Misnamed

You shall be named the priests of the Lord, they shall call you the servants of our God.
Isaiah 61:6

Some things are just misnamed. Katrina is such a pretty name for such an ugly storm. They should have changed the name to Genghis. Sometimes I watch all our little boys creating havoc around the Church and hope they turn out as nice as their names.

I have been looking at the narrative of the parable in Luke 15 about a Father and his two sons. We have long called that the parable of “the Prodigal Son.” I am sure it is misnamed. It should be the parable of “the Lloving Father.”

Of course that got me thinking about this issue of us (you and me) being called priests and servants of the Lord when in reality our lives and actions might dictate a bit of a different name. I am not sure I understand all of the implications of being a priest, but I do know a little about being a servant. Mostly we are failures in that category.

We are not failures at serving because we are “bad” people. Rather, it is because we are products of our environment and training/teaching, and so embroiled in our society that we have great difficulty finding a place in our hearts for serving God and others.

The Scriptures call for both. I admit we may be better at the former than the latter. Yet as I come to understand what it means to be a servant, I have to question how we act and react. The most common term (doulos) in the Bible is an adjective signifying ‘in bondage’ (according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words), yet is frequently indicating subjection without the idea of bondage.

The greatest example of being a servant is found in Philippians 2:7 where we are told Christ Jesus “made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” Now, we are to pattern our life (read: operation) after His. That includes a lot of things prior to but not excluding “laying down our life for the brethren.”

I don’t want us to be misnamed. I don’t want our family of believers here at SGBC to be misnamed. I want us to be busy serving God in all the possible ways and manners in which that is possible and serving each other with enthusiasm and joy.

What’s in a name? Good question. I hope you have an answer that befits your position and possession.