Are We Equally Willing To Serve And Be Served For God’s Glory?
Good Morning Friends,
I imagine that from time to time you have served a meal to the less privileged at the expense of receiving service from them. In today’s text at the Last Supper Jesus washes the feet of the disciples along this theme in the Upper Room at Passover. But this action on Jesus’ part is met with resistance from Peter. It would not be the last time Peter picked the wrong answer to a probing question. Still, Peter needed to learn, as each new generation, that regardless of status we are to have a heart of service given as well as received. For his is the way not only to a happy life but to salvation as well. We too may need to realize that some things are for God to do for us and some things we are to do individually as an act of love for God. And sometimes we are to do things together like singing where we both give and receive to maximize the benefits. But, Are We Equally Willing To Serve And Be Served For God’s Glory?
Scripture: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 (NRSV)
What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you! For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NRSV)
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
John 13:1-15 (NRSV)
Message: A meal shared with family and friends in the face of death was the setting for the first Passover and it is carried over into the Last Supper which was also the first communion. On the night before the cross, Jesus gathered his family of disciples in an Upper Room to celebrate. He washed their feet and they remembered the freedom and deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. They drank wine in memory of the freedom, blessing, redemption and kingdom made possible because of the exodus. They saved a cup for Jesus’ return but were unwilling to accept that Jesus was going to die. Here they were reminded of the Passover lamb that was slain and whose blood was applied to the doorposts of the homes. They may have even remembered John the Baptist calling Jesus the Lamb of God. But they did not get it then. They still wanted to control the plan. But God was in control. So, they fell back on traditions and sang a Psalm, probably from Psalm 115-118 about the glory of God and His great love and faithfulness as they went to Gethsemane. Yet this night was different from all other nights…from all the other Passovers save the first for death was in the air. The meal was the same for it had the bread and wine, bitter herbs and tears but it also was for Jesus, a condemned man, willing to take on the sins of the world, something much more dramatic. In today’s scripture, we have these fusion of events that take us out of time. We look at Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and a look around at Christ in our community of faith and a look ahead to the Lord’s coming again. Here we are to seek the experience of eternity in the practice of remembering that we do not worship an exclusively external God but one that is now residing also in us as spiritually real as the blood of the covenant and the body of the Spirit of God in us. Friends, we are to realize that this life is larger than our individual experiences. We live in community that demands both the need to serve and be served. Here music and the Eucharist and scripture and service combine as a wonderful gift of transcendence….one designed to be shared, for here we remember beyond the sacrifice of the lamb that is at the heart of Passover and beyond the sacrifice of Jesus that is at the heart of the resurrection. Here on this Maundy Thursday, filled with church traditions we are to experience God filled with the understanding that it is Christ’s love that brings us together.
And So, we are to serve and be served, love and be love in a community that maintains dignity for its members. Christ is a perfect example in this regard for he has laid down for us the standard that no matter one’s status in life we are to serve others. Here in service we live a legacy in the minds and hearts of the people we serve. Here we enjoy the fruit of service that extends the redemption of God’s love in us. Here we celebrated as a human family a focus on the cup of the Kingdom of love beyond dogma…here we share the experience of acts of compassion…of living in the now but not yet. Here we are about the hard work of finding meaning in our life while facing the reality of our own death and our need to be served as well.. Here we see and marvel at the skill of the Master in how He responded with creativity to the secularism of his day and how the creative work of music can touch our hearts with a love that moves us to action. Here our fears are set aside, and repressions rolled away in the hope of our purpose. Here we too are raised from the dead in the silence and awareness of the reality of life. Here we live to God’s glory.
Pray we are sensitive to the leanings of the Holy Spirit, so we might discern when to serve and when to be served. Pray we declare our fellowship with Christ. Pray we remember His sacrifice and anticipate His return. Pray that the Lord our God, the King of the Universe brings forth bread from the earth and fruit of the vine to feed the whole world with goodness, grace, kindness and mercy. Pray we make each day count as if it is our last. Pray Jesus helps us to sing a new song in our hearts. Pray the Spirit of God creates in us a heart ready to serve and be served to God’s glory. Pray that when we engage in the act of communion that we realize that Jesus is not just the giver of the feast but that he is the feast. Pray we appreciate the fellowship of believers that are indeed brought together by the love of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Did You Realize That God is Still Providing For Our Daily Bread?
Did You Realize That God is Still Providing For Our Daily Bread?
Good Morning Friends,
During our community’s Lenten Soup for the Soul series we have been hearing messages on the Lord’s Prayer and yesterday a group of Protestants and Catholics heard a homily from a Presbyterian minister on “give us our daily bread” and next week we hear the verse on “forgive us our debts,” at the YMCA in Naples. And I guess I really do not need to tell you that we have debts we cannot repay. Anyway the experience is certainly something to pray about for it does give us insights into the human condition and Holy History. You see, scripture declares God’s provision and abundance. For example, Did You Realize That God is Still Providing For Our Daily Bread?
Scripture: The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much manna as they needed. Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
Exodus 16: 17-19 (NIV)
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NRSV)
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Matthew 20:1-16 (NRSV)
Message: Bart Simpson who once prayed, “God we paid for all this stuff, so thanks for nothing.” Bart, of course, got it all wrong. Everything in our lives is provided for in some fashion or another and indeed we do need to be thankful. Friends, Kingdom provision is different from our earthly concept of provision. You see, the mana may have stopped but the bread is still being provided in ways that look a lot like grace that connects us to a different order. Maybe that is why saying grace and saying a prayer at meal time essentially means the same thing. Of course our hearts have a problem with this grace and perhaps that is why it is so difficult to receive and so difficult to share. It is the scandal of our faith that we do not understand the nature of daily bread. It is a disgrace that we find it so difficult to forgive others. It is the great sadness of our existence. We are never quite happy when grace is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it and rarely appreciate it. The reality is that grace is not often believed and is not often understood. And we rarely grasp the full extent of the grace we have been provided. In the end grace means that no one is too bad to be saved…we only have to be willing to receive it. It also means that some of us may reject God’s grace because we think we can do it on our own. The problem with grace is that it cannot help us until we are desperate enough to receive it. So even the Bart Simpsons of this world need a little grace and that, like today’s scripture, is supposed to make us feel uncomfortable. If it doesn’t we probably didn’t get its message. In today’s parable the employer- God- realizes that the men who worked only one hour needed as much to feed their families as those who worked all day. God is like that … For work, to be God’s work, has to be done according to His way with righteousness and dignity. To God we are more than numbers on a payroll. He engages us personally with abundant grace…a grace we must not ever think is something we deserve or have earned. This perspective turns our world perspective upside down. We learn that it is human nature to think that we can gain God’s love based on how we respond to Him but that is not God’s way. Friends, grace is the best gift we as Christians can give because it is the best gift we have ever received. We receive it when we come alive in Christ as he wipes the tears from our eyes. We receive it because he has paid the price, He has done the work, and He has served as a substitute for us. The important lesson to learn is that the grace we receive needs to be passed on. That is the labor of our lives, but not something for which we can take credit.
Pray we receive God’s grace and eagerly share it with others. Pray we give thanks that life is not fair. Pray that we are content with what God gives us. Pray that we seek the Kingdom first, that grace not be so hard to believe, so hard to accept, so hard to receive. Pray that we choose life. Pray that we are not envious about the grace given to others. Pray that we learn to share the overabundance of grace that Christ has made available to us in our life. Pray we realize that we cannot use it all. Pray we realize that to horde grace away is insane. Pray that the notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge absolutely unconditional is like daily manna….daily bread. Pray we realize that the world hungers for it and when it descends in the silent desert of our lives it brings us the sweet sound of grace. Pray we experience amazing grace in our daily lives. Pray it falls at our feet like daily manna needing to be shared before it is lost. Pray we become truly totally dependent upon God for our daily bread…the food of life. Pray we forgive.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 