The Rector's Ramblings...February 4, 2010

The Rev. Dr. Robert C. SawyerAs we approach the end of the Epiphany Season, I ask each of you to begin to spend time in reflection upon one of the promises we make in the Baptismal Covenant.  This promise is, "...to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself." (BCP p. 305)  In making this promise we come face to face with the reality of life and ministry in the Church. Simply put, we are called to be servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now I realize this is a hard thing for us to do.  I think the main reason it is hard is because we are normal human beings who put our own needs and desires first.  In this way we tend to act just like the disciples toward the end of Jesus' earthly ministry.  There is a story in the twenty-second Chapter of Luke that took place at the Last Supper that illustrates this point.

Even in the midst of the Last Supper, this most intimate and powerful moment, we hear, "A dispute arose among them (the disciples) as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest." (Lk 22:24)  There is something very human in this scene.  I imagine the disciples were still on a high from the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday, and they probably expected greater things to occur.  It was almost as if they were in the midst of sibling rivalry. 

Three years of being together, three years of ministry, three years of teaching and all the disciples can worry about is who is the greatest.  Jesus may have felt like throwing up his hands in exasperation, but he did not.  He gave the disciples a new commandment.  "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them...But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like he youngest and the leader like one who serves...I am among you as one who serves." (Lk 22:25-27)

Jesus' words, "I am among you as one who serves," are words that we truly need to keep in our hearts for they stand as a beacon of light for us by which we can come to see that our relationship with Jesus is the number one priority for our lives and not our own needs and desires.  It is through this relationship that we are able to not only love the person that God had made us to be but also, as Bishop Curry once put it, allow the Jesus who is in us to experience the Jesus who is in others.