United With Christ To Serve
June 13, 2010
Philippians 2:3-8 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Joe was a drunk. There was no other way to put it. He had wasted much of his life until he finally stumbled into a Bowery mission, heard of the message of Christ as His Savior, and was changed. Prior to his conversion, he had the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom there was no hope, someone who had only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But all that was changed now. He really did have a new life in Christ. Joe had become the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. He spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never a task that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left behind by a violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what he was asked with a smile on his face and what seemed to be gratitude for the chance to help out. He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered into the mission from the streets, and to undress and tuck into bed those who were too sick to take care of themselves. Joe was happy to do whatever was asked of him.
One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening message to the usual crowd of wrecked humanity sitting there quietly with drooping heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar, knelt to pray and cried out for God to help him change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, “O God, make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!” The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’” The man looked up at the director with a puzzled look on his face and asked, “Is he like Joe?”
Wouldn’t it be great if more of us were so much like Jesus that people confused us for Him? We are been called to be closely identified with our Savior, united with him. We should be identified with Him because we know that we have been saved by Him. We have a new life because we possess the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus. You and I are a dearly loved part of God’s creation, precious to Him, people for who He was willing to send His Son so that He could die to pay for sins and redeem us for His own possession. By His doing, we have been joined to Him, united with Him. We are to be more and more like him. That’s what Joe was doing.
This passage also calls us to humility. We can boast in Christ, but not ourselves. We should follow His example of being humble and obedient to the Father. Being united with Christ should put an end to selfishness and conceit through repentance and forgiveness. The Scripture is full of the message of repentance. Both the Old Testament and Gospel lessons for today are calls to repent. This message is repeated so often because it is something we all need to do. Being united with Christ means we will admit our sins, turn from them, and confess them to God so that we can be assured of His forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.
Another reason for humility is the recognition of who God is and who we are. Our faith in Christ as Savior tells us that He is the Son of the living God, who left the majesty of Heaven to pay for our mistakes. He lovingly laid down His perfect life to pay for our sins. He freely gives us pardon and redemption, a gift we could never earn and don’t deserve. God did it all. We simply receive the gift.
Being united with Christ turns things upside down. The ways of the world are no longer the ways we should follow. Our attitude should be the same as the one we are united with. He took the nature of a servant. He offered Himself in service to those around Him, and to all people. He spoke of this repeatedly with His disciples:
I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:27
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Mark 8:34
the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28
The way we show God’s love is by serving others. Joe understood that, and was successful in sharing God’s love because he dedicated himself to service. All the while, he was witnessing for Christ. He was sharing Jesus with others through his loving service. The actions themselves needed to be followed with words of explanation about who Jesus is and what He has done. But he had people who were willing to listen to him as a result of the life he was leading.
Many of the followers of Jesus never get to that point. They hear the Good News. They rejoice in the message of forgiveness earned by Jesus and given to us. So they fold their hands and come to worship. That’s good, and God wants your worship. But He also wants you to unfold your hands to welcome and reach out to others for Christ. Lives of service for Jesus take place when you unfold your hands. That is what the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League is all about., and why I am so happy to be working with this organization. All Christians are called to this kind of service, and LWML is an example happens when you unfold your hands and set out to serve Jesus.
United with Christ to Serve. It all centers in Jesus. If we are united with Him, our attitude will be like His. We will serve others and proclaim Jesus.
God, help us to be servants.
