Serving Together-The way of the Lamb

The idea of service as a high calling is unique to Christianity. Jesus showed us by example how a leader must be servant of all. We have a choice: the way of the Dragon, which exploits strength and power to achieve control and dominance, or the way of the Lamb, which recognises that God's power is expressed through our weakness, and frees us to serve one another. How do these contrasting approaches work in the modern world? Join us for some ideas. The video from Mrs Maisel early in the sermon can be found here: https://youtu.be/pvKe0c007Cc

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Introduction

This week in our series on Church Practices, we’re looking at serving together. Why is Christian service such an important part of our practice? What is it that makes Christianity a faith that is so obsessed with serving, whether it be serving our Lord, serving one another, or serving the surrounding culture?

Well, the answer to that is actually pretty simple. The founder, author and perfecter of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, both modeled and spoke extensively on this. You could say that service is one of the foundational values of Christianity.

Jesus’ idea of service stands in stark contrast to the ideas that suffuse our world. Jesus’ understanding is divine—it comes from God—the world’s understanding is human, it comes from the fallen, selfish heart of man.

My sermon is a little different from normal today. Rather than starting with the Bible, I’m going to start with where we find ourselves—with Australian culture. So bear with me, we’re getting to the Bible in good time.

The way of the Dragon

As I was preparing for this sermon, I came across a book called “The way of the Dragon or the way of the Lamb.”

The reference to the Dragon and the Lamb comes, of course, from the book of Revelation, where Satan—the Dragon—and the world system is contrasted with Jesus—the Lamb—and his bride, the church.

Kyle Strobel explains that “the way of the dragon is power and strength for the sake of control and or domination.” This is the way of the world—to use some form of power and strength to control others. We see it every day. It is not that the world doesn’t engage in service—of course it does. But the motive and the means of that service are at odds with the way of the Lamb—the way of Christian service.

Examples of the way of the Dragon

Let me present some examples of the way of the Dragon, from popular fiction and from the headlines of the last couple of weeks.

Mrs Maisel

First up, a fictional example. Mable and I have been watching a show on Prime called The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. It’s about a family of very self-centred control freaks in 1950’s New York. It’s a comedy, and much of the comedy comes from watching events spin out of each person’s obsessive control.

Let’s watch this scene, which shows the main character, Miriam, engaging in her nightly routine.

Makeup scene from Mrs Maisel

<video> 2 min

Now, a question, was Miriam, or Midge as she’s known, serving her husband or herself or a bit of both? [Wait for answers.]

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making yourself look nice, right? But Midge’s obsessive image management is a prime example of the way of the Dragon—using power and strength to control (in this case the power of beauty). Part of the structure of the show is that, almost immediately after this scene, Midge’s husband leaves her for his secretary. Midge’s mighty efforts to control her husband’s attention have failed.

Now let’s look at an example from this week.

Andrew Thorburn

You may have heard about Andrew Thorburn resigning from his role as CEO of the Essendon AFL club after only a day. The reason that he resigned was that he realised that the views of his church, of which he is the board chairman, were at odds with Essendon’s values.

Many commentators are using this to point to how Christians are being “cancelled” by our culture. But I disagree. You see, Essendon has a clear value of “inclusivity.” What this value means, ironically, is that Essendon is very exclusive. (Johannes Leak capture that well in his cartoon.) Essendon inclusivity embraces people like Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who took the opportunity this week to label the traditionally Christian views of City on a Hill, Thorburn’s church, as “hateful” and “bigotry.” But if Essendon includes such people, how can someone like Thorburn have any position of authority? Thorburn might manage a job as a humble accountant, so long as he keeps his head down and doesn’t share his views with anyone. But how can he function as CEO, someone expected to promote a value which labels Christianity as hateful and bigoted.

Thorburn chose his church over Essendon, and for that he must be congratulated. But I wonder what made him think he could be CEO of an organisation so dogmatically anti-Christian as the Bombers football club? Thorburn unfortunately choose the way of the Dragon—power and strength in the role of CEO—and has suffered the embarrassing consequences.

In our modern society, most of us are going to have to work for organisations whose values are at odds with our own. So long as we can work out our own values within that organisation, that’s OK. Does that limit our options within such an organisation? Yes, it does. And so it should—if an organisation has clearly expressed values we need to be able to work within them. In the UK just this week a nurse was appropriately sacked from the NHS (their national health service), for stating that conservatives should not be resuscitated. Her values were at odds with her organisations and she could have no expectations of keeping her job.

Now, whether an AFL football club should have such dogmatic, exclusionary values is another question. Given the social contract that most sporting clubs operate under (heavily supported by tax-payers money), I think it is unacceptable that such bigotry is allowed in a club, but that is a higher-order question, and it has implications for tax-payer support for Christian organisations, as well.

My point is: the cultural warriors of Western Monotheism are making a big deal every time a Christian comes into conflict with modern Australian society. But, as I said at length a month ago, we don’t need to worry. Our strategy does not depend on having CEO positions in confused football clubs. We don’t need to be running the nation’s media. We don’t even need to have a huge, influential mega-churches. These are all Dragonish tactics, not Lamblike ones.

So what does the way of the Lamb look like, then?

The way of the lamb

Let’s join Jesus and his disciples as they rest up in Capernaum, after a long, dusty walk.

Mark 9:33–37 NLT

33 After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” 34 But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” 36 Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”

“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Hmm. Has anyone told that to Trump?

Jesus turns power and control structures upside-down, quite literally. The leader must be the servant of all.

There is a reason for why lamb like leaders must serve, and it is very simple: freedom.

The way of the Dragon is the way of dominance and control. It is the way of socialism, where the government controls all. It is the way of totalitarianism, of despotism. Look at China, Russia, Dan Andrews’ Victorian government, the Australian response to COVID, even the Roman Catholic church. These structures of power and dominance, regardless of their stated motives and goals, are all Dragonish.

Look at the traditional family structure, where the husband dictates to the wife and the wife dictates to the kids. That, too is Dragonish.

The way of the Lamb does not dictate. Rather it asks for a covenant—an agreement built on respect and trust and mutual service (and, between humans, mutual submission).

Paul explains that Jesus too that approach when he refused to cling to his status and privileges as God:

Philippians 2:7–8 NLT

7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Paul learnt directly from Jesus how the way of the Lamb works. He shares a personal testimony with the Corinthians in his second letter:

2 Corinthians 12:6–10 NLT

6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The way of the Lamb is to allow God’s power to work in our weakness. When we serve in humility and selflessness, the mighty power of God is at work.

The Dragon can rage and fume, but the weak, humble servants of the Lamb will triumph.

This is all very well, but it’s a bit abstract, what does it look like in real life?

The way of the Lamb

The first thing to note is that the way of the Lamb is not the way of a lonesome cowboy, or a heroic loner. The way of the Lamb is the way of community.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul describes the Holy Spirit’s vision for the church. I don’t know if you remember our sermon series on this wonderful book, but it contains so many piercing insights into how we must live as followers of Christ in a fallen world.

If we are to serve Jesus, we cannot do it alone, so Paul’s call to serve starts with a call to unity,

Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

You can see here what it is that’s important in our service: the attitude with which we serve. We must serve humbly, gently, patiently, forbearingly and lovingly. One of our primary goals must be to maintain the precious unity that we have—a unity which is supernatural—a gift of the Spirit—and so needs special attention.

Paul doesn’t just give general direction. He also tells us how to serve in those areas of our lives where we spend most of our time: family and home. And again, his approach is radically different to the world’s.

Examples of the way of the Lamb

Lifehack suggests a range of things to help you enjoy life, starting with: focusing on yourself, making time to relax, avoiding the news, and nurturing your positive relationships.

Marriage

In contrast, Paul’s wisdom in relation to marriage is:

Ephesians 5:22 ESV

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Now, if you want to hear those ideas unpacked more fully, I suggest you go back to my sermon on that from January last year, but let me just point out a startling feature of Paul’s advice. Paul tells wives to focus on their service to their husbands, and he tells husbands to focus on their service to their wives. No-where in all Paul’s advice does he ever direct anyone to focus on their own needs (in contrast to Lifehack), or to try to force someone else to do their job properly. After all, we are only responsible for one person: ourselves; and we only have any control over one person: ourselves. Don’t be like Midge, who focused on her image. Rather, focus on doing our best for the benefit of the other.

Parents

Paul’s advice to parents and children follows the same pattern:

Ephesians 6:1 ESV

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Masters

So, too does his advice to masters and servants:

Ephesians 6:5 ESV

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

Ephesians 6:9 ESV

9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

This idea that we have responsibilities in various relationships and roles in our lives is one that our society is very uncomfortable with. It threatens our freedom, you see. Our society values a radical autonomy—a freedom from all restrictions. We want to be in complete control. Unfortunately, this ideal is one of the devil’s greatest lies—snake oil that cures none of our ills. If you know any Gen Zers or Gen Alpha kids, you’ll know that the radical autonomy modelled in the classroom, offered online, sold on TikTok and Instagram, is the most brutal slave-master imaginable. Their generation is bound tightly by anxiety and a desperate conformity. They feel like their lives are always out of control.

Freedom in the midst of constrictions

But the Christian view of service to God yields true freedom, even in the midst of tight constrictions, such as those at, say the Essendon football club. Because we are Christ’s servants, the opportunities that we are denied, such as being the CEO of an AFL club, are not a real issue for us. Christianity focuses us on our responsibilities, not on our rights. If we can live out a humble, faithful, loving life of service, Jesus will use that to change the world!

The apostle Peter explained to his readers, who lived in the pagan Roman empire, this way:

1 Peter 2:13–17 NLT

13 For the Lord’s sake, submit to all human authority—whether the king as head of state, 14 or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right. 15 It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. 16 For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. 17 Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king.

That is the spirit of our service. Whatever good thing we find to do, let’s do it with that attitude of humble servanthood. Because, remember, Jesus’ power is found in our weakness. The way of the Dragon leads to death, but the way of the Lamb leads to eternal life.

Let’s pray,

Lord Jesus, the world tempts us with its way of power and control. Our own hearts desire that! Yet your word teaches us that your way is a way of humble service. Help us to accept the constraints of our circumstances, and to trust you to show your power through our weakness.