{"id":1217,"date":"2021-12-06T09:49:48","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T14:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2021-12-06T09:49:48","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T14:49:48","slug":"you-gotta-serve-somebody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/06\/you-gotta-serve-somebody\/","title":{"rendered":"You Gotta Serve Somebody"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Throughout this season of Advent our focus is \u201cThe Story of Christmas in 20 Words.\u201d  On each of the 20 weekday mornings ending on Christmas Eve, we\u2019ll spotlight a single word from the Gospel accounts that helps us ponder more deeply the birth of Jesus.<\/em>

6. Servant<\/strong>

It would be so easy if our sixth word \u2013 the one that represents Mary\u2019s response to God\u2019s invitation \u2013 was a simple \u201cyes.\u201d

After all, she does say yes.  It\u2019s arguably the greatest yes ever spoken.

But \u201cyes\u201d is not in the text.  Instead, replying to the angel Gabriel\u2019s mind-bending announcement that God is asking her to bear Israel\u2019s long-awaited Messiah, Mary says, \u201cI am the Lord\u2019s servant.  Let it happen to me just as you say\u201d (Luke 1:38). 

The challenge is coming to grips with the word she uses to describe herself: the Greek noun doule <\/em>(pronounced \u201cdoo-lay\u201d).

Doule is <\/em>one of those words that can be understood a half-dozen different ways in English.  It all depends on the context.  In the ancient Mediterranean world, where Greek had become the universal language, it was the everyday term for \u201cfemale servant\u201d or \u201cfemale slave.\u201d  In a number of English translations, Luke 1:38 is rendered \u201cmaid\u201d or \u201chandmaiden.\u201d  It could also mean \u201cbondservant.\u201d 

So, when Mary says she is \u201cthe Lord\u2019s doule,<\/em>\u201d what exactly is she affirming?

To modern ears, the words \u201cservant\u201d and \u201chandmaid\u201d are far kinder and gentler than \u201cslave,\u201d which is why the former and not the latter usually appear in our translations.  We cringe at the thought of slavery \u2013 human beings, robbed of their freedom and dignity, forced to perform demeaning tasks.  But the fact that a single Greek word described both servanthood and slavery in classical times is evidence that those two conditions weren\u2019t significantly different.

It\u2019s important to note, however, that chattel slavery, like that in the American South \u2013 where slaves and their offspring were considered the permanent property of their masters \u2013 was comparatively rare in the ancient world. 

Instead, slavery was often a temporary arrangement, voluntarily embraced, so that someone might survive a personal financial crisis.  It\u2019s estimated that one-third of all those living around the Mediterranean rim were slaves.  Another one-third of the population was former slaves.    

In ancient Israel, slavery was a common means to pay off debts.  If I owed you far more money than I could possibly pay, by law I might be forced to become a member of your household and live under your authority.  I would serve you and your interests for six years.

But if we were fellow Israelites, at the end of those six years you were be required to set me free \u2013 no matter how much money I still owed you.  

Perhaps, however, you\u2019ve treated me well.  Perhaps being a member of your household has blessed me beyond all expectation.   Therefore, if you and I are in agreement, I could choose to live permanently under your authority as a bondservant. 

How might that happen?  I would stand by your front door and put my ear against the wooden frame.  Then you would take an awl \u2013 essentially, an ice pick \u2013 and push a hole through the cartilage of my ear.  That mark would signify that I have chosen to become your lifelong servant.

That\u2019s the spirit of Mary\u2019s choice. 

\u201cLord, here I am.  You\u2019re now in charge of my life.  I choose<\/em> to be under your leadership and live as part of your household forever.\u201d

It\u2019s as if Mary is signing her name to the bottom of a blank sheet of paper \u2013 a covenant of heartfelt service \u2013 trusting that God will fill in all the details one day at a time.  

It\u2019s impossible to overstate what an act of courage this is.

Saying yes to God, in Mary\u2019s case, also means saying no.  She\u2019s saying goodbye to her reputation.  Unmarried, expectant teenagers in first century Israel didn\u2019t get a guest spot on MTV\u2019s 16 and Pregnant<\/em>.  They and their families got scorn and misunderstanding instead. 

Mary is losing the honor game \u2013 the most important game in town.  In an \u201chonor culture\u201d like that of the Middle East (then and now), people assume that only a finite amount of honor exists.  There\u2019s not enough to go around.  If one person\u2019s public esteem goes up, someone else\u2019s has to go down. 

Because Mary\u2019s child will be publicly identified as a mamzer<\/em> \u2013 the Hebrew term for a child from an illicit relationship \u2013 she and Jesus and Joseph will all live under a cloud of shame for the rest of their lives, an association almost impossible to eradicate.   

Mary is likewise saying no to her dreams of a quiet, pain-free life.  After Jesus is born, a wise old man named Simeon will tell her that raising God\u2019s Son will involve great suffering.  \u201cA sword will pierce your soul,\u201d he assures her (Luke 2:35).  This is not the kind of sentiment that inspires Christmas carols or a new line of Hallmark cards. 

Why does she say yes?

Mary, who would no doubt have been dismissed in her own time as a peasant girl from a podunk province on the fringes of the empire, intuitively understands what so many of history\u2019s brightest, best-educated figures never seem to comprehend:  All of us are servants<\/em>.  The only real issue is whom or what we will choose to serve. 

Bob Dylan won a Grammy for his song Gotta Serve Somebody<\/em>.  The refrain goes, \u201cBut you\u2019re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed.  You\u2019re gonna have to serve somebody.  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you\u2019re gonna have to serve somebody.\u201d

John Lennon, apparently irritated by such limited options, responded with a song of his own:  Serve Yourself<\/em>. 

But all he did was prove Dylan\u2019s point.  You can give your ultimate loyalty to a global cause, to personal honor and advancement, to an ideal partner, to your savings account, or to the absolute conviction that there\u2019s nothing worth your ultimate loyalty \u2013 but you will definitely end up choosing to serve something<\/em>. 

Mary knows she is always going to be a servant.  Therefore she decides, \u201cI am the Lord\u2019s<\/em> servant.\u201d 

And that makes all the difference in the world. 

It can make all the difference in the world for us, too.

Which is why we should endeavor this year and every year to have a Mary Christmas. 
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Throughout this season of Advent our focus is \u201cThe Story of Christmas in 20 Words.\u201d  On each of the 20 weekday mornings ending on Christmas Eve, we\u2019ll spotlight a single word from the Gospel accounts that helps us ponder more deeply the birth of Jesus. 6. Servant It would be so easy if our sixth word \u2013 the one that… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119,115,338],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-mary","tag-surrender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}