One of the first times that I preached involved this very passage. I hope I can convey the meaning of that illustrious moment in some small way again now. And that folks, is exactly not what I just did. It was not an 'illustrious' moment. It was no different than any other moment. It was me doing something I was taught to do, was supposed to do and hopefully did well. At that service, on that day, we all did what we were supposed to do. Ushers, the faithful, the Priest, the altar servers and yes, the Deacon too.
The essence of my sermon that day was actually about my secular job in an operating room. We often get the impression that the surgeon is the most important person there. Maybe we acknowledge how important the role of the nurses and the OR techs are. The anesthesiologist? They are certainly important. I could easily put someone to sleep but keeping them alive and waking them up at the end, well, that's a bit trickier. Yes they are very important. And the housekeeper at the end of the case? On a scale of one to ten? What number would you give them? The fact is everyone is important. That housekeeper, the one that terminally cleans the room so the next surgery is clean, squeaky clean, so you don't catch anything the previous patient had, that you leave infection free. That really is significantly important too. One of the great things about the place I worked in was that we started with the premise that the patient was always #1 and that no matter who you were as an employee or what you did, we all contributed equally to the best outcomes that was our hallmark. We were #1 in the nation, or so judged by our Press Ganey ratings.
Whether we are speaking about our secular jobs, our faith, our families or our lives, everything runs smoother when we serve one another. Love one another. You know, like in those pesky great commandments. One of the tasks of Lent is to help us see that, see who we are and how we are best to serve. I've already noted that I would not make a good anesthesiologist. There are many, many things that I truly am horrible at. I try, but frankly I suck at certain things. Ahh, but I am good at a lot of others things and that is what I should focus on, cooperate with. That's what we should all be focusing on. What are our gifts? What talents has God graced us with? Who are we and how can we serve each other according to God's plan?
A side story here. I was married for a while to a woman who was gifted in medicine. When we realized her talents, we were pretty poor. Like collecting coke cans for the deposit money poor. But I believed that to not cooperate with that talent, to not do everything we could to help foster that talent, then that to me would be a mortal sin.
Turning our backs on ourselves and not serving others or thinking someone is less than we are because their talent or service is different? That's plain wrong. If we look at the world going on around us, realize we are all playing a critical role in an incredibly intricate ballet orchestrated by God. The goal is for everyone to be maximized, including ourselves.
So three cheers for the housekeeper, and everyone else. We are all tens.
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