Gratitude has become a standard form of appreciation in most cultures.  The idea of saying, “please” and “thank you” were at one time considered to be hallmarks of etiquette training for young children.  And our expectations that someone say, “Thank you,” when they’ve received service from us in some way — the opening or holding open of a door for someone; the offer of something needed before it was asked for — was always followed with the words, “Thank you.”  And yet, Jesus paints a picture of servanthood that clearly leads us to understand that true servanthood is a “thankless job.”  He suggests that a true servant should neither anticipate nor look forward to receiving any gratitude of thanks for what they’ve done.  Rather their service should be rendered with the attitude that they’ve only done what they should have done.

         In some ways, that attitude affirms the idea that servanthood is selfless.  It’s not done for recognition or honor.  When we go to work, we expect to be paid for our service.  It’s a part of the economic structure of the culture.  But an employee is not a servant.  True service to God is not done because the servant expects to be rewarded.  But the service is offered and initiated because he or she is simply fulfilling an obligation to do it.  Even the statement, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” is not a statement of gratitude, but rather an acknowledgement that what we’ve done, we’ve done in a way that is pleasing and acceptable.  After all, we are saved by grace through faith and not by works.

         And maybe that’s the hallmark of being a great servant — that what we do in service to God and Christ we do without any expectation of an award or reward, but for the sheer joy and love of providing the service.  Maybe it is true, that if we do what we love (serving God), we’ll never work another day in our life but will take pleasure in simply doing the work for the sake of serving.  It’s in doing the work with humility that we can be counted among the greatest servants of God and Christ.

• What difficulty do you see in expecting people to serve others without expecting a word of gratitude?
• How likely do your think people would be willing to become servants if there is no reward?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, teach me the humility of no expectations for serving You. Let my service to You be an acceptable offering in my journey to be a great servant of Yours.

         Saul Bellow wrote a book called “Traditional Jewish Tales”.  In his book he recounts this story.

         In a small Jewish town in Russian, there is a rabbi who disappears every Friday morning for several hours.  His devoted disciples boast that during those hours their rabbi goes up to heaven and talks to God.

        A stranger moves into town, and he’s skeptical about all of this, so, he decides to check things out.  He hides and watches.  The rabbi gets up in the morning, says his prayers. And then dresses in peasant clothes.  He grabs an axe, goes off into the woods, cuts some firewood, which he then hauls to a shack on the outskirts of the village.  There, an old woman and her sick son live.  He leaves them the wood — enough for a week — and then sneaks back home.

         Having observed the rabbi’s actions, the newcomer stays on in the village and becomes his disciple.  And whenever he hears one of the villagers say, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven,” the newcomer quietly adds, “If not higher.”

         Servanthood without a lot of fanfare — humble service — offered to someone in need.  We can’t say whether this rabbi aspired to greatness or simply sought in his own humble way to serve the Lord by serving others.  What we can say is that this rabbi understood what servanthood was, even if being the greatest was never on his agenda.  He did what he did in service to and out of faithfulness to his God.  He also did what he did in service to someone in need.  And maybe that’s what being the greatest really is — finding a need a filling it through humble acts of service.

• What are some of the needs in your community that could be filled through an act of humble service?
• What needs exist in your church that can enable you to become a servant in your church and/or community?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, enable me to seek ways that I may be a great servant of Yours in my life. Lead me to those in need that I might serve them and glorify Your name.

         Jesus was very open about what it meant to follow him.  Efforts to be the greatest living image of Christ active in our community do not come without its dangers and liabilities.  And Jesus was clear that becoming like him would visit upon us the identical issues of persecution that he endured.  Maybe this is what makes being a servant — at least in the manner of Christ — an unpopular role to undertake.  No one wants to be persecuted.  The emotional and spiritual toll it can take on a person cannot be measured in typical ways.  And yet persecution exists on many levels.

         An article on the suffering church from a publication called “FaithWorks” listed the degrees of persecution one could experience for practicing their religious faith.  At the top of the list and most noticeable were disapproval, ridicule, shunning, loss of educational opportunities, and the pressure to conform.  Listed in the most extreme cases of persecution were loss of property, physical violence, harassment by officials, kidnapping, torture, and murder or execution.

         It’s not a pretty picture.  But imagine the persecution that can befall us when people previously excluded are now included; when being truthful becomes less popular than supporting “the lie”; when loyalty to God takes precedent over loyalty to peer pressure.  One wouldn’t expect that servanthood would lead a person into the arena of persecution.  But being the greatest of anything comes with a cost.  If Jesus, the greatest servant in the Kingdom of God was required to suffer persecution, then those of us who seek to emulate Jesus as great servants should expect no less.  It will mean we are blessed and the kingdom of God will be ours (Matthew 5:10).

And perhaps the absence of persecution means we aren’t faithful in our serving.

• How does the reality of persecution affect your desire to be among the greatest servants of God?
• Does considering other persecuted servants (Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Medger Evers, Jesus Christ) encourage or dissuade you from being among the great servants of God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, grant me the strength to endure persecution as I labor to be a worthy servant of Yours. Let my persecution as a servant be accepted as an act that gives honor and glory to you.