May I take you on a small fantasy this morning? May I just tease your imagination a little?
It is a 6:30 this evening. You are seated in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. The ritual coin tosses have been performed, the national anthem has been sung, and we are ready to start Super Bowl 32. Out onto the field run the Denver Broncos, stampin’ and snortin’ and lookin’ fine. There is one person you are looking for, more than any other, and that’s John Elway, the quarterback, who has seen so many championships slip right through his talented hands. You notice that he has not led the team onto the field, nor does he seem to be anywhere in the pack. After a little while, however, you notice a lone figure, quietly strolling out of the shadows. Why would John Elway, star quarterback, be so quiet and reserved?
Oh well, maybe it’s part of the game plan. But then you notice something else. The cheers in the stands are not coming from the Denver side. They are coming from the Green Bay benches! The cheeseheads are bobbing up and down and are cheering for the opposition! Now that really is strange, and you sort of look around to make sure you are in the right place. Can it be that the Packers fans are warming up to their opponents?! Wow!
When Green Bay’s team in turn takes to the grounds and the Denver folks whistle and cheer for them, you are truly amazed! Things have gotten turned around. And when the game begins, and Denver kicks off, a nice slow kick that floats gently down into the arms of a Green Bay receiver; and that receiver begins to run toward the goal line, only to have the Denver players politely get out of his way, put their jerseys down in the muddy patch for him to walk on, and offer him a sip of Gatorade when he crosses the line ... well, now you know you are somewhere in the twilight zone! This is not football. In football, people push and shove for the position. In football, sweaty, beefy men strive for a few inches of turf, and try to block others from taking it, straining every nerve to get over the goal line and be Number One.
And so where do they come off with cheering the other team, getting out of the opposition’s way, and yielding their place on the field to others? Where does that come from? Somebody has rewritten the rules! Somebody has changed things so that the object is no longer to hold top place, but to give it away! The game is not about power anymore!
Well, don’t rush out to call your bookies, because I can guarantee that what I have described is not what you will see tonight. You will see the usual pushing and shoving, because that is the way the world works, that is what the world expects. That’s what sells game tickets and finances player’s salaries and puts million dollar commercials on the air for a few scant seconds. Power is what the world knows.
But there is a place in which life is not about power. There is a realm in which we do not applaud power or place, but give thanks for something quite different. That place is the Kingdom of God, in which all the rules have been changed.
Jesus told a parable about going to a wedding feast, and about how people do themselves in because they want to be about power. But the Kingdom, Jesus insisted, is not about power.
In Jesus’ day, you see, social life worked on a strict protocol basis. At a formal occasion everyone would be seated on the basis of rank. The higher your rank, the better your seat. And so Jesus says, imagine that you arrive at this wedding feast. You do not know exactly where you are to sit, but you go and honey up to the bride and sit in one of the preferred seats. Well, for a moment or two, at least, everyone else out there thinks you must be somebody, because you are sitting up there, kissing the bride and trying to get the first piece of cake. But, says Jesus, and I can see His eyes glistening with laughter, here comes the bride’s father, and he says, look, Mr. What-did-you-say-your-name-is? These seats belong to my sister and her husband, and you will need to go sit down there. No, down there! I mean, way down there, next to the kitchen door, where the waiters will drop soup on you and the noise of dishwashing will drown out your conversation!
And then won’t you be embarrassed, says Jesus? Won’t you be mortified? Better to go to the low ranked seats first and then see if the host won’t come over and bring you up a notch or two. For, says, the Lord, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.
That’s the way it is in the Kingdom, where the rules have been rewritten. It’s not about power.
I
For one thing, it’s not about power, it’s about humility. Life in the kingdom is not about borrowed power and reflected glory, it’s about inner power, the authentic power that comes from humility. It’s not about the kind of power that is measured by the world’s status symbols. Life in the kingdom is about the inherent, inner, genuine power that comes to people who do not call attention to themselves, but who just do what needs to be done.
I continue to be astounded at the way the world uses the appearance of things as a measuring stick. What a person wears, what they drive, how they style themselves, all of these things seem to matter so much to the world. One day Paula Corbin Jones is a little hick girl from Arkansas, with big hair and the wrong kind of shoes, and therefore she can be discredited. A little later she has redone her hair, even has a hairdresser in tow, has gotten some makeup advice and a more stylish set of clothes, and suddenly the press sees her as this the sleek kitten whom the President could not resist. Amazing! You understand I am not making any kind of judgment yet on the truth in this situation; I am just commenting about the how we place so much stock in appearances. We are impressed with those who posture, pose, and look strong and sexy.
Well, in the kingdom of God the rules have been rewritten. In the Kingdom it’s not about borrowed power. In the kingdom you can work without being recognized, you can serve without being acknowledged. And you can taste the joy of real power, spiritual power, because you have humility.
Woe be the church which selects deacons or other leaders because they have money or political connections or social status! It can never be about borrowed power in the kingdom; the rules have been rewritten. It’s about humility and inner power.
II
Second, it’s not about false power masquerading as humility; it’s about spiritual security. It’s not about pretending to have a humility that isn’t here, it’s not about acting so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use. It’s not about putting on a long face and a pious act, and singing the blues about ourselves. It’s not about false humility, which is really false power. It’s about the security of knowing that you are a child of God, and therefore it does not matter what role you have, what place you take, or what titles you get. All that matters is that you do have a role, you do have a place, and you fulfill it faithfully.
You see, there is a kind of false humility among some Christians. Some of us know the rules have been changed in the Kingdom, and so we put on these pious airs and pretend to be low, nothing, negligible. And all the while what we really want is for people to look at us and to say, “What a wonderful Christian!” “What a spiritual person!” We want people to notice our humility! We are like the fellow who was given a medal for being humble, but then he wore it around, day after day, and they decided they had better take it away from him! When we are proud of being humble, that’s false pride.
Jesus teaches us in this parable not to write ourselves off, nor to wallow in fake humility. He doesn’t tell us we have no place in the Kingdom! We are children of God! We are redeemed by His blood! We are not nothings. We are somebodies! But you cannot receive what God wants you to have if you do nothing but put yourself down and knock yourself around.
As I talked with each of the five persons who is to be installed in our Diaconate today, I was impressed by the way each one said something like, “I don’t know if I can do the job, but, by the help of God, I will try”. Now if they had said, “What took you so long, of course I will be a deacon, I am ready for this.” -- if they had said that, I would have said, “You are disqualified.” If you think you can do this on your own, you are clearly not be ready to do it! And, just the same, if they had persisted in saying, “I cannot do this, I am not good enough, I am just a miserable nobody”, then I would have said, “You know what, you’re right. If you cannot see yourself a as child of God, with something to give, then you are not ready to be a deacon. Because it’s not about power, but it’s not about being a doormat either. It’s about being a mature person, a child of God, secure in the knowledge that although your strengths are limited, you can do all things through the Christ who strengthens you. It’s not about false power; it’s about being secure in the knowledge of who you are.
III
And finally, it’s not about power, again; it’s about service. It’s not about what your church can do for you, it’s about what you can do for your church. It’s not about what rights and privileges the Kingdom conveys to you, it is about what forms of service you can give to God’s work. Life in the Kingdom is not about power, it’s about service.
The meaning of the word “deacon” is “servant”. A deacon is a servant of God and of the Kingdom; and thus a servant of the church. A deacon is not a member of a governing board. We don’t even call them a Board of deacons, because they don’t govern much. They serve. They go to persons in crisis, and serve by praying, counseling, taking food, running errands, whatever needs to be done. They go to members who have fallen away and they seek to find out the problem and cure the spiritual illness. They serve. There is no other way to describe the deacon. The deacons serves rather than be served. The deacon loves rather than garner power. This place in the Kingdom is not about power. It is about service.
And if, by the providence of God, our deacons should play by the new rules and serve the needs of the people of God, perhaps they will coach all of us, guide all of us, and bring all of us up higher.
Come to think of it, if this afternoon my little fantasy should come true out in San Diego, it may not make for an exciting game; it may not sell tickets, and it may not justify the million dollar commercials. But think about what else there would not be: there wouldn’t be any injuries. There wouldn’t be any hard feelings. There wouldn’t be any penalties. And there wouldn’t be any lingering resentments. Most of all there wouldn’t be any losers. There would be only winners.
What a vision for our church, under the leadership of deacons who know that it’s not about power, but about service: that we all come out winners, under God.
