Sermon - The Rev. Leah D. Schade
Reformation Lutheran Church, Media, PA
March 19, 2006; Marks of Discipleship
“The Call to Christ-like Living”  -- Serving
Text:  Mark 10:41-52

We’re now halfway through the season of Lent.  And we’ve come to the halfway point in our sermon series on the Marks of Discipleship.  The first was Daily Prayer.  The second was Weekly Worship.  Last week was Daily Bible Reading.  And this week’s theme is about serving others.  

I think we can all agree that serving others is a good thing.  Did you know that medical studies show that serving others is health-enhancing?  “A University of Michigan study followed 2700 people for over a decade to see how their social relationships affected their health and well-being.  Those who performed regular volunteer work showed dramatically increased life expectancy.” (Swenson, 89).

No one would dispute the value of serving others.  But like all of these Marks of Discipleship, if regular service to others is not something that you were brought up to do, if it’s not already a habit of faith for you, it’s going to be a challenge for you.   

Why?  Because you are so busy.  God may be calling you to serve, but that voice is overpowered by all the static of our lives.  It is very hard to listen to the voice of God calling us to serve.  Our culture has us constantly overscheduled, overbooked, and run so ragged, it is very difficult to find the energy and time to serve others.  Dr. Richard Swenson, in his book, Margin:  Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, diagnosis the problem. 

He says, “People are harried and are more concerned with personal sanity than with service to the needs of others; people have no financial margin, and are painfully uninterested in hearing of yet another ‘opportunity’ to give.  Such people are no longer concerned with building a better world.  Instead , they simply want to survive another day.  Such people are no longer motivated to meet the needs of others.  Instead, they simply want to escape their suffocating schedules.” (Swenson, 77).

You see, our culture would have us believe that everything “God wants us to accomplish is possible only in a booked-up, highly efficient, often exhausted way of life.  I do not believe this is true,” he says.  “Jesus asking us to walk the second mile, to carry others’ burdens, to witness to the Truth at any opportunity . . . presupposes that we have margin and that we make it available for God’s purposes.  Obedience to these commands is often not schedulable.  [Availability is] a spiritual necessity. God expects us to be available for the needs of others.  And without margin, each of us would have great difficulty guaranteeing availability.  Instead, when God calls, God gets the busy signal.”  (Swenson, pp. 76-77).

Sound familiar?  What is needed is an intentional effort to prune our schedules and leave time open for serving others.  We need to turn down our business to allow ourselves to listen to God. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.  God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. . .  It is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”  (Bonhoeffer, p. 99).

Jesus does just this in the story we have here this morning.  The scene is set on the road to Jericho, where Jesus is moving along with a large crowd of people.  Along the roadside is a blind beggar.  Now Jesus has someplace to go.  He is on his way to the most important event of his life.  He’s heading towards Jerusalem.  He’s on the journey to the cross.  He has set out to accomplish the most important work in his life, the most important event in the history of humankind.  And he is the Son of God.  So this is the most important man in the world, with the most important mission in the world. 

But what happens when he hears the beggar calling to him?  He stops and stands still.   He listens to the voice of this man. He allows himself to be interrupted.  He is completely open to what God has in mind for him along the way.  And he takes the time to fully engage with this man and his needs. 

Now if the most important man in the world with the most important mission in the world chooses to make himself available to the needs of others, where do we get this idea that we are too important not to do the same? That our needs and our schedules are much too important to set aside to allow time to serve others.  Our arrogance and sense of self-importance is almost laughable, if it weren’t so deplorable.    We think we don’t have enough time or energy to give to others -- that we can’t “afford” to give.  The counterintuitive truth, however, is that we can’t afford not to give! 

Swenson says, “God exalts faithfulness over productivity and availability over schedulability.” (Swenson, p. 129).

So, if you want to make service to others a habit of your faith life, you’ll need to ask yourself this question:  “What if God were my appointment secretary?”  And see what changes would happen in your life.  Making this Mark of Discipleship part of your Christian identity is going to involve changing our lifestyle in order to listen to the voice of God, and make room for serving. 

But listening to God is not the only kind of change that’s needed.  The other is about changing our attitude towards those we serve, and listening to them in order to make room for God to use us in the best way possible.  Now what do I mean by that?  What is the current attitude that needs to be changed? 

Sometimes our caring is marked by a kind of arrogance, that we think we know what the poor or the sick need.  We don’t always take the time to ask them questions and then listen for their answers. 

I’ve seen that when I go down to City Team.  People drop off all kinds of things for the “poor people”, and often, quite frankly, it is junk.  They bring their old computer dinosaurs.  They bring broken toys.  They drop off clothes with holes and broken zippers and missing buttons.  They don’t take the time to ask what is actually needed.  They just assume the poor people will be happy with whatever they get.  And they often are.  But it just shows that most people follow Jesus’ call to serve insofar as it is convenient for them, without ever giving a thought to what might be truly needed.

One of the most important things that Jesus models in this story is listening.  He did not simply go up to the blind man and assume what it was he needed or wanted.  He asked the question:  “What do you want me to do for you?” 

You see, we are called to serve in a way that asserts the dignity of those whom we serve.  We are also called to serve by bringing justice into the lives of those we serve.  And this is the other area of attitude adjustment that’s needed.

Working for justice is one area where I think Christians in general, and our church in particular, could use some beefing up.  We do pretty well when it comes to helping others - like students in Pangani and the poverty-stricken community on the Rock Point Reservation in Arizona.  We rally together to help resettle a refugee family and provide items for a family who moved here from the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. 

But when it comes to seeking justice for others, we are not so experienced.  Foss says, “Disciples of Jesus are, sooner or later, led into the public arena to seek justice for others. . .  Whether it is affordable housing, racism, sexism, or any of the other ‘isms’ that infect a human community, creating unnatural barriers to the advancement of any person, the disciple of Jesus will be called to take a stand for justice in that place and time.” (Foss, 89).

Jesus modeled this in his encounter with the blind man.  In fact, their encounter is symbolic of how Jesus expects his followers to treat those who are marginalized and disenfranchised by society.  Picture again this scene on the road to Jericho, where Jesus is moving along with a large crowd of people.  Along the roadside is this blind beggar named Bartimaeus.  The fact that the gospel writer gives us the name of the beggar is, in itself, significant.  This person is no longer a no-name, faceless figure.  Giving him the dignity of calling him by his name is significant.

Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus.  And, true to form, everyone tries to shut him up.  “Many sternly ordered for him to be quiet.”  They don’t want to be bothered with him.  They don’t want to be distracted from their goal by this single person asking to be noticed and helped.  And isn’t this just the way it is when people in our society speak up and ask for assistance?  They’re told to keep quiet.  Stay out of the way.  Don’t distract us by your needs. 

But this man will not be silenced.  He demands to be heard.  His perservence is admirable, though annoying to those who have to deal with him. 

And, true to form, Jesus does not ignore him.  Jesus stops.  Jesus tells the very people who were trying to silence him to bring the man to him.  This is significant as well.  He could have gone on his own to be at the side of the blind man.  But he made his followers speak to the man, call him, and escort him to Jesus.

This is a brilliant use of a teachable moment on Jesus’ part.  He turns the tables on those who followed him and tried to keep the blind man from him.  He shows them that in order to be his followers, they need to stop, listen, and take heed of those whom society has left behind, those who have been forced to the side of the road, those who are in dire need of help, but are ignored and forced into silence.  And not only do they need to take the time, they need to actually speak to the person and make some effort to get them the help that is needed.

If this kind of serving that involves justice is such a part of what it means to be a Christian,  then why don’t more of us do it?  Why do we think it’s enough to just come to church on Sundays and attend a bible study now and then and write a check once in a while? 

Unfortunately, there is a strong resistance to be involved in anything labeled as “political.”  There is a deeply held belief that Christians should stay out of the public arena and be content to save their own souls, no matter how society may be languishing.  But the call of Jesus is unmistakable and irrefutable.  Certainly, there are risks involved with entering this aspect of serving.  But it can be done in a healthy way.  It begins, once again, with listening.  Engaging in dialogue about the social justice issues of our day.  Becoming educated about what is going on in around our local community.  It involves, at the very least, going to those who desire justice, and simply asking them, what do you need?  And then listen.

It requires a healthy dose of humility to engage another in this way.  And then it requires a healthy desire to act upon that need.  We are called to do something, not just talk about it.   “As people of the Savior, we are called not only to tell about our faith; we are called to live our faith by working for the betterment of their lives and the community.” (Foss, 91).

And when you start to do this, you find that your life becomes so much more richer and deeper than it was before.  You know that you are truly listening to God, listening to thos e in need, listening to the political dialogue, and acting upon the call to serve.  Listen, if you’re life is so busy, and yet you’re still feeling empty, making room to serve others may be just what the doctor ordered.  And if you’re already serving, but feel that it’s just not enough, that it’s not going deep enough for you, then going to the Bartimaeus’s of the world and listening to them may be just what the doctor ordered. 

You see, as Mike Foss says, “When we serve we receive so much more than we give.  In our serving, we connect to that heaven-sent impulse that is a part of God’s image within us.  So our soul’s deepest longings are expressed when we serve.” (Foss, 78 -9). 

Are you listening?   Or are you giving God the busy signal?  Listen to God who says, “When you connect with another who is in need, you connect with your own soul.  You connect with me.”    Listen, God is calling.



Sources:

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together (New York:  Harper and Brothers, 1954).

Foss, Michael W., Real Faith for Real Life, Augsburg Books, Minneapolis, 2004

Swenson, Richard A., M.D., Margin:  Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives; 2004, Richard Swenson, NavPress