Servanthood

My church (St. John's, Sutherland) have doing a series on Mark Buchanan's book Your God Is Too Safe. This week's sermon (and book chapter) was on servanthood.

Buchanan makes the point that there is a difference between acts of service and servanthood.

Lorne Sanny, the founder of Navigators, was once asked how you could tell if you really were a servant. "By how you act," he said, "when you're treated like one."

- Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe, p. 212

Similarly:

Leonard Bernstein, the conductor, was once asked, "What is the hardest instrument to play?" Without a twinge of hesitation, he replied, "Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists. But to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm, or second French horn, or second flute, no that's a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony."

- Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe, p. 212

So we see that attitude is as important as act. God calls us to have an attitude of servanthood - and then to serve in that attitude.