The One Worth Serving--July 1, 2026

The One Worth Serving--July 1, 2026

"But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:22-23)

To hear the apostle tell it, Bob Dylan was right, and Frank Sinatra was wrong.

Old Blue Eyes famously sang about the importance of doing things "My Way," without anybody else telling him what do to, and how to do it, while Bob Dylan (riffing on Jesus) said, "You gotta serve someone--it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve someone." Once singer imagined that it is possible (and even good!) to be captain of your own soul and master of your own fate, without any allegiance or ties to anybody. And the other said, rather honestly, that no matter what we think we are choosing in this life, we are always giving our allegiance to somebody or another. Sinatra's song suggests that the goal of life is to somehow disentangle yourself from having to live under anybody else's direction, authority, or "lordship," and Dylan seems to say "You can't be free of serving somebody--the only question is who is worthy of giving your allegiance."

Paul the apostle would seem to agree.  In these words that many of us heard this past Sunday in worship, he offers two choices to his readers in Rome, the beating heart of the Empire itself:  they had been enslaved to sin and under the dominion and tyranny of sin's grip of them, but now they have become servants of God. There is no third option of running around untethered and unclaimed by someone's reign.  There is no "I did it MY WAY," as Paul sees it. Or maybe more accurately, he would say that the "I did it MY WAY" philosophy, along with its cousin, "Me and My Group First," are both ways of being sold out to sin and under the dictatorship of self-centeredness.  And again, the only real alternative to being enslaved to sin is to be dedicated to God.  You can hear Bob Dylan underneath it all: You gotta serve someone.

But Paul goes one further than just telling us it's either God or sin that we end up serving.  He points out that the benefits packages between the two choices are completely different.  "The wages of sin is death," he says, "but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  If we spend our lives forever giving in to the demands of that voice that leads us to greed, indifference, hatred, violence, and fear, the outcome is a dead-end.  But to be oriented toward God in Christ is different--it doesn't operate by the logic of earning and deserving, but by the logic of grace. And therefore, belonging to the lordship of Jesus' community yields not "wages," but a "free gift."  Dylan may be right that "you gotta serve someone," but Paul makes it very clear which option actually brings us to life.  As Paul sees it, serving God isn't bondage but our deepest fulfillment.

See, the dirty little secret about the "I did it MY WAY" mentality is that it advertises itself as some great life where you don't have to care about other people and don't have to listen to anybody else's directions, but it ends up being permanently unsatisfied and disconnected from both God and neighbor--the two primary relationships that give us deepest fulfillment and identity.  To see ourselves as servants of God--which always also includes serving our neighbors, because of who God is--is actually what makes us truly free, because it allows us to be fully alive in relationship with others, rather than constantly withdrawn behind barriers and walls inscribed with the words, "You can't tell me what to do!"  And as our older brother in the faith Martin Luthern once insisted (in his treatise on Christian Freedom), we are simultaneously most free when we step into our identity as servants of all.

I know that in the week leading up to our annual celebration of Independence Day (especially in the 250th anniversary of that date) it is tempting to believe that there is some way to live that comes without strings, without allegiances, and without reliance on someone else.  But the Gospel insists that whatever freedom really is, it comes precisely as we let go of "Me and My Group First" sloganeering and give our allegiance to the God we meet in Jesus, who summons us to serve all people the way he served and still serves. All of our insistence on doing it "My Way" ends up futile and unconvincing, but when our lives are spent serving God and neighbor, we find ourselves more fully alive.

If indeed it is true that we've all "gotta serve someone," Paul sure does make it clear who is worth giving our lives to.  The living God doesn't deal in terms of wages and earning, but in giving the free gift of life.  That's the One worth serving.

Lord Jesus, pull us always out of sin-centered orientation in our lives and pull us toward serving you and the people you place in our lives.  Make us truly free.