Seeking To Serve And Not To Rule

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This is the transcript of the Revd Prof David Wilkinson’s ‘Thought For the Day’ on BBC Radio 4, 24^th February 2025

Good morning. The meetings this week of European leaders with President Trump come at what William Hague the former Foreign Secretary calls a ‘very, very dangerous moment’ for Ukraine, Anglo-American relationships and indeed the whole world order.

Eighty years ago this month in 1945, the ‘Big Three’ of the US, the UK and the Soviet Union met to shape a post-war peace at the Yalta Conference. Held in the newly liberated Crimea, with the war in Europe moving into its final phase, they agreed the reorganization and demilitarisation of Germany, the creation of the United Nations and the re-establishment of European states, in particular Poland. The dynamics and legacy of Yalta are hotly debated, not least by those countries who were not around the table.

In a strange echo of history, on the day that the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be in Washington, Winston Churchill was back in London outlining the Yalta plan to Parliament, in such great detail his speech needed an interval. He noted that in the last few months, the war had caused unparalleled physical agony and misery. And the process of moving from war to peace would be difficult, with many imponderables. Yet he concludes, ‘we have the unchallengeable power to lead the world to prosperity, freedom and happiness. The Great Powers must seek to serve and not to rule’.

Although he lost his Christian faith in his twenties, Churchill frequently used biblical phrases and this one reflects the words of Jesus ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve’. The context for this in Mark’s gospel is when the ‘Big Two’, his disciples James and John ask for places at Jesus’ left and right hand when he is acknowledged as King. Jesus responds by contrasting rulers who want to lord it over others, with the Kingdom of God where to be great is about serving others. His kind of service goes all the way ‘to giving his life as a ransom for many’. Mark then goes on to tell the story of Jesus healing a blind beggar, illustrating his concern for those who are weak, vulnerable and without a voice.

The political road to peace is costly, complex and dangerous. That’s why I will be praying this week for the leaders of big powerful nations, that those who are vulnerable and without a voice will be served well. And I am reminded that in my small life, with the blessings of prosperity, freedom and happiness, Jesus calls me to serve.