BECOMING A REFLECTION OF JESUS SERMON SERIES

Servant

Philippians 2: 1-11

 

Pastor Robyn Hogue                     September 14, 2014          Skyline Presbyterian Church

Three-year-old Katie was taken to her pediatrician during a recent illness. As the doctor examined her ears, he asked, “Will I find Big Bird in here?” Katie giggled and said through her smile, “No.”

Then, before examining her throat, the doctor asked, “Will I find the Cookie Monster in here?” Again, Katie smiled, ad shook her head, “No.”

Finally, listening to her heart, he asked, “Will I find Hello Kitty in here?” With innocent conviction, she looked him directly in the eye and said, “No. Jesus is in my heart. Hello Kitty is on my underwear.”

Katie has it right doesn’t she? She might be only three, but I think she understands the nature of Philippians 2. Paul tells us we are to become like Christ; to have Jesus in our hearts; to be servants.

We are to be imitators of Christ, or as I am phrasing it for our purposes this fall…reflections of Jesus. Who will know that we are Christ followers unless there is something of Christ showing through somewhere?  The first theme for us is servanthood.

For us to become servant reflections of Jesus, we need to be available and accountable to Him.

Available to Jesus

A man applied for a job as a handyman. The prospective employer asked, “Can you do carpentry?” The man answered in the negative.

“How about bricklaying?” Again the man answered, “No.”

The employer asked, “Well, what about electrical work?” The man said “No, I don’t know anything about that either.” Finally the employer said, “Well, tell me then what is handy about you.” The man replied, “I live just around the corner.”

Sometimes the greatest ability we can have is availability. To be where Christ can call us, to be within whisper range of His summons, that is the beginning of a life of meaningful discipleship. Are you available to Christ? Secondly, are you available to others?

One of my mother’s favorite Southern writers was Lewis Grizzard. He wrote humorous stories. Among them was his book titled, Elvis is Dead and I don’t Feel so Good Myself. He wrote another one titled Shoot Low Boys, They’re riding Shetland Ponies. It’s a book full of short stories of ordinary people who chose to serve others. In Lewis’ estimation they are heroes. His point is that the real heroes in life aren’t the ones who ride in on the charging white steeds dressed like the lead character in one of our legends. Instead, they’re the ordinary people who are available to others, reach out their arms and do what they can. Servants are heroes who ride Shetland ponies.

Let me tell you about a senior citizen in Chicago who decided to become a more committed servant for Christ and so he asked the Lord to show him what to do. He happened to be a Presbyterian, which is a good thing. And he happened to be in his seventies, which is also a good thing.

Over a short period of time he got a burden and a passion in his heart for the inner city kids in his area. This senior Presbyterian Christian man didn’t have a big developed plan, he didn’t turn to experts and strategize. What he decided to do was just to adopt one inner city high school. And what he did was every time there was a sports practice that ended he would go there and encourage the coaches. He did this for both boys’ and girls’ teams. After about a year of doing this he began to encourage the students. If it was basketball season, he’d be there when the basketball players came out of the locker room. If it was football season, he would be there to hang out with the kids. And he made sure in that time that they knew that he thought they were special and mattered.

Over time he also made sure that they knew that God and Jesus thought they mattered and they were special.

Somebody who watched this going on came to him and said, “Man, what are you doing wasting your time with these kids. You’re not young, you’re not hip, you don’t speak their language. What are you doin’ wasting your time and theirs down there?”

And our senior Presbyterian Christian said, “You’re right, I’m not young, I’m not pierced or tatted (tattooed) and I don’t speak their language, but when I’m there God’s got one more option than when I’m not.”

It’s not about being great, it’s about choosing for the sake of our love for Christ and others to give God one more option when we’re there than when we’re not. That’s being a servant. That’s being available.

Accountable to Jesus

Another aspect we need in order to reflect Jesus’ servant nature is to be accountable to Him. (1. Available  2. Accountable)

There is a wonderful story about a group of military leaders who succeeded in building a super computer that was able to solve any problem, large or small, strategic or tactical. These military leaders assembled in front of the new machine for a demonstration. The engineer conducting the demonstration instructed these officers to feed a difficult tactical problem into it. The military leaders proceeded to describe a hypothetical situation to the computer and then asked the pivotal question: attack or retreat? This enormous super computer hummed away for an hour and then printed out its one-word answer....YES.

The generals looked at each other, somewhat stupefied. Finally one of them submits a second request to the computer: YES WHAT? Instantly the computer responded: YES, SIR.

It doesn’t make any difference what your answer is or how you answer it if you never really adopt the answer to the ultimate question and put it into action.

Let me illustrate: When I was in high school a physician came to talk to the students about the dangers of smoking. The physician scared us with his grim pictures of smokers’ lungs and tales of death from lung cancer. The doctor finished his speech by saying, “Remember, fire on one end, fool on the other.”

We were all impressed, especially those students who would sneak out behind the shop building at lunch to light one up.

Now I was editor of the year book and my best friend was editor of the newspaper at the time. And when one of the school photographers caught the doctor himself lighting up when he got back in his car after the lecture, she ran the story. This physician’s credibility was shot. He was the talk of the campus. It would have been better for the no-smoking campaign if he had never come to speak. Saying one thing and doing another is something nobody respects.

And people are watching us. If our actions don’t match our words, we can claim to be a saint but if we act like a stinker, someone’s going to get wind of it real quickly. We need to be accountable to Jesus for our actions. He’s counting on us to reflect His love into the world.

Let me close with one more story. There is a Jewish legend that tells of a woman who dies and goes to heaven. Heaven is beautiful, full of lush gardens and glittering mansions. But then the woman comes to a room lined with shelves. The shelves are stacked with piles of human ears! A heavenly guide explains that these ears belonged to all the people on earth who listened each week to the word of God, but never acted on God’s teachings. Their worship never resulted in action. When these people died, therefore, only their ears ended up in heaven.

It’s not a question of who has our ears. That’s just receptivity. It’s a question of who has our heart, our loyalty or to whom we are accountable with our actions.

Does God just have your ear or does God have your will?

We are to be imitators of Christ, reflections of Jesus. Are you willing to be a servant to others by your availability and accountability?