Sermon # 4: Who Comes First?
Delivered on: October  11, 2009

Albert Schweitzer, a famous physician and missionary, once said: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found a way to serve.” [Albert Schweitzer [Homiletics Vol.16, no. 3 (May-June 2004) p. 15.]

It was just before the Passover Feast [the annual Jewish celebration of their liberation from slavery in Egypt].  . . . The evening meal was in progress . . .; so Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. . . .

When Jesus had finished washing their feet, Jesus put on his clothes and returned to his place.  Jesus asked his followers,  “Do you understand what I have done for you?” “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s 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 13:1-17, excerpts

In ‘The Charlotte Observer’ a month ago, there was an article [“Parent to Parent” by Betsy Flagler] for parents who had preschool-age children.  The article suggested that parents teach their children correct behaviors such how to wash their hands.  So far, so good.  Then, one suggestion offended me.  The suggestion was “Sharing is overrated.”  The article said that because adults do not share their cars or other toys with their neighbors, we should not put so much emphasis on children sharing.  When children fight over a toy, the columnist suggested parents go out and buy more toys so that every child had their own separate toy.  This advice against sharing helped create this Great Recession.

Two weeks later, the columnist [Sept. 15, 2009, 2D] reported that she received many negative reactions to her statement that “sharing is overrated”:

From Atlanta:  “It is imperative to learn at a very young age that ‘It is not always about you.’  Whether in the office or in the community, sacrifice and sharing are essential to good citizenship.”

Another person: “Sharing is the basis for society and foundation of respect for others. . . .  A world without sharing is a world of selfishness and disrespect -- qualities that unfortunately are on the rise today but can be quelled with proper parenting.”

I agree.  Tammy Shue, our Preschool Director, and I concurred that in our Preschool we need to teach our children to share and care for one another.

I believe that all of us affirm the value of sharing and caring.  Most of us were taught as children to share and help one another.  When someone falls down, we help them up.  When someone needs a push on the swing, we push hard.  When someone needs help picking up toys, we join in.  Unfortunately, sharing and caring have become less visible.

For several weeks, I have been talking about how to have upsized lives in a downsized economy.  In the midst of this Great Recession, how do we focus on true priorities?  How do we right size our relationship with our possessions, other people, and our God?  I have suggested that Jesus offers us three behaviors and attitudes that may help us get out of this Great Recession: simplicity, service, and generosity.

Last week, I suggested that the first habit that may lead us out of the Great Depression is simplicity.  If we could be content with what we have rather than distressed by what we do not have, our lives would be richer.  But simplicity is just the start.

This morning, to survive this Great Depression, I believe that the second virtue we need to cultivate is serving.  To offer ourselves to others who need help more than us.  The only way to get out of the hole in which we have dug for ourselves is to help each other up out of the hole.

In a previous sermon, I shared some of the lessons my Grandmother learned during the Great Depression.  One of those lessons Grandmother described to me were ways that people served one another.  When a hobo arrived at the back steps, the family always gave food.  When Grandmother’s sisters did not have clothes for school, Grandmother made them new dresses.  When the first child in her family finished college, he was expected to help the next child through college, and so the pattern repeated itself.  Every one of Grandmother’s siblings went to college because each older sibling made it possible.

That is not how we now we have been living during this past generation.  When we hear that someone has no food, we tell them to go get a job.  When someone has no clothes, we send them to Goodwill.  If a person has no money for education, we tell them to borrow against their future.

Jesus Christ offered a different path.  He told his friends that you find authentic life not by caring first for yourself but by emptying yourself in service.  The Gospels make clear that Jesus viewed himself not as a ruler but as a servant.  Jesus once said, "I have come not to be served but to serve" (Mark 10:45).

Jesus’ life demonstrated this truth.  Jesus was born in the starkest of simplicity and served by teaching, healing, and feeding the hungry.  Jesus exhibited a passionate enthusiasm for the forgotten people of his day: women, children, the poor, and the dying.

Jesus’ path reversed the typical expectations of our society dominated by self-centeredness.  How can serving others bring true happiness?  A person in my Grandmother’s generation caught Jesus’ vision when she said about the Great Depression:

I guess it was because we weren’t worried about getting ahead.  You couldn’t get ahead no matter how hard you tried so you just didn’t worry about it.  But folks pulled together.  If a family didn’t have enough to eat, somebody would leave a basket of food on their porch.  You knew it could just as easily be you.  The funny thing was when times got better it wasn’t the same.  We focused on buying houses, working all the time.  We forgot each other.  We lost something after that time.

The truth is that nothing has the capacity to bring us so much joy as genuine acts of selfless service.

Jesus demonstrated that God, the Supreme Ruler, is also the Eternal Servant.  To illustrate this essential message, on the evening before his death, Jesus demonstrated a way of living that leads to real, lasting joy.  Jesus took off his cloak and wrapped it around his waist.  He picked up a basin of water and a towel.  Then Jesus Christ performed the most menial of tasks; a duty fit only for a lowly servant.  In one of the most powerful images of the Bible, the Son of God on his hands and knees humbly washed the dust and grime off the feet of people too concerned about their pecking order to ever do such a thing for one another.

As we seek to serve, not just as a worship act but as a model of life, service becomes the new context for everything we do.  Our work, our family, and any other place we have influence is an opportunity to offer ourselves for the benefit of our neighbors.

Every year, in this congregation, I invite you to fill out a Time and Talent Commitment Card.  You may find some at the end of your pew this morning.  The brochure asks you some simple questions:

• Will you spend a few minutes in prayer for this congregation and its members?
• Will you be faithful in worship?
• Will you participate or even lead a small group in this place?
• Will you join one of the missions supported by this congregation?

Some of you may suspect that we only pass out these cards to build up this congregation.  At one level, your participation makes Central a stronger congregation.  At a much more profound level, I am offering you the opportunity to upsize your life in this downsized economy.

Honestly, there are advantages for you in serving!  There are rewards!  I know that people who serve are profoundly happier than people who concentrate on getting ahead.  How is that possible?  The answer: a servant-attitude fulfills two fundamental human longings -- to connect and to contribute.

First of all, serving helps us connect not to our possessions but to people.  God created us for communion and for fellowship within ourselves, with the people around us, and ultimately with God who created us.

When you deliver a meal to a shut-in, sing in the choir, spend a Saturday working on a Habitat House, teach a lesson in Sunday School, go on a mission trip to New Mexico, buy a can of food for the hungry, assist with Vacation Bible School, attend a board meeting of a community mission, or send a card to a friend in need, we find joy beyond compare.

To serve a meal in the homeless shelter or visit someone in the hospital gets us down beneath pretenses.  We experience not so much our self-sufficiency, but our connection with other people.  And in the midst of drawing closer to one another, we draw closer to God.

In this congregation, people have rallied around Pastor Reta and husband Todd in their time of need.  People have taken them food, cared for their animals, driven her to the doctors, provided for them financially, and simply sat and listened.  At no time have I heard anyone ask, “How long will this continue?”  Every one of our actions reminded Reta and Todd that they are not alone.  And such behavior has happened to other people in this congregation in other ways: Dana Richardson and Lauren Cheek most recently.

Beyond connecting, service also allows us to contribute to something bigger than ourselves.  Does your life really make a difference?  Is the world better off for what you have done?  You may feel that if you really want to contribute, you have to turn your whole life upside down, empty your bank account, abandon your family and work, and commit yourself to a cloistered religious community.  Few people can ever make such dramatic contributions.

Yet, contributing may also be doing what you have always done in a new way. One manager sees his job as meeting the bottom line; another sees herself as mentoring young people in her company.  A waiter may think of his job as just delivering a meal.  Another waitress may see herself as making people feel at home.  Every one of us needs to begin to see in the small things of life that we have something unique to contribute and offer.

Where do you contribute?  No everyone can change the world, but simple acts can make a major difference in your connection with God and other people.  When a racist joke is told, speak out for justice.  When the sign-up sheet is passed to you, sign up.  When an elderly neighbor’s yard needs cutting, cut it.  When the hat is passed, drop in a dollar.  When a car wants to enter the line of traffic, let it in.  The list is endless.  But each small action begins to change not only the ones you help; your actions also begin to change you.

Connecting and contributing are two gifts that service fulfills.  In addition, service also provides one more primary benefit: joy.

One of the church staff very few of you often see is Jeff Hampton.  Jeff has been one of our church custodians for almost twenty years.  Jeff is a Marine veteran with a purple heart, and also worked in the North Carolina prison system.  Jeff arrives before anyone else and turns on lights, and comes back after we leave and picks up our trash.  Jeff cares for these church buildings like his own home.  Jeff is not a soft man, but a tough ex-Marine drill sergeant.  He is passionate about his golf and has no use for people who cross him.

In the past few months, I have seen a side of Jeff lately that overwhelms me.  Jeff has become the primary caregiver to his brother Jonnie and his wife Phyllis.  Jeff’s older brother Jonnie is a diabetic who had a major stroke and is still disabled.  When Jeff became concerned about his brother’s care, Jeff moved his brother from Philadelphia down to a hospital bed in Jeff’s own house.  Every day Jeff washes, shaves, feeds, and provides medication to his brother.

Phyllis, Jeff’s wife, who also once worked at Central, has a chronic pulmonary illness.  She is often tired and unable to do many tasks around the house.  Jeff, therefore, does the family washing, cleaning, and driving.  Added to his brother and wife, Jeff also provides support to his father-in-law Samuel, who also once worked at Central, and is now over ninety years old.  Jeff says that at the end of every day he is worn out physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I asked Jeff, “Why are you doing all this?  You did not have to bring your brother into your home.  You have other family members who can help with Phyllis and Samuel.  You should be retired and playing more golf.  Have you taken on too big a load?”

Jeff replied that he gives this care because he wants to serve his family.  His grandparents who raised him taught him “to do onto others as you would have them do to you.”  Jeff speaks of the “great satisfaction of seeing others improve.”  He says “love makes it easier.”  Jeff assumes that “they would do the same for me.”  In summary, Jeff says about service, “beats everything else in life.”

Think about it.  Giving your brother daily care.  Taking care of the house by yourself.  Feeling responsible for your father-in-law.  Doing so day after day without an end in sight.  Yet Jeff says that this service “beats everything else in life.”

Do you long for such deep contentment and joy?  Jeff’s life demonstrates that we will only find our true selves by losing our preoccupation with ourselves.  Joyfully connecting and contributing are gifts we discover as we serve.  As we serve others, we replace the old attitude of being served with contributing to the needs of others.  In other words, we become like Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.

May God help us discover that service leads to joy.  Filling out that Time and Talent Commitment card is the right place to start.

Questions for Thought and Discussion This Week:

1.  Who are the people who have served you?  At home?  At school? At church?  At work?  In our community?

2.  How have you repaid those acts of service?

3.  Would someone know that you are a follower of Jesus by how you live?

4.  Have you experienced connecting, contributing, and joy when you have served?

5.  Have you filled in your Time and Talent pledge card?