RW 220, “Will You Let Me Be Your Servant”
Devotion
During this Epiphany season we are focusing on discipleship, following and “epiphanying” Jesus in a world that needs to know him. This delightful hymn is one of the treasures in the ELCA’s newest collection. Words and music are so perfectly wed that I and several others, to our surprise, wept during the first singing.
Our culture tends to be more comfortable giving than receiving. So the song begins comfortably, asking, “Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?” It goes on to push pastors (especially pastors, I think!) and lay people to move beyond comfort zones: “Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too.”
This hymn is the theme for our Stephen Ministers. It articulates the kind of community for which people long – a community in which beats the heart of Christ and from which flows, in concrete acts, the love of Christ.
Prayer
Loving God, fill your church with the light of Christ Jesus, that our life may be his life lived out among us. Make of us a shining witness to your glory. Amen.