A phrase that a professor of mine once told me still haunts me and it goes like this: “you’ll know you’re a servant of God when you’re treated like one.” At first glance, this sounds inviting, but upon further investigation, it sounds much less romantic.
Throughout world history, men and women who claim to be servants of God have been treated poorly for their convictions and often, true servants are willing to take a lower place because Jesus models it. The Bible has a story in the Gospels where Jesus kneels down and begins to wash the disciples’ feet. This was a job for servants in that time period and feet washing was a particularly low job for low servants.
In Hebrews 11:36-38, we read these words: “Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them.” And, so, does this mean that all service must be seen in the light of suffering? Is all service low and difficult?
I am not sure, but I do know that service thinks of other people first. Perhaps, few people desire to grow up to be servants, but most everyone can remember a time in their life when exceptional service made a huge difference. Whether it’s extraordinary customer service, where the person takes a genuine interest in meeting your consumer needs, going the extra mile, and making you the center of attention for a time. And if quality customer service doesn’t come to mind, think of a time when you were not treated well in a restaurant or at a business. How did that experience make you feel? Did your perception change of that business or restaurant because of the lack of good service?
Claiming to be servants of God who treat others poorly simply doesn’t work. Like a restaurant whose service results in the wrong order arriving thirty minutes late or a mechanic who leaves your car in worse shape, servants of God must seek to lift expectations, not lower them.
My mother does housekeeping work at a nursing home and on the side she cleans other people’s homes. She’s done this kind of work for over half my life. Weekly she dusts other people’s offices and homes and she cleans, vacuums, and mops a local church and two local businesses. She serves well, but the interesting part is that there is no surplus of people asking for her jobs or seeking to do what she does. And it’s not because she’s doing things for free or lacking paychecks, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of her work looks like service to other people and that is often not what we aspire to. If we’re honest, we aspire to status more than service.
Pastor and author Timothy Keller puts it this way:
“What, then, is service? Serving is putting the needs of others ahead of our own, or putting the needs of the community ahead of our individual needs.”1
This doesn’t mean we neglect our own personal needs, because that would negatively impact our service. Unhealthy people or burned out people or people in crisis don’t make the best servants and deep down we know this to be true. So, while service isn’t born out of self-preservation, service isn’t self-serving either. Neither extreme is helpful. Instead, service is grounded in the model and grace of Jesus and delivered through the good gifts granted to us.
Again, Keller observes this:
“Work is taking the raw material of creation and developing it for the sake of others. Musicians take the raw material of sound and bring the meaning of art into our lives. Farmers take the raw material of soil and seed and bring food into our lives. This means we are God’s ministers in our work…when we are simply doing our work.”
So, as we get up and go to work, we are reminded daily that true, solid, excellent service is re-creative and redemptive. God takes the raw material of our lives and brings faith, hope, and love in to a hurting and fractured world. Perhaps, this is what the phrase ‘worship service’ really means.
ENDNOTES
1 Timothy Keller. “Discerning and Exercising Spiritual Gifts.” (2007); redeemercitytocity.com.