The Servant

“He who is Great among you shall be your Servant, and whosoever shall be the Chief, shall be Servant of All”. 

The first time I heard those words I was listening to a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was describing a conversation between Jesus Christ and two of his disciples, James and John. Both of them were anticipating the day when Jesus would become King of Israel, and each of them wanted to sit on his right hand when that day came.

Dr. King’s thesis was that each of them wanted to achieve greatness, but they had a mistaken idea of what greatness really is. James and John associated “greatness” with power and glory, but Jesus gave them a new definition of greatness, and by using that definition, everybody could be great, because everybody can serve.

When I was a high school Principal one of my basic beliefs was “the best possible service to the community”. I had signs posted all over the building. I spoke of service to the community in assemblies and graduation ceremonies. I wanted each of my students to believe that they could achieve greatness not by accumulating money or intimidating others, but by serving others.

My teachers were required to have a service component built into their curriculums, regardless of what they were teaching. My athletic teams were required to have a community service project each year. I told my teachers they did not work for me, on the contrary, I worked for them. My job was to do everything I could to give them the organization, resources, environment, and motivation they needed to be the best teachers they could be. I also wanted them to believe that their students did not work for them, but that they worked for their students. I wanted to be a great principal, but because of Dr. King’s sermon, I did not pursue that by trying to accumulate power and glory. I tried to achieve it by taking care of my students and teachers better than any other principal.

Last week I attended the annual fund-raising dinner for The Training Source in Prince George’s County, Maryland. For the last 21 years The Training Source has provided community enriching, outcome proven programs, including employment training for the unemployed, employability skills training for individuals with developmental disabilities, self-improvement workshops for homeless citizens, youth leadership and technology programs for at-risk youth, and staff development training for employers. The organization has been praised by government officials on the county, state, and national level, and has established partnerships with local, regional, and national businesses.

The Executive Director of The Training Source is Evelyn “Kim” Rhim. We have been friends for more than twenty-five years. We met while working together at IBM. We had many conversations in those days about what the future might hold and what was really important. We were all very motivated and ambitious as well. I thought about those things as I sat in the audience during last week’s event. As person after person walked up to the podium to talk about the positive impact Kim’s organization had had on the community or on their family or for them individually, I became more proud of my friend. By the evening’s conclusion I realized that Kim had achieved true greatness. Despite all of the politicians and dignitaries, my friend was the greatest person in the room.

   

My grandmother passed away almost thirty years ago. My uncle was making the funeral arrangements, and probably because of the special relationship that everyone knew my grandmother and I had, he asked me to do the eulogy. My grandmother was a member of one of the largest Black churches in Birmingham. She had been a member all of her life and was known and admired by the entire church community. The eulogy that I delivered was based on the definition of greatness expressed by Dr. King. I told the congregation that my grandmother was a great woman. I told them she was not rich. She did not have five hundred people working for her. She did not lead a powerful army. She had not been elected to anything. Yet, she was a great woman. She was great because she had served. She had served every single person in that huge church. She was our family’s Chief, because she had indeed, literally and figuratively, served us all.

Dr. King concluded his sermon with this; “If you want to be great, wonderful! But recognize... that he who is greatest among you, shall be your servant.”

Amen.