The Insidious Consumer

Jesus, who departed the glory of heaven to add a fully human nature to his fully divine nature, the King of the Kingdom, the one in whom all things are summed up (Col 1:16), once said, "I did not come to be served, but to serve" (Mt 20:28). This just doesn't sound right. Perhaps the teleprompter skipped, because the Son of God doesn't serve the sons of men.

To comprehend this wrong-sounding truth, we have to stand on our heads. It is so upside down that we spill other theology on the floor trying to keep this idea on our plate. But there it is - the Greatest One by every measure chose to serve those who should be serving him.

This same Jesus, then, gathered a group of people called the "Church" to collectively house his Spirit and continue his mission. He trained a handful of men and women, the Twelve with more intensity, and Peter, James, and John with even greater instruction. They were to do what he had done, and to do so in the same way.

Since then, through two millennia, this Church has existed, thrived, suffered, split, healed, taught, mistaught, reformed, loved, hated, started some wars and stopped others, enslaved and broken slavery, and honored and shamed the one who's name they bear. Their constant charge has been to carry on the same mission by the power of the indwelling Spirit. This Church has done great and awful things in pursuit of that mission.

Somewhere along the way, the Church has taken what was rightly upside down and put it back on its feet, making it stand as it ought not to, even though they think it has finally been set right. One day, in some church in some town, there arose the right side up phrase "serve the Church." This phrase then spread to many churches covering the globe.

It sounds so noble, so filled with piety, so ... religious. What a great life's endeavor ... to serve the Church.

But it is right side up when it should be upside down.

We are not called to serve the Church. We, the Church, are called to serve the world. This is upside down, but exactly oriented to the King who came to give his life as a ransom for many. Church is not something to be served, but a living organism designed to do the serving. The Church is a gaggle of servants, gathered to serve. Yes, to serve one another, but also to serve the world.

A right side up Church cannot carry out the upside down mission of its founder. No, we must turn it upside down again ... to be sent into this world not to be served, but to serve.