Generosity of Service - Matthew 25:34-40
2023 Morrison/Prescott House Chapel Sermon
In my office, next door, I have a number of artifacts and objects on the shelf above my desk. These objects are things that are special to me, they remind me of a place or a person or a moment that was significant in my life.
On that shelf, I have this woven bag. For me, this is a very special item, although it looks so simple. It reminds me of an important and life changing event from my schooling.
I went to a school very similar to Newington and when I was in Year 11 I had the opportunity to go on a Service Learning trip to Papua New Guinea. My school had a partnership with a village called Lelehudi, a village on the eastern tip of the country in Milne Bay. This partnership was nurtured through the Uniting Church and UnitingWorld, the overseas aid organisation of the Uniting Church.
As I was preparing to go on this trip, I was filled with enthusiasm thinking about the amazing things that we were going to be able to do to better the lives of these people in PNG. We were going to build desks for their school and we were taking supplies for their medical centre. I thought what a great opportunity and was focused on the wonderful things that we were going to be able to do for them.
What I failed to anticipate was what they were going to do for us.
Over the ten days that we spent in the village and in surrounding communities I was bowled over by the generosity and hospitality that we were offered. We were a bunch of privileged school boys from Sydney, yet the members of that community welcomed us into their homes and their lives and treated us like one of their own sons. Yes, from a material point of view they had very little, their houses were basic and they didn’t have the technology we had. But they had so much more to offer in terms of love and care and community, in a way that we never anticipated.
We left that village having done some good to better the welfare of that community. But we left having been given so much more in return.
For me, that was a life changing experience. It spurred my passion for service and social justice and it’s directly from that trip that I can draw a line to the work I did on Board and other Governance committees in my adult life. It really helped form the person I am today.
See I learnt from that trip a lesson that has stayed with me my whole life. Service and serving others isn’t only about what you can give to those that have less. It’s about being willing to learn from those whose life experience is vastly different to yours. It’s about partnership and mutual support. Yes, it’s about bettering people’s lives, but it’s also about being willing to be changed yourself. It’s our attitude that’s important when we go to serve others.
Serving others is at the heart of what it means to be Christian. Jesus’ whole ministry was centred around the notion of service. He constantly taught that when serving others, we are serving God. When we are kind, we are showing God’s kindness. When we help, we are offering God’s help. When we show love, we are showing God’s love. It is through that, that we become closer to God and part of God’s kingdom.
Tonight’s reading talks about this notion of service, that by serving others we are serving God. This is part of Jesus’ Farwell Address, he knows that very soon he is going to be betrayed and killed and so he is teaching his disciples one last time. Here Jesus is talking about what it means to be saved and how we come closer to God. He says those that are righteous are the ones who offer food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked and care to the sick. When we offer that kind of service to anyone, even the least of society, we are offering that service to God. And by that, we are drawn closer to God’s kingdom.
See too often we offer service to others because of what we might get out of it. We donate money to charity because we know we’ll get a tax deduction on our tax return. We volunteer for a collection or an event because we know it’ll go towards our Service Learning Award. Yes, we know the moral benefit is for those we serve. But too often our motivation is self-centred, rather than self-less.
Jesus’ ministry challenged that self-centred notion of service. Often we find him questioning those places and people of authority and challenging the way they are doing things. He doesn’t have time for hypocrisy or people who think themselves better than others. Rather, Jesus chooses to associate himself we the marginalised and the ignored, the outcast and unloved.
The American Theologian, Ched Myers, talks about Jesus’ ministry being about the changing of Centres and Margins. Those at the traditional centre of society, those who are powerful or privileged, are marginalised in Jesus’ ministry. And those who are traditionally on the margins of society, those who are poor or week, are brought into the centre of Jesus’ kingdom.
Jesus’ notion of service and care to others upends the traditional paradigm of power and privilege. Jesus welcomes those who are marginalised by society and challenges those who are privileged by society.
Now, we don’t need to read this as some political manifesto or revolutionary ideology. It’s not meant to upturn places of power of governance. Rather, it challenges us to think about who are the ‘centres’ in our society and who are the marginalised. Perhaps, rather than pushing those at the centre out, we can simply make the circle bigger so that those who on the margins are brought in and join the centre.
My friend and colleague, Rev Jon Own, who’s the CEO of The Wayside Chapel, talks about creating a community of ‘no us or them’ and that’s what the Wayside Chapel strives for. You only need to look at their Christmas Day Street Party to see a glimpse of this broadened circle. The most wealthy and powerful of society, politicians and business people, celebrating and having fun with the homeless and the addicted. There’s no centre or margin, there’s simple a big, broad circle where everyone is welcomed and everyone is served.
That is, I think, what an image of generous service looks like. Not offering care because we’ll benefit from it, but rather serving because it’s the right thing to do.
My experience in small village in Papua New Guinea taught me that service isn’t only about helping those less privileged than me, it’s also about being open to be changed yourself. When we break down those traditional notions of centres and margins that subconsciously influence the way we serve, we find a broad circle where all are changed and all are bettered.
Let that be out attitude towards generously serving others. Amen
