Serving with Gladness

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

    Serve the Lord with gladness. (Psalm 100:1)

 ^“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve

and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Jesus in Mark 10:45)

 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God,

serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. (1 Peter 4: 10)

Service is a part of the Christian faith. To be a disciple of Jesus is to spend time in service to God and to others. To follow Jesus is to follow him in service. Since the earliest days of the church, followers of Jesus have practiced service as an outflowing of the gospel. 

Frederich Buechner once wrote, “To worship God means to serve God. Basically there are two ways to do it. One way is to do things for God that God needs to have done—run errands for God, carry messages for God, fight on God’s side, feed God’s lambs, and so on. The other way is to do things for God that you need to do—sing songs for God, create beautiful things for God, give things up for God, tell God what’s on your mind and in your heart, in general rejoice in God…” (Buechner, Wishful Thinking, 97-98). This understanding can be helpful, to see two categories of serving God. 

The first category includes living out the teachings, commandments, and invitations we find throughout the scriptures. We serve God by following Jesus’ instructions in places like the Sermon on the Mount, or in Matthew 25 where his followers are encouraged to serve “the least of these.” This category can include the Ten Commandments and also later instructions found in the New Testament. For example, Paul writes, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). Every time we seek to overcome evil with good, we are serving God.

The second category (according to Buechner) includes forms of service that are unique to us: those specific, individual things that we need to do. These activities may be very fulfilling to us, and they can also be an avenue for serving God. I wonder if you can think of any activities in your life that fall under this category of service.

What's the opposite of serving God and others? Many would suggest the opposite of serving God is serving only self. And humans can be quite adept and inventive in choosing self-serving paths in life. A self-serving life is a life marked by self-concern as the ultimate guide. Life becomes all about what I want in order to be happy, even though my definition of happiness may change every day. Over time, this prideful path becomes a trap that eventually robs life of joy, weakens relationships, and fails to satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

At times the call of Jesus to a life of service may seem very unappealing. Service can be hard; it can demand much from us. But through the help of God's Spirit, service can be a means of grace in our lives. Because Jesus loves us beyond what we can imagine, we are freed to live our lives with a dedication to joyful service.

May God bless you as you serve.

-Pastor Justin