3/8/59

Scripture: Luke 10: 25-37; Luke 22: 24-27.

Last summer, I was one of a half-dozen ministers who went out to Girl Scout Camp Sacajawea on Sunday mornings during camping season to assist in conducting Protestant Christian worship at camp. I say “assist,” for we ministers went as preachers. The Girl Scouts themselves prepared, and conducted, the worship in an attitude of reverence.

An essential virtue of Scouting is the Scouts’ acknowledgment of the duty to serve and obey God. The first pledge of a Girl Scout, when she makes her Scout promise, is to do her “duty to God.” And duty to God is not something that one is compelled to do. It is something that one acknowledges willingly. It becomes the basis for service. Much of the whole program of Scouting is preparation for service and practice in service. And the basis of service is belief in God who has ordained it as a way of life.

Roy Freeman Jenney some years ago wrote a book which included a chapter on “Christian Roadways.” He mentions 4; the Damascus Road, the Jericho Road, the Jerusalem Road, and the Emmaus Road. It was on the road to Damascus that Saul, the Pharisee, had his transforming vision that made him a Christian, rather than a persecutor of Christians. [Acts 9: 3-30]. It is the road of awakening.

The road to Jericho is the scene of a story told by Jesus about a Samaritan man, and how differently he treated the beaten and wounded victim of a roadside robbery than did a priest and a Levite who saw the sufferer but passed by on the other side. The Jericho road is the road of mercy and service. [Luke 10: 30-37].

The road to Jerusalem is the way Jesus himself took when he went to his supreme testimony and crucifixion. It is the road of commitment.

It was on the road to Emmaus that two disheartened disciples experienced the presence of the Lord, late on the day of resurrection. It is the road of fellowship. [Luke 24: 13-35].

For today, I suggest that we think for a while about the Road of Service. The story of that road was the first part of this morning’s Scripture reading. It began in a theological controversy. A lawyer, who was particular to know and obey the great commandments of the Jewish law, wanted Jesus to define for him just who is his neighbor.

Jesus, by his story, took the whole matter out of the realm of legalism and put it in the realm of kindness and of living service. A man, presumably a Jew, had been robbed, beaten, wounded, and left half dead by the roadside. A priest and a Levite of his own people saw him as they came along the road, but each passed by on the other side of the road. It was a man from Samaria, a non-Jew foreigner, who stopped, gave first aid, got the wounded fellow on his own beast, took him to an inn, cared for him, paid the innkeeper, arranged for continued care, and promised to pay for any more service that might be needed. That is where true neighborliness belongs. It is not a stern duty. It is a willing service.

A fellow who grew up in country not far removed from pioneering days remarked to me the other day, on the hospitality that used to be offered on the farm where he lived. He said that he could remember how any visitor who happened by late in the afternoon or evening, would be invited to stay for supper and spend the night, rather than to travel on in the darkness.

It may have seemed like a duty to the Doyles of Columbia County, to take in 40 children stranded in a school bus during last Thursday’s snow. But Mrs. Doyles found more to do about it than just to give the kids shelter. She pitched in and began baking bread --- lots of it --- so that the youngsters could eat while they waited out the storm. Was not that service added to duty?

That is the kind of thing that characterized neighborhoods in pioneering days when people helped each other during hard winters and demanding summers. The roadway of service is the road to true neighborliness. Of course, the Christian who has been awakened to the scope of his responsibility, is not content with the roadside service alone. He wants to go further than first aid and provision for the bruised and beaten. He wants to make the roadway safe, not only for those who ride in comfort, but for those who trudge or stumble by the way. If people have to travel the road to Jericho, the dangerous spots and the robber bands must be cleared up.

Now let us look farther along in the gospel according to Luke. The time had come for Jesus’ last supper with his closest disciples. But they were not above selfish concerns. There was rivalry among them for position and prestige in the realm which they expected Jesus to usher in. Jesus patiently pointed out that Gentiles might be concerned with who exercised lordship over others. And those in authority might be called benefactors. But it was not to be so with those who were his own followers. Among them the greatest would not be those who had the prestige, but those who served like the youngest apprentice in some trade. Let the leader be one who serves, said he.

Is it not obvious that most folk would consider the one who dines at table greater than the waiter who serves? he asks. But, then he tells them, “I am among you as one who serves.”

Earnest Tittle has pointed out how the word “service” has come up in the world. The words: “truth,” “beauty,” “goodness,” have enjoyed respectable usage for a long time. They are expressions of dignity. But now the word “service” is, in many quarters, regarded as a noble word and is treated with marked respect. Clubs of responsible men such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, and others, profess to be service groups. They believe in service as a desirable, and even profitable motive.

In historical perspective, this is surprising. For this word service had a lowly origin. It came along through the Middle Ages as one whose meaning is to be a servant or slave. Here then is an occasion for wonder. It is as though the most humble and inconsequential coolie should one day find himself among the great and noble as an honored guest.

The explanation for the return to dignity of the word service, lies in the fact that there was once in the world a person named Jesus who had already paid his respects to this situation. “Who is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table?” And then he unexpectedly added: “But I am among you as one who serves.”

It made a profound impression on his disciples that Jesus identified himself with servants and slaves. They had supposed, of course, that one who sits at table is greater than one who serves. They had expected him to become a king. And they were interested in the positions next to him, which might be expected to be their political plums. But the whole bubble burst apart in his own words, when this teacher-leader of surpassing greatness said to them: “I am among you as one who serves.” He meant it, too! For, in another account, he insisted on washing the feet of his disciples that very night, in demonstration of the dignity of service. [John 13: 4-9].

Could it be, then, that those disciples, and all of their counterparts since that time, had been mistaken in their idea of greatness? Was not the power to command service the mark of greatness? Or is it, as the Master now asserts, that the desire and ability to serve is the greater part? Probably Jesus himself is the explanation of the fact that the word “service” has come up in the world.

In our time, it has been discovered that service can be made to pay in dollars and cents, especially if it is offered “with a smile.” This is not surprising. If the universe is on the side of the angels, then service must pay in the long run; and if it pays from the start, then people of good will may well thank God and take courage. It is good to know that a business that deals justly with its employees and with its customers can earn reasonable dividends for its stockholders.

But the profitableness of service is not the only reason why a person should serve. In Jesus’ case, service did not pay in the coin of the realm. Poor he was born; poor he remained all of his days. There were times when he had “nowhere to lay his head.” However, Jesus did not say “I am among you as he that serves” because he had discovered that service is profitable. He had found other reasons for service. Here we may think of Mahatma Gandhi whose whole adult life was a service to his people. After his assassination, it was found that his estate consisted of his eyeglasses, sandals and prayer book. When John Wesley died, it is said that he left nothing behind him except “a good library of books, a well-worn clergyman’s gown, a much-abused reputation,” and a following which established a significant new branch of the church.

Service does not always bring the kind of profit which we are accustomed to measure by our success formulas. It does not always win immediate acclaim. Jesus knew very little of popular applause. There were people who were curious to see if he would work a magic miracle of healing or some other expected benefit. But when it appeared that the Galilean healer was unacceptable to the authorities in Jerusalem, that he was in fact headed for trouble, the crowd dwindled to a mere handful.

Quite a crowd shouted and cheered for him on Palm Sunday; but most of them were jeering, or silent, before Good Friday.

There had been a day when Jesus felt constrained to say to his little handful of hearers, “Will you also go away?” But he did not come to the close of his mortal life saying, “I am among you as he that serves, for I have discovered that this is the way to make friends and influence people.” He found other reasons for a life of service.

One motive of Jesus, in calling for service, is simple compassion. That is the motive which appeals to Scouts. It is the motive which appeals to us in our offering for “One Great Hour of Sharing and Caring.” We stand ready to help our fellow beings just for the reason that they need help.

Here the question of moral deserving does not enter in, nor does the matter of popular appreciation, nor any other question except that of need. If my neighbor needs help, it is not for me to inquire what are his politics, or his religious creed, or his financial rating or his social position or his economic views. The simple fact of his need for help is reason enough for my coming to his aid. This is plainly the teaching of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Unless service is offered out of pure compassion, it is not likely to be appreciated or to be of much benefit. A young woman once exploded her indignation on this subject. She was beginning to hate the very word “service,” she said, and to despise officious, obtrusive, meddlesome people who go about looking for “a chance to serve” -- “Do-gooders” as some call them! Is there any justification for this belittling of service?

Two comments appear necessary here. First, there is a deep-dyed cynicism which doubts that anybody is capable of genuine unselfish devotion, and second, there is such a thing as a deep-seated egoism which seeks to dominate others by what appears to be service but actually feeds on its own vanity and will to power. Service is most effective when it is offered with no desire either for dominance or appreciation, no ulterior motive whatever, but solely with a view to meeting an obvious need.

For Jesus, the most important of all reasons why a man should serve his fellows is the fact that that is what God is doing all the time.

When Jesus was upbraided for healing the sick on the Sabbath day, he replied: “My Father is still at work, and I work too.” His defense was: God himself never ceases from his mercy whenever and wherever needed. That was, and is, a daring concept of God’s ways. But Jesus held to it and made it credible. It has been through ages, the Christian concept of God. And we have, in our dealings with each other among the folk of the earth, to act as God acts, and with the motives that are God’s motives.

Most people still identify greatness with prestige, wealth or power. This is hardly to be wondered at. It is no small undertaking to bring forth among men a new mind, a new heart, a new aim and ambition, a new outlook on living. But this revolutionary idea, advanced by Jesus, that the true measure of greatness is service, has put its mark on history and influenced the course of human events.

And so we are not astonished that there are heroic missionaries, unselfish teachers and social workers, devoted pastors, scientists who release unpatented findings for human betterment, business men who put out a quiet hand to those in need. For despite the liveliness of the ancient pagan idea of greatness, it is constantly challenged by the judgment and the example of one who said: “I am among you as one who serves.”

And that is his message to his disciples of today as surely as it was to a dozen men of long ago.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, March 8, 1959

Wood County Infirmary, November 4, 1959