Christian church must join world as servant

In chapter 20 of the Matthew Gospel, the mother of James and John came and made a special request of Jesus. James and John were special among the disciples of Jesus. John is called “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” When Jesus was dying on the cross, he asked John to care for his mother. No higher honor could have been given. John and his brother were special and deserving of special treatment.

The well-intentioned mother of James and John asked that when Jesus came into his kingdom that her sons be seated on his right and on his left. According to the story, Jesus responded, “You do not know what you are asking.” The discourse that followed ended with an essential and profound truth. “If anyone wants to be great, let him be a servant.”

This concept was not new. Jesus had picked it up from the Old Testament writings of the Isaiah school of prophets. The setting in which the Isaiah disciples wrote was difficult. The children of Israel had been reduced to a handful of refugees and now lived in a ghetto in the city of Babylon. Any hope of a powerful nation with a capital in Jerusalem had been destroyed. The Isaiah school of prophets was made up of poets. They wrote and spoke in vivid imagery.

Their new proposal for the future of the children of Israel was that they become a servant people. The implication was that Israelites would never again be landed and would never again be in positions of power.Jesus embraced the Isaiah writings more than any other part of the Hebrew scriptures. He seriously advocated that greatness be achieved through servitude.

A flat world is forcing religions to face certain realities. No one religion will become the faith of the whole world. Christians have been vigorously missionary throughout their history. The obsession of the Christian churches has been to gain more converts until the whole world was Christian.

It is time for us Christians to take a new look at what we are doing. In the flat world, more and more people are asking what our churches should be about. Many are asking how Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu can talk with one another and come to terms with living together.

My suggestion is that this is not the time to argue over which faith is correct, or how to defend our turf. Now is the time for Christians to pursue greatness under the Jesus formula of servitude.

In the Mark Gospel the saying is set in a different conversation. In the Mark version, Jesus said “let him be the servant of all.”

Former head of Yale Divinity School, Colin W. Williams, suggests that the best picture of this kind of relationship between the church and the world is found in the call of Jesus of Nazareth for us to be like leaven. Leaven is mixed with flour in sufficient amount to make the whole loaf rise. To be effective every portion of the loaf must be invaded by the leaven.

If this shift in the life of Christian churches is to be made, the invitation that we Christians ask of the world cannot be “come, accept Christ, join us and be saved.” Rather we ask the question, “How can we become a part of you and be your servant?”

Another way to express the servant ideal is that we must encourage the spiritual to be totally involved with the secular. The fear of the church is that we will lose our identity in the process. I would argue just the opposite. In the process of becoming truly world involved as servant, our identity will become more distinct and the power of our message of love of God and love of neighbor will grow more powerful.

We Christians have a lot to offer the world. We are committed to the telling of the truth. We are committed to loving the whole world. We are committed to seeking justice for everyone. We are committed to the exercise of grace, mercy and forgiveness for everyone. We carry a message of reconciliation.

The challenge is not to bring the world into the church, but to place ourselves in every nook and cranny of the world. Our presence makes the transformation of the world a distinct possibility.

The Rev. Howard Bess is the pastor emeritus of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.