Masihivandana.com

This is a contribution from my friend Rev Kuruvilla Chandy - you can read more from him on his blog

Are you the leader or head of the ministry you are involved in? Right away, it must be said that there is something wrong in your way of thinking. Our Lord said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). First give up the notion that you are the head. Get it into your head that you are the “servant of all .”

Middle class families in India employ servants to do what are described as “menial jobs” (washing dirty cooking utensils, crockery and cutlery, sweeping and swobbing floors, washing clothes, cleaning toilets, watering plants, etc). The Lord Jesus must have had these sort of images because He lived in this part of the world. But when we read the words of our Lord, our minds shy away from these images and to make it doubly sure that such images are driven from our minds, we have coined the word ” servanthood.” This word does not exist in the vocabulary of the English language and cannot be found in any dictionary. Christians made it up. It’s a neat theological trick to drain the Lord’s original idea of all its unpleasant connotations .

In our domestic world, servants are at the bottom of the totem pole. But in the church-world those who read papers at conferences on servanthood or preach messages on the subject are not people at the bottom. They are in leadership. They are people who like to talk about servanthood because they never have to do the dirty jobs of servants.

Often, those who head or lead a work, have an attitude that the entire machinery and workforce of their particular organization exist for their sake, to aid and support them for the great task that engages them. This subconscious attitude (and maybe it’s not so subconscious) comes from thinking of oneself as the primary and supreme representative of the ministry. There is a tendency to think that others (subordinates and underlings) are less representative.

Historically, there have been some glaring examples of such a view. Remarkably, most Christians have found each of them obnoxious. The concept of papal infallibility is an example. The Pope is called the “Vicar of Christ” [earthly representative of God]. Consequently, when the Pope utters something it is regarded as a word from the Lord and one that is not to be disputed.

During the Emergency, D.K. Barooah, the then Congress president, coined the slogan, “Indira is India, India is Indira.” Most thinking Indians were appalled by the extreme sycophancy. Mrs Gandhi was herself guilty of entertaining this thought as she justified the imposition of the Emergency and suspending human rights, muzzling the press and all criticism. She argued that the Emergency had become necessary because the integrity and safety of the very nation was at stake. Why? How exactly was the nation threatened? All because a court having examined the contentions of a rival, that she had abused her office in order to be elected, had declared her election to Parliament null and void, which would of course have led to her having to resign from the position of Prime Minister. She was not ready to do that. She felt that she was indeed the first and foremost representative of the nation.

Currently in India a debate is raging on whether or not the concept of “contempt of court” signifies that any questioning of the integrity of a judge is tantamount to contempt of court.

History has again and again witnessed the rise of the notion that lawa that are binding on commoners do not apply to those who are not part of the masses.

It was King James I of England who first spoke of the “divine right of kings”. He said that “kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God’s throne, but even by God himself are called gods…they exercise a manner or resemblance of divine power upon earth: for if you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a king. God hath power to create or destrov make or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or send death, to judge all and to be judged nor accountable to none; to raise low things and to make high things low at his pleasure, and to God are both souls and body due. And the like power have kings: they make and unmake their subjects, thev have power of raising and casting down, of life and of death, judges over all their subjects and in all causes and yet accountable to none but God only. . .” From this he concluded that just “as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy…so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power .” As governance was his craft he said that he could not be taught, that he was unteachable in the matter.

All over India, in every state and at the centre, there are lawless men getting elected to the legislature–not only those who are at large, but even those who are presently serving sentences in jails! Remarkably, while Indian law does not allow those awaiting trial to vote, there is no bar on people fighting elections from jail if not yet convicted! (This is surely an item for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Wonder if there is any other country where that would be allowed?)

When people are above the law, it does not matter whether they claim it by virtue of their office or by lawless might. They belong together: they are those who abuse others. They may talk of “serving” people (as hierarchs do in the church-world and politicians in the nation) , but it is no secret that they expect others to serve them and their purposes, while they do all the talking on being servants.

Skip Moen who maintains the site At God’s Table http://www.atgodstable.com/ makes some pertinent comments on Paul’s instruction that the Christian minister ought to ” preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim.4:2). He asks what comes to mind when we read the word “exhort”. Usually we think that the word suggests verbal tasks such as lecturing or urging people to do something that they have been neglecting. Moen, who has some fluency in Greek, draw attention to the fact that the word is parakaleo.

This word is the root of Paraklete, one name for the Holy Spirit. The word parakaleo is made up of two words, para (along side) and kaleo (to call). Ths word parakaleo therefore has a whole range of meanings: aid, help, assistance, encouragement, comfort. The Holy Spirit is thus the Advocate, the Helper, the Comforter.

Moen writes, “For God, parakaleo is a very big deal. It is precisely what Jesus did when He responded to the call for redemption and restoration. If the leader of the flock is going to fill this criterion, it will usually be costly, but it will always be exactly what we need at precisely the right time and place. Parakaleo is divine, just-in-time delivery.

“The Christian leader of the flock is not the one with the uninterruptible schedule. She [he] is not the one who just doesn’t have time for you right now. She is the one who knows what it means to deliver the right word, the comforting touch and the encouraging, tangible assistance when it is needed. Exhortation is not always vocal remonstration or emotional pleas. Exhortation is aid in an emergency, consolation in sorrow, assistance when required and supplications when necessary.”

What Moen writes implies that the one ministered to takes priority ove one’s life’s work. They don’t exist to authenticate or highlight our ministry. We and our ministry exist to help them. It is the other way around. When our Christian leaders follow the leading of the Servant Par Excellence, they will do what be like Him and do what He did.

Moen also makes the point that if we are going to be like Jesus there is somethijng else we must do. Those who are like Jesus don’t look for any credit. “In fact, if you want the best story of parakaleo in action, read the story of Jarius’ daughter. Jesus heals her after a major interruption, and then slips out the back door before anyone can start the media frenzy. A Christian leader knows that none of the credit for all these virtuous acts falls on him. It belongs to God alone .”

You are a leader. But are you like Jesus? Are you the one who serves, the servant of all?

In Christ’s love,

Kuru