Our Vows: Service

I'm gonna go out of order here. Normally this would be gifts, but I really want to go ahead and cover service before I lose the train of thought that I have for it. So thank you for your patience (or whatever it is) and indulgence.

One of the vows we take (or should) is the vow to support the Church, the Body of Christ as a whole, with our service. So what does that mean? I know that for me, many times it brings to mind the images of helping others, and mission work either overseas or on short term mission trips. These are all great things, but it seems that in some ways we have glorified the idea of being a missionary to almost a rock star kind of status. Does that make sense? We like to bring in the people who are called to Africa and to China and the Middle East and hear what they have to say and we look at them with a sense of awe many times...I know that I have felt that way when I think about people that have done such things. I'm not saying that we shouldn't respect them or anything like that, but I think there is more to this vow of service than that.

The story comes to mind of Mary and Martha. These two ladies were the sisters of Lazarus. They were friends of Jesus. In fact they had him over to their house on at least one occasion. Having Jesus over would have been a pretty big deal you know? So Martha begins to do exactly what Roni or Mom would do--she starts to clean and work. She is cooking and getting everything ready for dinner while Jesus and the guys are hanging in the living room doing what they do. I imagine that Jesus was teaching and the guys were listening. Maybe he was just hanging out and sharing some stories from the road--like we youth ministers tend to do when we get together. Whatever it was that he was doing, Mary was right there with them. She was sitting at Jesus' feet listening to him and just taking in what he had to say. So here is poor Martha who is running around like crazy, doing women were expected to do at that time, she was doing the serving and playing hostess.

Now I have been around both Roni and Mom as they are doing this kind of thing, and I can tell you, they are not exactly relaxed in doing this. In fact they are a little stressed about it. They would like to have a little help in fact. This is where we find Martha. She is working her tail off and all she really wants is a little help from her sister who is going against what tradition and custom says she should be doing. So Martha understandably goes to Jesus and asks if he will please send Mary to help her. "I've been working all day to make sure that everything is the way it is supposed to be and she is just sitting here not lifting a finger to help, Lord. I am serving here."

At this point Jesus gently rebukes Martha. "Martha, you are serving you're right, but you see Mary has chosen the better part of this deal." This makes it sound a bit like Jesus is telling Martha that her serving is not important. That however isn't the case. What we can take from this as far as what our vow of service means is this: in order for us to have an attitude of service like Jesus (which we should), we must also sit at His feet and learn from Him what it really means to serve others.

Philippians 2:3-8 Paul talks about the attitude of service that Jesus had. He willing left behind (at least temporarily) being an eternal part of the Trinity in order to carry out God's plan of salvation and redemption for humanity. He died on the cross in order to see God's plan fulfilled. He did the things that had to be done, not just the parts that He wanted to do.

I don't think there is any better example of this found in Scripture than in the beginning of chapter 13 of John's Gospel. Here Jesus knows that his time has come. This is it, his last meal with the disciples. They are of course all there: Peter, John, James, Andrew---Judas. Jesus knows what will happen to himself and these men in the next few hours. He knows that all of them but John will run away when he is arrested; he knows that Peter will deny him three times, likely all within earshot of Jesus, when pressed about being associated with him; he knows too that Judas will soon be going to see the leading priests and collecting 30 pieces of silver in return for his betrayal of Jesus. And yet, Jesus does something that is amazing.

Jesus stands up, removes is robe, wraps a towel around his waist, fills basin with water and begins to wash the feet of these 12 men. Think about what that means for a second. These were men who walked everywhere they went. They either wore leather sandles or were barefoot. The roads were dusty to say the least, their feet would have been sweaty from walking and the heat of the day. They would be caked with dirt and who knows what else. They would smell. They could have fungus on them. This was a common courtesy extended to guests in the Jewish custom when they entered the house. It was however done by the lowest of the slaves, and not by a Jewish slave even, that is how bad it was. And yet Jesus, the Lord and Rabbi for these 12 men takes it upon himself to play the part of the servant and wash their feet.

He knew what was about to happen, who would deny him, runaway from him and betray him, and yet he did it anyway. This is the attitude to service that Paul is talking about in Philippians 2. It is service in it's purest form. As a my friend Zac said "it is the performing of certain tasks which are motivated by Love, not by any desire for self-fulfillment or gain." It is the kind of service that we are vowing to offer when we say we will support the Body of Christ with our service. Peace and Love y'all.