“A Life of Loving Service”

Psalm 116:1, 2, 12-19

Maundy Thursday Homily for 2011

Anne Lamott, a Presbyterian writer for whom both her life and her faith journey have been anything but smooth sailing, wrote the following words about prayer: “Here are the two best prayers I know: ‘Help me, help me, help me’ and Thank you, thank you, thank you’.” Out of the depths of her suffering she has asked God for help. After receiving it she has proclaimed her thanksgiving for God’s deliverance.

Tonight’s psalmist has prayed both those prayers to the Lord. Psalm 116 is a fervent prayer rooted in the depths of his suffering, suffering from which he has been delivered by the grace, mercy, and action of God. In the aftermath of his deliverance he asked this question: “What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?”

That question is addressed by William Matthews in the following quotes: “We lull ourselves into believing that our debt to God, like our home mortgages, will be paid off in a timely manner before we retire. It is ludicrous, when we think about it. God’s delivering of us is not an invitation to pay him back but an invitation to live sacrificially, with gratitude. We do not simply open our wallets; we open our hearts. Whatever we give, we give with love. ‘I love the Lord,’ the psalmist sings – not ‘I owe the Lord’.”

“Such gratitude cannot be equaled by thoughtlessly cutting a weekly check for the operating fund or guiltily volunteering to serve in the church nursery (as infrequently as possible). Those gifts do not matter if they do not spring from love and are not part of a whole life of genuine service.”

We cannot pay God back. We can only love and serve him. A major piece of this loving service is joyful and heartfelt worship and thanksgiving: giving God praise and adoration, singing hymns and songs of praise with gusto and fervor (singing them like we mean it!), joyfully presenting to him his tithes and our offerings. Such worship and thanksgiving is to be intentional, purposeful, and at some point become as natural to us a breathing.

Related to that is living a life of loving service: service to God and service to others. Such a life is to be lived out in Christ-like humility, following the example set by the Lord when he knelt to wash the filthy feet of his disciples – when he took upon himself the role of a slave. It is lived out in Christ-like obedience, the sort of obedience (and humility) that our Lord displayed by dying on a cross.

This kind of life is a life of faith: a deep inner trust in the Lord’s grace, mercy, and love. This life of faith is not one we are meant live in solitude. We reflect that faith by confidently engaging in outward activities, activities through which we let others know about the grace, mercy, and love of the Lord – and activities by which we show God’s grace, mercy, and love to those around us. Ultimately we live out such faith by letting the world know – by word and deed - about the saving love of Jesus. We worship the One who has lovingly saved us best when our words and actions give witness to God’s goodness, a goodness that we do not deserve, cannot earn, and can never repay in kind.

When the children of Israel were in bondage to the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Lord heard their cries of help me, help me, help me. In time he delivered them from that bondage. Their immediate response was to say thank you, thank you, thank you. And one of the ways they said thank you was through the celebration of Passover, a time of remembrance and thanksgiving.

When the world, including creation itself, cried out to the Lord for deliverance, the Lord heard our cries of help me, help me, help me. In the fullness of time he sent his only begotten Son, “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” His Son Jesus humbled himself and became human, and further humbled himself by dying on a cross. Our only response can be thank you, thank you, thank you.

One of the ways we thank him is by honoring his request to celebrate his Supper, doing so in remembrance of him and continuing to do so until he comes again. We come to his Table giving thanks for what he has done for us even as we are reminded again of his broken body and poured out blood.

Then we leave his Table to go out into the world to be his witnesses. We share the good news of Jesus with others, or as the psalmist puts it, pay our vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. We give thanks for this Good News by worshipping the Lord. We give thanks for this Good News by living a life of loving service.

In a few moments we will come to the Table of the Lord. At that Table we will once again share a supper with the Jesus. There we will remember what he has done for us in the breaking of the bread and pouring out of the cup. There we will be reminded of his broken body and spilled blood. There we will remember his resurrection and look forward to his coming again.

But on this night of nights, as we celebrate again his last supper with his disciples, we will be remembering what happened after that supper: betrayal by one of his own, denial of him by those he loved, a mockery of a trial, the hatred of those he came to save, the beatings and taunts, and finally the crucifixion. Come Sunday we will celebrate his resurrection, but tonight let us remember his crucifixion: his descent into hell as, alone on the cross, he experienced total abandonment for our sake, and where “… he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; [where] upon him was the punishment that made us whole.” Let us remember that “… by his bruises we are healed.”

“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” What shall we return to the Lord for all his bounty to us? Our praise and thanksgiving, the generous and joyful giving of ourselves and our resources for the work of his Kingdom. But above all, we are to return to him lives of loving service to him and to those whom he loves. Amen.