CHS, Plymouth
Proper 20, Year B
September 22, 2024
Verna Dozier in the Washington National Cathedral pulpit, 1985
But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
It’s often interesting to note whom Jesus is talking to when one is interpreting a particular saying of his. In this case, his audience is the twelve disciples, but there must have been at least a few other people hanging around, because otherwise where would Jesus have gotten a random toddler to “put among them”?
So the message is primarily for the core group, but was certainly overheard by others. I think we can safely assume that this is an instruction that everyone who aspires to follow Jesus should take seriously.
Before we talk about what it means, I want to flag three things that I think this passage doesn’t mean.
First, being the servant of all does not mean performative humility.
Performative humility means acting like a servant in order to get people to like you, pity you, or pay attention to you. It’s kind of a contradiction in terms, because of course true humility is the opposite of performative – the people who are genuinely humble would never dream of claiming to be humble, or expecting to be celebrated for what they do.
Second: being the servant of all does not mean making yourself miserable. It doesn’t mean that you have to do the tasks you like the least and never have any fun. It doesn’t mean never taking a break, or having no boundaries.
At the clergy conference earlier this week, a roomful of 40+ deacons, priests and bishops talked about the ministry of the laity, the ordinary Christians in the pews who aren’t ordained. This sounds like a joke, but it’s actually an extremely important conversation to have.
The conference leader (the retired Dean of the Cathedral in Vancouver) handed out a packet with many short readings on the subject. One was one from Pope Francis, and included the sentence, “Service is one-directional, it is not a round trip.” This assertion brought me up short and my response was “absolutely not”. The Pope has said many wise things, but he missed the boat on this one. All work, all service, all use of our gifts as Christians, takes place in a context of mutuality. We are all connected in Christ’s body. None of us are ever only giving or only receiving. We always get something in return for our efforts, even if it is only the internal satisfaction of having done our duty.
But even doing one’s duty is pretty cold comfort if that’s the only part of the job that gives any satisfaction. And offering one’s efforts in service to God in a spirit of grudging exhaustion, doing tasks one is not actually suited for, that drain one’s energy and enthusiasm – this kind of offering may occasionally be necessary, but trying to sustain it long term is close to impossible, and most likely to lead to burnout (not to mention that it will probably result in the work being done badly).
Each of us must find the way that we are called to be a servant that also enables us to share in the joy of co-creating with God.
I’ll say that again: each of us must find the way that we are called to be a servant, that also enables us to share in the joy of co-creating, co-redeeming, co-sustaining with God.
And that means not just doing “church work”. Because the third misconception about what it means to be a servant of all, is that somehow Jesus’ call on our lives is limited to things like serving on the Altar Guild and being the church treasurer. Which are extremely important and meaningful ministries! But they are only a tiny slice of the possible ways to be a servant to the people of God and make the love of God present in the world.
As I’ve been saying from the beginning and will keep saying until I’m blue in the face, ordination is only one of a myriad of ways to have a calling, only one of a myriad of ways to devote oneself to ministry.
And the way one recognizes the ministry that one is called to, is by the fact that it both feeds something deep and necessary inside you, and addresses the world’s crying need for food and shelter, learning and hope, truth and beauty. To quote Frederick Buechner, using a phrase that is a cliché because it’s true: “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
During the conference this past week, Dean Elliott invited us to share with each other stories of lay people who had had a significant impact on our lives and callings. Many of them, unsurprisingly, were teachers of one kind or another: an elementary school teacher, a seminary professor, the founder of a school for the Deaf. And our materials quoted extensively from the great Christian thinker Verna Dozier, a Black American woman who taught school for more than three decades before moving into professional church work. Dozier writes, “When I began my second career, people would say, ‘You taught school for thirty-two years, then you began your ministry.’ In my unredeemed way, I would steel myself and reply through clenched teeth, ‘No, I continued my ministry.’” Dozier’s years of shaping young minds, first in segregated Black schools and then in integrated schools, were absolutely a ministry, a use of her God-given talents for the good of others, a way of being a servant to those children whom God welcomes.
But of course, teaching is likewise not the only calling through which we can serve God’s children and change the world. Any work worth doing – paid or volunteer, part time or full time, at home or out in the world – is worth doing for (literally) God’s sake. Just looking around this congregation, I can think of example after example: Chris making music; Barbara sharing the work of great artists; Marie-Claude working with children with special needs; Bob bringing history alive; Yvonne coordinating nursing care for those who need it; Micheline designing clothes; and on and on. And think of our beloved saints – Bert making sure the electrical system doesn’t explode, Verna Dottin taking part in the great work of healing.
I’m sure you can think of your own – depending on your circumstances it may not be something you have the opportunity to do right now, but surely there is something that gets you fired up, that pulls you to get out there and serve the world in God’s name.
(And this is one of the many reasons why I love having young people in church – because it gives us a chance to have this conversation before they’ve decided on their career path.)
So: what is it? Why is it so appealing to you, and how does it make you a servant to God’s children? If you’re not doing it now, how could you reshape your life to make it possible? If you are, have you stopped to think and reflect about why you find it so satisfying, and the impact you’ve had on others?
Because if we follow that calling faithfully, in genuine humility and servanthood, doing what gives us deep gladness while meeting the world’s deep hungers, we will indeed be first in the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
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