Sunday, July 31, 2011

Pursuit

The sermon today was truly constructed by the church.  The painting was, of course, the most obvious feature of the sermon.  It was located center stage and expertly painted through the duration of the lesson.  While the paint was applied to the canvas stories were being told.  One after a another the stories came.  We heard different voices telling the same story of helplessness, service, and then hope.  The stories were all the same yet they were all different.  Different people; different types of suffering; different servants.  Yet they were all the same.  The overall story that bound them all together was that of Jesus washing the disciple's feet.  My job was simply to point to Jesus.  He's the one who has truly brought everything together. 

As I reflect on the sermon, I keep thinking about the servants we heard about.  Largely nameless, shrouded in obscurity, yet serving in ways that deeply impacted the lives of those being served.  The servants were us!  Those were our stories.  But if we talk to Elaine or Bob or Nick or Jana or Boyce or Toni or any of the others who's acts of service were told; they might say, "I was just doing something that needed to be done."  Servants just serve.

The lesson I walked away with this morning is this: Don't TRY to have an impact on others; just serve those in need.  God is the one who changes lives.  Our job is to wash feet. 

"I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. . . . .  Now that you know these things; you will be blessed if you do them." (John 13:15, 17)
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I thought yesterday’s service was truly uplifting. There were several moments when my eyes teared up by the warmth of worship that were going on around me. The father was no doubt with us yesterday as we each praised His name!

I love your last take away line, “Don't TRY to have an impact on others; just serve those in need.” A few weeks ago a close friend of mine asked me to write on my blog about the homeless ministry. I hadn’t really thought much about writing about it until then, never crossed my mind. But as I began collecting thoughts and recollecting the experience of charity I found the same theme that you yourself hinted upon. Too often we (followers of Christos) start up a ministry or program or whatever in hopes of helping people out, doing something, anything. But then our motivation for helping people becomes about us fixing something or changing something, or impacting something we ourselves cannot do. This is not a popular idea I know. But we too often forget about God’s providence and focus entirely on our own agendas and efforts. We forget that God is the One who changes lives. We’re just here to wash some feet!

You completely right in saying that to wrap up anything we need only point to Jesus. The same should go for all “work” being done. Just point to Christ and say, “Because my Master did so first…”

August 1, 2011 at 8:01 AM

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