SERVING OTHERS

After Jesus had wiped his disciple's feet he told them, Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. John13v14.

Service is not always appreciated. Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet. He thought it demeaned his leader. Perhaps, too, it made him feel guilty. Our Christian service does not invariably receive the credit it deserves.

At one of our church meetings someone brought up the problem of the rooks. We have a huge and spreading beech tree that overarches our chapel. A few years ago rooks started nesting in the tree and their droppings fell on to the cars parked below. Throughout March and April, until the leaves appeared on the tree, rook droppings were a real hazard to members of the congregation.

So when the matter was broached by a worried church member I asked, "Do you want me to get someone to shoot them?"

"No, no. You mustn't do that; people in the village would be sure to protest."

I wonder what you would do in the same circumstances? Well I had a cunning plan. I got a friend with an artistic flair to make me a model peregrine falcon. I then hired a tree surgeon to fix it high amongst the branches to scare the rooks off.

The country folk who attend our chapel and think they know more about rooks than I do, muttered, with pitying smiles on their faces, "That'll never work." But it did! The rooks flew off and they didn't come back.

Nobody patted me on the back. Nobody said, "Well done John, that was a clever idea. You're not as daft as you look." The rustic sceptics were bitterly disappointed that my strategy had succeeded. They were looking forward to nodding their heads sagely and saying, "There you are - I said it'd never work."

I did have a phone call months later from my friend KB. He said with more pleasure than was wise, "I bin looking through my binoculars at yar old hawk, JR, and a's gone and flew away. They rooks are back in flocks." Unfortunately a gale had blown the falcon out of the tree.

The moral of this true story is that Christian service is not always appreciated. People are quicker to crow over your failures than to praise you for your successes.

Secondly, don't be put off Christian service. Jesus would have been put off washing his disciple's feet if he had been fastidious, pompous or judgmental. The status-conscious disciples did not deserve to have their dirty feet washed by their Lord and Master.

My next story started with a report in the local paper. A jobbing gardener lost his over-trousers. He had finished work, been paid, put the £50 in a pocket of his over-trousers, taken his trousers off and put them on the carrier of his bicycle. As he cycled home he lost his trousers and his wage packet.

My friend Keith was travelling with his wife to do their weekly shopping in Bury St Edmunds when Anne cried out, "Did you see those trousers by the side of the road? I reckon it's the pair that was lost. We'll have to stop on our way home."

Now my friend didn't want to stop. Keith knew that he, not his wife, would be the one who investigated the trousers. It would be inconvenient to stop. He would have to draw up outside the fish and chip shop and would be stared at by the customers. Keith was a very fastidious man and the idea of poking around in some one else's trousers didn't appeal to him one little bit. I can remember him coming on to the village green after Christmas with a brand new pair of boxing gloves and going three rounds with Bibby of the runny nose. He never wore those boxing gloves again!

However he had to stop! He would never have heard the last of it if he hadn't! The trousers were filthy. The women in the fish and chip shop were glad of a little free entertainment. One pocket was full of nails but in the other was £50. Anne was triumphant; the gardener very grateful; and even Keith was glad he stopped.

Keith swallowed his pride and did what was right even though it was distasteful - as did Jesus - and so must we.

Thirdly, we must be careful how we serve. Jesus could have washed his disciple's feet roughly and with resentment. He could have done it just to make his twelve followers feel guilty. Instead, Jesus did it with good grace - tenderly and considerately.

A few years ago I got hit on the forehead by a hockey ball. It is the sort of injury that gains you maximum attention and sympathy. My team- mates strongly advised me to go to the Casualty Department of the West Suffolk Hospital. So I went and sat for over 3 hours whilst nothing was done. I hadn't got a very bad injury and a nurse could have dealt with it in ten minutes. I waited and waited and waited and got more and more angry. By the time I saw a doctor I was furious.

However, the lady doctor completely disarmed me. She gave me a warm smile and looked so pleased to see me. She deftly tidied up my wound. She had a very tender touch. I was sorry when she finished.

The best way to serve others is in the same spirit as that lady doctor served me and Jesus ministered to his fractious disciples.

Fourthly, Jesus set his disciples an example by washing their feet. When we serve we, too, set others an example.

My niece, Angela, a sweet 19-year-old, came down to Suffolk with her father on one of his preaching engagements at Brockley. She was a good girl. She made us coffee, did the washing up and got the tea. Angela knew the way to her old uncle's heart! She was studying at Nottingham University to be a physiotherapist. I said to tease, "Well Angela, I expect you are looking forward to the day you pummel the bodies of professional footballers for a living." She replied, "I don't know about that uncle Johnny ..... I think I would like to go to Africa and work with lepers."

That was a breath of fresh air and cheered me up. I was reminded that there are still young Christians prepared to serve Jesus and to set good examples to their careworn, cynical, elders.

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