🔊 Serve and Be Served

Welcome to AnchorCast, a weekly podcast of homilies and sermons from Christ our Anchor Anglican Mission in Nashville, Tennessee.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.

Today’s reading says, Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

It also says that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Now I don’t know about you, but sometimes it sure doesn’t feel like anyone is carrying my sorrows.

Sometimes it feels like I do a lot of serving, but never get served.

This all, of course, is due in large part to the society we live in.

Every man is out for himself.

We think very little, if at all, of other people.

We live in a culture of the self.

My wishes, my desires, my safety, my joy, my comfort.

We are born into this culture and default to this selfish way of thinking.

Even when we’ve been at the bottom, seen extreme poverty, maybe even experienced some real bad times ourselves, we still only think of me, me, me.

We’re so deeply indoctrinated, another way doesn’t even come to our minds.

Jesus brings us a different way of living.

Jesus comes to help us turn away from ourselves and to look to others.

You’ve heard it said many times that it is better to give than to receive.

This is a true saying, because when we free ourselves to look away from me, me, me, me, and to instead look towards you, those outside of us, we open our hearts to the possibilities that God pours into the world out of his abundant grace and mercy.

You see, the real reason that we seem to be carrying our own sorrows isn’t because there isn’t anyone to take them, but it’s because we just won’t let go.

We in our society are told to do things ourselves.

We are told that our problems are our own to solve.

We hold onto things that we should really just drop.

We all carry this shame, we’re ashamed that we can’t handle it all ourselves.

But really, we should have no shame because we’re just believing a lie.

God didn’t make us to bear these burdens ourselves.

That’s not how he created us, so to fail at it is no shame.

That’s Jesus' call to us today.

He bore all of our troubles on the cross, and because of that he has freed us from worry and trouble.

We are now at liberty to stop thinking about ourselves and instead to start serving others.

In God’s grace, as we move outside of ourselves, we’ll find that the loads we’ve been carrying for so long are actually better suited to the strengths of our neighbor, and we’ll find that the burdens of our neighbor are often an easy load for us to carry.

God made us to be together.

God made us to fill in for each other’s weaknesses.

Your weakness is my strength, my strength is your weakness.

God made us to be a family.

Through his holy church, Jesus bears burdens and serves all in need.

He does this when we step away from ourselves and lean into the work of the church.

In service, we are served.

Standing beside the sorrow of another, we are healed.

Isaiah says, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

Turn to Jesus and receive his grace and forgiveness, and in turning to him, turn away from yourself and look outwards.

God loves you and has a plan for you and his kingdom.

He has a purpose and a true need for you in the church.

You have value.

You are wanted and an important part of God’s kingdom.

So drop your heavy load at the doors of the church.

Grab a shovel and let’s get to work in God’s house.

We serve a good God, and he is pleased to have us working in his garden.

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.

Christ Our Anchor is an Anglican mission in East Nashville that meets on Wednesday evenings for prayer and fellowship.

And join us on Wednesday evenings at 5.30 as we live into what Jesus has called his church to be.

Everyone is welcome.