What is your title? If you could get a business card, or perhaps pull out your existing business card – what is your title? Let me see, if I pulled out a card to meet my roles they could say, daughter, friend, sister, worker, auntie, cousin, worshiper, dreamer...
The Pharisees liked titles; they liked the official names which they could use to imply power. Jesus challenged them to throw away the business cards, and think about who titles really belong to.
“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father, ‘for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbled himself will be exhausted.” (Matthew 23:8-12).
What an equalizing business card that is. Brother and servant are the new titles bestowed. Brother, a sibling, a care giving one who knows you and cares about you. Servant, one who is putting aside their demands at that moment to serve you, to care for you. Imagine for a moment what your world, your piece of the world, would look like if that was in motion. A brother to the woman in the assisted living facility who is people watching from her window, a brother waves. A servant who realizes that someone else has mud on their feet and stoops down to wash them, removing the dirt and grime, and drying them. Perhaps it is by doing the dishes or shoveling a walk, opening a door, or offering to help when you don’t have to. They are all acts of servant attitudes. Pull out your business cards, write on them – brother and servant.
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