Becoming Better Leaders

Psalm 147:12-20

Ephesians 1:3-14

I want to talk about leadership broadly today, because leadership is not for a few.  It's for all of us.  We want to create a culture where leadership thrives.  We want young people and older people and everyone in between to see themselves as gifted leaders, “marked by the seal of God’s Spirit,” as our reading from Ephesians puts it.  We want people who work at desks and people who work with their hands to see themselves as gifted leaders.  We want extroverts and introverts to see themselves as leaders.  We want single people and married people, rich and poor, black, brown, and white people --- well, you get the idea.

 

So what kind of leader could you become if you began to see yourself as a person whose gifts and capabilities were powered by God's Spirit?  What kind of difference could you make in your family, in your neighborhood, among your friends, within the wider community or within our congregation if you recognized and utilized your amazing, unique strengths?  How could growing in leadership make this year more intense and joyful than last year?

Otie Thomas and I were talking about Christmas traditions, and Otie shared with me about the time his parents gave him ski boots for Christmas.  Otie grew up in upstate New York and loved skiing.  So this was gift was perfect.  There was only one problem: when he pulled the ski boots out of the box, there were two left boots.  His father promised to return the boots and get him a new pair.  But at the store, Otie’s father asked the clerk if he could borrow an extra left boot.  So when Otie opened the second box of ski boots, he couldn’t believe it – how could this be?  There were still two left boots!  Christmas gifts, and Christmas itself, often bring us experiences where we didn’t quite get what we wanted.

In our reading from Psalm 147, Israel praises God for God’s great care, for God’s mercy in delivering them from exile.  The prayer is a model of gratitude for all the ways God blesses and sustains the world.  Even the crops, the snow, the ice, the breezes, and the running rivers can be recognized as a form of God’s gift giving.  And yet there is a concerning turn at the end of this prayer: “God has done this for no other nation; they do not know God’s laws.  Praise the Lord.”  People of faith always struggle with the temptation to become smug, self-righteous, lazy, and dismissive of God’s way of being present to others who are not like us.  People of faith often secretly want to be a special child, doted on and spoiled.  Less often are we willing to be what Israel and what followers of Jesus have always been called to be: peacemakers, sources of healing and compassion, friends with the poor and the sick, tireless servants of the common life shared by all of God’s creation.

In every area of life, leadership requires that we learn to wisely manage our desires and expectations.  And when we discover that cultivating and enjoying healthy desires involves the experience of anticipation as much as getting what we want, we can begin to find satisfaction in the process.  We can begin to slow down, to enjoy each day as it comes, to release our poisonous demands for perfection from others and from ourselves.  We can stay loose, playful, and flexible as we deal with the life that we have, instead of wasting time wishing we had some other life.

You have probably seen news coverage of the terrible wildfires burning all across Australia.  These fires have created emergency evacuations for many people, and loss of life for both people and animals, not to mention the destruction of the natural landscape.  I heard an interview with the President of Australia’s Volunteer Firefighters.  He has served as a firefighter his whole life.  And he describes the situation as something he’s never seen before.  The interviewer asked him what should have been done differently.  What caught my attention was the great humility of his response.  “I’ve been doing this all my life,” he said.  “And I’m still learning.  We’re all still learning.  We’re learning the importance of periodic controlled burns.  We’re realizing that we need to recover some of the ancient traditions of our ancestors.”

Good leaders aren’t know-it-alls.  Good leaders are people who recognize the importance of continuous curiosity and life-long learning.  Good leaders are people who know how to look to the past, how to retrieve the wisdom of previous generations, even if that past wisdom has to be adapted for new situations.

Holli Mason sent me a text this week asking me about a recipe for a dish that I brought to a holiday get together at the McCoys.  She wanted to know how much molasses and brown sugar I used to marinate the sausage, onions and peppers.  While I was delighted that she liked what I made, I wound up giving her no help at all.  In my text response, I told her, “I just eyeballed it.”  But I did tell her not to forget to add a little cayenne pepper for the spice. 

It strikes me that this little exchange was a wonderful metaphor for so much of the work I do as a pastor.  All the time I’m calling on all of you to rise to the occasion, to recognize your gifts and strengths, to extend yourself to others, to take risks, to volunteer for this or that project, to share the burden in this or that urgent crisis.  And there are always people who step forward.  And sometimes you come to me and say, “Ok how do I do this?”  And I disappoint you by saying, “I’m not sure.” 

You see, I have a hard enough time figuring out what the good news should look like in my own life.  And I don’t always know what shape it should take in yours.  For that very reason I try very hard NOT to give precise advice about how you should handle your life’s challenges and opportunities.  I do my best to model and to describe the kind of life that God offers to all of us – a life that can be intense and meaningful when we see ourselves as God’s friends doing God’s work.  But I trust that I am not the only leader here.  And all of us together are responsible for tending to the way God is with us in our own lives and experience. 

My job as one of the leaders here is simply to keep reminding you that there is a life that God makes possible that is life at full tilt, life that’s abundant, and rich, and fully lived.  There is a life that is hard and exhausting and demanding but which leads to a joyful and peaceful rest at the end of each day.  And then all I can do is to pray for you and send you out with God’s blessings to shine with God’s light as only you can. 

We can never know what the year ahead will bring.  The BBC reported a story earlier last year about a young Indian man who is suing his parents.  Now that seems bad enough, right?  To sue your own parents?  To my own children – don’t get any ideas!  But do you know why this young man is suing his parents?  That’s right, for having him!  He’s suing them because they did not seek his permission or consent before bringing him into the world.

You would think suing your parents would create quite a rift in the family.  But Raphael Samuel’s parents seem to be handling the lawsuit quite well.  Both of his parents are lawyers.  His mother, Kavita Samuel, told reporters that she admires her son’s boldness taking them to court, knowing that both of them are lawyers.  She doesn’t think her son has a very strong case, so she’s not too worried about it. 

One day at breakfast, Raphael told his mother that he was planning to sue her. "She said that's fine, but don't expect me to go easy on you. I will destroy you in court." Mr. Samuel is now looking for a lawyer to take up his case, but so far he's not had much success.

We might laugh at a person suing his parents for giving him birth without asking for his consent.  And yet we find ourselves in the same situation.  According to Ephesians, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, destined ahead of time for God’s new adopted family organized around Jesus Christ.  God didn’t ask you if you wanted your life swept up into this good news.  God just did it.

I hope that my kids do not sue me this year, but I have no doubts that there is much in the year ahead that we cannot predict.  And so today I remind you that you have received God’s good news in your life in such a way that your life is already a beautiful, compelling expression of God’s love in the world.  You don’t have to become someone else.  You don’t need pretend to be someone other than you are.  You already have a variety of gifts, skills, strengths, and experiences that enable Christ’s light to shine in you.  So take responsibility for your life and leadership.  Don’t waste this new year.  Don’t drift aimlessly through 2020.  Begin praying today that this year would be a year of learning, discovery, creativity, and risk taking – for your personally, and for us as a congregation.