Here in Alaska, we are blessed every year by over 2.7M people who visit us every year. The average stay is about eight and a half nights. Every one of us either has or knows somebody who has waited tables or tended bar, or worked in some aspect of the hospitality industry. I think everybody should at some point. You learn a lot of good, subtle skills.
I’m reminded of the man from Wisconsin who walked into a bar. While he’s sitting there, he hears a little voice say, “Hey, I like your hair that way.” He looks around and sees no one. As the bartender brings him his drink, he hears the voice again, “Hey, that color looks really good on you.” Puzzled, he asked bartender, “Are you speaking to me?” The bartender says, “Oh no, that’s the peanuts. Their complimentary.”
Chris and the peanuts understand what Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, meant when in 1825 he said: To welcome a guest is to be answerable for his or her happiness so long as he is beneath your roof.
In short, it is a very profound, indeed a sacred thing to be at the service of another person.
And as we learn in the readings given us today, it is an essential part of being a follower of Jesus. You cannot be a follower of Jesus without being a servant to others.
We get a hint of this in the first reading where Joshua confronts the people at the end of their journey to the promised land. There, with the people who have joined them, he essentially exhorts them, “Choose now! Whom will you serve?”
This sense of service emphasizes the transcendence of God. The servant subordinates him- or herself to the one being served. In the context of Joshua and the people, it is a statement of faith, an acknowledgement that God is greater that we are and that our lives only make sense in service to him. In short, it is an embrace of primary tenant of true religion:
God is God…and you are not.
Paul emphasizes this idea of subordination in his Letter to the Ephesians that we hear today. The first thing we hear him say is: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Do you see the subtle shift here?
Q: Jesus Christ is Lord. But how are we to serve the Lord?
A: By being of service to one another.
Paul then gives some examples of what that might look like in the culture of his day.
For Paul, and for us, to be a Christian is to be one who serves others.
Q: Where does Paul get this idea?
A: From Christ himself.
Today we come to the conclusion of the Bread of Life Discourse. It is a moment of decision, not unlike the one with Joshua and the people we heard earlier.
Up to this point, having seen the miracles, having been fed by the loaves and the fishes, those in the crowd are great fans of Jesus, but they are not yet his followers. The teaching that Jesus has just given is hard. They don’t know what to make of it. But what an interesting question Jesus asks them: “ What if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”
When we realize who Jesus is and when we understand what he has done, the implication here is inescapable and utterly stupefying. Put simply, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Logos, he who is truly divine made himself subordinate to us. He came to serve, not to be served, so that we might have life and have it abundantly.
It is fitting that the conclusion of the Bread of Life Discourse ends by reminding us that to be a follower of Christ means to be a man or woman who serves.
Even today, Jesus has many fans but few followers. One can be a believer without being very believable.
So many in our increasingly secular society see Jesus as a cosmic therapist who is there simply to make them feel better.
Nothing could be further than the truth.
To be a follower of Jesus is to serve the Lord by serving one another. In our Eucharist, which he left us as an everlasting memorial of his passion death and resurrection, we do four things.
We gather
We share our stories
We break and share the Bread of Life
And we are sent into the world to be of service to the world
And if not the whole world, then at least that little part of the world with which we will come into contact.
Let me conclude with the story of the Ten-Foot Chopsticks.
There was a man who died and went to the Pearly Gates. St. Peter greets him and says, “Hey, good to have you here! You are in. Would you like a look around?”
The man replies, “Sure, what is there to see?”
“Anything you want,” St. Peter replies.
“Well,” says the man, “I’m in right?”
“Sure,” says Pete.
“Uh…this may seem a bit strange, but do you mind if we see hell first? I’m just really curious.”
“No problem,” St. Peter replies, and off they go.
When they arrive in hell, the man is stunned to see a huge banquet table with every imaginable kind of food and delicacy heaped upon it in abundance. Yet around the table are thousands and thousands of damned souls. Everyone is emaciated and starving.
“This is awful!” the man says, “Why are they all starving?”
“Well,” explains St. Peter, “There is only one rule in the afterlife. You have to eat with ten-foot chopsticks.”
“I can’t take this anymore,” the man says, “Let’s get out of here.” And off they go.
When they arrive in heaven, the man is shocked to see that it is exactly the same setup. Again, there is a huge banquet table with every imaginable food and delicacy in abundance. But in heaven, everyone gathered around the table is well-fed and happy. People are chatting and laughing and generally having a great time.
“Oh, thank God!” the man says, “I’m sure glad that ten-foot chopstick thing doesn’t apply here.”
“No,” says St. Peter, “Actually it does. Same rule. Everyone in the afterlife has to eat with ten-foot chopsticks.”
“I don’t get it,” the man says.
St. Peter replies, “The difference is that here in heaven, we feed each other.”
May our thoughts, our words, our deeds show that we are not just fans of Jesus, but followers as we serve the Lord by serving one another.