8. To ‘SERVE and to be SERVED’
Our four “hallmarks” of community are all connected.
We can only ‘know and be known’ if we know that we are ‘loved and able to love’. Serving is an act of love and is made possible by our knowledge of one another’s needs.
Our hallmarks are also most effectively informed by knowing who the Triune God is. He knows us intimately and want us to know Him. He is love itself and desires that we love Him. He serves His creation and desires our service. He celebrates His own creative goodness and wants us to celebrate Him and with Him.
Many years ago, when we were part of a team pioneering a new Christian School, we set out to write our statement of purpose. One of our principles was “to develop joy in serving”. It fitted well with what we understood to be our calling.
The following day one of our teachers came to see me and expressed her dissatisfaction with our statement; she saw it as incomplete. She suggested “to develop joy in serving and in the acceptance of being served.” She was absolutely correct.
We realised that it can actually be easier to serve others than to be served. Serving others can indeed cause us to behave in “superior” ways – to presume that we have no need of the service of others. Serving and being served both require humility.
Serving requires us to take the gifts that God has given us and to use them for His glory and in the service of others.
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that we are to be salt in the world – to preserve that which is virtuous, to enhance goodness and add positive flavour. He also says we should be like a light on a hill – in other words to be a beacon that will be seen and noticed as something that brings light into darkness. It is our love and service for one another that will make a visible a difference to the world around us.
Then Matthew points out: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
There is a direct connection between our service and our reflection of the nature of God that shows His glory.
Blessings
Brian