Your servant song
What are the words to your servant song?
In Isaiah, we heard: The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. In Hebrews, we heard: Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. In Mark, we heard: …whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be servant of all.
So, what are the words to your servant song? Do they go something like this:
I am an advocate for others in need, for those who are displaced, for those in a state of peril, and for those who lack agency; Or — I am an ambassador of God; Or — I am a representative of Jesus Christ; Or — I am … TITLE GOES HERE.
Does being a servant to others come with a title, that is, a title other than servant? If so, is it possible for the title to NOT sound hierarchical? Advocate, Ambassador; Representative, Registrar; President, Priest; Delegate, Deacon; Banker, Bishop — any and all of these titles bear an underlying sense of servanthood. We take on those title identities and with them a specific set of tasks we do to benefit other people.
Are there any titles we adopt that do not have an essence of servanthood in them? Could we hyphenate titles and add the word servant to each one? I am a doctor-servant, a mother-servant, a chemist-servant, a janitor-servant … This addendum does not make all of them sound equal in status.
When Jesus encourages James and John to live into their servanthood, to live out their call as his disciples and ministers to the many, do we imagine that they had a notion about putting in their time, nose to the grindstone, accomplishing basic and then more advanced tasks, being seen as worthy by their boss, and then, as a reward for all their excellent work, receiving a promotion, an elevation in status?
It is a rude awakening when Jesus imparts to them that their new title, for all their hard work, would yet still be servant. Servant — it does not have a ring of heightened status, yet it is the designation for the one desiring to become great and to be first. One’s greatness manifests through servanthood not for the purpose of promotion, but for the fostering of community. The greatness is not an accolade for the servant to display. It is an inner growth, an internal increase as a doer and giver, not a title of advancement.
In my two months as a newcomer to Saint Paul’s faith community, I have witnessed those among us who foster community and serve others. They are the ones organizing those new dinner groups; they are the ones preparing and serving breakfast on Tuesday and Friday mornings for neighbors in our community; they are the ones organizing First Friday dinners with game night; they serve on the vestry; lead the choir; they volunteer as ushers, acolytes, singers, mentors for children’s chapel, and you see them in many other roles, including priest and deacon.
None of us is filling these service roles because we plan to ask Rev. Margaret for a promotion, to sit at her left or her right at the next vestry meeting.
Picture James and John again at a gathering, a party, and as a common party icebreaker, another guest walks over to them and asks, “So what do you do?” They look at each other, they are flustered. They say something like, “We used to be fishermen, but now we are servants!” It sounds like a downgrade in status, doesn’t it? The inquiring guest says, “Oh…” She hands them her empty wine glass, after all, they are servants, and she intentionally gets distracted by someone across the room and makes an excuse to move away.
They say to each other, “That was dumb!” James says, “I should have said, I am an advocate for others in need.” John agrees and says, “I should have said, I am an ambassador of God.” They do not feel prompted to say, “This guy, Jesus, is training us to be servants…. and it makes us great… that is, being lowly makes us great… never mind, we are just fishermen… that is fishers of men…AGHHHHH! it’s complicated.”
Hebrews tells us that Jesus did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest. Jesus was not looking for status. He was appointed to servanthood, and he saw it as the greatest appointment one could ever receive. Jesus’ call story is an intimate connection to God.
As seminarians at Virginia Theological Seminary, we had to submit our CALL STORY with our application, and then during orientation, we were told that we would be asked to tell our CALL STORY over and over for the next three years. Every new person I met asked me what my call story was; I told it over and over… for three years!
James’ and John’s call story is really an intimate connection to Jesus. For me, the same is true. The question, “What are the words to your servant song?” is another way of saying what is your CALL STORY?
What could James, John, you, or me say when asked? Maybe the following: “I have been called to serve others through the gifts bestowed upon me by God, those which I have learned to cultivate because of an innate drive — what you might call my incarnational desire.” The fostering of our incarnational desires, those desires planted within us by God, gives us the means to serve others as Jesus taught and encouraged.
We live in a world where status matters and advancement and upgrades are desirable. How many of us have acknowledged that we do the work we do because we love it? Hopefully, many can say that. How many of us have acknowledged that we do the work we do for the money? This is a necessity, and not unreasonable. How many of us have said, in regard to our job or in regard to some menial task we cannot avoid, “I am not doing this for my health…”
However, Jesus does encourage us to be servants for our health, that is, our spiritual health. Jesus is not inciting us all to be martyrs. However, if we model his incarnational desire: we come —not to be served, but to serve, and to give our lives to our calling, whatever it may be. And the words to our servant song could express gratitude that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many. So, what are the words to your servant song?