Mid-Week Musings

October 16, 2024

Suggested Reading: Mark 10:35-45

Dear NBRC Family & Friends,

Her obituary includes information you would expect to find. Things like date of death, names of pre-deceased family members and those of surviving family members, work experience, and church affiliation. And, of course, the familiar sentiment that her life “will be treasured by all who knew and loved her.” While I’m not suggesting the sincerity behind those words, or that her life really will “be treasured by all who knew and loved her,” I’ve never yet read an obituary that said the deceased was a cantankerous person who nobody will miss and that the world is better off without the person dead than alive! It seems the most flattering and kind things said of a person are often said in an obituary.

Included in her obituary is a line that in particular caught my attention: “By example she taught others to work hard for the Lord at whatever you do.” It’s a good reminder that whatever we do should be done as if working for the Lord.

What does it mean to “work hard for the Lord at whatever you do”? I think Jesus helps us understand at least something of what it means in Mark 10:35-45, the passage of Scripture that will serve as the text for the sermon next Sunday morning, October 20. Working hard for the Lord doesn’t mean working hard for greatness or success in the eyes of the world or clamoring for positions of power; rather, working hard for the Lord means servanthood and seeking to serve others.

I don’t know if she “worked hard for the Lord” by living a life of servanthood, but her obituary suggests she did. According to what was written about her, she was active in the church. She helped her family know and serve Jesus. She showed hospitality to missionary families who visited her home. It seems that in these ways, and possibly in other ways, she demonstrated servanthood and greatness, not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of Jesus.

Instead of asking to sit at the right or the left of Jesus in His glory, let’s ask whose feet we can wash here and now.

Pastor Ron

(Next Sunday morning, October 20, the sermon title will be What Are You Asking? The Scripture lesson will be from Mark 10:35-45. Hope to be with you Sunday, in person or online!)