Impressive service

from Helen

I was at a Sports Chaplaincy training day last week. One of the speakers there was very impressive, he was American, he had come over to this country to plant Churches which he has done. He was speaking about who we are before God and what our identity is. We are known by lots of titles such as friend, family member, our job titles etc, the speaker was saying that it is all about who we are as a follower of God that is the most important identity we have. 

This was even more of a challenge as it turned out that he was a highly trained person with medical degrees coming out of his ears, a doctorate  in theology and he had been a well known American football player. In addition to this he was a sports chaplain. In the midst of all this for him the most important bit that never went away was being in a relationship with God.

We can all naturally be impressed by someone’s credentials but all that really matters is who we are before God. In our gospel reading (Mark 10:35-45) this morning we heard of James and John, disciples of Jesus deciding who was the greatest and who deserved the best place which they thought would be to be at the side of Jesus in heaven, they were perhaps thinking in terms of how other people would see them that maybe they would be seen as having authority and being looked up to.

Of course Jesus pointed out to them that actually to be great in  the kingdom of God to have your identity as a child of God means being like Him and serving others. Jesus told them that to be like Him did mean that they would suffer but that suffering would be part of being one of the followers of God. That things wouldn’t always be easy but God would always be with them. They wouldn’t be great in the eyes of the world but they would know the greatest thing of all which is Jesus and what it means to live like He did and to put Him first. With our identity in Jesus so we can trust that even when things don’t make sense to us God is in control. 

There is a lovely story of a little girl whose father was trying desperately to read a magazine even though she kept bothering him. In the end he had had enough and so he tore a sheet out of his magazine, on

which was printed the map of the world. Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it to his daughter and said, "Go into the other room and see if you can put this together."

After a few minutes, the girl returned and handed him the map correctly fitted together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly.

"Oh," she said, "on the other side of the paper was a picture of Jesus. When I got Jesus in His place, then the world came out all right."

This is a really lovely story that reminds us of the need to look to Jesus the servant in order for us to find our identity and to realise what is really important. That by putting Jesus first and being more like Him means that the world will fall into place.

We follow Jesus the King who suffered. We find who we are as we turn to our creator and we realise that what is most important is to serve not to be served.

Back to James and John, I wonder if as brothers they always tried to outdo each other. As with lots of families siblings can argue with each other but when their parents get involved siblings can join together to gang up on their parents. We don’t know this, but you can almost imagine that James and John saw an opportunity to work together to get a position of influence and power. 

I wonder if maybe we look to serve our own needs, and the needs of those we love this is both important and natural  but it should never take the place of serving those in need, those who need our help. Sometimes with power and influence people lose sight of Jesus and who they were in the first place. We all need a reminder from time to time that we are blessed, we have homes, we have one another but there are those in need around us who need to be served. 

We are part of the Church which is the body of Christ but sadly there are times when that body looks like it is more interested in itself and its own importance rather than a body that is ready to serve. A body serving in the way Jesus served, offering help to those in need, offering care and compassion, offering practical support for those worse off than ourselves offering the sort of unconditional love that Jesus Himself offers.

During the American Revolution War a company of soldiers under the command of a captain was building a fort out of a pile of heavy logs. While wrestling with a log which was to form the topstone and was really too heavy for the men to handle, the captain kept yelling at his men "heave it up", while he himself stood by with his hands on his hips.

Suddenly a stranger in everyday clothing rode up on horseback, and seeing the soldiers sweating and struggling with the log, he stopped and asked the captain why he was not helping his men. "I AM AN OFFICER" was the reply.

With that the stranger leapt off his horse, took off his coat, and helped the men put the heavy log in place. Then, as he was about to ride away, he said to the captain "Next time you need help, just call on me. My name is George Washington and I am Commander In Chief of The United States Army!"

Our importance is in our identity as servants of God. We can only truly serve God by being more like Him, by serving, by knowing that the first will be last. 

Our identity is in Christ who serves, who loves unconditionally and all He asks of us is that we will follow Him.  By following Him we will learn to serve more, to love even when it is tough and all safe in the knowledge that it doesn’t  matter how important we are in terms of the world because we are important enough that Jesus died for us. AMEN