Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 8

Chaplain
Rev David Assender – School Chaplain
Strength is for service,
not status
We are called towards deeper levels of service, requiring selflessness
REV DAVID ASSENDER
SCHOOL CHAPLAIN
THE LAST SUPPER - LEONARDO DA VINCI
What would the world be like if the motto every
leader aspired to was ‘Strength is for service, not
status’? Imagine a scene where the media are swamping
an up-and-coming candidate for an election, and the
question is put: ‘What can the people expect from
your party if elected?’ Imagine if the response is: ‘My
government will be marked by putting the needs of the
people before the comforts of the party. We aren’t about
making it easy on ourselves; we aren’t about doing what
is most convenient for ourselves – we’re about taking on
the troubles of the troubled. We will be a government
marked by using our strength for service, not status.’
That might not ever happen, but it should always
have been happening in one place down through the
centuries: in the Church. The apostle Paul, writing to
the Church in Rome, hundreds of years before Rome
8
Great Scot Number 154 – September 2018
became Christianised, says 'if it is good enough for
God to give himself up for you, then how is it that you
have become so high and mighty that you cannot do it
for others?' (Romans 15:1-6) Paul’s admonition runs
like an Anzac Day commercial: look at how they gave
themselves up for us, yet we cannot even get out of bed
to say thanks at a dawn service.
Seeking to achieve the greatest good or benefit
for the greatest number is a common sense principle,
no doubt shared by many people today. However, to
give yourself freely in service for that good is to reach
a different level of conviction and commitment: it
obligates. It must be personal if you are to give yourself
freely for others: it cannot remain an in principle only
consideration. It calls us towards deeper levels of service