The Value of a Person

At breakfast this morning Dad remarked that he was worthless. He is ninety-five years old, and in the last year or two his mental and physical function have dramatically declined. After an intensely active life, he is becoming helpless. So I think I understand his feeling. But I pressed him.

Me: What makes a person worth something?”

Dad: If they can do something useful for other people.

Me: So babies are worthless?

Dad, after reflecting for a minute: “Yes.”

Unfortunately, his words ring true as a statement of his fundamental opinions. His moral meter for measuring the value of persons is barely activated by anything other than performance that contributes to the welfare of another. This connects with his drive to take care of people, a drive expressed in his medical practice. As a physician he cared for thousands of infants, conscientiously, skillfully. But the primary value of this care is what it said about Dad's importance, not the benefit the child received.

This is a tragic narrowing of moral awareness. It prompted me to ask myself the question: What makes a person worth something?

Certainly, when someone engages in service others that act is valuable. Of course. The Bible speaks of people as the children of God. God values them because they are God's children exist, apart from any accomplishment or service.

Human care for one another is valuable. Human creativity is valuable. Human labor is valuable. Human worship is valuable. Yes. Yes. Yes. But there is a fundamental value carried by every human because that human is a child of God.

Another way to speak of this is that every human has value through relationships. We cannot assess the value of a human person by carefully examining the individual in isolation. Putting a human individual under a microscope cannot bring his/her highest value into view.

What makes Dad worth something? He is a dad. He is a son (of God and a father and mother). He is a brother, friend, patient, neighbor. It is Dad's relational situation that creates and reveals his highest value. Part of the reason Dad feels worthless is that most of these relationships have been interrupted by death. His parents, siblings, wife, most of his long-time neighbors and friends are gone. It is for us, his children, to see his value and to act in light of his value, even if he himself has become blind to it.

Life Together

Sermon manuscript for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists

October 5, 2013

(Communion Sabbath)

New Testament reading for the day:

Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves. “You have stayed with me in my time of trial. And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Luke 22:24-30 NLT.

Our New Testament reading today takes us to an upstairs room in ancient Jerusalem. Jesus was eating with his inner circle, a group of twelve men. They didn't know it, but this would be their last meal with the Teacher before his crucifixion.

While they were at the table Jesus warned the group that one of them was going to betray him.

The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing. Luke 22:23

It was inconceivable that any of them could sink so low. They questioned themselves then looked around at each other wondering. Who could possibly do such a thing? Their bewilderment about which of them might have such a fatal flaw quickly morphed into a debate over which of them was number one. Who was the best man among them? Who was furthest from such ignominious betrayal? Who deserved first place among the twelve?

Jesus stopped them.

“In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:25-27.

Jesus' words set his disciples up for a bit of clear-eyed analysis: Were the kings the disciples knew about really “friends of the people” or “benefactors” as other translations put it? Did the disciples really imagine that kings made war and levied taxes in the interest of the public welfare? Hardly.

Jesus pushed further: In contrast to what you know is the norm among people of privilege and power, in my kingdom, service really is the supreme value. In my kingdom status is determined by one's willingness to engage in the most challenging service.

Jesus barely gave the disciples time to digest before he through a surprising curve at them. He had cautioned them about the seductiveness of status. He had declared that in the kingdom of heaven one's honor was based on serving not on formal status.

Then Jesus makes a startling announcement:

“You have stayed with me in my time of trial And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Luke 22:28-30

Status can be seductive. Yes. Jesus warned against fooling ourselves that protecting the prerogatives and privileges attached to our formal status is anything other than self-serving. But Jesus does not direct the disciples to deal with the risks of seduction by avoiding status. Jesus throws them headlong into the risk. Jesus makes them kings.

As Christians, we, too, are called to service. We are to use every ounce of status and influence we possess to mend the world, to serve humanity.

The Bible repeatedly highlights the spiritual status of Christians. We are to understand ourselves as royalty in the family of God. We are forgiven. We are called. We are honored. Part of our worship is an affirmation that we are God's special people. No matter our family of origin, no matter what we have been told by parents, teachers, lovers, spouses, children, preachers. We are the prized children of the Almighty.

Then we are called to take our special status and touch others with its wonder.

We have status in our secular lives. Nearly all of us have American citizenship. Something that at least half the world would covet. We are privileged. We are called to use this privilege as a platform for service.

Most of us have an education. There are places in the world where education for women is prohibited. There are terrorist groups that are attacking children and teachers for the offense of getting a non-Islamic education. There are fundamentalist groups here in the United States that actively oppose education beyond high school for women. If we have a bachelors or graduate degree, we are enormously privileged. The challenge that comes from Jesus is this: how are you using the advantage of your education to serve humanity?

Within the church community some of us have positions of influence. What guidance do the ideals of Jesus offer for how we operate in these positions?

One of the more dramatic features of the conversation around the table that even was the juxtaposition of Jesus' clear-eyed acknowledgment of the disciples defects and weaknesses and his affirmation of their potential.

Jesus announced that one of the group was going to betray him. Another in the group was going to deny him. The entire group had problems with the seductive allure of status. In spite of all this, Jesus said, “I'm turning over the management of the kingdom you. You can do it. You are going to do it.”

The work of these guys turned out to be epic. Their response to Jesus changed the world. I think it was Jesus' confidence in them that created their ability to do what they did. It was Jesus' faith in them that allowed them to exercise their world-changing faith in him.

This is my model of church. We empower one another by trusting each other. We know we are ordinary people with the ordinary range of human strengths and abilities and the ordinary range of weaknesses and defects. We are ordinary people. But we are working to build an extraordinary culture. We are practicing cultivating a culture of trust, a culture that pays more attention to potential than defects and failure.

Here we practice looking at one another with the eyes of Jesus. We are not naïve. We know the people around us. We deliberately minimize their failings and celebrate their goodness. We do this because it was modeled for us by the founder of our religion and is enshrined in our most sacred ritual—the Lord's Supper.

We eat together, celebrating a family connection that reaches far beyond our circles of amiable friendship. Our table welcomes all of God's children and makes of them our brothers and sisters. When we eat the Lord's Supper together we remind ourselves that “I” have no special claim. Rather our highest privileges and prerogatives belong us as members of a global family.