We have an expression that describes Jesus' critique of the scribes
and the Pharisees: They don't walk
the talk. They make such a
convenient target, don't they?
Jesus appears to be challenging their all-to-visible pride. He accuses
them of excessive focus on the respect they should receive, while forgetting
their true duties to those who look to them for spiritual leadership. Rather their leadership concerns itself
with status and power. Jesus, on
the other hand, taught his disciples the value of humility.
But aren't these religious leaders following a path that most would
have expected them to tread? Their
duty was to obey God's teaching through the law. Correct practice—not popularity—seemed to be their
goal. And nowhere do we hear these
leaders critiqued because they failed to follow the Torah.
What we hear Jesus saying about these leaders concerns the context
of their leadership. They are
following the Law, yes—but without considering how the people without their
privileges are managing.
Jesus uses incisive images to describe what's wrong with these
religious leaders. These images
demonstrate both the scribes' and Pharisees' pride and their lack of concern
for the people who were less fortunate:
the broad phylacteries (leather case worn on the forehead), the long
fringes on their shawls, the places of honor at a banquet, the best seats in
the synagogue, respectful greetings in the market place, and being called
“rabbi.”
At least part of Jesus' appeal to ordinary people was his lack of
pretension. He did not depend on
such outward signs of personal status as the religious leaders showed. At the end of the reading from Matthew's
gospel we just heard Jesus summarizes his teaching by noting that the exalted
would be humbled and the humble would be exalted. Given how our world appears to be working these days, one
might pray, “When, O Lord, when?
And by the way, Lord, please remember I am one of the humble!”
The deep issue this passages raises isn't the fact that our leaders
have certain titles or certain seats assigned in the worship assembly—or even
that folks defer to them in the line waiting for food at the covered dish
dinner. The deep issue is the
nature of our leadership within the context of our community—whether that
community is the parish, the diocese, The Episcopal Church, or the world-wide
Anglican Communion. Jesus taught
that authentic religious leadership shows humility as a prime characteristic. And that humility shows itself by our
placing God at the center of our lives in a religious community: all teaching, all compassionate care,
all mercy, all worship—all these marks of our life together must be
Christ-centered.
This sort of leadership has been called servant leadership, the
placing the needs of others or of the community first. Some have called it cross-shaped
leadership—recalling Jesus' sacrificial love in choosing the cross. With this style of leadership one must
be willing to give up control so that the Holy Spirit may inspire us and redeem
whatever damage needs repair.
In 2008 Alban Institute published a book entitled “Cross-shaped
Leadership” by a Lutheran pastor, John Berntsen. Berntsen offered much wise advice about how to exercise
servant leadership. But my
favorite chapter, the final one, addressed the humor in using this sort of
leadership style. A cartoon from
that chapter shows two couples at a Bible study—open Bibles in their laps. A woman speaks to the others: “Well, I
haven't actually died to sin, but
I did feel kind of faint once.”
Whether it is called cross-shaped leadership, servant leadership or
just plain humility, this style of leadership involves cultivating that
fainting feeling regarding the sins of pride, prestige-seeking and
perfectionism. And I speak from personal
experience here, to die—or even to faint—to my pride, my prestige-seeking or my
perfectionism is never easy!
When one is asked to be a leader in a church community—whether
clergy or lay—one is asked to undertake work by folks who expect the work to be
well done and who expect positive results from that work. But a church community shouldn't
function as a business with a bottom line. A church community should function as a place where
relationships with each other and with the divine find a safe environment with
spiritually fertile ground.
Whatever the community can accomplish must grow from that matrix of
safety and spiritual fertility.
And the servant leader's job must be to protect the community's safety
and till its spiritually fertile soil.
Being on one's knees and getting one's hands dirty cannot—and should
not—be avoided!
So Jesus' command not to call others in the community of disciples
by the certain titles has been for the most part ignored. Our particular flavor of Christianity
has used the title “Father” regularly in the modern times to distinguish
clergy—although the ordination of women as priests has changed this
somewhat. Yet, what titles we give
our leaders is only a surface issue.
How we choose to order our community is not. It deeply affects the gospel message we carry. Are we a people where God's love
manifests itself in our compassion for each other and in our forgiving one
another? Are we a people who seek
to serve others, even when they may, at times, be prickly or ungrateful? What truly, deeply matters is what
Jesus taught: “The greatest among you will be your servant.” And through his life and his death on
the cross, he provided us the clearest, most complete example of strong,
servant leadership. How are we
measuring up?
No comments:
Post a Comment