You want me to do what!?!?!

What is growing in Christ all about? We think as we grow up to "spiritual maturity" that we will continue to have more and more responsibility in the church. We think that the longer we have walked with Jesus, the more trusted we are in the Christian community. I think that all of this is right, but I think that perhaps we perceive what it should actually look like a little wrong. All too often we think that "being more spiritually mature" means that we will have special privilege and benefits in the church, never realizing that those special benefits and privileges really amount to us being the servant of everyone else in the church. Special privilege means you get the cruddy job that no one else wants, and sometimes it doesn't feel so special. Don't believe me? Ask Jesus then.

Matthew 20:20-28
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" They said to him, "We are able." He said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

You see being "great" in the Kingdom of God means being the humble submissive servant to everyone else. What better way can we learn that lesson than from what happened this past Sunday after church here at Crossroads Fellowship. After service we were having lunch getting ready to go to a Christian Rock concert when one of my kids came in and told me that there was raw sewage pouring out of a pipe in back of the church. Frustrated I went out side and sure enough feces, used feminine hygiene products, urine, and all sorts of nastiness was flowing out of a sewage cleanout into the yard. So I get tools and get to work. But you know this story isn't about me, it is about one of the teenagers at the church. So anyway there I am trying to get it flowing again. Eventually I get it working somewhat and notice that someone has thrown a metal bar down the cleanout. I measure down with a stick and figure out my arm is just long enough to reach it. So as nasty as it is I stick my arm in the hole, and BAM it won't go in past my forearm. So now other men are offering to stick their arms in, but they all have arms like me. What we need is someone with a skinny arm, but long like mine. Where are we gonna find that?

Then it dawns on me. Our teenagers might work for the job. As we survey the teens left at church it comes down to only one choice - - - Jessica! Jessica is the only one with long enough arms that are skinny enough. So I ask this 15 year old girly girl. AND SHE SAYS YES! So here is Jessica laying with face mere inches away from raw sewage, arm shoved in the sewer pipe trying to get this bar. And she just barely can not reach it. So she tries with pliers to extend her reach, but can't get that to work. So we cut some of the pipe off, which gets to move her face even closer to the raw sewage on the ground, and eventually she fishes it out. Is this what Jesus meant by being a servant to everyone, and a slave of all? You be the judge.