We cannot NOT serve.

The good thing about writing the blog for the last week of the month is that I get more time to think about the theme - this month it’s serve - longer than those who write earlier. Thinking is good, right? Here’s where I’m probably supposed to say that I don’t so much think as pray, meditate and contemplate. But I can’t, because I don’t. I think, and I mull.

And you’re going to have to stay with me here, this may seem disjointed, so you’ll have to make of it what you will.

We cannot not serve. Think about it. We can’t. We serve our families, our communities, and our country. We serve our customers and clients. We serve with our friends and colleagues, in organizations and charities. We have fun; do benefit walks or runs to serve a cause. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Whom or what we serve may be something or someone other than God. We serve to establish and deepen relationships, to make our live run more smoothly, to earn the means to support ourselves and our families, to help the symphony and the community theater continue to bring entertaining joy to us and to the community, to help the Boys and Girls Clubs continue to enrich the lives of kids. To bring Meals on Wheels to the homebound, and to help WAFER bring food to the need-bound. I hope you’re getting the idea.

There is a delightful play called The Servant of Two Masters. In it the hilariously opportunistic and confused servant Truffaldino represents his master Federigo - who is dead, killed in a dual by Florindo, his sister Beatrice’s lover - but is being impersonated by Beatrice come to claim the dowry of Clarice, newly betrothed to Silvio, whose hand in marriage had been originally promised to Federigo. Confused yet? Well, wait....

Enter Florindo, newly escaped from killing Federigo and seeking a servant. He encounters Truffaldino on an errand for his ‘master’ Federigo/Beatrice. Truffaldino accepts Florindo’s offer of employment, thinking that he’s clever, he can serve two masters, easily double his income, and therefore have the means to woo and win the hand Clarice’s maid, Smeraldino, whom he has recently chanced to meet and fallen in love with. Meantime, Federigo/Beatrice has abandon her disguise and been reunited with Florindo. In the manner of Shakespearean-era comedies there is an on-going series of comic mishaps and mix-ups, exposure and confession, before all’s well that end’s well and everyone is set to be happily married.

Well, almost everyone. When Florindo asks permission for his servant, Truffaldino, to marry Clarice’s maid, Smeraldino, Clarice says that’s impossible, because Smeraldino is promised to Beatrice/Federigo’s servant. Truffaldo, in order to marry Smeraldino, must confess that he is, also that servant. He is, indeed, a servant of two masters.

Jesus said no man can serve two masters. Remember that parable in Mark about the anxious rich man who ran up to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Yeah, he’d kept all the commandments all his life. Would that do it? And Jesus looked at him, and Mark tells us that Jesus loved him and said, “You lack one thing. Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then, come and follow me.” Shocked, the man turned and walked away, grieving, because he owned a lot.

Just as Truffaldo could not serve two masters and get his heart’s desire, that is, marry Smeraldino, the rich man in the parable could not serve two masters, wealth and God, and get his heart’s desire, that is, eternal life. Okay, so the analogy is a bit of a stretch. But not too much. Over and over Jesus talks about laying up treasures in heaven from the well-known fact: that we cannot serve two masters at the same time. Our commitment, our affections will be divided. We will always and ever fail one or the other. We will love the one, and hate the other, according to Scripture.

We tend to forget that in biblical idiom, to ‘hate’ can mean to love less. We see this in Matthew when Jesus says, ‘He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Actually we can, and should, extend that to loving or valuing money, position, possessions, whatever, more than God. Jesus talks about taking up His cross to follow Him. Taking that whole section on riches, worth and value in context rather than pulling one or the other out of context, the implication, and the message to me is that we love our family, the gifts we’ve been given, what we have and enjoy. But we love God more.

Okay, now you’re wondering, ‘how’s she going to tie this all together?’ Frankly, I’m not sure, but I’m going to give it a shot.

Jesus said, “I came not to be served, but to serve.” So did we. We were born to serve. We cannot not serve. And, we cannot serve two masters. We have to choose which one we love most and give that Master our deepest commitment and love. Think about how much you love your parents, your spouse, your children. The affection you hold for your friends. The joy you find in the camaraderie of those who share your special interests. Then think about loving God more than any and all of those people. Putting Him before all of them and everything. Before your family, before your friends. Before your investments, you IRAs, your property. Before your pride, your ego, your prestige, your position. Whatever.

That’s how much God loves you. Loves me. Loves us.

In our twenty-first century literal minds we think choosing whom we will serve is an either/or situation. And it is. It’s also both/and. Jesus said that what we do for the least of humankind, we do for Him. We all want to do something noble, something magnificent and wonderful and become a great lion of God. Once in a while we have that opportunity. The trick is to not say no because it will interfere with your neatly, or not so neatly ordered life. I think it was John Lennon who said, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”

Therefore, it seems to me that we do for Him is what we do when we go about our daily duties as they present themselves; seeing Jesus’ face in the faces of those we meet, and, hopefully, those we meet glimpsing Jesus in us. I try and I believe that sometimes I do meet and serve Jesus, and most often it is in the everydayness of everyday.

May your everyday be a sacred step on your journey in the mystery.

~ Janet