The Joy of Serving

October 19, 1997

Acts 20:35 It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Mark 10:35-45 and supplemental texts

(It wasn't exactly James' and John's most shining hour. Looking back later they were probably ashamed. They were trying to pull an 'end run' around their fellow disciples...) In this Gospel passage I am interested in the response of Jesus to an obvious power play. "We've got a favor to ask," they began.

JESUS MET THEM WITH THE QUESTION:

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU?

(That is the question that intrigues me! How would you answer that question if Jesus put it to you directly? And as a matter of fact Jesus IS asking that question of every one of us— and we are answering it every day whether we even know it or not!)

"Let us sit up front with you," James and John asked. "When you're finally doing the great things of the kingdom, we'd like to be right there, on your right hand and on your left!"

They knew they were walking with a winner. They wanted to absolutely get in on the best of the best. James and John were seeking one of the most attractive— if not the most attractive thing in the world. They wanted power. Of course they would use that power to the best purposes! "With us in the CEO positions," they might have said, " we'll make Your kingdom really efficient!"

Jesus loved James and John. He listened to what they had to say. He asked them a few      questions. But before he granted them their petition he told them:

"You don't really know what it is that you're asking!"

YOU HAVE INSUFFICIENT DATA TO MAKE A LIFE-CHANGING REQUEST

"You don't really know what it is that you're asking!" As a matter of fact, when Jesus came to the absolute completion of his battle with evil, it was on a cross, and on his right hand and on his left were two criminals. For Jesus was lifted up on a cross. It was not at that time considered a place of honor.

"But that isn't what we meant!"

"Of course not ... but that is what I've come to show you!" Then Jesus went on to say that his kingdom was not to be like the power-structures of the world.

The power structures of the First Century were despotic, grand, top-down. Caesar Augustus, Nero, Galba— all were examples of top-down power. Jesus said that he would build his kingdom on servant power, and that he, himself, would be servant of all. That is something we have a hard time understanding.

Dick Rice is a counselor in the St. Paul Minneapolis area. He had the opportunity to interview Mother Teresa, and he asked her, "Mother, what is, would you say, your most difficult problem?" Immediately, he felt maybe he shouldn't have asked the question.

But Mother Teresa came right back and said, "Professionalism." Rice blinked and repeated "Professionalism?" "Yes," said Mother Teresa. "When I send a sister off to school to become a nurse or a doctor, she returns with her degrees and diplomas, I always have to interrupt her after a while in her work. She has become too intellectual about her work. She has lost the personal touch. So I send her down to the ward where we have people with advanced diseases who are dying. I tell her to just sit with them, empty their bedpans, hold their hand, feed them. Then, after a couple of months I let her go back to her work." If anyone was ever a no-nonsense person, but a happy person, it was Mother Teresa. In her reply she got to the heart of what Jesus was saying to James and John when they craved power.

JESUS KNEW THE JOY OF SERVING

Jesus came to turn the structures of this world— the accepted norms and values— upside down. He said (Acts 20:35) "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive!"

There is JOY in being able to give, to serve, to get the center of the Universe somewhere out beyond our own navel.

Did you ever hear of the McLandress Coefficient? When I was studying pastoral care many years ago I read about the "McLandress Coefficient;"      Herschel McLandress was a professor of psychiatric measurement at Harvard Medical School, and he developed a way to measure a person's degree of self absorption. In spoken and written material he measured the use of "I," "me," and "my" and the "Coefficient" was the longest span of time a person can remain diverted from himself.

Eleanor Roosevelt was supposed to have a McLandress coefficient of two hours; John F. Kennedy's was twenty nine minutes, and Elizabeth Taylor's was three minutes. The reason I don't dare fill in God's blank check and ask for "power" or "glory" for myself could just be that I need to talk about me, when maybe Jesus wants to talk about something else. How is your McLandress Coefficient?

Could we take the McLandress Coefficient another step, and see how long we can go after getting up in the morning without thinking about God and grace and the love that surrounds us?

Could we even take it further and see how far we might be able to go into the day and week without ever once thinking about the needs of those we meet?

I only really became aware of the remarkable spirit of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, of Chicago, last year as he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer but refused to feel sorry for himself— and continued his ministry of preaching the grace of Christ to others who were dying. I was impressed by a spirit of serving that reached across barriers. Then I found out that ten years before his death just this year Joseph Bernadin had written a little book, Christ Lives in Me, words he had evidently found grace to live and die by:

"'As a people redeemed by Jesus' blood, we are called to a radically new way of life in which the criteria of success are totally different from the world's criteria. Now that the Word has become flesh, we cannot be overly concerned with ourselves... our petty vanities and prejudices, our hostilities and fleeting attachments... our vision must not be limited... we are a people called to a new intimacy and friendship with God. We are a people who reflect, with new brightness and beauty, the image and likeness of God; a people, who in the totality of our humanity are expected to express the values which Jesus realized in his own life. We are a people to whom much has been given and from whom much will be expected."

"Joseph Bernardin left behind more than words. I believe that he aspired to and achieved this true gospel greatness that Jesus was speaking about; he spent himself in the service of others.

How can we claim to be Christ's when everything we do and say revolves around US? Even in our worship and praying we cannot escape this selfish way of living. How do we escape our "Self?"

We admire those who are servants. like, say, our own 'Mother Teresa,' Esther Sanger, and the lowly servant path she walked, and we are sure she was a saint; but the desire for center stage and for power runs deep. Deep down inside we are fascinated by raw power and wealth and respect and notoriety, wherever its source. So the question:

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU? is there for us to face. (Already, by our lives and prayers and attitudes, we are answering Christ's question!) If God would grant you your one heart petition— what would it be? Be careful— for it might just happen!

Do you dare to say -      Lord, YOU be the center of my life?

Lord, help me think of You in all I am -      YOU fill in the blank check you've offered to me!      Let me dare to follow you and be like you!

PRAYER - Almighty and everlasting God, who in your Son, the Suffering Servant Jesus Christ has shown to us the way of love: Grant that we Your church may persevere in that servant love to confess You before three worlds*; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. (*Ephesians 3:10 again!)

490 - O to be Like Thee then 535 - Make Me a Servant