Power is what the world knows. You cannot live in the metro DC area without seeing that power is everything for this world. The power of a position in the government, where you can order people around like pawns on a chessboard. The power of access to huge sums of money, so that shopping sprees on embezzled dollars can run on for years. The power of influence, where a few carefully chosen phrases, leaked to the media, can put people on the streets to demonstrate. Power!
Wasn’t it Henry Kissinger, himself no stranger to the corridors of power, who thought of it as something like an erotic rush, it was so fulfilling? Power is what we know here in this town. Power is what we produce and what we consume, every day.
Don’t even get me started on the presidential races. Why does anyone in his or her right mind want to be President? The responsibility is immense, the likelihood of criticism is 100%, and the money, while far better than I earn, should not matter to those multimillionaires who are in the running. Why do they run? The short answer is, “They want power.” Power to do good, perhaps, but power nonetheless. Our lives are totally enmeshed with the realms of power. As some wit has said, “Everybody in Washington is here to work for, on, or against, the government.”
But there is a place in which life is not about power. There is a realm in which we do not applaud power or position, but look 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. I hear that has not changed much. When I was a pastor, and we would have a church dinner, people always tried to put me at what they called the “head table.” You are the pastor, and naturally you want to be up there at the top of the room.
But now, 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! Incidentally, my wife and I once attended a family wedding where we were seated in just that unpleasant spot! We found out how we ranked!
And then, says Jesus, when they tell you to move, you will be embarrassed. You will be mortified. Better to go to the low-ranked seats first and then see if the host will come over and bring you up a notch or two. For, says, the Lord, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves 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, if it’s not about power, it is about humility. Life in the Kingdom is not about borrowed power and reflected glory, it’s about inner power. It’s about 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 Mike Huckabee is a pudgy Baptist preacher in Arkansas, who got invited to be lieutenant governor, a nothing job. But the governor had to resign in disgrace, and so the preacher become accidental governor lost weight, got some image advice and an electric guitar, and suddenly he became presidential timber! Amazing! You understand I am not making any kind of partisan statement; I am just commenting about 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 it’s not about appearances. 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, if you have humility.
Woe be the church that 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, if it’s not about false power masquerading as humility, is about spiritual security. It’s not about pretending to have a humility that isn’t really there, 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 or what place you take or what titles you get. All that matters is that you do have something to do for the Kingdom, you do have a place in God’s purposes, and you fulfill that 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, and negligible. “Oh, I just wish I could be a better Christian. I am so low down, I am less than the least .” And all the while what we really want is for people to look at us and to say, “What a wonderful Christian you are!” “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 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! No, we are children of God! We are redeemed by His blood! We are not nobodies. We are somebodies! But you cannot receive what God wants you to have if you do nothing but put yourself down and kick yourself around.
Over the years I have been involved with lots of deacons, particularly new ones, like those who are to be ordained today. I have been impressed with those who have 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 a spiritual task like this on your own, you are clearly not ready to do it at all! 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 as a 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 and Whose you are.
III
And finally, if it’s not about power, again, it is 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. Let’s not even call them a Board of deacons, because they don’t govern much. Personally I am bored of Boards. Our deacons are to 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 seek to find out the problem and cure the spiritual illness. They deliberate about how to improve the life of the church. They serve. There is no other way to describe the deacon. The deacon expects to serve rather than to be served. The deacon loves to give empowering to others rather than to garner power for himself.
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 and bring all of us up higher. If our deacons play by the new rules of the Kingdom, hostility will be banished from this place, lingering resentments will disappear, and the joy of service will be contagious. Most of all, there will be new people arriving here, proclaiming that they know we are Christians by the love we have one for another.
Jesus said, “When you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.”
What a vision for our church, under the leadership of deacons who know that it’s not about power! We all become empowered, God’s way: humble, secure, and serving.
Deacon candidates, in the Lord’s name I invite you to come sit down here in the lowest place, so that the church may say to you, “Friend, move up higher.” Just remember the promise of the Lord: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
