Growing in Christ: Service - John 13: 14-15; Matthew 20: 25-28

When I graduated from high school and again from college, I was given a funny gift of sorts - a towel. At one of my graduation banquets for high school, one of my youth leaders gave each us a small white towel, telling us that we are now released from his care to go and serve the world. At college baccalaureate, each person in my graduating class was given a towel by the alumni association reminded us that we were commissioned to be scholar servants wherever we may find ourselves, serving as Christ served. 

Those two towels still sit in my office today, and every time I catch a glimpse of them, I am reminded of those instructions to go and serve. In fact, part of my call as an Elder, a type of pastor in the United Methodist Church, is to service. But service is not just for pastors, it is for all Christians, as modeled in our texts this morning.

A lot of folks are uncomfortable with feet. There is something about this story of Jesus washing the disciples feet that makes us uneasy. Feet seem private. The smell and get dirty. Think back to the time when this story would have taken place - the roads were dusty and the disciples wore sandals - dirt would have caked their feet. Sweat dripping off of them, from walking in the sun for hours at a time. Cracked and weary, a sign of hospitality was to gently wash a guests feet when they arrived at your home. But the only people who washed feet were slaves - and not even Jewish slaves at that, but gentile slaves, a mark of their lowly class. None of the disciples wanted to be the first to wash someone else’s feet, for surely that would show that they weren’t the greatest, but instead were the least. So Jesus took off his outer tunic, picked up a basin and towel, and slowly, gently, washed each of the disciples feet. 

Talk about the towel being a sign of service! Jesus did what was unheard of by teachers, masters, and lords. He bent down, and washed the grimy feet of his followers, symbolically becoming the least of the least. Now we too called to follow in our master’s footsteps and ask ourselves, what it it looks like to “wash someone’s feet” in service today.

That is what the spiritual discipline of service is all about. Setting aside the world’s notions of power and authority, and serving others. There are some people who believe that following Jesus gives them the authority to lord it over others when we serve them, but this is not the case. Jesus didn’t chastise his disciples for not being willing to wash one another’s feet, he simply served. 

Service frees us to look into the eyes of those we are serving, and realize that we are just like them, as we see our neighbors as real and important. The world tells us that people exist to serve us, to make our lives easier, but we forget all too quickly that Jesus came not to be served but to serve, so why do we expect others to serve us.

I was reading a book earlier this week where a preacher well on his way to retirement age stated that one of the saddest things that happens for some people who retire is thinking they have made it - that its now there time to sit back and let others serve them, instead of asking how God is leading them to serve others in this new phase of life. Don’t buy into the lie, brothers and sisters, that our neighbors exist to serve us - instead take up your towel, and seek to serve others, seeing them with the eyes of Christ.

Service, like feet, can be a bit off-putting and scary. We think that if we serve another person they will use us. Or that serving someone diminishes our own worth. But those thoughts and attitudes come from a mind-set of self-service, thinking that we need to manage the people we serve. Instead, Christ calls us to lay aside our desire to control and instead to seek to live into spiritual-service, which isn’t about our own efforts, but flows from the power of our relationship with God. Spiritual service realizes that we intentionally give in big and small ways each and every day and that service in God’s name doesn’t need to be flashy with bells and whistles, or even expect that we will be thanked, let alone have service reciprocated. Instead of giving to get something, we give simply for the joy of serving. 

Spiritual service isn’t based on whether we feel like it that day. Remember, Jesus would have been just as hot, sticky, and dirty as his disciples, and yet, he set aside how he was feeling in order to meet the needs of those he loved. Service became a moment to share in community with his disciples, even when they didn’t quite get it, and model humility and hospitality for them. 

But there is also a difference that we often over look in these texts between choosing to serve someone and choosing to be a servant. To serve someone is a one time event, but to be a servant, that is a way of life. Choosing to serve means that we are still in charge and can walk away whenever we want, while being a servant means that we submit to Christ - choosing to follow and let him lead. Serving someone is easy, choosing to be a servant...well, that’s a bit harder. 

We have to take time to ask ourselves if we want to serve or be a servant. To ask why we are serving someone else - for our praise and glory and for Christ’s? When we offer our resources, time, treasure, influence, and experience to others freely, it can be an act of service, but only if our heart is in the right place and we are truly seeking to love our neighbor as ourselves, which of course leads us to ask, who is our neighbor? Who are we truly meant to be serving?

I have a friend who struggles with the ability to walk. On good days she can use a cane, but at one point in time the good days were far between and she was mostly confined to a bed. Yet, she felt called to go with a mission team from our church to Africa. By the grace of God she was able to go. She wasn’t sure why she was being called to go, for surely she couldn’t do the same physical labor as everyone else. But one night during worship she knew. She managed to situate herself on the floor at the front of the sanctuary during worship and slowly wash people’s feet. She washed our African brothers and sister’s feet. She washed the team members feet. Neighbors from around the globe who she didn’t know before this day, and may never meet again, but surely will never forget. She realized that she was there to humbly serve and give of herself, and she was there exactly for this moment. 

My friend got it. She understood that life as a servant isn’t simply about checking “service” off of her to-do list for the day. Its about giving ourselves to others in service for Christ and being free to love beyond our comfort zone. Its about leaving the mindset that tells us that we are to be served by others, and instead seeks to serve. 

Brothers and sisters, where are the opportunities in your life to pick up your towel and serve others, modeling the love and heart of Christ? Where are the places you desire to serve, lead by the Holy Spirit? And how is God calling you to stretch and grow, day by day, through this discipline? Amen.