Servant Leadership or Servant Servanthood?

I've been pondering the idea of "servanthood" recently for a variety of reasons; not least of which is an upcoming sermon that I am preparing from Ephesians chapter 5 on the submission of wives to their husbands. As I considered the notion of "servanthood" it occurs to me that in today's culture, the word 'servant' has literally lost all meaning and has become almost inverted in normal use.

I was curious to know how many corporations today are hiring 'servants' and so I logged on to monster.com and searched for "servant". More than 5000 jobs were listed when searching for "nurse", "engineer" or "manager" but only 32 job openings nationwide were listed as a result of searching for a position as "servant". Oddly enough, about 1/2 of these positions were not hiring "servants" but managerial leaders who were to exhibit "servant leadership". I don't know of anyone who aspires to make a career of "servanthood" - the very idea seems repulsive to most of our post-modern citizenry. But as Christians we are to be servants and we will be judged based on our performance as servants of Christ.

A servant is one who works in the interest of another; submitting his will to the will of their master. As Christians, we are all called to put aside our own will and to work to advance the kingdom of Christ but how often do we really take this view to heart? How often do we really see the scope of our life as an advancement of God's glory rather than our own? As Christians we should follow the example of Christ who, as Phillipians chapter two reveals to us: "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!"