The Bishop: Getting our priorities straight

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

Have you ever felt like washing your hands of the whole matter of trying to help people? As a former District Superintendent, I confess that I had many days in which I felt that way, but I didn’t wash my hands of the matter. Why? For the sake of the gospel we must get involved. Jesus calls us to not only get our feet wet but to get our hands dirty as well in helping others.

A few months ago, Leslie and I visited the Dallas Bethlehem Center, located in South Dallas. It is one of the most depressed areas in the city of Dallas, serving families who live in the 75215 and 75210 zip codes. The greatest resource needed, other than money, is persons with gifts and talents to help develop curriculum and to share their time with others. The Center has a new Executive Director, Mrs. Petrella Booker, and she is working to meet the needs of the families in the area and to serve the community as well. But, she needs help, especially in securing sponsors for many of the children. The cost to sponsor a child at the Center amounts to just under $5800 per year.

Several years ago, I read two passages in the scriptures that offered me a choice about how I respond to people in need. The first is found in Matthew 27:24, where Jesus is brought before Pilate to help resolve a matter of leadership. “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that a riot was imminent, he took a basin of water and washed his hands in full sight of the crowd, saying, ‘I’m washing my hands of responsibility for this man’s death. From now on, it’s in your hands. You’re judge and jury.”*

The second passage is found in John 13:3-6, where Jesus is in fellowship with his disciples right after supper and demonstrates in a prophetic way what servant leadership is all about. “Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So, he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron.”*
 
In life we are presented with two basins of water from which to wash. One enables us to wash our hands of the matter and let nature take its course. The other involves getting up from our tables of plenty, setting aside our pride and dignity and learning to wash the feet of those in need. Needless to say, often I am prone to wash my hands of the matter, but then I cannot get out of my mind the image of our Lord and Savior when presented with an issue, doing just the opposite. Which basin do you wash from?

* Eugene H. Peterson, The Message.