Lent 2 Jesus serving with gladness
Based on Luke 4: 16-19
One of the great pleasures I still get out of life is meeting strangers who don’t know what I do for a living, one of my greatest desires is to be normal and be accepted in the way most other people are, rather than being defined by my calling to be a minister of religion. There is normally a point when the stranger I am talking to will as what I do for a job, and there is a lovely moment as I tell them, that I can almost see them back tracking on our conversation so far, to see if they have said anything that might cause me offence, as though I am some holy person, somehow detached from the real world. People then seem to think that my entire life is consumed with writing sermons and attending coffee mornings, and to some degree they are right. I am often told how much they envy me having a job that only requires me to work one day a week.
People are right, and a key element of the work of the Church is what we do on a Sunday in worship, but there is so much more to Church than that. Way back in the year 2000 the Methodist Church launched a Document called “Our Calling” which emphasised the four key aspects of personal discipleship and Church focus.
- Worship – not only for an hour on a Sunday, but in every part of our lives.
- Learning and caring – recognising that as Christians we have a duty to learn about living in the world while and putting into practice the lessons we learn, caring for the more vulnerable people in society.
- Service – We are called to serve other people.
- Evangelism – to bring more people into a relationship with God.
In a world where we seem to expect to consume things, get our own way, be the most powerful, and rise to the top of the pack, we do well to remember that Christ’s approach was to serve others. Just over a year ago, the Church leaders in Ipswich recognised that partnership is a vital part of being Church, not just a partnership between Churches, but with other agencies, seeking to support some of the most vulnerable in society. Together for Ipswich was launched just over a year ago and we have started working together to make our town a better place, not so that people might look at us and think what nice people we are, but simply because there is a need out there.
I confess those feeling overwhelmed by all the challenges we face in the modern world, the focus for our thought this week is Jesus serving with gladness this goes way beyond giving begrudgingly, giving out of a sense of duty, or to polish our own egos, this is about gladly serving those who need our help.
- What can you do to help others?