Last summer CBS aired the wildly popular Survivor. Sixteen people were marooned for 39 days on a tropical island 20 miles off the coast of Borneo in the South China Sea. Participants were forced to band together to build shelter and collect food. On the last day of a 3-day cycle the castaways came to a tribal counsel and each member voted by secret ballot to expel one castaway from the island. The last castaway, i.e., the "survivor," won one million dollars. BB, Stacey, Ramona, Dirk, Joel, Gretchen, Greg, Jenna, Gervase, Colleen, Sean, Sonja were voted off the island as seen in the previous episodes.

The final episode came down to Rudy, Rick, Sue and Kelly. Sue went first. Rudy and Kelly voted against her and Kelly said "sorry." Only three castaways remained: Rich, Kelly, and Rudy. Starting at dawn all three placed their hands on an immunity idol. The last one holding the idol received immunity. Rick removed his hand voluntarily when offered orange slices. Four hours and eleven minutes into the contest Ruby's hand came off when shifting positions. Kelly was immune from elimination and voted against Rudy thereby eliminating him.

The contest that began with sixteen castaways dwindled down to the final two. The last members voted off the island chose the winning survivor. After 39 days of hard island living, 39-year-old Richard Hatch from Newport, Rhode Island won Survivor. Since then, there's been a second edition taped in Australia, and more are on the way.

Survivor was an immensely popular show; in fact, more people watched the final episode than either the Republican or Democratic convention. I have to admit that I did not see any of the programs except about half of the final episode but I read the newspapers and heard the news about the events on the island. What message does Survivor communicate to our society? Several concepts emerged clearly from the "Gospel" according to Survivor.

I. Some Only Want to Be Served

From what I read and heard those involved in Survivor were not interested in serving others. The primary interest of each survivor was being served. In fact, to serve someone else might be interpreted as sign of weakness and a character flaw to be exploited by another member of the group. Not one line did I read nor one sentence did I hear where a single one of the cast members of Survivor sought to serve someone else unless the action might somehow benefit the one who served. That is not atypical of the world, in fact, that is just like the world.

Contrast that with what Paul wrote in Romans 1:1. Paul called himself a servant. Where did Paul learn that? Do you think that Paul learned that in college? Most schools do not have a course entitled Service 101. Do you think that Paul learned that in school or from business associates? Did Paul learn that from a camel trader? Or another tent maker? Paul learned that when he met Jesus on the Damascus road and Christ changed his life.

Jesus said He did not come to be served but to serve. Jesus said that one day the first shall be last and the one who is last would, one day, be first. Jesus said if we demand that someone serve us then we will one day be last but if we serve we shall one day be first. The Christian who demands that others serve him or her has missed the calling of the kingdom. Kingdom calling is a heavenly calling to earthly service.