As we continue our series Practicing Faith, today’s topic is our call to “Serve all people, following the example of Jesus.” Our Scripture readings for the day are Mark 10:42-45, Psalm 25:1-10, Philippians 2:3-8, and Matthew 22:34-40. This is week four of the series; here are parts one, two, and three.
Most of this sermon is adapted from my sermon on humble service from September 19, 2021. This sermon is brief as it led into a video recap of the Lighthouse Youth HungerQuest summer service trip, which you can watch as part of the worship livestream from Christ the King below. No sermon podcast this week.
Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Did any of you notice this week was TV’s fall season premiere week? Premiere week used to be a much bigger deal, but now with streaming, there are new shows starting all the time.
And especially this year, with the writers’ and actors’ strikes, most of the schedule is new reality and competition shows, so we’re getting shows like Celebrity Name that Tune, Kitchen Nightmares, and The Price is Right at Night.
Pretty much anything can be a reality competition show, right? Lego Masters? Celebrity Jeopardy? But maybe not everything should be. Two years ago CBS announced a new show called The Activist, sort of a similar concept to how The Apprentice used to be, with three celebrity judges. Anyone hear about this?
Let me read you part of an NPR article about it:
“Six contestants would compete in a variety of activism-themed contests before appearing at a summit of world leaders in Italy — a format press materials called ‘awe-inspiring,’ ‘ground-breaking’ and sure to ‘inspire real change.’
But in the week since the network’s announcement, backlash has come from all corners — including an apology from one of the program’s own hosts.
Now, the show’s producers have announced they will dramatically reformat the show, dropping the competitive elements to become a one-time documentary special rather than a five-episode series.Quote: ‘It has become apparent the format of the show as announced distracts from the vital work these incredible activists do in their communities every day,’ said CBS and its co-producers…
’Global activism centers on collaboration and cooperation, not competition. We apologize to the activists, hosts, and the larger activist community — we got it wrong.’” (Source: this NPR article, see also this additional article on Vulture)
I became a little more of a televangelist that I’d like with live-streaming during the pandemic, but I will never be in a position to produce or approve reality television shows.
But taking non-profits and activists and having them do publicity stunts as a competition for a pile of money and calling it entertainment is a terrible idea, right?
The point of being an activist is to support a cause, in order to help with some issue. I don’t know exactly what the people who were supposed to be on this show were working on, but apparently they work in the areas of education, environment, and health. Those are all good causes.
I don’t know if the people involved are Christians, but Christians should care about all of that, taking care of the creation God’s given us, helping the sick, teaching—those are all areas where faith has an impact.
The causes are good. But the producers of the show missed a key point: Serving is not a competition!
Listen again to Jesus: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
Jesus gave us the example to follow. He did the job of a servant, washing his disciples feet, even washing the feet of Judas, the one who would betray him. The greatest commandment we are given is to love God, and to live out that love by loving our neighbors.
In Philippians 2, Paul instructs us to do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but to humbly look to the interests of others.
We follow the example of Jesus, who—although he was God—emptied himself to take the form of a human servant, humbling himself to the point of death on a cross.
As followers of Jesus, our call is not to gain celebrity, or fame, or fortune; our call is to “Serve all people, following the example of Jesus.” Our service doesn’t need to be glamorous or draw attention; we are called simply to act out our faith, to love our neighbors in tangible ways. We serve because God has blessed us to be a blessing.
With the rest of the sermon time, I want to show you how some of the youth from our congregation lived out that call to serve a few weeks ago. It’s not a reality tv competition, but more something to celebrate as an example of humbly working together.
As you’ll see in the video, Lighthouse youth came together to spend a weekend learning about hunger—including through 24 hours of fasting—and then we put faith into action through a local, regional, and then a global service project. I’m really proud of how well they did at humbly and cooperatively working together to follow Jesus’ example of service.