Dear Friends
We were on holiday in Exeter, and decided to go to Evensong in the Cathedral. We were shown in and told to sit where we pleased. Since we wanted to be near the Choir we sat in some side seats near the front, facing where we thought the Choir would be.
I put it down to being an uncultured Nonconformist and long term Baptist! The Dean (we learned afterwards) came forward and said, ever so courteously, that these too were choir seats. But we could sit ‘over there’, which meant gathering our bits and pieces and, heads down, relocating to the nave, like everyone else!
Jesus was right. It’s embarrassing to be in the best seats and be told to move. Time and again Jesus’ words teach us about meekness, humility, not always wanting to be first, best and loudest.
Then there was that disciples’ dressing room argument about who was the most important, the one that matters most, or the one that gets to make the big decisions. Mark tells the story in his Gospel. Big argument amongst the disciples; Who would have the honour of sitting on Jesus’ right and left hand in the Kingdom of God?
Jesus’ answer is the first and last word about leadership, the gift of service and the call to mutual care for one another within the community of His followers.
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10. 42-45)
If service is beneath you, leadership is beyond you. That, in a nutshell, is a Christian theology of leadership. Imagine the ill feeling, resentment and division amongst Jesus’ carefully chosen disciples. This was the kind of division that makes people want to walk away. That’s why Mark begins by saying “Jesus called them together.” This isn’t about them. Their individual self-interest is irrelevant, their ambitions are misplaced, and their over-confidence in their own importance are just selfish reasons to argue. So Jesus calls them together.
The way of the world is domination, the way of the Kingdom is service. Authority is all about power and pride, service is all about compassion and humility. Mark makes that point too. “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served…” If we are following Jesus then we follow a Servant King. Unless we serve each other we are not exercising Christ-like leadership. The Christian criterion of all devotion to Jesus is the cross, the hallmark of genuine Christ-like service is the self-giving love of God in Christ. The Christian who wants to be first for Jesus’ sake, will not wait till someone else picks up the basin and the towel. In washing each other’s feet, in that at least, they will be first.
All of this becomes very important to us as a church community during these days of separation. And the longer our time without meeting goes on the more important it is to hear again Jesus words about his ministry, and the ministry to which he calls each of us. We are called together by Jesus, to be with Him, to be with each other, and to discover the joy and the cost and the fulfilment of being His servants.
Graham Kendrick has written a lot of hymns, probably like Charles Wesley, too many hymns. And like Charles Wesley, there are a few masterpieces, quite a lot of good ones, and quite a few that only bear singing now and again and maybe then best forgotten. But The Servant King is one of the great hymns of the past 40 years. The last verse distils into lovely simplicity the essential teaching of Jesus about leadership, service, fellowship and being called together by Jesus, to serve him, and each other:
So let us learn how to serve
And in our lives enthrone Him
Each other's needs to prefer
For it is Christ we're serving.
This is our God, The Servant King,
He calls us now to follow Him;
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to The Servant King.
Your friend and pastor,
Jim Gordon
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