1914_08_09 The Law of Service (Ivan Simeonov)

[Ani]

Готов превод Законът на служенето - 9.8.1914-НБ-91 / .: 9.8.1914-НБ-91

TITLE: The Law of Service

Whomever serves Me, let him follow Me,

and where I am, there shall be also My servant be.

Whoever serves me, he shall be honoured by my Father.

John 12:26

Many will probably ask themselves what meaning the following words may contain: "Whoever serves me, he shall be honoured by my Father". The world has various aspirations: modern-day people aspire to accumulate knowledge, riches, lands, houses, glory, greatness, strength - they aspire towards many things. Jesus insists only on one thing: on service - a person to know how to serve. Servant - here is one prosaic word, which illustrates the lowest social status. However, there are different servants - a servant at a brewery, at a pub, at a kitchen, at a theatre, at a university, at a ministry, and so on. In a sense, all people are servants, but not everyone admits this. And so, there are two types of servants: the ones who understand their responsibilities and know how to perform them, and the others who do not know how to serve. We call the latter ordinary ruling people, rulers, who sit and wait for others to serve them, they teach others how to work and serve. Everyone wants to be of the first category - a ruler. The Christian teaching, however, puts it diametrically opposite to this principle; it lays down the principle that he who wants to be a rule must be a servant; it says that the Son of God did not come for others to serve Him, but to serve others. We are obliged to be servants by the law of necessity. Someone says: "I am a ruler"; no, he lies, if he thinks that he is free, that he serves no-one; he serves his stomach at the least, which demands of him to do some work, which is not always pleasant - to cook something nice, to eat and to chew food well, because if he does not serve it well, the stomach will return the food back and will punish him; it will say: "You have to serve me well, or I will fire you". Some think that only a ruler fires his servants, but the stomach fires its ruler. Ask a doctor what the stomach does when it is not served well; to see how well it can fire its ruler! The ability to serve is a quality. So many misfortunes in the world originate because we do not know how to serve! When mothers learn how to raise their children, when teachers learn how to teach their students, when governments learn how to serve its peoples, to satisfy their needs, to create laws, necessary for their people's development, then the world will have a different expression compared to the one it currently has. Modern-day civilisation is put through great tests; millions are called to serve in the armies - some carry brushes, others load cannons and grenade with gunpowder, others hold small threads, which when extended, create thunder-like sounds, others serve horses; all of these are forms of serving. What fate awaits these servants? All these heads, legs, muscles will be crushed into pieces, stirred, and turn into a mess. People call this civilisation, culture; with this, modern-day peoples tell us: "We do not need God - science will elevate us". However, what it taught us - to be hard, to make guns and grenades. Yes, science led us to this test, to make one dangerous attempt, and now the Celestial Realm is testing us through the service we are obliged to do. The world requires servants to serve it, and God also requires his own. Christ says: "Whoever serves me, he shall be honoured by my Father". We are constantly putting our affairs in order, but they constantly remain out of order. We fall ill, we call doctors to treat us, but despite this, death still takes us. We build houses, place security guards to protect our riches, but they get taken at the end. Christ says: "You have been serving this principle of yours for thousands of years and you have seen its consequences; if, however, you serve Me, you will see the meaning of your life". We should serve in the same way as Christ who came not to be served by others, but to serve others. People should become servants of the weaker, the powerless. We should not put bad people to serve the world. Do you know why the modern-day society is spoiled? Mothers, who should be raising their own children, leave this to broken and ignorant servants, while they go to theatres, balls, pubs, and other pleasures. What can depraved and ignorant servants teach children? - the things that they know. Servants raise modern-day children not only in Bulgaria, but in France, Germany, USA - everywhere. I am not saying that all servants are depraved, but most of them are such because of their rulers. If mothers were servants (in the full sense of the word) to their children in the path to looking after and raising them, the world would have had a different expression. Similarly, if only fathers would do the same for their sons. Since fathers and mothers leave their responsibilities to ignorant servants, who do not understand what life is about, to raise their children, while they go to please themselves in the world, the results will be bad. A servant cannot raise a child, also because she did not give birth to and does not have love towards that child. She says to herself: "If my master makes herself comfortable at the pub, why should I look after her children?"

I will explain what serving consists of, what qualities should a servant possesses. He should, above all else, have a noble heart, to be sensitive, responsive, to be humble, to be a pliable person - to be able to adapt to all conditions; and to be hard-working, not lazy. Life is demanding, and we have to serve it properly. When a modern-day tailor makes a mistake and cannot properly make a piece of clothing, the customer return it to him, and he has to pay for the fabric and all losses; nature does the same; she gives us a piece of fabric - the life we have is one type of fabric - and tells us: "Tailor and sew together this piece of clothing", and if we cannot to sew it well together, she fines us. If we want to learn how to serve, we should turn to Christ. He to teach us. A servant has to be very smart; a stupid person cannot serve properly. Teachers, priests - they are servants as well. If a teacher understands his calling, he firstly have to understand a child's soul, to know how to direct this child toward knowledge. A priest have to understand the soul of his followers to be able to give them corresponding food for their heart. We have to possess another trait as well - to possess much patience. Many call patient people "oxes" - "He is - they say - an ox". To be patient does not mean to be like an ox; patience is a mindful act; to be able to bear the external discomforts of life, we have to possess internal balance of the soul, heart, and mind. I will tell you a story about a mathematician from centuries ago. He worked on certain calculations for 20 years. He had notes on them scattered around his room, which he always locked; he forgot to lock one day, the servant went into the room, saw many notes scattered around the floor, took all of them and put them in the fire and burned - she cleaned the room well. At some point the mathematician came back and asked: "Where are all of the notes?" - "I put them in the fire; look at how much order there is now." - "Never do such think again" - this was the mathematician's reply. We serve in the same way as this servant - we collect the notes, this does not worth, that does not worth, and we put them in the fire. This educated person, whose 20-year philosophical work was destroyed, did not act as we would have acted, and he demonstrated exemplary patience: he didn't do anything else, but to tell the servant: "Do not do such thing against". Now we are in such a period - your house is poisoned, your servant collects all of the notes, which you will see burned one day and when you find your house cleaned according to your servant's rules, what would you tell her? I know there will be crying - "God, am I the most sinful? Am I the only one with such fate?" And we think we are people who understand God's Law! We have to say as this philosopher did - "Please, do not do this another time". And for us, to accept the task to keep our things in order, to not let our room open, so that servants can access it.

Christ says now: "Whoever serves me, he shall be honoured by my Father." You all think about this world, transient things, you think about arranging your current, family affairs, and leave many important questions unarranged - your relationship with your Master, Who will you to report one day. This day is coming. Do you know where you will be in several years? Do you know what will be happening in Europe? What your situation will be? You don't know. The contemporary world will be very cleansed, it will receive a good injection for raising a new way of life. People, who will come to help the civilisation, have to apply Christ's principles, to learn how to serve, and those who don't know how to serve in a way Christ wants, don't have a chance for development. Darwin's theory says that only the capable, healthy people survive. Indeed, those who are spiritually and morally healthy will survive; those with healthy bodies will survive if they have this internal moral strength. Do not deceive yourselves to think that health lies in certain accumulation of fat in the face and body - to have a bigger neck, bigger stomach, to be fatter, and eat more. If one spends their entire life eating and drinking, isn't that one painful condition? How much food does a person who weighs 100 kilograms need? I know of an English woman who ate 9 kilograms of bread, another one, who ate the bread and coffee prepared for 72 children; this is a painful condition. I am not against eating, but contemporary people think that everything is about eating. And indeed, eating takes one third of our lives because we only serve for food from morning to evening; in the morning, we think about what to drink, tea or milk, whether the milk to be with cocoa in German style, or with coffee in Turkish style, with cream or without; we barely finished breakfast, we start to think about what to eat at lunch, is it going to be chicken or beef, how it will be cooked, with tomatoes or courgettes, is the meaning going to be minced, will it have this or that; we finish lunch, we start thinking about what we will have for dinner. Sometime we are satisfied, another time we are not. We constantly make changes to food. And indeed, eating has become entire cooking science, which people specialise in. It is good, but it is not the end goal of life. The power of certain food, which our stomach can utilise, doesn't depend on how it was cooked. Do you think that if you put more salt, pepper or butter, food will be stronger - all of this is for our taste, for the mouth. To test if certain food is good, we have to see, once it spends half an hour in our stomach, how our stomach feels; if there is a bit of heaviness in the stomach, the stomach says: "This food doesn't fit with your health, I cannot utilise its juices". On the next day we say: "Let me give it more, to increase its work", until doctors report enlargement of the stomach. Contemporary people live only for their stomach, which is why big portion of their work involved feelings and thoughts about it. A teacher teaches at school and thinks how much money they will make - 300 or 400 leva, and how they will use it for food, and for this and that. It's all about eating, and after that we wonder why we can't rise as teachers and priests. We are all focused on how to make our body healthier - what food to give it, what house to build it; we all work for the external situation of things, but no one stops to think about the internal side of human life. In the same way our body has to be in good order, so does our mind. if a hygienic house it useful for our body, our heart will also have to be placed in a hygienic environment. I do not consider a person, who has a hygienic house, but not a hygienic heart, to be smart. So, when we judge extremes, we only pay significant attention to service only certain external things, when we should firstly pay attention to our mind and heart, and then to our body. If we only build our lives in this way, we will have God's blessing.

Christ says: "If one serves Me, they have to offer their heart". He came to Earth namely to work on the human heart. What does work consist of? All of those weeds, disabilities of our life to be removed. You have been Christians for a long time, you all follow Christ, but if he calls you to an exam now, how many of you would pass an exam on patience and humility, if he gives you the solve the problem not only theoretically but also practically, or if he tests you on the rest of the virtues: Justice, Love, Truth, Wisdom? Do you think you won't fail the exam? You understand whether people love you, but whether you love others, you haven't understood this. Since God demands from us to love others, in this love, we have to reach self-denial. We often say: "These people made me crazy, took everything." Didn't we rob God - all of the riches that we find here on Earth? God has now descended to Earth and says to all his servants who stole and lied: "You have stole and lied a lot, come and report to me!" - this is today's European war. God says: "Report on what I have given you and how you have used it". Many will say that the economic conditions necessitated this war: Germany had too small land and that's why it fought. If Germany has small land, how about Russia and England? So, the question is not about land - there is something else that is missing from people. Everyone wants to rule, every race that rises wants to rule, every people wants to rule over the other peoples, and this is why all get to conflict. If all the people were governed by Christ's principle, to serve humanity, if everyone had their own area of work and contributes their share to humanity, there wouldn't be any conflicts. Now everyone increases their weapons, so they can rule. We say: "How stupid are those who go to war!" But what is happening now happens with us every day: you go to a house and see what happens: two people get married and everyone is happy - "Here is a couple who will leave in peace and mutual understanding"; and you see in 2-3 months, they start to fight; the woman wants to give the orders, but the man says: 'I am the master of this house." However, both of them deceive themselves: neither of them is the master, both of them are servants. "But it has been said that the man is the head." To be the head, it doesn't mean to be the master; to be the head means to be a smart servant and as older than your wife, to teach her how to serve, so both of you can say: "We are servants of our Master; we may be both punished, but I will tell you how we should do this." This is in a metaphorical sense, but it happens every day in the world. Let's leave men and women. Sometimes we are not happy and grumble against ourselves - why? - we say: "I don't have the will power to do this or that". - "Why don't you have will power, aren't you master of yourself; what is the reason?" - "I don't have mind." - "How come you don't have mind, what is the reason for this? There has to be some deep reason." What causes this internal hesitation (duality) in people? It is because we have reach a point of contradiction with God, with the Great Law. And whenever one reach this point of contradiction with God's Law, this internal suffering increases, this hesitation, the mind get frustrated, it doesn't know what to do, it gets absorbed by negative thoughts and desires, which do not consist the true God's force, and life takes on a different colour. Negative desires and thoughts are like a snake, which constantly wrap around and sucks people until all juices, which could feed the mind and heart cease to feed them and one starts to feel paralysed. Do you know what bear trainers, who train bears to dance? They give the bear little flour and attach a big ring to its mouth, so the bear follows orders and is not dangerous when the ring is pulled. We have to attach a ring and chain to the lower lip of our bear and to give it little flour to prevent the development of these instincts that are dangerous. Take how many people have gone instance due to their desire to be rich; they make a thousand, ten thousand, fifty thousand, one hundred thousand; one million, ten million - they are not satisfied. They accumulate, accumulate riches; why do they need them? This doesn't have any internal sense. To get rich, people started also to learn new ways, by magnetism and suggestion to influence people, to influence their thoughts and actions. In earlier times, robbers carried guns and hid in forests, and now they are in the cities and carry other means to rob their neighbours. It was said that three American hypnotists in New York mentally made a banker to sign a cheque for fifteen thousand dollars, and he gave the money. The ways of robberies have changed. Everybody wants to have this gift, this power in the world; but do you know what misfortune it brings? I have given this example another time as well. It was said in an old fable that a man wanted to have such power in his hands that anything he touched, it turned into gold. He said to himself: "If I acquire this, it would good for the whole world". One angel told him: "If you request is fulfilled, will you be always satisfied?" - "It will be the greatest happiness for me." - "Let it be according to your desire." And when this man went home, the tables, books, glasses - everything turned into gold. He went out to the yard, the stones, trees - everything turned into gold. He said to himself: "I will not be a servant anymore, I will be a ruler. Wife, we are happy people." The wife served the table, served soup, bread. They sit with their children at the table to eat, the man took the spoon and it turned into gold; went for the soup, and the soup turned into gold; he took the bread, and it turned into gold; touches the table and it turned into gold; touches his wife and she turned into gold. At some point he held his head and started to prey God to save him from this big misfortune. This is where greed and mindlessness may lead to. We may have this power, but it will destroy our life. The wealth is inside us, and not outside us; it is not in our physical strength. The strength of man is not their muscles, but in that delicate and gentle feeling, which can develop all other powers. And God has made the world, so that nature obeys one most weak power - Love. Love is so gentle and delicate while in fact, it rules everything. When Love goes into a person, it disassemble and transforms them. Take one man, who has beaten many servants and maids; he becomes soft at one point and sacrifices everything to do good. What is power that takes over that person? That principle Christ says about - "He who servers Love, he serves Me", Christ means this - "This servant will have everything that I have". People seek the truth and Christ puts this truth in life, in that mustard seed. If we put this little sourdough starter, Love, in our and our family's, neighbours', activists', rulers' hearts, it will transform the whole world. Disregard for Christ's teaching created the current cataclysm in the world. In this collision and fight, God put the milk in the churn and people push each other up and down until butter comes on the top; the butter will be used for food, while the rest will remain in the churn - some will become butter, others - leftover buttermilk. God will use both the butter and butter milk for his good goals. Now, it depends on your where you will end up, however, the fate of everyone is determined - either in the butter, or buttermilk.

Christ asked the Jews to be His pupils. Some of us say: "I am a believer, I believe in Christ". Those who only believe in Christ, they are listeners; however, His question is for those who want to apply His Law. If you can and to contemplate on the words "I serve Christ"; if you were to try to learn to serve Christ for a whole year, then you would learn the great secret of these words that cannot be said here. It is very simple, but you have to have light, Christ to give you this light, these conditions, under which it can develop; only He can give it to you. I can give you seeds, but conditions for these seeds to grow, only Christ can give. This feeling of Love doesn't depend on our powers and desires, it depends on this contact that we would have with Christ. Some ask: "Where is Christ?", and they expect him from Heaven. Christ is already in the world and the last person can hear him. He comes in two ways. He has two faces: one amiable - "may peace be upon you", while the other one frowned - with fire, guns, and cannons. He says now: "Bring me those who didn't follow My teaching to experience the bitterness of they disobedience. They don't want to serve Me, then let them experience all bitterness of their actions. Everyone will harvest what they sowed", in the same way we cannot forgive a criminal, who slaughter many innocent children, and punish him.

Christ says: "If one serves Me, follow Me". And you say: "It is easy to follow; we can follow Him and Tell Him: "Teacher"; but He may reply to you: "You say that not because you want My teaching, but because you fed by the bread and fish". He will ask you: "Did help someone ill, heal them?" For a man to serve God, he doesn't have to search and serve God, but he has to serve His "smaller brothers". People want from God to make their wife and children healthy, to give them money, to have a social status. Two thousand years this is what serving God has been. And now He asks Europe: "What did you do for Me for so many years?" And if Christ appears, what would you tell Him? Contemplate on what you would tell Him - what you did for Him. We can be calm under these events that threaten the world. What is important to us is to know under which category we will fall. Many of you wanted to see Christ; the day when you will see Him is near - some of you will see Him up close, others from far; still others only up in the clouds. Hence I say: the moments, you experience, are the most difficult for you. If from now on you have the illusion to achieve this or that, you lie to yourselves. I give you a piece of advise: in the little time that remains for you, you learn to serve God, so He doesn't meet you unprepared. Don't think that there is more time; there is no time; for this whole generation, there is not time. And children, and adults, and priests, and rulers, and kings - all have to learn how to serve God; if not - they will become leftover buttermilk. The milk is already milked from the cow. What do you understand from what I want to tell you? That the milk come from the flesh and that God will already take out the butter from it. We all see this cow; milked cow - this is what we are. If God has been inviting us for so many thousands of years, how to find us on Earth when He is back? When the father turns around and find the children at home, fighting, what would he think? That the mother didn't bring them up well. Everyone has something against someone; people constantly judge each other, ordinary citizens, teachers, priests, liberals, conservatives, narrow and wide socialists, between religion and science - there is separation of views everywhere; but we have to reach the conviction to reject all that poisons our life, and at least in this moment to reconcile, tot become quiet and calm, to humbly expect the great event that is coming. People have been asking whether there was another world or not; a moment is coming when the Heaven will say whether there are ghosts or not, angels or not; in some years you will see whether there is God or not; you will see whether God can fix the world or not. If someone doesn't believe, let them wait and check. I will not speak with arguments now - the smart ones will comprehend what I am saying. Those who don't want, they will be left to learn anew in the future.

Now the question for you. Christ wants all of you to serve Him - those who want to be His pupils, to serve Him in a wide sense of the word; to serve those who suffer, those who are embarrassed, sad, to raise their spirit. There are people in despair who ask: "What will happen to use?" - to show them the true path. I will conclude with one example. A traveller stops at one of the big hotels in New York. He enters a room in which there was another traveller; he had the habit of sleeping very deeply; the hotel catches fire during the night; one of the travellers wakes up and goes to sleepy traveller and tells him: "Wake up because the hotel is on fire"; the other one replies: "Go away, let me sleep calmly"; "Wake up, I am telling, the hotel is on fire", insisted the first one; the other one stands up, kicks the first one out, closes the door and goes to sleep again; the fire takes over the hotel, at last they see the second one on the roof calling for help, but there is nobody to help him. And I am telling you: this hotel, in which you live temporarily, is burning, and I am advising you: save yourselves, because you will later go on the roof and you will be calling for help, but there will nobody to help you. When you are told that the hotel is burning, put on your clothes and get out. Everything that is burning will fall apart, all of the things that have been stumbling humanity's progress will be destroyed, and God will build something new on their remains. Do not think that life will end. A new era is coming, greater than ever before and we can happily await this bright future. We shouldn't be afraid at all of the storms coming to disinfect, cleanse the world. We have to thank God that they are coming. And there is no need to try to prevent them, and we can't prevent them; they will pass through and bring their good. We have to only be ready when Christ comes, Who is coming - He has come for some, for other He is yet to come - when He comes to say to us the words: "If one serves Me, follow Me", then we follow Him. Are we going to follow Him or not? In this following, you will find the ideal of the individual, of home, of society, of people and of the whole humanity: it is the meaning of human life here on Earth.

Conversation held on 27 July 1914 in Sofia, Bulgaria

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