St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

20th Sunday after Pentecost
October 18, 2009
The Rev. Deacon Art Bass

A Ministry of Humble Service

It was about seventeen years ago, and I was standing in the parking lot of the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina. I was there as a lay representative of our diocese at the Province IV synod meeting. Although still a lay person, I was well into the process of preparing to become a deacon. My ordination at that point was about a year a half away.

I remember that I was there in the parking lot talking with John Talbird, the rector of Good Shepherd Church on Lookout Mountain, when Bishop William Sanders drove up. He parked his car, walked up to where Fr. Talbird and I were standing, and with a big smile said “Hello” to each of us.

Then he took out his car keys, firmly pressed them into my hand, and said, “Get my bags out of the trunk and bring them up to my room.” He walked away, leaving me standing there dumbfounded. I looked at John Talbird and asked, "Is he serious?” Fr. Talbird laughed and said, “Oh yes, very much so. You're going to become a deacon, and that's what deacons do: they humbly serve God and they humbly serve their bishop too.”

That was my first encounter with what I have since learned is a long-standing tradition in the Episcopal Church. Deacons carry bags, or anything else they are asked to carry, for their bishop. When Bishop vonRosenberg comes to St. Luke's, I always help him with his vestments and crosier, and after the service, I pack them up for him and put them in his car. It's a symbol, an enacted symbol of the historic tie and connection which has always existed between bishop and deacon, and it is a symbol of the nature of a deacon's ministry: a ministry of servanthood to the church and to the world. It is servanthood based on Christ's own example of servanthood, and it is service done in his name.

Deacons read the gospel during the Eucharist, because the gospel tells the story of Jesus' own servant ministry, on which our ministry is patterned. For three years, Jesus ministered to “the least of these.” He served the poor, the sick, the neglected, the despised. He healed them; he showed them respect when the world would not; and he loved them.

In today's gospel reading, Jesus is nearing the end of that three year ministry of servanthood. He has warned his disciples for the third and final time that he is to be condemned, killed, and rise again. As today's passage begins, Jesus is literally marching toward Jerusalem, toward the ultimate act of love and service.

The disciples are following along behind, but the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, catch up with Jesus, and they ask a favor. They say to Jesus, “When you are in your glory, let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at your left.”

From the very nature of their request, it appears that in spite of the close relationship they have had with Jesus for some three years, they have not grasped, they have not understood the servant nature of Jesus' ministry and mission. Moreover, it is clear they have not heard his warnings, or at least they have not heard with comprehension, that the path to glory will take them through suffering and death.

Are you like me? When you hear this passage, do you find yourself wanting to say: “James, John! You foolish and arrogant disciples!” I think that's a very natural reaction for most of us as modern Christians to this gospel.

But then we have to remember that there may just be a little of James and John in each of us. As amazing as it may seem, it is often all too easy for ambition to become mixed into ministry and service.

When Bishop Sanders handed me those car keys at Kanuga years ago, he knew me pretty well. Looking back on it now, I think that may have been one of the most important lessons in my diaconal training - - a lesson in humility.

In my parish, I had been several times elected to the vestry, and the vestry had selected me as senior warden. At Convention, the diocese had elected me to Bishop and Council, and I had been twice elected as a deputy to General Convention. Bishop Sanders well knew all this about me.

Now understand, there is nothing wrong with any of those things. In fact, they are very important ministries. The church needs people to answer callings to the vestry and to parish and diocesan offices, and these are ministries of service. They are ministries of servant leadership.

But what Bishop Sanders was saying to me in effect, when he handed me those car keys, was don't be seeking ordination as a deacon as a way of bumping what you are doing in the church now up to the next level. In that little exercise of humility, he was reminding me that servant ministry is not about me. It's not about self. It's about serving God by serving others. It's about doing the work of Christ with the help of his grace and the power of the Spirit. If we try to do it on our own, if we try to do it for ourselves, we will fail. But as last week's gospel reading stated so clearly, “for God all things are possible.”

A deacon is a liturgical symbol. We are symbols of the church's commitment to servant ministry. But we are not the only servant ministers in the church. Servant ministry belongs to everyone. Servant ministry is the ministry of all baptized Christians.

It is the ministry of each and every one of us. And whether we do that ministry as leaders or as followers, or as a little of both, there always needs to be that element of humility. We always need to drink from the cup of sacrificing self. Because while we supply the minds, and hands, and voices that do the ministry, the ministry is not ours. It is God's ministry done through us. It is done to further his love and service to others through us. It is done to further his will, his purpose, and his glory.