The Freedom of Servanthood

A few weeks ago, on July 4th actually, I preached on the idea of servanthood. It wasn't one of my best sermons. It's hard to preach on something that sounds so crazy. It's like standing up and saying that green is orange or that left is right. However, since that week the sermon, at least, has been working on me. The idea is haunting me, that it is in service, in servanthood that we can find freedom.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.                               Galatians 5:13 (NRSV)

If I am serving another, then I am free of the concern about what that one thinks of me. If I am serving another in love, then I am free of what the consequences are, how that service, how that love is reacted to. I don't have to impress anyone. I don't have to be anything I am not. I just have to serve.

This is what we are called to as disciples of Jesus. This is what we are called to as the church. But it seems that it is the antithesis of who we are as the church. We don't serve, we judge. We protect our belief systems and our institutions. It is very apparent in the Roman Catholic church maybe because they have been around for so long and have so much power or perceived power at least. The Vatican's recent comments reveal an institution more interested in protecting its tradition and doctrine than dealing forthrightly with a serious problem, the victimization of children by the ones children should be able to trust the most, their religious leaders. However, us younger denominations and groups are just as guilty.

I want to serve. I want to lead a movement of servants.