Then, a louder knock follows.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" says his wife, so he drags himself out of bed, and goes downstairs. He opens the door and a man is standing outside.

The man replies "No, get lost, it's half three. I was in bed", and slams the door.

He goes back up to bed and tells his wife what happened. But she says, "You twit, don't you remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the babysitter and you had to knock on that man's house to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"

So he has a think and gets out of bed again, gets dressed, and goes

downstairs. He opens the door, and - not being able to see the stranger

anywhere - he shouts: "Eh mate, do you still want a push?" He hears a

voice cry out, "Yeah please mate."

So, still being unable to see the stranger he shouts: "Where are you?"

The man replies: "I'm over here on the swings..."

I got that joke from a friend of Debbie's, who sent it through in an email this week. I cleaned up some of the language for your consumption this morning!

It brings into focus the theme of our reading: service, which is this week's spiritual discipline.

The spiritual disciplines are designed to conform us more to the image of Christ. By becoming more Christlike we shall become more in tune with the Father's will. And nowhere do we become more Christlike than in being servants.

However the challenge to become a servant like Jesus is one of those areas where the values of God's kingdom conflict with our everyday values. That seems to come out in the story of Jesus responding to James and John's request, and that is the way I want us to explore the theme this morning. Where does the call to be a servant challenge our values and attitudes?

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