I wonder how many of us have ever wished we could hold a position of authority somewhere. It may have been at school or on a sports team or at work. We probably wanted the prestige that goes along with being in charge and certainly felt that we could do the job.That’s what James and John thought as they approached Jesus and asked to sit on his right and left hand in glory. It’s the way of the world isn’t it? You don’t get ahead unless you make your own way. You have to scramble for what you get; you have to beat others to the punch. James and John wanted to be sure their interests were looked after when Jesus was passing out places of importance in his kingdom. And after all they were in the inner circle of Jesus’s disciples, who better to help with the leadership of the nation!
But they had it all wrong, as Jesus was quick to point out to them. He told them his kingdom didn’t involve earthly glory or political power. It would not be easily won, and it would cost the disciple a share in his suffering and death. In fact doling out leadership positions wasn’t even in his job description.
As with most office politics word got around that these two had designs on places of authority. The other disciples became indignant, not because they realized what kingdom leadership entailed, but because they hadn’t thought of asking for the positions first.
Jesus had a great deal to teach them. He tried to bridge the gap between the groups by giving them a mutual understanding of kingdom greatness. He said, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all." Then he added the kicker, which was his personal mission statement, "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many."
Jesus gives us this same message today. Following him is synonymous with serving one another. That is also the route to leadership in Christ’s Church. By virtue of our baptisms we share in Christ’s death and resurrection; living out our faith we share in his suffering by denying ourselves things that others feel are their rights, by being ridiculed for our faith, or simply by serving and loving the unlovable.
Whether or not we want to be, we are leaders. Martin Luther referred to it as the priesthood of all believers. Each of us has been ordained to the task of ministry and given a leadership role in Christ’s kingdom on earth so that we might bring others into that kingdom.
Since we are leaders it is important to learn what leadership in the kingdom is all about. Effective leadership starts with a heart transplant. Jesus removes our hearts of stone and gives us new hearts--hearts that love others and have the desire to meet their needs. This becomes characteristic of Christian leaders. It focuses on being--who we are--before focusing on doing.
This focusing on a role is portrayed and taught well in the business community by the Disney Company. Each Disney employee from the person who sweeps the streets to the CEO sees him or herself as a cast member. It is the cast member’s job to see that the guests enjoy the show. If a guest is lost they are to see to that guest’s need rather than completing their assignment. If there is a wrapper on the ground and the CEO notices it, he picks it up never once considering ‘this is not my job.’ All personal emotions are laid aside, and they put on the aura of being a member of the community that calls itself ‘The Happiest Place on Earth.’
This leads us to their goal; it is creating an aura of happiness. What is the Christian goal? The Christian goal is to have the whole world come under the reign of Christ through coming to faith in him. Now it is true we can’t force that to happen any more than the Disney Company can force anyone to have a good time. We can only allow the Spirit to work in and through us and those around us. Our task is to be good listeners to the Spirit and do whatever we can not to be stumbling blocks to the faith of others. We have a different motivation, however, we want to make it as easy as possible to see Christ’s love made real for othersbecause it has been made real to us. This brings us to methodology.
In order for the Disney Company to try to facilitate people’s happiness, they remove the road blocks to happiness. They take away the garbage, they anticipate people’s needs, they drop what they are doing to help their guests. In short they are servants to their guests.
This sounds an awful lot like the methodology of Christian leaders Jesus described as well, doesn’t it? If it is in our job descriptions to be servants, and we have been given servant hearts, the next step would be to discover what actions denote a servant heart. In the Disney Company it is to do whatever it takes to satisfy the guest. In our case it is to do whatever it takes to be showing Jesus to those to whom we seek to minister. We are to be loving servants, showing God’s care and concern in tangible ways to those around us.
The things that happen on Via de Cristo weekends are good examples of how God’s love can be shown through little acts of kindness in a loving atmosphere. We at St. Stephen, too, can be a community that tries to foster a loving atmosphere in which we are out to serve one another and the guests among us. Our job description does not end when we leave these four walls, however, our job is one that lasts 24-7.
Christian leaders serve their communities, so that as many as possible may be introduced to Jesus and come to serve him as Lord and Savior with us. Christians should be models of the godly life, so that looking at us, others see the image of Jesus. We should look for opportunities to serve others so they experience God’s love in tangible ways and are able to believe that God does love them because they have experienced it through us. Christians are to respond to others as Jesus did---when he was mocked or derided, he did not mock or deride in return. This is part and parcel of drinking the same cup that Christ drank--suffering for the sake of the Gospel.
Now we know we aren’t able to perfectly model Christ. We are human and we fail. Fortunately for us we have a sinless high priest who is able to do something about our sin. Jesus died on the cross to suffer the penalty of sin, so we wouldn’t have to face God’s wrath. He rose in victory so we can also in baptism be raised to a new life and given a new heart. We have a chance every morning to remember our baptisms and to start fresh as servant-leaders.
When we fail we can adopt the 12 step approach to leadership correction found in Leadership by the Book by Ken Blanchard, Bill Hybels, and Phil Hodges, (pp. 104-5)