Pastoral - Generous God: We Serve Others

Generous Life: We Serve Others

            In the early 1900’s, Lighthouse Keeper Patrick Etheridge (a role that no longer exists in the U.S. Coast Guard) made a remark that would forever change the way the men and women of the Coast Guard viewed their service.

            There was a ship that was stranded just off the coast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. It was reported that the ship had run ashore in the notoriously dangerous Diamond Shoals. Keeper Patrick Etheridge gave the command to man the lifeboats and head out. One of the men, obviously disturbed about where his fate may lie in this endeavor, shouted out that they could make it to the shoals but they weren’t sure they would make it back. Keeper Etheridge then famously coined, “The Blue Book (Coast Guard Manual) says that we have to go out, but it doesn’t say a darn thing about having to come back!” That quote would stay in the Coast Guard as its unspoken motto for years and years, eventually evolving into what is now commonly and frequently said, “So others may live”. At the core of these mottos, regardless of which one, was this unquenchable desire to serve others even if it cost them their lives; they would do whatever it took so that others can live and flourish.

            In reality, this is not far off from what the Bible says about serving others. In fact, 1 John 3:16 says this:

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

As we talked about last week, Jesus exemplified this perfectly for us. The REASON for why we serve is because “he laid down his life for us”; the RESPONSE to this reason is that “we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers”. This wasn’t just in 1 John, however. This was also said by Jesus when he was giving The Great Commandment in Matthew 22:34–40:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

When read in the original language, Jesus never meant these two statements to be read as two separate commandments. Rather, what his listeners would have heard when Jesus said this was, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength AND YOU WILL love your neighbor as yourself”. The idea was that if you understand the grace and mercy in Christ that has been given to you, then you will extend it to those around you; because we have a generous God that laid down his life for us, we will lay down our lives for others without any regard for our own lives.

            At Providence Community Church, we consistently say that we want to have a culture of serving others. We don’t want people to serve out of religious obligation, but rather out of an authentic response to the Gospel in their own lives. Our prayer is that Sunday morning would NOT be viewed as a second job, but rather as an extension of your worship. This is how we will make the Gospel unignorable in our city. The greatest call given to us outside of loving Jesus is serving others. Serving others is where we see the love of God flourish in our lives. It is not enough to simply say, “I love Jesus” and not serve others. Jesus didn’t leave room for that. Rather, just as Jesus took on the form of a servant, so should we. The Gospel was not just a call to worship, but also a call to serve; they are one in the same.

Reflection:

How are you serving others in your life? How are you serving others within the church?

(Hint: The “how” is an important question. If you can answer the how, then you will know that you have appropriately responded to the Gospel in your heart.)