called to a new way of seeing and serving

Over this past year, these two images have been helpful to me.  Last night as we met with Christmas in Walnut volunteers, I used them to share what I am in the process of learning...

We know Christmas in Walnut is a lot about toys.  We know there will be families thrilled with the bargains that they walk away with on Saturday, and we know there will children thrilled with the toys they open Christmas morning.  But I want to pull back the curtains and share what I think God is up to in Christmas in Walnut that is about a lot more than the toys.  It’s something he’s working to teach me.  It’s a lesson about seeing and serving.  It’s a lesson about development. 

From very early on in our life, the world attempts to develop us into a way of seeing people.  It’s a mindset of comparison, competition, categories largely. This ladder is a visual. This way of comparison always tends to put someone on top, someone on bottom.  We see people somewhere on this ladder and make comparisons of in and out, higher and lower, better and worse, haves and have not’s. 

The standards the world uses to determine where a person fits on the hierarchy are often things like zipcodes and neighborhoods, income levels, job status, education, color of skin, athletic ability, looks, backgrounds and lifestyles.  When people serve people from this view, they often tend to serve out of their positions of power.  This way of serving has generally not brought about much positive or lasting change in people’s hearts or lives or communities or the world.

But there is a different way of serving.  It’s not the way of our power, but of Jesus’s power. 

Jesus put to death the world’s classifications on the cross when he died, and then he rose again and he calls his followers to be raised and developed into a new way of seeing and a new way of being.  2 Corinthians 5:16 says, “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.”... instead we will believe all are made in the image of God with value, all of us are have not’s on the bottom rung in need of rescue, we are all saved only by the grace and blood of Jesus Christ, we all are have’s with worth in Christ and gifts to share, and when we get this, we find we are a people aligned with God, reconciled by Christ, to become connected in this new Christian community in order to work with Christ on his mission. 

Serving looks pretty different from these two differing views. 

The ladder way of serving is about our power.  

The cross way is about Jesus’s power. 

The ladder way is about serving to and for people.  

The cross way is about serving with and beside people. 

The ladder way tends to create hostility and keep divisions.  

The cross way tends to promote love and create unity. 

The ladder way is often about charity.  

The cross way is often about development. 

The ladder way tends to destroy community.  

The cross way tends to build community. 

The cross way of serving is what I believe God is up to at Christmas in Walnut.  I’ve seen serving in this way happening over the past few years there…as people care and share together over pancakes, craft making, and leading and serving together..shoppers who are also volunteers, leaders from harvest/ohc/our broader community…there is a joy thick in the air when we serve in this way.  It’s attractive, it’s compelling.   It’s what I love about getting up every morning as a follower of Christ who gets to serve alongside so many other Christ-following friends who serve in the way of Kingdom and love and community. 

In John 15, Jesus tells his disciples that he no longer calls them his servants but his friends.  As we look around Christmas in Walnut, what a great vision…that we wouldn’t see each other primarily servants, volunteers,  or shoppers, but that we would come to see each other as friends.