The Reverend Peter K. Ackerman
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church
Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8, Year A
June 26, 2011
Gotta Serve Somebody
“You may an ambassador to England or France/ You might like to gamble, you might like to dance/ You may be the big heavyweight champion of the world/ You might be a socialite with your long string of pearls/…but your gonna have to serve somebody/ It may be the devil, it may be the Lord/ but your gonna have to serve somebody”
Some of you may recognize this as the lyric from Bob Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody.” When I was in high school I went to a Bob Dylan concert during what is known as the singer’s “Christian” period. It was an interesting period to see this performer in concert, because all he did was sing songs from his newly released Christian themed album “Slow Train Coming” and the yet to be released follow up “Saved.”
This took many Bob Dylan fans by surprise as they paid for concert tickets and heard these handful of songs without any previous greatest hits like “Just Like a Woman, “Blowing in the Wind, and more. Happily I saw Dylan in concert some years later with my wife Marie, but I still like the concert I saw by the then born again singer even with his preaching in between songs. He sang live the lyrics I quoted earlier – “it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but your still gonna have to serve somebody.”
I wonder if Dylan got the idea of this song from the Epistle from Paul that we heard this morning. In this letter to the Romans Paul makes the metaphorical point that if one is not a slave to God, then they have no choice but to be a slave to sin.
Thus, Paul appears to argue, if one must go into servanthood, might the better choice be to become a servant of God, for the good of humanity, for the good of the coming Kingdom and for the good of one’s soul? “You gotta serve somebody…it may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
Paul encourages his readers to make the right choice, the good choice, the Godly choice. In writing to Romans Paul is reminding them that with Jesus’ sacrifice “the way” has been opened for them, and for all, including us, to follow the Godly path. No longer is the worldly way the only way. No longer do we have to be dragged down the road of cyber and substance addictions, abuse, intolerance, general rudeness and more. Where are you pulled into world slavery? What binds, and confines your soul? Paul reminds us, that there is another way, another path, God’s way.
Throughout our days we are continually invited to take a certain path when a fork in the road presents itself. Which one do we take? We know which one we should, but perhaps many of us get along fine trying to straddle both roads yet I was reminded this week that this does not serve God either. As an author I was reading this week (Sawnthea Monroe – in Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol.3, p. 186) pointed out humorist Dave Berry once said “a person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.” One cannot be a “nice person” and not be nice. One cannot straddle the path of good and evil. One cannot serve sin and God. Yet we try to straddle these paths in our lives.
Likewise Jesus, from our Gospel this morning echoes Paul in the sense that he wants us to go “all in” onto the figuratively Godly path of our lives. “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. Whoever welcomes me, welcomes God.” If we put the idea of “welcome” into the “have a nice day” category as a saying on the mat at the front door of our home we lose some of the power of what Jesus invites us into. The sense of “welcome” Jesus refers to is the “action” variety – of service. To paraphrase then he is saying to us “whoever serves you, serves me, and whoever serves me, serves God.”
While Paul reminds us that we have the choice to serve someone, Jesus speaking to us through his disciples this morning reminds us that this choice is a relational one. A choice that strengthens our relationship to others, and thus strengthens our relationship to God, and God’s relationship to us. In 1979 I heard a rock star sing – “it might be the devil, it might be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” This morning Paul directs us again towards “the way,” and Jesus shows us how to get there, by the use of the word that helps us to live the journey. Welcome, brothers and sisters….Welcome!
Amen.
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church
Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8, Year A
June 26, 2011
Gotta Serve Somebody
“You may an ambassador to England or France/ You might like to gamble, you might like to dance/ You may be the big heavyweight champion of the world/ You might be a socialite with your long string of pearls/…but your gonna have to serve somebody/ It may be the devil, it may be the Lord/ but your gonna have to serve somebody”
Some of you may recognize this as the lyric from Bob Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody.” When I was in high school I went to a Bob Dylan concert during what is known as the singer’s “Christian” period. It was an interesting period to see this performer in concert, because all he did was sing songs from his newly released Christian themed album “Slow Train Coming” and the yet to be released follow up “Saved.”
This took many Bob Dylan fans by surprise as they paid for concert tickets and heard these handful of songs without any previous greatest hits like “Just Like a Woman, “Blowing in the Wind, and more. Happily I saw Dylan in concert some years later with my wife Marie, but I still like the concert I saw by the then born again singer even with his preaching in between songs. He sang live the lyrics I quoted earlier – “it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but your still gonna have to serve somebody.”
I wonder if Dylan got the idea of this song from the Epistle from Paul that we heard this morning. In this letter to the Romans Paul makes the metaphorical point that if one is not a slave to God, then they have no choice but to be a slave to sin.
Thus, Paul appears to argue, if one must go into servanthood, might the better choice be to become a servant of God, for the good of humanity, for the good of the coming Kingdom and for the good of one’s soul? “You gotta serve somebody…it may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
Paul encourages his readers to make the right choice, the good choice, the Godly choice. In writing to Romans Paul is reminding them that with Jesus’ sacrifice “the way” has been opened for them, and for all, including us, to follow the Godly path. No longer is the worldly way the only way. No longer do we have to be dragged down the road of cyber and substance addictions, abuse, intolerance, general rudeness and more. Where are you pulled into world slavery? What binds, and confines your soul? Paul reminds us, that there is another way, another path, God’s way.
Throughout our days we are continually invited to take a certain path when a fork in the road presents itself. Which one do we take? We know which one we should, but perhaps many of us get along fine trying to straddle both roads yet I was reminded this week that this does not serve God either. As an author I was reading this week (Sawnthea Monroe – in Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol.3, p. 186) pointed out humorist Dave Berry once said “a person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.” One cannot be a “nice person” and not be nice. One cannot straddle the path of good and evil. One cannot serve sin and God. Yet we try to straddle these paths in our lives.
Likewise Jesus, from our Gospel this morning echoes Paul in the sense that he wants us to go “all in” onto the figuratively Godly path of our lives. “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. Whoever welcomes me, welcomes God.” If we put the idea of “welcome” into the “have a nice day” category as a saying on the mat at the front door of our home we lose some of the power of what Jesus invites us into. The sense of “welcome” Jesus refers to is the “action” variety – of service. To paraphrase then he is saying to us “whoever serves you, serves me, and whoever serves me, serves God.”
While Paul reminds us that we have the choice to serve someone, Jesus speaking to us through his disciples this morning reminds us that this choice is a relational one. A choice that strengthens our relationship to others, and thus strengthens our relationship to God, and God’s relationship to us. In 1979 I heard a rock star sing – “it might be the devil, it might be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” This morning Paul directs us again towards “the way,” and Jesus shows us how to get there, by the use of the word that helps us to live the journey. Welcome, brothers and sisters….Welcome!
Amen.
