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LeadershipOctober 22, 2006 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost I hear the word spoken everywhere. Politicians refer to it ad nauseam. Columnists and pundits, talk radio and television personalities parse it to a fare-thee-well. Everyone says we need it but don’t have it. Many say those who think they have it are corrupt. It’s commonly held that every arena of life requires it. Businesses, local communities, schools, churches, families, nations, even individual lives rely on it for useful, necessary and important outcomes. Many books have been written about it and new titles appear weekly. Google the word and you get at least 270 million hits. The general population believes congress is currently bereft of it. I’m guessing most of you would concur. More and more universities offer programs dedicated to understanding it, although many believe it cannot really be taught, and there isn’t agreement among scholars about its essential nature. Leadership. That’s what I’m talking about, of course. Lot’s of folks think they know it when they see it. But then, often they change their minds. I’m guessing most of us would agree that there’s a big distinction between people in leadership positions and those in possession of the real thing. It doesn’t take us long to figure out that those who are labeled as leaders may, or, more often, may not actually have the qualities that traditionally bespeak authentic leadership. And then, there’s great confusion in our culture about what real leadership actually entails. If we were to have an open discussion about it no doubt we’d hear a cacophony of opinions on the matter. Is it about the possession of certain exceptional qualities? Is it a function of character? Was Hitler a great leader? What do you think about Kim Jong Il of North Korea, or Mother Teresa? How about the person sitting next to you in your pew? Is authentic leadership available to only a relatively few persons? Is it even correct to single out a given individual from his or her context as The Leader? Or is leadership really a construct of multiple forces at play in any given environment? Does circumstance create leaders or is it the other way around? And what about followership? Are the best leaders also followers as some suggest? Are followers also called to leadership? A growing number think the ubiquity of technology, especially advancing web and other communications technology, is radically transforming the nature and culture of leadership in the 21st century, perhaps completely dispensing with older models. How does leadership play out in the structures of which you’re a part? In your family of origin for instance – no doubt we could spend a long time on that; or your current family, among your friends, here at church, at work and so forth? Are you a leader? And to the degree you would answer yes, is that a function of your essential nature? What you do? Or a role you occupy? Well, into this fray I am going to dare tread for just a few minutes. And I’m going to do this by referencing a single ancient book, one with which we’re all familiar. I’m going to leave all of the other current arguments behind for the moment and focus just on the one reference we heard from Javier’s reading of the Gospel. You can see where I’m headed here. The brothers James and John ask Jesus to bestow upon them a great honor of position when Jesus finally comes into his full power. They want to be on his right and left side, no doubt sharing leadership of some sort. The word isn’t there in the text, of course, but it sits right below the surface. For one thing, James and John are followers of a leader and they want this leader to give them a share of what he has. For another thing, we’re told the other ten disciples are angry with them, evidently because James and John were attempting to coerce favoritism from “The Leader.” In response, Jesus says, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognized as their rulers (or leaders) lord it over them, and their great ones (read: leaders) are tyrants over them.” Jesus recognizes that the disciples are modeling their request on the way they saw leadership exercised within their larger environment. But, he turns this view on its head and says instead that, “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” In other words, though the disciples still did not understand what was going on, Jesus was modeling an opposite style of leadership in the world that was born of servanthood, in his case, even to the point of offering up his life for the many. Now, here’s what I want to say on this. It’s quite simple, really. But then, you hear me repeat, nearly as a mantra, that the simple lessons are often the most elusive for us. That’s because we’re hearing something we’d rather not hear, or runs counter to our preferred opinion or style. Perhaps you saw the quote on the board outside as you came in this morning. Mark Twain wrote: “Most people say they’re disturbed by the words of scripture they don’t understand. I have found I am more disturbed by the words I do understand.” I think that speaks truth. Jesus taught a completely different form of leadership than was normally practiced in his day. From where I stand, that still seems the case. One of the interesting aspects of all the leadership talk today, is that some of the more potent lessons we might learn remain untried by the current generation. Of course, there are new things to learn in every age. But as followers of Christ, (follower is one those leadership words) it seems we ought to pay particular attention to what he has to say on the matter. What we have this morning is nothing short of a mini leadership seminar with Jesus as our mentor. One of the very first things we notice is that he doesn’t ask anything of his followers that he does not model himself. He doesn’t locate the matter elsewhere, talk about various theories of what others might say or do, offer alternative strategies or think through some case studies. He basically says, do what I do; and what I do is what a servant does. I serve people. My leadership is anchored in servanthood. Do that, and you will be a leader. Interestingly, this would seem to suggest that leadership is not restricted to a select few, but rather, to nearly anyone who shared the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ? Well, as he said elsewhere, and as we have it inscribed within our mosaics: love God with all your heart, strength, and mind; and love your neighbors as yourself. If you have that internalized, if that is your foundational principal for the living of your days, then you will come to understand the sort of servanthood Jesus is talking about. Note what happens if we love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves: our lives become directed outward. To love God and neighbor takes our focus off of our own position and sends it outward in service. You could say this is the essence of what we’re after in here. As if to put a punctuation mark on the point, at the end of our worship today we’re going to commission another team to work in rebuilding homes in Biloxi. This is a form of servant leadership. But now, this isn’t the only way to serve, nor is it better than other paths of servanthood. We could just as well commission all the choir members and ushers, all mothers and fathers, even children for that matter. All teachers and lawyers, accountants and entrepreneurs. Imagine if all of us approached living our days with this spirit of servanthood. Every arena in which we live and move and have our being is an arena for servant leadership; it all depends on our point of view. In here, we’re all about shaping our fundamental point of view. Get that right, Jesus says, and you are well on your way to getting life right. If this is so, then Christ Church is nothing short of a university for getting life right. This is why I believe that what we do is so very, very important. Can you see how it is that we’re a leadership training center for a city, nation and world that feels bereft of leadership? Is that a grandiose vision? Was Jesus stipulating a grandiose leadership vision for his ragtag group of confused fisherfolk? I’m inclined to say yes and no. On the one hand, it took them so very long to get what he was about. On the other hand, they finally did get it and they wound up spending their lives so we would get it. And the miracle is, here we all are! The question that begs is pretty clear: Do we get it? I sense that we’re well on the way….
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