“Practicing Our Serve”

  Philippians 2:1-7; Matthew 23:1-12

 Most of you have heard the story of me playing tennis in high school. This is a picture of my team. I’m the tall, skinny, pale kid in the middle. Now I thought I would be the next Bjorn Borg, who in those days dominated the tennis circuit with his top-spin forehand, great backhand, and powerful serves. Unfortunately for me, God blessed me with neither a strong backhand nor a good top-spin forehand shot. No matter how much I tried, no matter how much I tried looking like my tennis idol, even wearing a headband and growing my blond hair to be as long as his, I could not play like him. The only thing I had going for me was my serve. I practiced every day, at least 50 times a day, and found that my serve got faster and stronger. In time, I could aim for spots on the court to hit my serve or come up with slices or curves on the ball. In time, I came to love my serve, as it kept me from having to run or rally or rely on my weaker ground strokes. Sadly, I never attained the status of Bjorn Borg, who still looks good today! I guess God had other plans for me.

I practiced my serve more than anything else in my tennis game, but I haven’t played the game or tried to serve in close to 40 years. Yet, due to all of those years practicing over and over, I can still smack a serve pretty darn well. In case you doubt, let me demonstrate. Thanks to Sharon Laskos for letting me borrow her racket and tennis balls!

Today’s passage concerns the idea of service and servanthood- not on the tennis court, of course, but rather in the world. And similarly, I believe we must practice service to become better at it, for we human beings are more prone to self-service than servanthood, that we strive for first place and greatness, rather than last in line and behind the scenes. Jesus suggests in today’s passage that true greatness comes from service, not status, from humility, not self-exaltation.

Theologian and author Holladay suggests in his book, The Relationship Principles of Jesus, that “every day, we face a simple test of true greatness:

1) I will exalt myself

2) I will humble myself. Check one! In every relationship, we face the same test: Will I exalt myself or will I humble myself?

In this passage from Matthew, Jesus uses a standard everyday illustration to make his point about humility and service. We hear of life at the temple, something all Jesus’ listeners were familiar with daily. He speaks of the scribes, who interpreted the law of God to those who came to the temple,  along with the Pharisees, whose name means “separated ones”, and who often added to the laws to help one be as holy as possible. Jesus described them as ones who have the authority and history of Moses to guide them. Now, the seat of Moses was not just something figurative; Moses’ seat was the name of the chair from which the teacher gave the sermon. Jesus said their words were to be followed, but not their actions, since some scribes and Pharisees were saying one thing, yet doing something else. I want to be careful here not to suggest that all scribes and Pharisees were being poor examples. I believe we must be cautious here, not to paint a broad brush and bash an entire religion. Jesus was speaking of a few here, not all. Some  were not practicing what they were preaching. Verse 4 then suggests that these teachers of God’s wisdom were giving heavy burdens to the faithful. This has much to do with the Pharisees' increase of Sabbath laws, which were added to scripture- additional requirements that needed to be followed to follow God’s day of rest. For example, forbidding work on the Sabbath began to take on ridiculous proportions- To avoid work, one could not walk more than 3/5 of a mile from one’s hometown. Nor could one carry any load or light a fire in their home. The Pharisees intended to build a hedge or fence around God’s law to protect it. But that fence and hedge became burdensome for God’s people.

Jesus comments that despite these extra rules, these teachers will not lift a finger- I think here Jesus is saying that they are not helpful in these additional regulations, and that they do nothing in lessening this burden to be holy. Jesus, in contrast, said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” in Matthew 11:30.

Jesus continues using the example of the leaders of the faith at that time, warning against religious ostentation —practicing one’s service or piety solely for the sake of being seen. Then comes this strange word, “Phylacteries.” This is the only place in the New Testament where this word is used. What is Jesus speaking of here? Holladay says, “A phylactery was a little box worn on the head that contained scripture verses. It was intended to honor the Old Testament teaching to carry God’s word with you throughout the day. But pride crept into the use of these phylacteries.”  While preparing to give the eulogy for my mentor, Suellen Stewart, at my hotel, I saw two young Jewish boys wearing their phylacteries and preparing to offer their prayers. So, imagine one Pharisee deciding to make himself a bit more holy-looking by increasing the size of the scripture box upon his head, which, of course, because of human nature, led to one-upmanship, and these boxes getting bigger and bigger. In addition to this extreme fashion statement, these leaders wore longer tassels upon their robes than the average Israelite. These fringes were required as appropriate dress for Israelites, according to Numbers 15:38. So we can glimpse a rather absurd image here of a scribe or pharisee tripping over their long fringes on the hems of their robes, walking around with refrigerator-sized boxes on their heads, all so that they would be noticed and honored by society.

Yet standing out because of what they wore wasn’t enough. These leaders of the synagogues wanted the best seats at dinner parties and religious functions at the synagogues, which, unlike the Presbyterian church, were seats in the front row —in effect, the bench in front of the ark where the scrolls were kept, facing the congregation. Anyone want to come sit up in row one? Didn’t think so. They also craved recognition and status; they looked forward to receiving salutations at the marketplace. There was, in fact, a rule that one must salute anyone superior in one's knowledge of the laws of God. So as these teachers walked about the marketplace, with large phylacteries upon their heads, and bigger fringes than anyone else, they would be saluted for their superiority, being called rabbi, or great, Lord, master, teacher.

 Sometimes, we find ourselves receiving status even when not seeking it. You may remember that in 2024, I was voted as “Ashland’s favorite pastor” in the Best of sections in the Sneak Preview magazine. No, I didn’t stuff their ballot box. At first, I admit I thought it was pretty cool. I could’ve used my newfound status in clergy gatherings. “How are things going for you? Oh, that’s nice. Did you know that I was voted as Ashland’s favorite pastor?” Even better than a large phylactery or lots of long fringe on my robe. It wasn’t the status I sought, but it was the status I got.

A lot of folks do seek status, however. Holladay says that the number one Google search in America is people typing in their names to see if Google will list them FIRST. Status! First place! I confess that after reading that quote in the book, I tried it. Alas, I wasn’t in the top 1,000 “Dan Fowlers” on the internet, but there are some pretty cool “Dan Fowlers”, including an ultimate fighting champ and a Pixar cartoon artist. I wonder what the world would be like if the most popular search on Google were trying to find service-related work, helping others?

Status- During my 2006 church mission trip to Nicaragua with Seeds of Learning, where we built a school in a small, remote village, I had the opportunity to attend an evening Catholic Mass at the large cathedral in Ciudad Dario. It was a fascinating experience for me, and I was amazed at how the priest of the church there was honored, venerated, and seemingly worshiped during and after the service. Amid the mass, before preaching, an altar boy came up with incense, bowed to the priest who had entered from the vestry area, and was seated upon a throne-like chair. The altar boy spread the incense all about him, then did so all about the altar area. This was preceded by someone coming up to the priest, taking off his purple cape, and bowing before him. Then the priest preached. After his sermon, the cape was put back on by an altar boy, and he was escorted to his large seat. After the service, a procession began from the back of the church: There were four altar boys, each holding a corner of a tent-like structure, who slowly processed up the central aisle. When they finally got to the front, the priest rose from his chair and walked under the tent, incense in front of the tent. Then the priest came slowly down the center aisle to “greet” the people. There were some regal waves and nods. Occasionally, he stopped, went out of his tent, and spoke directly with one of the congregants. As I watched this strange processional, it felt as if we were watching a world-famous celebrity walking amongst the people. Maybe he was voted the favorite priest in Ciudad Dario? In contrast, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, something only a house servant was supposed to do.

In verse 8 of this passage, the Greek is emphatic and almost deserves an exclamation point. Jesus says, "But you are not to be called rabbi." Disciples of Jesus are not to seek titles, fame, popularity, or standing. Our teacher, our rabbi, is Jesus. In verse 9, we are not meant to honor another as a father, also an honorary title given to a teacher of the law in those days, for we have a heavenly father. Neither are there any human masters, for Jesus tells us he is the one and only master. Instead, we who follow our Rabbi Jesus are to seek greatness through service, not status.

But we human beings love to strive for status over service. If we aren’t careful, we can find ourselves trying to have the biggest box on our head, the longest fringe on our coats, the place of honor on the internet, or a walk under a tent through the masses- As Holladay says, We have to choose every day to either exalt ourselves, - to seek standing in the community with titles, to find places on boards to gain status, to make connections with long standing families in the Rogue Valley community so that we better our own standing in the community,

OR

We can humble ourselves. We can follow the example of our Rabbi, our teacher, our master- who, washed the disciples’ feet, who, according to Philippians 2:6-8, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient to death-even death on a cross.” 

Jesus calls us to humility and service. The message for us today is that we are to be like Christ, humble servants looking towards the interests of others, rather than to be like the scribes or pharisees with their huge phylacteries and long fringes, who sought power, privilege or position;  You and I are called to practice our service to others in humility through the power and presence of Christ.

Mother Teresa said, “If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know who you truly are.” Who are we truly? We are all sinners who have fallen short of God’s glory. We are self-serving status-seeking human beings who are only able to stand at the throne of grace in righteousness because of Jesus Christ. Our actual status is not one of greatness, but rather one of gratefulness for all that God has done for us. If we remind ourselves of this, we will begin each day in humility. And Jesus warns us, those who choose exaltation over humility will, in time, find themselves humbled.

Being humbled allows us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and be led to service. Service is something we must practice, however, because society constantly conveys the message that seeking status is a path to true greatness. We are told that the higher we climb the social ladder or the success ladder, the more people that serve under us, the greater the power we attain. The kindom of God, however, does not work by the rules of this world. In God’s kindom, the first are last, and the servant is most excellent of all. How does a Christian live a life of true greatness in God’s eyes, the only eyes that truly matter? How are we to practice servanthood amid a self-serving world?