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"We Are Servants" John 13

by The Rev. Clancy Nixon

Church of the Holy Spirit

September 23, 2007

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

Two things will change your life forever: understanding who God is, and

understanding who you are. When you understand these two things, you'll never be the

same your identity will change, and you'll see yourself as a servant.

This week, I got a call from an old friend, Vicky. She is the Africa Coordinator

of a mission organization called Global Teams. Vicky came into town with a missionary

whom I'll call Jay. He's from Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania. About eight of us

gathered on Friday to hear Jay's riveting story. He was born the son of an Imam, which

is an Islamic scholar and leader, and he trained to be an Imam at the most prestigious

Islamic university in the world, Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Jay's college roommate at

Al-Azhar was murdered simply for talking about Jesus. When the locals came to search

his college dorm room for anything about Jesus, Jay hid his roommate's Bible to prevent

its discovery. After the terrifying search, Jay became curious to know why anyone would

risk their life to the point of death for the message in this book. So secretly, Jay began to

read his dead roommate's Bible.

Jay graduated and returned home to become an Imam. While leading the daily

prayers in his mosque back in Zanzibar, Jay was shocked to see a clear vision of Jesus

Christ, stigmata in his hands. Jay stopped praying to Allah, and said aloud, "I see Jesus!"

The men in the mosque thought Jay had gone mad, since Muslims believe that

Muhammad was the final revelation. They interpret that to mean that no heavenly

visions, no prophetic dreams or words from the Lord are even possible to be received

today. For a Muslim even to suggest otherwise is blasphemy, punishable by death.

Because he would not deny that he had seen a vision of Jesus, the men in the mosque beat

Jay mercilessly until he was unconscious. Since that day, Jay has been on the move,

diverting death not only from militant Muslims, but even from his own father who

attempted to take Jay's life when he refused to deny that he had seen Jesus. Tragically,

Jay's mother died while protecting Jay from his father. Regardless of the personal cost,

Jay cannot stop proclaiming his new life in Jesus. He preaches Jesus in the open air in

Muslim areas of east Africa, and has had many stones thrown at him for this work.

Since Jay has come to understand who God really is, he now understands

himself to be a servant of Jesus Christ. He did not so much choose to evangelize

Muslims, as God chose him to do it, having prepared him with this remarkable

background. After Jay saw a vision of Jesus, Jay understood who God is, and that

changed his understanding of his own identity one like his roommate who serves God

by risking his life sharing about Jesus.

The apostle Peter said at 1 Peter 4:10 -"Each one should use whatever gift he

has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

There is a fundamental difference between choosing to serve and understanding that we

are servants.

When you and I "choose to serve," we understand ourselves to be

autonomous agents who retain control of whom we serve and when we serve. But when

we understand who God is and who we are, we understand that our very identity is that

we are servants of another, then the only rights over our own lives that we retain are those

of a servant. We can choose whether or not to serve at all, by saying the Jesus is not our

Lord. Once we own that Jesus is Lord, we become servants of God, and there is a sense

in which we no longer choose our mode of service or its timing. Serving is what we do

because it is who we are. It's like when we become a mother or father for the first time

our identity changes, and we assume all the duties of parents, serving our infants, whether

we like those duties or not.

Look at Jesus at the Last Supper in John 13. Someone was missing that night.

Who was it? It was the servant boy whose job it was to wash people's feet for the evening

meal. We don't know why the boy was gone maybe because it was the Passover, he had

gone home to be with family. We do know that none of the twelve apostles had lowered

himself to wash the feet of the others. While the Apostle John does not tells us this here

in chapter 13, Dr. Luke tells us in his account that the twelve were arguing with each

other about who was the greatest! (Luke 22) As they argue, Jesus tells them that the

greatest among you is the one who serves. (See also Matthew 23:11,12) Then, picking up

our story back in John 13:4-5, we read this: "...so Jesus got up from the meal, took off

his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into

a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped

around him." Later in verse 14, Jesus says, "Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have

washed your feet, you should wash one another's feet."

What a picture of leadership Jesus

gives us servant leadership. When I look at

this picture of Jesus washing the disciples'

feet, I think that it is beautiful, and I imagine

that many of you feel the same way. Yet if

we were to imagine ourselves in that same

picture, many of us would become very

uncomfortable. Imagine that I were to say to

you, "O.K., church, we are going to obey this

command right now, and the ushers are going

to bring basins of water to the end of each

aisle, and each of you will wash the feet of the

person next to you." If I were to do that, many of you would become uncomfortable. This

command of Jesus to wash one another's feet may be his most frequently disobeyed

command. Maybe you'd really rather not handle anyone else's feet, thank you very

much, or you don't want anyone else to even see your feet, or both! It's menial, it's

embarrassing, it feels too personal, it seems like an ancient custom irrelevant for today.

You may wonder: why can't somebody else obey that command? The twelve apostles

felt the same way.

I think Jesus washed their feet to demonstrate that his followers need to be

about doing whatever needs doing to love people. No matter how menial or

embarrassing. No matter how lowly or uncomfortable it makes us feel. Why? - Because

it's not about us. Back to my earlier example. When you are a new parent, you do

whatever needs doing for your baby: changing diapers, sleepless nights, endless doctor

visits. I remember going out at 2AM to buy milk for Will when he was a sick baby. We

were in Pittsburgh visiting my family, and the 7-11s close at night there. The only place

that was open was a bar. I'll never forget the looks on the faces of some drunk patrons as

they herd me ask for milk, and then wait in line for, a what was a very expensive carton

of milk!

When Jesus walked this planet, he always looked for opportunities to serve. He

loved the people in front of him. Listen to me now, this is important: God reveals himself

through service. We have an image of God that we are comfortable with that is huge, and

it is also true: God is all powerful, all knowing, and all present. For some reason, it

seems harder for many of us to come to terms with the paradox is that God is also a

servant. You may ask, how can God be a servant, when He sits on his throne in heaven,

and we should be serving him? Erwin McManus asks, how can you not call God a

servant? What else do you call someone who creates you with needs that only he can

meet? What else do you call someone who will come to you any time, day or night, at

your beck and call? What else do you call someone who is willing to take care of you at

your most basic level, as if you were an infant, and say, "Don't worry about what you will

eat or drink, or what you wear, because I'm going to take care of you?"

McManus says this in his message "The Servant Heart of

God": "When we serve others; when we begin to lay our lives

aside, when we stop thinking about ourselves all the time and we

begin thinking about others, when we begin to suffer and sacrifice

so that others can be healed; then something inside of us begins to

resonate, and we say, "Wait a minute ... this feels right." It's

almost as if we were created to serve! What we discover is that

when we serve, we are most like God himself."

[Examples of servant leaders in our church Jeff Milrod and Arthur Davis with

the sign ministry, putting out the heavy road signs every week so that newcomers can

find us.]

When you serve others, you connect with God in a completely different way than

when you learn about him or when you sing to him or pray to him. This last winter, a

few of us spent a cold, rainy day picking up roadside garbage near Waxpool and

Shellhorn roads. Picking up bits of paper from pools of dirty water helped me put into

perspective everything else I do. Colossians 3:23,24 says, "Everything that you do, work

at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.... It is the Lord Christ you

are

serving."

Let's pray: Lord Jesus, help us to serve you in everything we do, because we

know who you are and we know who we are your servants. Give us the heart to do

whatever it takes to serve you and to serve your people. Amen.

Today is Ministry Day at Church of the Holy Spirit. We're going to do something

a little different today. First we're going to hear a few brief presentations from the leaders

of a few ministries of our church do that that need your help at this time. Then you'll

have an opportunity to learn more about these ministries in an activity time, where you

will have ten minutes to wander to the tables in the back of the gym for these ministries

and you'll learn more about the ministries that you may be interested in.

Every family has some chores in it that need doing, that are not necessarily what

you would choose to do. Doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, things

like that. Here at CHS, our ministry philosophy is that we each serve in two ministries.

The first ministry we serve in is what we call our community service something that

needs done. We are servants first, so we do what needs doing. That is what we focus on

today. The second ministry each of us does is one that is in the center of our gifts and

passion something we are good at and which we also care deeply about. We have a

course we teach called Network to help you discover your spiritual gifts and passion.

We'll focus on that another day. The best way to learn what you are good and care most

about is just to jump in and serve.

This year's Highlighted Ministries are:

1. Set-up / Tear Down

2. Sign Ministry

3. Children's Ministry

4. Hospitality

5. Sunday Media

6. Newsletter

7. Web Master

8. Evangelism

Call up current leaders to tell us about each one of these opportunities.

Now you have ten minutes to wander to the tables in the back and explore ministries you

might help with. Get job descriptions. You can sign up AS AN EXPRESSION OF

INTEREST IN A MINISTRY, not as a commitment to serve. The ministry leader will

call you about your level of interest soon.