Service or Servitude?

Our Lindisfarne Community held our annual Imbolc retreat this past weekend, and the topic was the middle third of our community motto, "To Serve." Some difficult conversations and some luminous conversations took place, as they do in a diverse group committed to Jesus' way of living.

Our abbot challenged us to look at the difficult issues around Christian service and the social dynamic that allows (even encourages) the "haves" to be served and the rest to become unwilling servants.  We spun around and around how that happens, and how we might respond.  Eventually I landed on the perspective that service was one of many Christian or religious values that have been appropriated and manipulated by the broader culture.  As the virtues and practices of love, mindfulness, obedience, loyalty, and forgiveness have all been usurped by those in power or commodified for gain, so has service become warped into its darker cousin, servitude.

And that made some sense to me for a while, but it is ultimately unsatisfying.  The order goes the other way round as well.  Virtues and practices of faithfulness, obedience, service, and love have always been exploited for gain - that's how inequality operates.  And the social structures in Jesus' time were certainly unequal.  Rome was the occupying force in Israel-Palestine, causing economic hardship and warping religious structures and practices.  What Jesus did, consciously and consistently, was to subvert to status quo exploitation of those virtues and practices.  Loyalty to the emperor became faithfulness and obedience to the One True God.  Love of allies became love of neighbor, and neighbor became whoever was in need of care.  Servitude to those in power became the radical act of a male host washing his guests' feet. (John 13)

Pulling back a bit, the relationship between service and servitude appears to be both dynamic and reciprocal.  Virtues which can elevate the human spirit when engaged in with mutual care and dignity come to be distorted and exploited for gain by those in power.  And then they are reclaimed by those with the courage to quietly confront injustice, and acts of love and faithfulness and service are restored to their inherent value.

In his reflection last Sunday morning, our abbot offered four considerations for redeeming service: encouraging a willing engagement rather than acting reluctantly; enhancing service by regarding it as essential for the well-being of each and of all; practicing whole-hearted presence toward those who serve us; and by regarding service as a conscious choice which can bring us joy.  I regard the sum of these suggestions as a form of whole-being engagement, a decision to take on something that others might wish to subvert to my loss and perform it with dignity and integrity. This perspective requires further consideration, and will offer continued food for thought and conversation.