[The Easter Life is] A Life of Service

Years ago, the United States had largely an industrial economy,

manufacturing economy. We, we, we grew food, we produce

steel, we produced oil, we produce products.

Over the years, we transitioned into what many people call a

service economy, and that is we provided services, financial

services, educational services, insurance services, medical

services. We shift then into a, an

information economy and, and, and now we're going into

something and knowing we don't really know what it's going to

be. They'll we'll find out when,

when it's here. But but that, that notion of

being a service economy is, I think, a helpful way for us to

think about the Kingdom of God. That that while it is important

to be productive, the, the, the essence and the basis of the

life in the Kingdom of God is not production, it's service.

We're an Easter people. We gather together, We are, we

have an identity. We are who we are because of

what happened on Easter. Jesus rose again from the dead

and, and has promised that one day a resurrection will come for

all the faithful. We have that hope of the

resurrection. And because we have that hope of

the resurrection, Jesus calls us to live now like we really

believe that and, and to live the resurrection life, live the

Easter life now. And, and that part of that,

again, we saw that part of that is, is realizing that that we

live in a world that's turned upside down, that that

expectations and priorities and status and position all get

reversed in the Kingdom of heaven.

And today we're talking about the reality that the Easter life

is also a life of service. Last week, a life of faith, this

week, a life of service. And I want to, I want to talk

about this business, about the Easter life being a life of

service. This shouldn't have surprised

any of Jesus's disciples. Now we say that they've, they've

kept continually getting surprised by lots of things that

that perhaps they shouldn't have been surprised by.

Jesus told them repeatedly, I'm going to be betrayed.

I'm going to be handed over, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to

die, I'm going to rise again. And then they were all surprised

when it happened. And that's we, we can't really

judge the disciples for that because odds are we would have

had the same struggles in understanding and believing

those things that they did. But this piece of it, this piece

of it was as clear as crystal from the jump with Jesus from

the get go, that a life in the Kingdom of God, they wouldn't

have called it before Easter, the Easter life.

But life in the Kingdom of God, which we now know is the Easter

life is a life of service. Jesus had been modeling that and

doing that and saying that from the very beginning.

Grace read part of that this morning, here today.

Jesus said whoever wants to be first must take the last place

and be the servant of all in. In the Gospel of Luke, we see

the disciples having this argument in the upper room the

night before Jesus is crucified. Who's going to be the greatest?

In the Gospel of Mark, we see the disciples having that

argument much earlier. They're just walking through

whatever part of Israel they're walking through at the time,

doing the things that they've been doing and and having that

argument that human beings seem to so often love to have.

Which one of us is better, Which one of us is more important?

Which one of us should be in charge?

Which one of us should get the credit and the glory and get to

set at the, you know, the head of the table or the front of the

class or or have the corner office?

All of the which one of us should get the biggest paycheck?

And Jesus said you are asking all of the wrong questions.

That is not how my Kingdom works.

If you want to be first, if you really want to be first in my

Kingdom, then you need to get in last place and serve everyone

else. Now, we still struggle with that

in a in a huge way. I have yet to see the Church of

any size that that insists that their janitor be the pastor or

the president of the board, Right.

I mean, if we took Jesus literally, that's how we would

do things. If you want to preach, you got

to clean the toilets. By the way, it's not what I'm

asking for. You can have me clean your

toilets, but ask Amy. They won't.

It won't happen very often. So being out front as a status

symbol is is is a huge temptation in the church in the

West, even more so than in other parts of the world.

I think largely because for so many years, being part of a

church, particularly part of a reputable church had its status

and social advantages is a pastor.

And I've, I've mentioned this before, but one of my favorite

pastors is out there is a fellow by the name of Francis Chan.

He's over on the West Coast someplace, Washington or Oregon,

one of the, the Pacific Northwest states.

And he, he's been a very good writer, a very good pastor.

He's, he started more than one church that grew phenomenally

and, and did amazing things as a church and, and we're what

typically are now called mega churches, very large churches.

And at some point a few years ago, he began to sense the God

working on his heart and saying, this is not what I'm after.

And so Chan walked away from his mega church that he started to

look for other ways to do and be church.

And in part of that, he knew that the church in the East, the

Far East, China and, and, and other areas in Asia had been

growing rapidly, even though there was significant

persecution. And so he went there, he went to

India, he went to and met with Chinese house church pastors

and, and people from those, those countries where, where

it's not always free and not always safe and, and sometimes

never free and safe to be a follower of Jesus.

And he talked with folks from those churches and, and they

said, here's one of the big differences, Francis, between

between church in America and church over here.

He said, you folks in America, take your best pastors and make

them celebrities. They're the one that get the big

speaking gigs at the conferences and the higher honorariums.

And they're get to be on TV and they're taught the president

calls them and talks to them. They may be invited to be part

of these big national committees.

They, they write the books. They, they're, they're well

known. They're recognized.

They are celebrities, he said, where we come from, our best

pastors, we hide them so they don't get put in jail.

That is as clear and stark a distinction between what Jesus

was talking about and what church so often ends up being

like. And, and it, it's, it even in

churches that don't have celebrity pastors and, and, and

I've, I've run into this there. And, and I, I, there, there are

some church traditions and, and some congregations that, that

put the pastor up on a pedestal and elevate them.

This is always a bad idea. And, and, and the pastor is

always first in line at, at gatherings and at meals And the

pastor gets a parking place that's close to the door and the

pastor gets all of these extra, you know, perks and special

things and, and lift that. And it's no, no, no, no, no,

that's not the way church needs to be doing things.

We don't need our pastors. We don't need our any of our

leaders, whether they're pastors, whether they're

ordained, whether they're lay people, to be sort of held up as

as the the Christian Hall of Fame and the local church.

We need the mindset that Jesus tried to drill into his

disciples from day one. If you want first place, get in

the back of the line and serve everyone else.

And he wasn't telling a parable. He meant it literally.

And part of the way we know that is that was one of the last

things he said to his disciples too.

There with Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after the

resurrection, after Peter had denied him.

Peter denied knowing him three times and and three times in

response, Jesus asked him, do you love me?

Do you really love me? And Peter kept saying, yes, I

love you. And the measure of Peter's love

for Jesus, according to Jesus, would be how well Peter served

other people. If you love me, serve them.

If you love me, take care of them.

If you love me, feed them. If you love me, provide for

them. That's the measure of how much

we love God, not whether we jump and shout and, you know, on

Sunday mornings, not, not how many positions we've held in the

church, not whether we're ordained and not whether we have

status within the annual conference.

I didn't even have annual conferences back.

None of none of those things are measure of how much someone

loves Jesus. Jesus says you measure how much

you love me by how much you're serving others.

The Easter life is a life of service.

Probably Matthew 25 is is the at once most hopeful and

threatening formulation of this that Jesus ever gave when he

said the Kingdom of God's like this.

At the end, there's going to be an accounting and, and, and the

master's going to separate every, everybody in the world of

the two groups, the sheep and the goats.

And, and now the goats are the good things.

But but they weren't for Jesus's day.

I don't know why the goat, the goat wasn't the goat in Jesus's

day. It was just a goat.

I know that doesn't make any sense at all.

I'm going to stop. And Jesus said to the sheep, I

was hungry. You fed me, I was thirsty.

You gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me.

I was homeless and you sheltered me.

I was in the hospital and in prison, and you visited me.

Come and enter into my rest. And they said, Jesus, when did

we see you and do all of those things?

And Jesus said, whatever you did for the least of these brothers

and sisters of mine, you did that for me.

And then he turned to the goats and he said, you know what?

You're all out. Outer darkness forever.

Why? Because when I was hungry, you

didn't feed me. When I was thirsty, you didn't

give me anything to drink. When I was hungry or when I was

homeless, you didn't shelter me. When I was sick or in prison,

you didn't visit me. And they said, what?

Jesus, when did we? Had we seen you in that

situation, we would have done something.

And Jesus said what? This is tough.

These are tough words. I think these are the maybe some

of the toughest words of Jesus in the entire Bible.

And Jesus said whatever you failed to do for the least of

these brothers and sisters of mine, you failed to do for me.

The measure of our love of Jesus, the measure of our

faithfulness to God, is the extent to which we serve others.

That is a life of service, That is life in the Kingdom.

That is the Easter life to which we're called.

And I want to just run through real quick five characteristics.

I might throw in 1/6 here at the end as well, but 5

characteristics that that of a life of service to distinguish

it from other ways of living. 1A.

Life of service is a life of humility, not of glory.

So much of our culture pushes us to chase glory, to chase honor.

And, and, and it's good. I, I love, I love the Facebook

posts. I've done the same thing with my

kids. I do the same thing with, you

know, other people at other times.

When you win something, when you get an award, when you have an

achievement, we want to celebrate that.

That's a good thing to honor those kind of achievements.

But that's not what life in the Kingdom is like.

Life in the Kingdom is not about a pursuit of glory.

The risk of those is of those things, and it's good that we do

them. The risk is that we train our

children to seek glory and praise and affirmation as the

measure of how high a quality of life that they have.

Are you getting glory? Are you getting praise?

Are you getting affirmation for what you're doing?

And that's a trap when we come to measure the quality of our

life and the value of our life by the honors, accolades and

glory that we receive. Because a life of service is not

glory. It's not about a life of glory,

it's about a life of humility. When Jesus said servant of all,

he meant servant of all serving everyone.

He modeled it himself when he took on the role of the lowest

slave in the household, got down on his hands and knees and

washed his disciples feet. A life of service is not a glory

seeking life. A life of service is a life that

is content and seeking humility. Humility.

A life of service is a life filled with following orders,

not giving orders. It's a hard one for me since

since I was very young. My definition of growing up was

then I get to do what I want to do.

I I get to be in charge. I get to tell.

I thought it was going to be cool having kids because then I

could tell them what to do. Yeah, you can tell them, but

they got a mind of their own. A life of service is a life of

following orders, of taking directions, of having to do what

you're told. That's, that's what servants do.

The, the servants are, are the, the low people in the

organization. They're the low people.

They're the ones that everyone gets to give instructions to.

You know, you go to a restaurant, you don't, your

server doesn't come and demand things of you.

You ask you, you go, hey, I need another.

I've dropped my stuff all the time.

I need a fresh napkin. I need a fresh fork.

I need a fresh spoon. I I know now.

No. Pick up the fork off the floor

and use it on the food. I've learned that I don't need

to be corrected on that anymore. You got a you got a server

there. Who, when you say can you bring

me a fork, would you bring me a fork?

They'll bring you a fork. Bring me some soup.

They'll bring you soup. Tell me where the restrooms are.

They'll tell you where the restrooms are.

Refill my Coke. They'll refill your Coke.

You're giving orders. They're taking orders.

Even if we're polite about it, that's still the arrangement.

That's life in the Kingdom and that's a life of service that

we're not the ones given the orders.

We're the ones taking the orders.

We're not the ones in charge. We're the ones with someone in

charge of us, and we volunteer for that.

We don't do it because we have to.

We voluntarily accept that role in this life.

That's what it means to live a life of service in the Kingdom

of God. Jesus said it this way to Peter.

When you were younger, you dressed yourself, you went where

you wanted. But when you're old, you will

stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and

lead you where you do not want to go.

Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter

would glorify God. Peter would glorify God not by

being in charge, but by following orders.

And and Jesus makes it clear from this context is that

sometimes following orders means following the orders of people

who do not have your best interests at heart.

We don't have 100% verifiable historical records about Jesus's

death, but tradition tells us that he was crucified and that

because he didn't feel like he was worthy of dying in the same

way his savior did, He asked to be crucified upside down.

He didn't volunteer to be crucified, but he willingly

went. He willingly went because that

was what he was ordered to do. That's what God, it's where God

led him through the voices of the people around him who had

charge of his life. A life of service is not about

being in charge. It's not about being in control.

Control's an illusion anyway, right?

I we can agree on that. Control in our lives is, is

largely an illusion. We can control a little bit

sometimes, but you know, there's so many things in this world,

whether it's health or economic conditions or wars and political

conditions, all of these things around us that we have so little

control over. And life just happens to us and

we have to figure out how to respond to it.

And, and the control that we crave is ultimately an illusion

anyway. And Jesus says, if you want to

live the Easter life, live a life in my Kingdom, then then

you need to acknowledge that control is not only an illusion,

but it's something you're not after anyway.

To be a servant of others, taking orders rather than giving

orders. Number 3A, life of service is a

life of being powerless rather than powerful.

Power is another thing that we're taught and trained from a

very young age to seek in this world.

Power for self determination, power to control your own

destiny power to make sure that that you're the one that that

can direct others rather than the one of the one of the crowd

being directed by someone else. Power.

Now I I distinguish between power and empowerment.

I don't think it's ever wrong for human beings to seek

empowerment, which is to say that that that there are, have

been and, and it changes over time and it changes from place

to place, groups of people, that other groups of people have

their boots on their necks. And, and whether it's because of

their gender, the color of their skin, their nationality, their

religion, whatever it is that, that they're, they are in

society with other people's boots on their necks.

And, and they are, are, are kept, whether it's in slavery

or, or intimidation or fear, whatever it is.

And for folks to want to get out from under those boots, I don't

think there's anything wrong with that.

That's empowerment. Power.

Seeking power means I want to have my boot on their neck

instead. That's seeking power.

It's one thing to seek to be free of of dominating and abuse

of power of others. It's another thing to seek that

power over others life in the Kingdom, life as servant is a

it's a life of being powerless. Jesus was not a victim, but he

did not exercise his power over pilot, over Herod, over the

chief priests. Peter was at one point rested

and and God broke him out of jail and he walked free in the

middle of the night, just walked out.

But when God didn't do that, Peter willingly went to the

cross. Peter knew it wasn't about

getting that power to do whatever I want.

It's about allowing myself to be powerless.

And at times, that means being at the mercy of other people.

That's a life of service. A life of service is a life of

helping more than being helped. I'm not sure that even needs

much more explanation. But in a group be looking

around, who needs help? Who can I reach out to?

Who's struggling? Who?

Who needs a hand? Who needs a word of

encouragement? Who, who needs, you know, maybe

a cut in front of line to, to get their seconds even before

I've had my first because they're they're hungry or who's

struggling with the math or who's struggling with the

assignment at work and the the response, who can I help rather

than seeking to be helped? Again, that's the role of the

servant and a household and a business anywhere is to look

around and see what needs done that's not being done so I can

do it. What's been forgotten?

Who's struggling? Where can I step in?

Where can I help? That's a significant enough

thing that that Paul even identifies it as a spiritual

gift, right up there with prophecy and and healing is is

helping. Being helpful to other people is

part of a life of service, and a life of service is about

serving. Even when leading, because we

find ourselves in positions of authority, we find ourselves in

positions of power. We find ourselves in roles where

we have responsibility not just for others, but over others.

And we see that throughout the Scripture as well.

We're going to look at Joseph in a little more detail.

Ended up being second in command in Egypt, the most powerful

nation in the world. Daniel ended up being second in

command in Babylon, at that time the most powerful empire in the

world. And we see kings, we see all

sorts of people and in God's Kingdom throughout history who

were in positions of power and positions of authority.

Whether they sought those things or not, they were there.

Well, once they were there. The question is, how will I be a

leader? How will I be an authority?

Will I use that role and that opportunity to put my boot on

the neck of others and make sure I get my perks and my privileges

that come with my position? Or will I say, how will I use my

power and my position to serve as many people as possible, to

care for as many people as possible, to lift up as many as

people as possible? Because again, sometimes we find

ourselves in the spot where we've got we've got power over

others. We are the leader.

We're a part of a group of leaders.

Do we use that position and that power and that leadership to

serve ourselves or to serve others?

Now I want to give you an example.

It's a lot of, you know, just theory and stuff words here

today, but I want to give you a real concrete example.

A fellow by the name of Peter Mutabazi, who, who has an

extraordinary story. He first started telling his

story a few years ago. I just heard about it this week.

I, I, no, actually it was last week.

An amazing guy. He's got a couple of books out

there. One of them, well, I can't

remember that I should have put the book titles up there, but I

can. I'll put them with the when I

post the sermons tomorrow. And and Peter grew up in about

as bad a situation as you could grow up in, impoverished in

Uganda. His mother was a drug addict and

I believe a prostitute. His father was physically and

verbally abusive. At age 5 or 6 years old, Peter

fled his home, explicitly with this in mind, he said.

He said if I'm going to be killed, I want to be killed by a

stranger, not by my father. And he grew up in the homeless

on the streets in Uganda until he encountered some people that

treated him like a human being and helped him improve his life

and see a different way of living and being.

He was helped by them, eventually moved to the United

States, went to university and got a job for Compassion

International doing mission work in Uganda.

That's cool. Compassion, one of the if you're

looking for a good organization to support that helps folks

around the world, particularly children, Compassion's a great

one. They're, they are very, very

credible organization that when you give your money, you know

it's going for what you're giving it for and not just

making someone's boat payment someplace.

And, and Muta Bazi was a manager and he led trips of people he

took, he took white people to villages in Uganda where white

people had never been seen before.

But then he started seeing in his own neighborhood back in the

States. He lived in Oklahoma, still

lives in Oklahoma, children in need.

And God started working on his heart and, and saying, I want

you to do something that you haven't done yet.

He's a single man, an immigrant from Africa, living in Oklahoma.

And God started calling him to be a foster parent.

And to do that, Peter had to change everything in his life.

He was living very simply in a small apartment.

He's like, I, it's not big enough.

I got to buy a house if I'm going to be a parent, he said.

I, I spend, you know, 6-9 weeks at a time, traveling multiple

times a year. I can't be a parent, single

parent and do that. So we had to get a new job.

Friend of his had a, a real estate business there.

They, they bought houses and repaired him and flipped him.

And he started doing that with his friend.

He changed his home, he changed his career.

He changed everything about how he was doing his life except for

his faith and a very real sense in order to be a foster dad.

There's a part of a news report, this is from a few years ago

that I want to play and then we'll talk a little bit more

about Peter Mutabazi tonight. We have an update on a story

about a Charlotte man who is once again making national

headlines for spreading awareness about foster care.

After three years of fighting, he just adopted 2 more kids.

Wow. WCC Charlotte's reporter

Michelle Bowden shows us how he's seeking solutions and

growing his family. Hanging out with the newest

Mutabazi kids is both heart warming and heartbreaking.

My parents used to be mean to me and hurt me and now I have a

family that doesn't hurt me or hit me.

After three years of fostering, Luke and his older sister Peter

Mutavazzi was finally allowed to formally adopt them.

It means like you're forever home.

Finally, I got a phone call saying finally I can adopt them.

And I was like thrilled and excited.

And so they've been asking, you know, when can we be adopted?

You know, when can we have your last name?

And I'm like, you don't want to give false promises we had.

To go to the social worker and sign the paper, then we never

have to have a social worker anymore.

That means like he's my permanent dad.

The. 8 year old knows what she wants, including changing her

name. It's going to be Isabella

Evigale with Tbazi. What?

Does that feel like to say your new name?

Oh great, adoption's like special school so I changed my

last name to it, which buys you good.

Job it. Is particularly special for

their dad He too, fled an abusive home as a child, growing

up in Africa and landing in the US for college.

What's? This one as.

An adult, he's fostered 36 kids. He adopted his oldest son,

Anthony, in 2019 and says even with Isabella and Luke, he still

has room for more. Wow, I mean, you get to love

these kids. You get to, you know, prepare

them. You want the best for them.

And you've seen me grow and overcoming the trauma they've

gone through. And so you're hoping the best.

So when it's actually natural for them to say, hey, now it's

for the rest of your life. You, you really know.

OK, now I can truly be their dad.

The family celebrated at home the day they became official so.

Finally, I was able to say, you know what?

You know, I'm going to be your dad.

And they were thrilled. You know, they've been kind of

wanting that and looking for that as well.

So to me, it was truly, truly a joy.

And does this feel like. This is your family?

Yeah. Forever, forever, forever home.

I just think that's such a beautiful story and and it's

such a picture. And again, not everyone is

called to be a foster parent, but Peter's attitude towards

serving others is something that all followers of Jesus are

called to a willingness to change, a willing.

And this was the final characteristic thing I'm going

to add because this is the way Peter describes it.

Is, is their sacrifice in order to serve.

He talks in his book, and I looked up the name of the book

while the video was going, and now I am known is the name of

the book. Now I'm known.

And he's got a second book called Love Does Not Conquer

All, where he's saying it takes more than just a compassionate

heart. You need skills in order to care

for people and meaningfully and effectively.

But he talked about as he was first becoming a foster parent,

all of these changes he had to make.

Then he goes in, he takes a, he takes a 5 month training program

to be a foster parent. And then when he finally gets a

certificate, the, the the director said you can expect to

call in about 30 minutes. And he waited for her to laugh

and he was like, she's like, yeah, we got a backlog, every

available person. And, and within 30 minutes, he

got a call to bring the first child into his house, was a 5

year old little boy who was Native American and ethnicity

who'd been living in his grandmother's ramshackle mobile

home with 10 other kids. And Peter brought him in and he

said, said for two days he was an Angel.

He said there was the the at the end of the second day, a little

boy about 5 years old again was, was playing with his tablet.

And Peter said tablet time's over, boy didn't respond.

Tablet time's over, boy. Didn't respond.

Tablet time's over, boy. He walked up and he took the

tablet out of the boy's hands. And the boy screamed and he

arched his back and he put his head through the window that was

behind him. And he screamed.

And he screamed and he screamed. And Peter, he screamed while

Peter was tending his wound and bandaging him up.

And for two hours, Peter said he screamed without stopping.

And he said those fits would come on him, this boy,

periodically. Sometimes it was in a store,

sometimes it was in public, sometimes it was in the home.

And just absolutely inconsolable, uncomfortable,

screaming at the top of his lungs.

Peter said after two hours, he walked up to him.

The little boy walked up to Peter and said, will you hold me

and can I have a glass of milk? And Peter held him.

It's not one of the boys he ended up adopting.

That was never an option with that particular child.

But that level of sacrifice, that level of service, which

says my life is not about my comfort, it's not about my

glory, It's not about my position and my prestige.

My life is about this other human being or these other human

beings that news reports a few years old at this point.

The most recent numbers is Peter has now fostered more than 40

kids in his house in Oklahoma, mostly white kids, which I think

it's just a fabulous statement for the world in America right

now then. And, and he's adopted 3 And you

saw the picture of his older son there too, who had been

abandoned by his parents. And Peter adopted him to serve,

to love, to care for them, to give these children something he

did not have when he was a child until much later.

Someone in their lives who who would see them, who would really

know them for who they are and to love them.

That's a life of service. That's the life that Jesus calls

us to live, that feeding sheep and caring for lambs is

beautiful language that for Peter gets translated into

fostering children, and for you will get translated in other

ways. But it needs to be translated in

some way that means meaningfully serving other human beings in

the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen.