{"id":935,"date":"2004-04-08T01:11:08","date_gmt":"2004-04-08T01:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=935"},"modified":"2020-12-02T15:36:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:36:04","slug":"servanthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/servanthood\/","title":{"rendered":"Servanthood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maundy Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 8, 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Servanthood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 13:1-17<\/a>, 31b-35<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a story about a Christian from India who was visiting New York City for the first time. One morning his host took him down into the Times Square subway station right at the peak of the rush hour. The visitor was shocked by what he saw\u2014men and women carrying briefcases and rushing frantically to jump onto trains, each person pushing and shoving to get ahead of the person in front of them. After he watched for a few minutes, he asked his host, \u201cIs there a wolf behind them?\u201d His host replied, \u201cNo, there\u2019s a dollar in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our world today, we are all trying to get ahead and forgetting that Jesus taught us to be servants. We rather be CEOs and CFOs instead of being simply employees. We serve the mighty dollar. We can all point to plenty of people, in our society and elsewhere, who lord it over others and take advantage of power, wealth or position. It isn\u2019t hard to open today\u2019s newspapers and find stories of athletes, government officials, executives and others in positions of authority, including clergy, who have abused the power and trust others have placed on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The root of the Protestant Reformation and eventually who we are as Baptists today were a response to people\u2019s disillusionment with clergy who lost their sense of servanthood and abused their power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this passage from John 13<\/a>, Jesus took off his outer robe and tied a towel around himself. He poured water into a basin and began washing the disciples\u2019 feet and wiping them with the towel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he got to Peter, Peter said, \u201cLord, are you going to wash my feet? You will never wash my feet.\u201d He thought it was demeaning to Jesus to allow him to wash his feet. We think at times that God could not possibly care or love us so much, or want to be so close to us that God would dirty his hands with our daily affairs. We think it\u2019s demeaning, a denigration of the dignity of God, to believe that the great Creator of the universe could possibly lower himself to be beneath our level, to care so deeply about our little lives. And yet Jesus says to Peter that unless he washes Peter\u2019s feet, Peter will not have a relationship with him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God cares, and wants to help and empower us, to make us clean, to forgive and set us free. God has served us in Christ Jesus. God has given God\u2019s very self for us. If we refuse God\u2019s caring for us, we refuse to have any part in God. So Peter said to Jesus, \u201cLord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!\u201d Peter wants his whole body to be cleaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to be completely clean and new again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being Servants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the reason why we invited our newly baptized church members to read Scripture tonight. Through their baptism, they are like Peter who not only wants his feet to be washed but his entire body. We give ourselves to God completely and become servants for Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason why every congregation gets excited over baptism is that it needs in their midst new believers, newly baptized, newly embracing the Good News. The newness of being cleaned again can seem old to us and we need to be reminded again and again. That is why mission and evangelism are central and vital to the work of the church. Unless we are washing feet, unless we are baptizing, giving ourselves on a regular basis in love, caring for one another, telling the story of the God who cares even for you, we can grow stale and dusty and out of date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Peter finally saw the light, he went overboard! \u201cLord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head!\u201d When we understand that God really does want to care for us, we stop being stale, dusty, and out of date, we yearn for a connection with God and the Good News is that God likewise yearns for a relationship with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loving One Another<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Jesus finished washing his disciples\u2019 feet, he taught them to wash one another\u2019s feet. He gave them a new commandment, that they love one another. Jesus said, \u201cJust as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the reason why we are gathered here tonight. The word, \u201cMaundy\u201d comes from the Latin, \u201cmandatum novum,\u201d meaning \u201cnew commandment.\u201d The commandment from Jesus to love one another is linked here with the act of foot washing and demonstrates the style of love we are to show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pray that as you experience the Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service tonight that you would understand the call to servanthood that Jesus demonstrated to his disciples during the last supper he had with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone offered this definition of servanthood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to love\u2014rather than hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to smile\u2014rather than frown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to build\u2014rather than destroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to persevere\u2014rather than quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to praise\u2014rather than gossip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to heal\u2014rather than wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to give\u2014rather than grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to act\u2014rather than delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to pray\u2014rather than despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Choose to forgive\u2014rather than curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus chose to wash his disciples\u2019 feet to teach us how to love one another as he has loved us. Let us be servants in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maundy Thursday April 8, 2004 Servanthood John 13:1-17, 31b-35 There\u2019s a story about a Christian from India who was visiting New York City for the first time. One morning hisContinue readingServanthood<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[57,13],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-posts","tag-easter","tag-john"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2162,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}