Issue 133
Have you noticed that there are many unwritten codes which rule your workplace, guiding your conduct with unseen labels and secret signposts? Labels are attached to the senior staff, indicating their importance, by virtue of status. Signposts point to the top or to success, where the wealthy, stylish or clever live in elite privilege; and from this Olympic home of the gods, the important watch as others climb the same mountain, each group looking down on those who follow or can’t even make the first steps.
If you ask yourself who intimidates you and whom you hardly notice, you can crack some of your own codes of conduct. Very few are intimidated by the foreign cleaning lady who may appear if you stay late. Many are those who are a little envious of the richer, senior, leading figures in whatever world they inhabit. And so we have judged by our unwritten codes who is more valuable, successful, powerful and important and who rule your roost from their thrones of power.
But, a young girl’s song challenges our working world order; if you listen carefully you can hear a different melody, calling for another view. “He,” she sings, “has brought down rulers from their thrones and lifted up the humble.” This is the song of revolution, turning the values of your world downside-up. You cannot value people by the thrones they occupy, whether they are financial, intellectual or majestic. The new era brings new criteria and Mary’s radical song gives us clues. “He has been mindful,” she notes, of the “humble state of His servant.”
This clue echoes in our contemporary language. When you are in trouble, you want emergency services. When you are threatened, you want armed services. When something breaks down, you want a service engineer. To keep things going you need a service industry, and when they go well, you speak of receiving good service. At the end, we give each other rewards for long and distinguished service – serving the needs of customers or staff.
So it is not the rulers on thrones of status, nor the self-serving hypocrites who deserve deference – it is those who serve. But Mary is more specific: she identifies herself as “His servant”. The way to assess a life is in relation to its service of the Lord, the God, the Saviour.
But before you fall into another trap and become a slave to another unwritten code, beware thinking that the challenge now is to become a great servant, performing great acts of service. To be a servant is to take who you are, what you have and all you can muster and use it for the purposes of God and others. So when you listen this week, you serve; when you act with forgiveness or integrity, you serve; when you enable someone to shine, you serve and when you let someone see your Saviour this Christmas, you serve.
The Servant himself told his followers that whoever wanted to be first, must be a servant of all. He probably knew the tune of his mother’s song.
Luke 1: 46-55
Mary’s Song
46And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me–
holy is his name.
50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.”
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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