To Serve, Not To Be Served

Should every American go to college? That’s a question that has stirred quite a bit of public debate over the past few weeks. Some have suggested that a college education is the path to job security and economic success. Others have openly questioned the value of the college experience and warned that the lessons learned in an institution of higher learning are irrelevant, if not destructive.

Andrew Delbanco entered the debate this week with an op-ed piece that was published in The New York Times. Mr. Delbanco is the director of American studies at Columbia University and also the author of the forthcoming book, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be.” He admits that there may be some merit to the argument “that elite college culture encourages smugness and self-satisfaction.” He continues:

Our oldest and most prestigious colleges are losing touch with the spirit in which they were founded. To the stringent Protestants who founded Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the mark of salvation was not high self-esteem but humbling awareness of one’s lowliness in the eyes of God. With such awareness came the recognition that those whom God favors are granted grace not for any worthiness of their own, but by God’s unmerited mercy — as a gift to be converted into working and living on behalf of others. That lesson should always be part of the curriculum.

In this respect . . . our leading colleges could use a little more of their own old-time religion — not in any doctrinal sense, but in the sense of taking seriously the Christian virtues of humility and charity. In secular terms, this means recognizing that people with good prospects owe much to their good fortune — and to fellow citizens less fortunate than themselves. . . .

Perhaps if our leading colleges encouraged more humility and less hubris, college-bashing would go out of style and we could get on with the urgent business of providing the best education for as many Americans as possible.

Like James and John, most people want some assurance that they will eventually receive the honor they deserve (see Mark 10:35-45). Jesus lets them know clearly that’s not the way it is going to be in the community he is creating. Instead, the greatest will be the one who serves.

“Working and living on behalf of others” is the most faithful way to follow Christ on our journey to hope.