesus promises that peacemakers "shall be called children of God."  Peacemaking is so close to the heart of God that those who make a life of making peace are acting like the direct offspring of the God of peace.  Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.  A servant is a peacemaker.

 

 

The last beatitude seems, at first, misplaced.  It is different from the rest.  But it is an unfortunate reality-

·        those who would be humbly dependent on God,  

·        have great compassion and gentleness with neighbors,

·        Seek righteousness and mercy out of a pure heart are often misunderstood and mistreated. 

Unfortunately, mistreatment is not the exception, but the rule.  Blessed are the persecuted.  Jesus says blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you."  Not IF they mistreat you, when they mistreat you.  Being a servant is hard.  Harder than most of us imagine.  But staying the course, serving the master is fundamental to being Christian. 

Notice the reward?  We are right back to where we started with the rewards.  It is the same reward as the first beatitude.  "For theirs will be the kingdom of heaven."

Remember in the beginning, that I said that the reward meant that humility is absolutely required in order to be included in the kingdom of God?  We have to say the same thing here.

Servant living and its difficulties are required in order to be included in the kingdom of God.  Servant living (even with its difficulties,) is an indispensable condition of the kingdom of God. 

 

         

 

Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me."  It is hard for us to understand that because crucifixion seems too unthinkable.  I kind of like the broom as a symbol of servanthood.  So, today I want to translate and update that saying by calling you to "take up our broom to follow him into servanthood."  

·        Pick up your broom to sweep away your independence in favor of humble dependence.

·        Pick up your broom to sweep away cold-heartedness in favor of great compassion

·        Pick up your broom and sweep away weakness in favor of meekness or gentleness.

·        Pick up your broom and sweep away blindness in favor of seeing wrong for what it is.

·        Pick up your broom and seep away self-centeredness in favor of mercy.

·        Pick up your broom and sweep away wrong motives to make way for  purity of heart

·        Pick up your broom and sweep away rigidness to make room for peace making.

·        Pick up your broom and sweep away safe discipleship in favor of taking the risk of being a servant.

Come servants of the living Christ pick up your broom and follow him.

---

[i] SERVE #1 Like Jesus

[ii] SERVE #2 not me

[iii] SERVE #3 lay down our what

[iv] Mtt 11: 29

[v] Leslie Flynn, church Fights

SERVE: “Lay down our what?” RUMC 3/11/12

SERVE: "Lay down our what?"

RUMC

3/11/12

 

There are  77 hard sayings of Jesus in FF Bruce's book called "The Hard Sayings of  Jesus"[i]  Today's passage "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me," is chapter 37.  In my mind, in today's world, perhaps it should be number one.

One could spend a lifetime counting the problems in today's world.  Many of them, however, can be traced right back to our arrogant, bull-headed, self-centeredness.  

Wasn't that the issue in Genesis?  Adam and Eve didn't disobey God in order to be disobedient.  Adam and Eve disobeyed because they thought they entitled to the fruit and deserved the knowledge.

It's too bad they didn't understand the words "Deny yourself."

The Greeks had a character named Narcissus, from whom we receive the word narcissistic.  Narcissus was so in love with himself that he could love no one else.  In fact, he was so consumed with himself that when we caught a glimpse of his reflection in a pool, he couldn't take his eyes off his beauty.  He stayed there gazing into the reflection of his own eyes until he died.

It's too bad he didn't understand the words "Deny yourself."

The Narcissuses of our day die in spirit as they stare all consumed into their TV's, their video games, the pornography on their computers, their investment accounts, or one more material possession that they are sure will make them happy.  After all, no one deserves to be happy more than they do.  Their hearts shrivel up and die as they are consumed with being a winner, being wealthy, being popular, being powerful.

They wouldn't deny themselves anything because they deserve it all.  That's how you know that you have crossed the line to narcissism.  You begin to believe that you deserve everything.

It's too bad more people don't understand the words "Deny yourself."

Think about the word deserving.  DE-serving.  It could also be NON-serving, UN-serving or my favorite ANTI-serving. 

We don't understand serving because we live in an ANTI-serving society.

 

Contrast that with Jesus' hard saying "If anyone wants to be my follower, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me."

The MESSAGE Bible says it this way.  "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.  You're not in the driver's seat—I am.  Don't run from suffering; embrace it.  Follow me and I'll show you how.  Self-help is no help at all.  Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self." 

 

The AMPLIFIED Bible says "he must deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself]"

 

The phrase "deny himself" literally means, "To completely disown, to utterly separate oneself from someone."  It is the same word used to describe Peter's denial of Jesus outside the High Priests home![ii]   Each time he was confronted about his connection with Jesus, Peter more fervently denied knowing him (vv. 70, 72, 74). 

We are to deny ourselves: to utterly disown ourselves, to refuse to acknowledge the old narcissistic person.

·        Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself.  (Phil. 2:5-8).

·        Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6:11).

·        I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Gal. 2:20.

·        This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16)

·        By the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1

Oh, man . . .  it just keeps getting worse.  Now we have gone from denying ourselves to laying down our lives and being a living sacrifice . . .   but let me tell you there really isn't any difference.  Denying ourselves is just laying down our lives a little bit at a time.

 

I like the way the great preacher Fred Craddock, explains it.  He says, "We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking $l,000 bill and laying it on the table—'Here's my life, Lord.  I'm giving it all.'  "But the reality for most of us is that God sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $l,000 for quarters.  We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there.

·        Listen to the neighbor kid's troubles instead of saying, 'Get lost.'

·         Go to a committee meeting.

·        Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.

"For most of us, giving our life to Christ isn't glorious.  It's done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.  It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it's harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul." [iii]  Does that make more sense laying down our life a quarter or 50cents at a time?  It does to me.

 

Now let me add one more concept that I think helps us to understand laying down our lives or denying ourselves.  You all know the Principle of Tradeoffs.  The principle of tradeoffs says that some things need to be denied in order for other things to be gained.

Think about your budget, you might have to skip that vacation in order to buy that car.  You all understand that.

In this passage, Jesus says that we must deny ourselves in order to gain some other things.
What does he mean?

Ø Well, one example is that we have to deny our time to some things in order to gain other things.  If you want to pursue a certain career, you have to deny yourself time that would have been spent on other things in order to devote yourself to education, training, and experience required for that career.  You are denying yourself certain other uses of that time, such as traveling the world, or starting a family, or dating; in order for you to gain something else.

Ø The same is true for raising kids.  One has to trade sleep, and peace and quiet, and time, and money, and late nights on the town and many other things-- but you are not just denying them- you are denying them in order to care for and love the child you brought into the world.

Ø If you have a garden, you trade the hard labor of weeding and tending for fresh vegetables and flowers.

Ø If you are on a team, you trade hours of practice for the opportunity to win the championship.

So--- you see what I mean.  Life is a series of tradeoffs.  When Jesus told his disciples that they must deny themselves, he was saying that as a disciple of Christ, they will need to give up certain things in order to follow him.  Discipleship requires that we give up-- lay down-- deny certain things in order to gain the benefits of following the forgiver, the prince of peace, the lord of life.

Don't think only of what is denied, though– that will only make you feel cheated out of something – instead, think of what you are choosing to gain.  Salvation, hope, love, and joy.

 

Now to bring those two things together: the incremental 25 and 50 cent acts of love and service, and the Tradeoff Principle.

When Jesus laid down his life for us he did it in one great and glorious event of the cross and resurrection-- laying everything--- his whole $1000 on the table in a trade for our salvation, our faith, and our faithfulness.  However, we aren't Jesus.

When the apostles and martyrs lay down their lives they do it in one grand and glorious sacrifice for the sake of the gospel-- they lay everything--- their whole $1000 on the table in exchange for fulfilling their call to be faithful. 

However, God willing we will not be called to be martyrs for the faith.

So what does it mean for most of the rest of us- the 2 billion Christians that live our lives in the trenches trying to be servants every day in our families, our jobs, and our communities? 

o   Being a servant means, that we trade 25¢ worth of comfort today so that someone can have a warm blanket when they sleep under the bridge tomorrow night.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade 50¢ worth of time while we hug a child scared of the thunder.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade 25¢ worth of our favorite television show to join a committee.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade 50¢ worth of gas to drive the neighbor kid home from school when mom is sick.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade ½ a day to help someone move.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade a week to go on a mission trip with the youth.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade that fancy $5 coffee in order to contribute to Homes for Haiti.

o   Being a servant means, trading a few words for the opportunity to invite someone to go to church with us.

o   Being a servant means, we trade 25¢ worth of time in order to change the light bulb we notice is burned out at the church.

o   Being a servant means, that we trade a penny's worth of gossip with our friends after church in order to greet the people who come to visit for the first time. 

o   Being a servant means, you trade a few Wednesday nights in order to teach a child about Jesus.

o   Being a servant means, you trade a few words of encouragement to ease the tears of a mother who just experienced a miscarriage.

o   Being a servant means, that you penny by penny, minute by minute trade your life away in favor of loving others, joining the kingdom of God and following Jesus Christ.

 

Do you see what I am saying?  Being a servant is offering everything we have to the service of Christ one quarter, 1 word, one minute, and one day at a time.  

If you are looking for the big flashy ways to serve you may have the wrong motivation. 

If you are looking for opportunities to serve that maximize your gifts you may be thinking about this all wrong.

If you are waiting for God to call you to be a missionary or pastor, you have the wrong idea about servanthood. 

We have been bought by God.  Yes, Jesus traded all he had for you. 

o   We have been bought by God.  One jagged lash at a time.

o   We have been bought by God.  One jeering, spitting mocker at a time.

o   We have been bought by God.  One nail at a time.

o   We have been bought by God.  One agonizing breath at a time.

o   We have been bought by God.  One dark moment at a time.

o   Bought with a price! And what a tremendous price that was!

Servanthood is trading your life away one quarter, one word, one minute, one day at a time to the one who bought and paid for our sins.

Brothers and sisters let us serve one another.

 

 

---

[i]  F.F. Bruce, Inter-varsity Press / 1983 

[ii] Matt. 26:34

[iii] Darryl Bell - www.bible.org/illus/nt/nt-71.htm

 

SERVE: Not me! RUMC March 3, 2012

Have it your way!

Do yourself a favor.

You owe it to yourself.

You deserve a break today.

I, me, mine, myself.  That is the message of our culture.

Even the phrase “Look out for number 1.”  Think about that.  We all know who number one is, don’t we?  Who’s number one- no, It can’t be you.  If I am number one, it can’t be you.  There only room for one number one in this world.  Each and every one of us thinks that that WE are that number one.

We all know that coming in second is not as good as coming in first.

Loosing is not as good as winning.

Being last in line is not as good as being first in line.

Being smallest is not as good as being biggest.

Having second best is not as good as having the best.

Being Ms. Congeniality is not as good as winning the crown.

Telling the boss I almost got it done, or I was almost on time, or I almost got it fixed is not as good as finishing the job.  In fact, you may be ALMOST unemployed.

We live in an I, ME, MINE, MYSELF, look out for number one- society.  No one wants to be second best, no one wants to be second place, no one wants to be second fiddle.

Listen to this- “He did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing and took on the form of a servant.”  He did not think being number one was important, so he made himself nothing.

“Nothing?”  We can’t take “nothing” to the bank, to the lake, or on vacation.  We can’t take “nothing” to the self-esteem seminar.  We can’t live in “nothing.”  We can’t retire on “nothing.”  There is nothing good about “nothing.”  Yet Jesus made himself “nothing.”

But wait, there’s more here.  He made himself nothing.  He was not forced into “nothing.”  He was not tricked into “nothing.”  He didn’t accidently become “nothing.”  He chose it.  Think of that descent from heaven to earth-- from God to nothing.  You can try to measure it . . .  but there is no ruler, no speedometer, and no number of light years that begins to measure Jesus’ descent from heaven to earth.  Jesus went from being God, hearing the angels sing “Holy, Holy, Holy;” to having to use doors, eating sheep,  riding mules, getting tired and going to the bathroom.  The omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent second person of the trinity yielded to the binding restrictions of the flesh.  [i]

It gets worse…  Jesus gave up “Holy, Holy, Holy;” for “Hey Jew boy,” “Hey King of the Jews.”  He traded worship for curses, praise for spit in his face, and a throne for a rough, splintery, deadly cross.  He gave up perfection and took on your sin.  He was flooded with every hate that was ever felt, every impure notion ever thought, every cruel word ever said, every loving deed left undone.

That is what it means to say - “He did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing (… made himself NOTHING!)  and took on the form of a servant.”

The problem for us is that we are called to do the same.  As hard as it is for us to swallow… as hard as it is for us to grasp… as hard as it is for us to understand… we are called to give up looking out for number one in order to become nothing.  

Becoming a servant means giving up our concern for our own comfort and becoming nothing.

Becoming a servant means giving up our concern for respectability and becoming nothing.

Becoming a servant means giving up our need to control and becoming nothing.

Let’s look at each one of those.

How important is your own comfort?  You might protest, oh not very important.  But what comforts would you be willing to give up for someone else? 

·         Would you give up some food?  Many of us should. 

·         Would you give up some of your money?  Most of us do. 

·         Are you willing to give up your lazy boy for an hour to attend the education commission meeting to make sure that we have camperships for children to go to camp.

·         Are you willing to give up your favorite table at the restaurant on Sunday noon in order to help set up for an event later that week? 

·         Are you willing to give up 15 minutes of your week to prepare to be liturgist, or share kings kids. Would you give up an hour in order to teach, or help with light suppers?

·         Would you trade in your comfortable, reliable car for 2 older cars so you could give one to a single mother who doesn’t have transportation?  (Now I’ve gone from preaching to meddling haven’t I?)

·         Would you give up some of your comfortable space (say your extra room, your den, or that living room you never use except when the preacher visits?) so that a man who just lost his job might have a warm place for his children to sleep?

·           Would you give your boots to the homeless person that walks the ditches collecting cans?

Fortunately, your chances of being asked to do some of those things might be kid of slim, but would you?  Don’t answer too fast.  Let it sink in and really think about it.

Which is more important to you:  Your own comfort or loving someone else?  Which is more important to you:  Your own comfort or someone else’s safety?  Which is more important to you:  Your own comfort or following Jesus’ example to serve?  “He did not think his own comfort was something to be grasped, so he made himself nothing. “

How important is your respectability.  By that, I mean what other people think of you.  How important is it to you that other people think well of you?

·         Do you really care that people think you are wasting your time going to church?  Probably not or you wouldn’t be here?

·         How much do you care what people think about that pile of scrap metal you are storing behind your garage for the youth scrap drive?

·         How much do you care about what people think about you befriending and helping that family down the street that always has a messy yard and the children’s clothes are always stained?

·         Do you really care if someone thinks you are naive for giving gas money to the guy at Casey’s or helping that family that seems to always be in crisis?

We each probably have a hundred opportunities a week to serve someone.  How many opportunities do you turn down because you are afraid of what others will think?  Which is more important to:   Your own respectability and reputation or following Jesus’ example to serve.  “He did not think his own respectability something to be grasped, so he made himself nothing. “

 Control.  We all like to have power.  We like to control our schedules, our money, our behavior, our future.  We would even like to control the people around us.  But being a servant means giving up some of that control. 

·         A phone call comes, asking for a ride to the doctor.  You had planned to do three or four other things that afternoon.  Are you willing to let go of that control?

·         You are given the opportunity to fill in teaching at LIGHT for just one night.  You don’t usually come because it interferes with one of your favorite TV shows.  The question is, control or service.

·         Most of us would drop what we are doing for a friend.  Some for the church.  But where do you draw the line?  What about a neighbor?  The person down the street?  An acquaintance from across town?  A traveler passing through town?  The homeless person who sleeps under the 4^th street bridge?  The alcoholic who got himself in trouble again?  The youth who got in trouble again?  Who are you willing to allow to interrupt the order of your life?

Which is more important to you:   Having the power to control your life or following Jesus’ example to serve?  “He did not think his own power something to be grasped, so he made himself nothing. “

 I finally come to the scripture for the day.  Mom asks Jesus for a favor for her sons; that one sit on the left and the other on the right hand when he comes into his kingdom.[ii]  We hear that story and scoff.  How could she be so greedy?  How could she be so blind?

Think of it this way.  She wasn’t trying to be greedy.  She didn’t ask for the center throne.  She only asked for the two subordinate thrones.  And this was James and John, two of the three favorite disciples. 

The other disciples became “indignant.”  Not because they thought this was an inappropriate request, but because they weren’t about to let the Zebedee boys take their rightful place in the kingdom.  If anyone deserves to be number one disciple in the kingdom it’s me, said Peter the rock.  But then Bartholomew, James the lesser, Thomas, and each of the other disciples chimed in too.  No way- that’s my spot.  I’m his favorite.  I’m number one.

Does that sound familiar?  It sure does.    

·         Have it your way!

·         Do yourself a favor.

·         You owe it to yourself.

·         You deserve a break today.

I, me, mine, myself.  That is the message of our culture.  And this story is "us" all over again.

Jesus replies to the mother of James and John and to the disciples saying, categories, and rank, and status, and comfort, and respect and power all mean something in this world.  Being number one is important to people in this world.  But not in my kingdom.

In my kingdom loving others, putting others first and serving others makes you number one.  Remember number one is right next to the number 0.  Those who try to be number one, will end up as zeros.  Those who put others first, and make themselves nothing will be number one.

Leonard Bernstein was asked by an interviewer, “Which role in the symphony is hardest to fill?”  Bernstein replied, “The second fiddle.  I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm.”

Jesus is looking for a whole bunch of people who will play second fiddle with enthusiasm in the Kingdom of God. 

Every bone in your body says “NOT ME.”  Remember, Jesus gave up his heavenly throne for you. ... .  are you really going to tell him “NOT ME? “

SERVE: yes you!

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[i] Hybels, Bill;  Descending Into Greatness

[ii] Matthew 20:20-28