Christian Service

This will be one of the rare times where my post will be from the same Scripture reference that David used, but since I'll be going at it from a different angle, it won't be repetitive (at least not to me). And, for the record, David and I never discuss what we're going to write, stake out particular verses as our own or anything like that. In MY mind (and this is only for me), I've had  two basic rules during this year of blogging:

1. First come, first serve--if I sign on to the blog and see no entry from David, that means I'm free to write what I wish

2. If David's covered what I was going to discuss, so be it, and no worries. I can count on ONE HAND the number of times this has happened (actually, more like two fingers) where David covered the same material I was going to discuss AND said the same thing. If, however, I have a different spin on a passage already discussed, I'll plow ahead, as is the case today.

John was the only Gospel writer to describe Jesus washing the feet of the disciples (John 13:1-20), and there's some common sense as to why this might be--since only the disciples were in attendance for the Last Supper, we can assume that neither Mark nor Luke were present, leaving only Matthew as a possible relater of this incident. Regardless, I've always enjoyed this story because it helps me focus on not only what Christian service is, but how it is to be undertaken.

My mom used to say that I should have been a pastor, and she said it because of my speaking abilities. I told her, as I've told countless other people who have said similar things to me, that being able to preach a great sermon (the logical use for speaking abilities) ranks somewhere around #178 in importance in things necessary to be a good pastor. I'm too lazy to get up and find it now, but I believe I have the job description for Pastors lying around the house here someplace, and any normal person would be wearied just by reading it. I won't even insult the list by attempting to state how many functions are on it, but when you stop and think about everything our pastors do (and I hope you did sometime this past October during Pastor Appreciation Month), it covers activities inside our church, inside our school and outside our walls. It involves talking with people in every setting imaginable, from large to one-on-one. It involves being able to communicate in such a manner that the recipient understands what is being said, and more importantly, is inspired into action.

I'm not too bad at the stuff I've mentioned so far. One time, when I flippantly made my comment that preaching a sermon is #178, someone asked me "Well, what IS the most important then?" and I answered that next week by basically restating both 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9, where Paul describes the duties of deacons, elders and overseers--for a pastor, these requirements are even more so, but one thing is missing--a servant's heart, one in which service is given not out of expectation of thanks or gratitude but out of thanksgiving and response to the sacrifice that Christ made for us. In my mind, if a pastor has that servant's heart, everything else will take care of itself.

When Christ abased himself to wash the feet of his disciples, I'm sure they were horrified, and on the occasions where our pastors have done this for us at church, I know I feel odd, to say the least. In this modern age of not having servants like people used to, we're extremely unfamiliar with the idea of someone waiting upon us hand and (literally) foot. If in whatever endeavor of Christian service we wish to embark we enter into it with the expectation that we're merely using the gifts that God gave us to help those who can benefit from our service, we'll be in great shape. Again, as I mentioned earlier this week, I'm not done with this topic by a long shot--I'll come back to it again at least twice when we read Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, passages that discuss spiritual gifts, but the topic itself isn't difficult to understand. Our job is to have that servant's heart and to never forget that no servant is greater than his Master.

Scott