Go and Serve
"Do you know what I have done to you"..."Now, go and do likewise"
"Washing feet" by Ed Bierman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The bulletin for church Sunday was twice the normal size. Then I noticed the title of the sermon, and it made sense. Waffle House Church. The bulletin was done like a menu with the order of worship laid out in numerical order. It was fun. Then I saw the scripture for the sermon. As those of you in my small group know, I love Romans. This is a great passage of text. Let's look at that now.
9Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
11not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
12rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
13contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
16Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
17Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
18If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
19Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.
20 "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."
21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9–21 (NASB95)
Vengeance is mine Deuteronomy 32:35 and Psalm 94:1. Treat your enemies well 2 Kings 6:22 and Proverbs 25:21.
So much in this passage. Rather than break it down individually, I'll summarize it this way and then move into the comments and thoughts from the sermon. Cleave to that, which is good. Have a fervent spirit. Be patient in tribulations. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Vengeance belongs to God, and be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Pastor Lee opened with a question; "Is God there when we aren't looking for Him?" She followed it up with a quote from the late Anthony Bourdain about a drunken night out ending as so many of them do at the Waffle House.
"An irony-free zone where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. Where everybody, regardless of race, creed, color, or degree of inebriation is welcomed. Its warm yellow glow, a beacon of hope and salvation, inviting the hungry, the lost, the seriously hammered, all across the south, to come inside. A place of safety and nourishment. It never closes, it is always, always faithful, always there for you." Anthony Bourdain
She went on about how she liked Waffle House because you got to "see behind the curtain" when your food was made. The term for this is an open kitchen. In restaurants with open kitchens, part of the experience is the show seeing how professional chefs and staff build meals. When it is done right, it is fun to watch. When it is done wrong, people stop coming. Waffle House prides itself on doing it right. Pastor Lee's point was that if you go to a Waffle House regularly, chances are good you go to the same one, and they get to know you. You also get to know them. Her point was to ask another question, "How do we do this, this kind of welcoming environment at our church?"
Reread that Romans scripture twice. First, reread it thinking Paul describes how a Waffle House operates and treats its guests. Contemplate how that restaurant would operate with those principles in mind.
Now, reread it again, but this time consider how your church would do the same thing. Instead of how a Waffle House embodies and enacts those principles, how does our church do it? One answer begins in Romans 12 before today's passage begins.
1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
3For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Romans 12:1–3 (NASB95)
Verse two is the key. "do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Why? For one, Jesus said He overcame the world, meaning He overcame sin, which is what the world is all about. Jesus is about loving God and being obedient to Him. The world is directly opposite of that. So, to avoid becoming like the world, like sin, we become transformed into a new creature that follows Jesus by studying God's Word to renew our minds daily.
Pastor Lee focused on the idea that Love and Hospitality are transformational in all things. She said, "Love is not a thing to be achieved but a thing to practice, over and over and over." Then she put out her hand like she was greeting someone and said, "Hi. I'm Kristen. It's nice to meet you." That got me thinking. What kind of greeting should we use to people we don't know, might not be believers, and isn't a lie? "Nice to meet you" might not be true. It might not be nice to meet someone new. Some people might repel at the thought of having to be that outgoing, so that greeting isn't true for them at all, and thus would ring hollow in that greeting. That's not how we want to greet people entering the church with an insincere greeting. So, how do we greet people that is sincere, that keeps that hospitality in love, and a welcoming spirit? How about "Hi, how are you today?" We really do want to know because, as a church we're here to help people, and we can't do that if we don't know they need help.
As the sermon went on, Pastor Lee threw out a few lines as though she was a Waffle House worker. One of them struck me. "Hey! How are you doing? What can I get for you today?" What can I get for you today? What can I do for you today? How can I serve you today? Service. Be the hands and feet of Jesus.
12So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?
13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
John 13:12–15 (NASB95)
Go and do likewise. The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind. Here's a snippet.
30Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.
31 "And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 "Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,
34and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 "On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.'
36 "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?"
37And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."
Luke 10:30–37 (NASB95)
Go and do likewise, but what was done that we should emulate? How does this translate to "love and hospitality?" Simple, the Samaritan saw the man's need and filled it. He had the resources available to take care of what the man truly needed, and he took care of that need. So, what does that look like for our church? We don't know what the next "need" is for our community. We know some of those needs, which should be focused on and filled, but what about those unknown needs? That's simple too.
History. We can look at the history of the things that occur in the area surrounding our church and prepare to meet those needs. Is your church located in an area that gets hit by tornados regularly? Meet with people who have been struck by that type of disaster and find out what they needed, then set those things aside and store them for the day they are needed. Floods in your area? Same answer. Whatever hardship has historically beset the area around your church, prepare to meet that need in the people in the community. Your church doesn't stand in an area hard hit by natural disasters? Fine. Survey the community and see what needs they have. Hunger? Food pantries are very common and usually need something all the time. Homeless problem in the area? There's a shelter somewhere close by that can be asked what they need. Don't have a shelter in the area and have a homeless problem? Maybe you are being called to help start one.
The point is, in your immediate area, your church and mine can have an impact if you are prepared to meet the need. Joseph kept an entire country alive because he followed God's path for his life, was obedient to that path, and prepared for the famine. Joseph was prepared for the disaster to come, and all the people of Egypt lived because of him (Genesis 47:13-31.) There were consequences for the people true, but they could have prepared as well.
Today, there is no reason we cannot prepare our churches for something like this, tornados, floods, or other natural disasters. We can lay in preparations while the sun is shining and the breeze is cool for a time when the storm clouds gather, and a hot wind is blowing. What does that look like at your church? I don't know. Your church might already have something in place, or maybe not. You won't know until you ask, but when you do, be ready to "go and serve" because I guarantee you someone will make a need known to you. God bless and Godspeed.