All Saints Lutheran Church
February 23, 2003
Pastor Tim Johnson

As we spend a little time this morning thinking together about this fourth key to nurturing faith in our homes--that of serving together--it seems only fair to pause to consider the challenge that this key really is to our lives.

In some respects, I think that this key of serving together is no small matter. Caring for the poor. Reaching out to the lost. Serving together in a culture that values being a successful leader, I think we’d be fooling ourselves to think that service flows very naturally from our lives.

In fact, I think that servanthood is up against some pretty big opposition. Particularly if you are a parent or caring adult who is intentional about mentoring or encouraging a young person in today’s society.

Consider this story that author, David Walsh, tells in his book, “Selling Out America’s Children:”

A colleague of mine was traveling with his family on a long-awaited summer vacation trip to CA. When they finished the four-day automobile trip from Minnesota, a message was waiting for them to call home right away-it was an emergency. The phone call brought dreaded news. There had been big trouble, and they were told that they had better come home right way.

My colleague’s vacation was over before it began. His family’s home had been broken into, robbed, and vandalized almost as soon as they had departed. Their house had become “party central” for several days for dozens of teenagers who ate the family’s food, broke their furniture, stole their valuables, wore their clothes, defaced their home’s walls, and destroyed their carpets.

The family was devastated, and felt both cheated and violated. Each member tried to think of clues as to who might have done this to him or her, and for what reason.

Within several days the police had pieced together the story. Youngsters only vaguely known to the family had done the thousands of dollars worth of damage to the home. Dozens of young people had been involved, but only the four ringleaders were arrested. Their motives did not include a grudge against the family; when asked why they did it, they say, “It was just for fun.”

The idea that a group of kids would commit these crimes with no real motive was shocking enough to my colleague, but he received another surprise: the organizers of the theft and destruction of nearly all his family’s possessions were seniors at one of the most prestigious private schools in the Twin Cities.

Several days after hearing this account from my colleague, I had occasion to overhear a conversation between two elementary school-age boys on the sidewalk in front of my house, I was doing some yard work nearby as I heard one of them-a polite but shy nine-year-old-enthusiastically describe to his friend a new video game he owned. This young boy was describing how, after hours of practice, he was now able to cut the enemy’s head off, rip out his heart, and snap his spine, delivering the most lethal blows the game had to offer. Both boys were very excited, and were hurrying home to the first boy’s house to “play.”

Stories like these should sound alarms to us. But too often times we just move on, hoping, believing that they are just blips on the road of life, or that it’s not that big of a deal. But this is the reality that our kids deal with day to day.

Consider some of the following statistics:

1. Gun violence takes a child’s life in the United States every three hours.
2. Every nine minutes, a child is arrested for a drug or alcohol offense.
3. Every minute of every day, an American teenager has a baby (the highest rate in the industrialized world), to say nothing of the numbers of abortions that occur daily.
4. Every 26 seconds an American child runs away from home.
5. 22% of all American children are living below the poverty line.
6. The national high school dropout rate is approaching 25%.
7. A Surgeon General’s report noted that 16% of America’s junior and senior high school youth drink alcohol weekly, and that almost a half million of them have five or more consecutive drinks at least once a week.

These are staggering statistics. And yet they are so much more than that. These are young lives that are doing battle in our culture unlike a generation or two before. What’s happened?

The reality is that we are bombarded by images and messages all day long that don’t bless life but that slowly but surely take away from life, and if we’re not careful, we can end up feeling pretty despairing.

Take the television, for instance. One recent analysis identified seven constantly occurring values in popular television. See if you agree:

1. Violence-some 200,000 acts of violence by the time a young person reaches 18 years old, if they watch an average amount of TV.
2. Sex-over 90% of sexual relations on prime time TV are depicted between unmarried people.
3. Wealth-the key to happiness is money and the material possessions it buys.
4. Rewards without work-in spite of the affluence of television characters, we hardly ever see them working. The connection between work and reward is almost non-existent.
5. Drugs and alcohol-in a recent sampling of 36 hours of TV, it was found that of the 149 drug or alcohol related messages, 121 were pro and only 22 were negative portrayals.
6. Selfishness-the same study found that the vast majority of advertising stress having fun and hardly ever mentioned social values like being helpful or being concerned for others.
7. Disrespect-Not only television, but increasingly radio, glorifies an “in your face” approach to discussion, debate and even relationships. Aggression and disrespect are portrayed as humorous and attractive. I also wonder about parental willingness to allow our kids to listen to some of the music they listen to-resounding, sometimes, with pro-violence, pro-drug and alcohol, pro-sex messages. And we do so under the guise of allowing choices. I ask, would we allow the choice of our children to infest poison into their bodies? Why then do we allow them to ingest spiritual contamination?

All of this is not meant to discourage you, but it is to draw attention to the incredibly powerful forces that exist all around us, not the least of them those who would try to capture the attention and hearts of our young people.

I would suggest that the work of the church and the work cut out for our families and others who would have a vested interest in our young people are significant. And that work cannot be for only a few. The power of serving together is greater than the destructive power enticing our youth.

This life that Jesus brings to you and me is a life that is filled with nothing less than the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. For our life in Christ at its deepest level has the highest value a life could possibly have--a life that was worth God giving His only Son for...that we might have the forgiveness of sins and a sacred call upon our lives.

Are our youth tasting that life through service with their families?

For, what we have been given back from God is a life given in service for the sake of others. Jesus said, “If any among you want to be the greatest of all, you must become the servant of all.” In this is the irony of the gospel--that a life that is surrendered to Christ is a life that is found in all its fullness--the aliveness we’re all meant two feel that youth will experience one way or another.

I think it’s noteworthy that this fourth key is connected to the others. Mother Teresa said it well
when she remarked:

Where does love begin?
In our own homes.
When does it begin?
When we pray together.
The family that prays together stays together.

Families that serve together have no need for stimulation through violent video games or senseless destruction of property.

I believe that serving others must begin with a life devoted to God, and then is lived out by serving those who are closest to us. In fact, I wonder what God thinks when we extend love to strangers better than we extend love to those whom are in our most immediate care. Parent to child. Spouse to spouse. Brother to sister.

Jesus, as he spent his final hours with those who were closest to him--his disciples--showed that loving service begins with those near to us, and so our families must begin with service to each other. Consider our reading from John’s Gospel this morning.

In verse three, it says that Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands...got up and began to serve them.

The power of this verse lies in the fact that Jesus could do anything that he wanted to do--and he chooses to spend these last moments at the feet of his disciples.

An in the following verses, 4-5, Jesus begins the most unlikely of activities. He begins to wash and wipe the disciples’ feet. Again, consider what we are to learn about serving one another as we watch Jesus:

• Jesus’ actions are a surprise
• They are unexpected
• He, the master, turns the tables and becomes a servant.

How might your family serve each other? And, how might you all serve together?
So, where in your life, as you consider the call to serve others as Jesus has served and loved you, might you surprise someone with an act of kindness? Where might you reach out to a poor or hurting person and lavish what God has put into your hands? Which poor might you serve? How many hungry might you feed? What relief from the day’s stresses might you relieve, even in your own home?

The statistics that I shared at the beginning of my message reveal a human family that is increasingly disconnected. Serving others connects us in ways that shifts our focus from our own agony and ourselves to the needs of others. I am convinced that Jesus calls us to serve others because we not only meet the deep needs of others but we, in the most unsuspecting way, begin to have our needs met, as well.

In closing, I offer these four important reminders, from the book “Passing on the Faith” that serving together is at the heart of a growing faith:

1. The giving of one’s life in service to others, and ultimately to Christ, is faith enhancing;
2. Involvement in service proved to be a better predictor of faith maturity than participation in Sunday School, Bible study, or worship services;
3. Service activities were also found to increase a youth’s bond to the church;
4. And, youth involved in service are half as likely to be involved in at-risk behaviors as non-servers.

So, let us, then, remember Jesus’ words to:
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

Amen.