Midweek Lent, 2024 + Love One Another + Week 5: Serve One Another
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Texts: Luke 22:14-27; 1 Peter 4:7-11
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“I am among you as one who serves,” Jesus said.
This might be the most challenging “one another” we’ve looked at this Lent. “Serve one another” is very different from the other ways we’re called to love. To live in harmony, without judging, encouraging one another and confessing our sins to one another, these are actions we can do.
But serving is about being. “I am among you as one who serves,” Jesus said. A servant is who Jesus is, not what he does. And that’s what he calls those who follow him to be.
Jesus lived in a different world. But not so far different from ours.
As is common in human history, in Jesus’ day there were people who were servants by their class and birth. (Slavery was a whole different thing.) Those who served at table, if they weren’t slaves, were a different class from those who sat at the table.
If you remember “Downton Abbey” or “Upstairs, Downstairs,” you saw this kind of class system. Those below-stairs were seen and saw themselves as different to those above-stairs. They were servants. They didn’t make decisions all day whether they were going to serve someone. It was who they were, how they lived.
With as many divisions as our country has along racial and gender and wealth lines, we can’t argue we don’t have class stratification. Poverty spans generations in families, and we have chasms between the rich and poor. Racism and sexism have kept huge numbers of people on the wrong side of opportunity. That’s our version of the British class system. And it’s just as pervasive, contrary to the American myth that anyone can break free of their starting place and become who they want to be.
So from our perspective, it’s the same as in Jesus’ day: he calls us to willingly become someone who sees themself as servant to all others. To step away from the idolatry of your rights being paramount to all else, and saying, “I am here as one who serves.”
This is what the early believers learned and understood from Jesus.
It shook their world to see the Son of God kneeling before them as a servant.
As Jesus points out in our Gospel reading from Luke, everyone knows the one who sits at the table is greater than the one who serves at the table.
And then he says: “but I am among you as one who serves.” This teacher whom they believe is God’s Son, God’s Messiah, and whom they’ll see risen from the dead in a few days, should be worthy of all honor. People should be serving him, washing his feet, bringing him fresh wine.
“But I am among you as one who serves,” Jesus says. Jesus doesn’t make individual decisions during the day whether he’ll help someone, or carry someone’s burden, or care for their needs. It’s who he is.
And that’s how it will be with you, Jesus says. You who follow me will live in the world not thinking you’re the greatest, worthy of others’ attention and praise, deserving to be served. You will live in the world as a servant like me. You will rise a servant and go to bed a servant. It will be your identity as it is mine.
Don’t underestimate how hard that will be.
If we’re honest about our lives, we can look back and see that. How easily we take offense when things aren’t done properly for us. How quickly we’re upset when someone takes advantage of us. How we struggle to get first in the cashier line, or ahead of that car driving in front of us, how frustrating it is when we have to wait for others. How our thoughts of helping others are shaped by how it’s going to affect us and our bottom lines of how much money we have, how much time it will take, how much inconvenience it will be to be of service to that other person.
But if you’re a servant, you can’t be taken advantage of, it’s your job to be of service, no matter the cost. Your time isn’t your own, it belongs to the one you serve. Inconvenience is what you try to keep away from the one you serve; yours is irrelevant.
Do you see how hard this is?
But here’s some grace to notice: First, you’ve seen this in others.
There likely are people in your life who embodied this kind of being. Who acted as if their reality was to be of service to other people, people who never seemed inconvenienced, who didn’t appear to consider the cost to them or their lives. You know the kind. The ones people would say, “he’d give you the shirt off his back,” or “she’s always there for you.”
These are the witnesses that help you see it’s not just Jesus who can be a servant. They’re a sign of grace and hope.
Second, if you’re willing to become a servant, God is ready to help.
“Create in me a clean heart,” we sing, and “put a new and right spirit within me.” A new and right spirit. That’s God’s gift.
That if you want to follow Jesus, which means becoming a servant to all, you will get the new spirit to become that, a right spirit that orients you to a new way of seeing your neighbor, your loved ones, your world. God will calm your anxiety, take away your irritation over inconvenience, ease your fear of time costs or wealth costs. The Spirit will give you a new spirit, to be a servant.
And ultimately, remember what Jesus said: “I am among you as one who serves.”
Even as you become a servant, you look down at your feet and see God’s Son, at your service. No matter the inconvenience or cost, Christ is in your life to serve and bless you.
And so are others. If you look, you’ll see others serving you, caring for you, embodying Christ’s servanthood in their generosity of time and help and love. Let them do that. As the Spirit gives you grace, you’ll have your chances to serve them, too.
And if you look at God’s big picture, can you see how this will heal all things? If everyone born on this planet saw themselves as servants to each other, all would be whole and well, with abundance and life for all.
That might sound impossible. But it’s God’s dream. And it starts with you and me becoming servants to each other and the world. God will take it from there.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
