Serve Somebody

Back in Bankstown, my slightly bohemian English teacher introduced me to the poetry of Bob Dylan. Last week in Cremorne, I watched the Dylan movie, A Complete Unknown. There has been a lot in between, including a song that went like this:
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You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
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The logic is impossible to beat. Show me the elite CEO and I’ll show you countless hours sacrificed to the boardroom. Show me the elite athlete and I’ll show you massive energy dedicated to training. Everyone serves someone or something. It doesn’t matter who you are – rich, poor, popular, unpopular, influential or a nobody – ‘you gotta serve somebody’.

While seriously profound, Dylan was not original. Way back in the Old Testament, Joshua made his famous speech on ‘serving somebody’. God picked out a group of nobodies to be his pride and joy - then rescued them from slavery, then carried them through the desert, then delivered them into a luscious country, then dealt with all their enemies. As they get ready to ‘put their feet up’ and relax, Joshua says, ‘Heh, You, gotta serve somebody’ (Joshua 24:15) - or words to that effect.

The problem with humans then is the same as now. Faced with serving the living God we generally take the wrong option. To be fair, there has only been one, who has served God properly. God’s verdict was, ‘You are my son whom I love; with you I am well pleased’ (Luke 3:22). The stunning genius of God is that Jesus gives his life so God can be ‘well pleased’ with me.

For our part we need to face up to the logic of Bob Dylan, Joshua and good sense.
‘You gotta serve somebody’ – so who will it be?
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