So who will you be voting for?
Commentary
Object:
Needless to say, I suspect that I have captured your attention at this point. Most of the
readers of this journal understand the ground rules that govern the kinds of churches they
serve. One can see all sorts of red lights coming on their panels as their clerical radar
picks up storms ahead. Given the diversity of the people who populate our churches and
their points of view, it is not likely that any pastor who poses that question will come
away unscathed.
Scripture does not seem to have too much to directly say about the kind of party politics that is part of our political system. Though some might disagree, I suspect that we have come to the point in our national life where saying God is a Democrat or Republican or un-enrolled independent voter is a pretty hard sell in most congregations. Yet, turn to scripture and it will not be long before you realize that our foundational texts have plenty to say about leadership and what it means in social, religious, and economic terms. The texts for this Sunday describe leadership in each of these areas. Moses, certainly, exercises a variety of leadership skills that reflect the talents of those who function as transformational leaders who see to significant changes in the lives and attitudes of their followers. It should also be remembered that Moses brought the savvy skills of the transactional leader who knows how to make the kind of trade offs that will advance the interests of his people.
Needless to say, how many of us can think of Moses without the portrayal by the late Charlton Heston coming to mind? The film, The Ten Commandments, now shown at least once a year on national television, demonizes and glorifies its characters to the point that they appear impervious to the realities of life that any leader in any field will have to face. However, the original script/scripture is far more realistic in its descriptions and assessments of the human condition. The writers and the compilers of the Hebrew testament are less interested in telling a tale of heroic proportions but in telling a story that will be helpful as they engage in their own nation building. How will they organize themselves in the promised land and as they return from exile in quite changed circumstances? The qualities of leadership that Moses demonstrates will be relevant to whoever is elected president in less than two months from this Sunday.
The Christian testament does little to dispel the notion that Paul is very much engaged in the kind of nuts-and-bolts leadership that often pastors find tedious and seek to avoid that make church life possible. Much of his time is invested in tending to the material and financial needs of the early church. Yet, this does not detract from Paul as a significant religious leader. Certainly Paul brings the intellectual equipment and theological background to address the challenges that he faced. It is important to see that the early Christian literature was shaped by Paul's response to the everyday practical work of creating and funding community, as well as handling the egos of its members. If the church cannot lead in these areas I suspect that we will not be able to lead the world in the kind of directions that many find as essential to the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.
Was Jesus a leader? The answer must be a firm, "Yes." To bring together the disciples and to leave behind a movement that would carry on his work required leadership skills well beyond what most of us can muster. Yet, getting people to leave the usual well-worn grooves of their lives and take up risky lives of uncertainty is part of what we are called to be about in the church. According to the gospel reading for this Sunday, the kingdom of heaven is like this. If readers are going to get anything out of this story then they had better be ready to have their comfort zone thoroughly expanded. Here the conventional is confounded as it is in so many of Jesus' stories and teachings. As a matter of fact, one sees in much of the gospels an attempt to lessen the tension nature of Jesus' speech so that it might accommodate a fairly safe conventional morality.
Jesus' story of the laborers in the vineyard resists most of our futile efforts to limit its impact on our well-worn certainties. It does give us some insight about how Jesus sought to lead people to places and understandings they never have been before.
None of these texts will make the vote we cast next month any easier. However, each of them will give us an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of leadership.
Exodus 16:2-15
The first crisis Moses and Aaron face is the issue of whether their leadership can feed their people or will it lead to starvation and death in the wilderness. This is more than not being able to get your favorite New York deli-style sandwich in Austin, Texas. This goes to the viability of the community and its future. On the face of it, the opposition has a case. The wilderness is the barren place without potential to feed a people trying to find their way toward the promised land.
However, the story takes a turn here from the reasonable and prudent. In their indictment they quickly succumb to false truths and hyperbole, "The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.' " This seems to be a fairly selective reading of past history. A small thing is left out here such as the price of suffering and loss of dignity that was the price to pay for such bread -- the inconvenient detail of the Hebrew's slavery is glossed over.
Certainly, this lack of candor seems beyond our imagining. However, on the other hand I find myself reflecting on this practice of making sports stadiums and post-season college bowl games after business as in TD Dominion, Garden, for Boston Garden, or Verizon Arena -- money to be had, dignity to be lost. In the fleshpots of Egypt slavery takes over. Our slavery to large expensive SUVs has caused many to use bio-fuels whose production takes up arable land and the cost of food beyond the reach of many of the world's poor -- in Egypt many would readily feed their cars at the expense of the poor. In what can only be described as addictive slavery to technology, we have created a medical system that rewards high-tech solutions and specialization at the expense of general practitioners and rural practice. Moses and Aaron, in employing their strategy, remind us that true forms of leadership resist slavery no matter what form of bread it provides.
However, the presenting question here is will the journey into the wilderness lead to disaster or can the people survive beyond a slave economy? At this point another possibility is interjected into the story. Suddenly the Lord God speaks to the moment. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.' " Through the bread and meat the Lord provides, history will take another turn that no one had anticipated. This is a pattern that runs through scripture: In the breaking of the bread there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. The marginalized are enfranchised on equal terms with the mighty. The prayer for daily bread rearranges an economy that is based on haves and have-nots with the haves pulling away. In an economy based on avoiding the wilderness, the promise is that nourishment can be found in its very midst.
It is important to note, the Israelites in their despair and anxiety have gotten wrong some details of their own story. "The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.' " They blame Moses for the seeming catastrophe ahead but in fact, "So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, 'In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.' " It was the Lord who has led them out of Egypt and will now lead them through the wilderness. It reminds me of the rewriting of history that leaves many school children believing that the pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians rather than to God on the first Thanksgiving, or not knowing that Martin Luther King Jr. was an ordained Baptist pastor, or the only act of protest and nonviolence in American history is the Boston Tea Party. Part of redemption embodied in the Passover and sacrament of communion is to get the history right.
The reaction of the Hebrews to all of this is to ask the question, "What is this stuff?" In a way, they are asking, "What are you talking about? None of this appears in our calculations as a way to go." However, that is the testimony of scripture: We are saved by what is beyond our calculations or our usual habits of being. The task of leadership as we face our own wilderness is to point out that this "What is it?" is what saves. It is the Lord who we will find in the wilderness, who will sustain us there, and lead us beyond acceptance of a slave mentality.
Philippians 1:21-30
There can be no doubt that Paul was a major leader in the formation of the church. As a matter of fact, most scholars of the early church attribute to Paul the organizational savvy that lifted the early church from sect status to a significant worldwide influence. It is hard to imagine the church today without acknowledging his influence on our understanding of the resurrection, our practice of communion, and the drive to be inclusive of all people. His words here form the basis of a hymn that has been a part of my own denominational hymnody, "Jesus I Live To Thee."
In writing to the Philippians, Paul exercises the talents that he has manifested in so many areas. The context is that Paul now finds himself in prison and prevented from exercising his leadership in person. It is hard for many of us to imagine prison to be the ideal platform from which to exercise leadership. Indeed, letter writing for most of us is hardly seen as a method of any communication let alone as a way of bringing our influence to bear on the group.
However, prison has often been a place where significant leadership has been developed. Yes, they have been places of recidivism but they have also been the breeding ground of the witness of people such as Mohandas Gandhi, Malcolm X, Henry David Thoreau, the Suffragettes, and Martin Luther King Jr.
The heart of Paul's understanding of leadership is that it can be exercised from places that we don't seriously see as providing the credibility of a leader. This is at the heart of leadership that seeks to follow the path of Jesus. Jesus reigns from a cross. This proved to be no more popular or acceptable in his day than ours. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.' " This comes as a form of strange good news for those in church life who peddle comfort and riches as the outcome of the Christian life.
Paul expresses his ability to live faithfully in success as well as failure. "... Are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God's doing." Faithful in success as well as failure, Christians often have to lead from a place of failure. God's kingdom is probably built as much upon our failures and how we handle them as our successes. Some have said that in a way Jesus himself gave us a sacrament of failure when he said, "If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." After all, we are engaged in the seed planting business. Any farmer knows that they are in for a run of failures. Our witness in the midst of failure may even be persuasive than otherwise and only God knows what might sprout from our efforts.
The letter contains more than a hint of uncertainty about the future, "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." The only way to resolve this conundrum for Paul is to choose. "But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you." Christians have to live faithfully with a lot of not knowing. This is not usually the leading virtue we expect to find in most leaders. However, the notion of "when in doubt resolve it in favor of human relationships, humility, and mutuality" is something that we might look for in our current crop of leaders.
The letter to the Philippians provides us some keys to his leadership style as Paul embodies a persuasive, influential life that is able to bring many to Christ.
Matthew 20:1-16
It takes little more than a casual reading of the gospels to find if nothing else Jesus' teaching has a way of confounding the conventional. Certainly, the transaction that takes place in this Sunday's text is not standard practice in any economic system that I know. Look at the problems that the actions of the landowner pose. Just how many workers does he expect to show up bright and early to work the next morning when his approach to compensation hits the streets? Furthermore, what of the other landowners in the area? Just how many laborers will show up at their doors? The story remains impervious to our attempts to square the circle. By leading us to the edge of seeming madness, Jesus has set up a tension that we cannot resolve. Leadership today is, for many, the ability to lead people around rather than leading toward deep, perplexing tension. Nevertheless, in such places we might find not resolution but evolution into a new state of being.
Application
In recent years, as churches and other institutions have faced an unending series of crises, there has been a search for adequate leadership and an understanding of what leadership means in our day. Much of the work of Edward Friedman and others has focused on the individual who can be self-differentiated yet keep in contact with others maintaining a non-anxious presence. In each of these texts, the protagonists -- Moses, Paul, and Jesus -- while seriously challenging the social, spiritual, and conventional have fulfilled Jesus' command to be not anxious. I suspect that church leaders of whatever theological hue should begin with this as the litmus test of their capacity to lead. We are more than not likely to add to the world's woes if we cannot meet this test whatever our convictions and however worthy or unworthy that might be.
Alternative Application
Exodus 16:2-15. The flip side of being a leader is to be a follower. Of course some describe leadership as "a therapeutic modality" in which our well being is contingent on our ability to exercise leadership as parents, teachers, workers, and so on. Yet, there are times when we do not exercise leadership so much as choose it, follow it, or accept it from others. The role of skill and expertise will bring some to the fore whatever their leadership talents. What should we expect of leaders? Do we expect too much or too little from them? Is our prayer and liturgical life supportive of their self- differentiation? I appreciate the Book of Common Prayer tradition that weaves into worship prayers for national and political leadership. The task of leadership is daunting and the work of following is no less challenging. Choosing which mode to be and when it is appropriate is no less difficult. The texts invite us not only to identify with the main protagonists but to place ourselves in with the hungry crowd staring Moses down, being the readers of Paul's letters, and with the disgruntled laborers.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Here is a psalm, like many, which leans into praise and rejoicing. We are called to sing and to tell out the wonderful works of God. It is a call, especially to those who are seeking. "Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice." "Seek the Lord, and his strength...."
It is an interesting hiccup here to notice that those who seek are called to rejoice. Usually the popular mind assumes that those who rejoice are the ones who have found and experienced the Lord. Yet, here we find an out-and-out call to go ahead and "seek the Lord." One could, without much imagination, put forth the argument here that God -- or those seeking God -- are lost a good chunk of the time.
Why would someone who hasn't found something wish to rejoice? Having spent the better part of a morning looking for keys, this writer can tell you that the seeking is not much fun at all, and that rejoicing was the furthest thing from thought or intention. Yet, even in the contemporary world, seekers seem to get a lot of attention. There are worship services oriented to "seekers." There are whole conferences teaching pastors and lay leaders how to be "seeker sensitive." What is going on with all this, anyway? What about those who have found it? Don't they deserve some attention?
The whole discussion brings to mind a T-shirt seen at a youth rally lately. It said, in crazy comic lettering, "The journey is my home." Is it possible that there is another path between those who have "found it," and those who ... have not? What if the faded, multicolored T-shirt raised the same point that this psalm subtly asserts? What if the journey is our home?
What if finding God is not a process with a finite end point, but a way of being alive? What if God is so holy, so awesome, so huge, and so infinite that even if one seeks a lifetime there will only be momentary flashes of brilliance and gasps of sudden revelation?
If this is the case, and this brief missive would offer that perhaps it is, what does this do with all of our religious trappings and doctrine? If we are called to a lifetime of seeking after the holy, how do we address those who believe they have it all locked and finalized?
Perhaps the answer is as simple as the psalm suggests. Just praise the Lord and keep on seeking.
Scripture does not seem to have too much to directly say about the kind of party politics that is part of our political system. Though some might disagree, I suspect that we have come to the point in our national life where saying God is a Democrat or Republican or un-enrolled independent voter is a pretty hard sell in most congregations. Yet, turn to scripture and it will not be long before you realize that our foundational texts have plenty to say about leadership and what it means in social, religious, and economic terms. The texts for this Sunday describe leadership in each of these areas. Moses, certainly, exercises a variety of leadership skills that reflect the talents of those who function as transformational leaders who see to significant changes in the lives and attitudes of their followers. It should also be remembered that Moses brought the savvy skills of the transactional leader who knows how to make the kind of trade offs that will advance the interests of his people.
Needless to say, how many of us can think of Moses without the portrayal by the late Charlton Heston coming to mind? The film, The Ten Commandments, now shown at least once a year on national television, demonizes and glorifies its characters to the point that they appear impervious to the realities of life that any leader in any field will have to face. However, the original script/scripture is far more realistic in its descriptions and assessments of the human condition. The writers and the compilers of the Hebrew testament are less interested in telling a tale of heroic proportions but in telling a story that will be helpful as they engage in their own nation building. How will they organize themselves in the promised land and as they return from exile in quite changed circumstances? The qualities of leadership that Moses demonstrates will be relevant to whoever is elected president in less than two months from this Sunday.
The Christian testament does little to dispel the notion that Paul is very much engaged in the kind of nuts-and-bolts leadership that often pastors find tedious and seek to avoid that make church life possible. Much of his time is invested in tending to the material and financial needs of the early church. Yet, this does not detract from Paul as a significant religious leader. Certainly Paul brings the intellectual equipment and theological background to address the challenges that he faced. It is important to see that the early Christian literature was shaped by Paul's response to the everyday practical work of creating and funding community, as well as handling the egos of its members. If the church cannot lead in these areas I suspect that we will not be able to lead the world in the kind of directions that many find as essential to the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.
Was Jesus a leader? The answer must be a firm, "Yes." To bring together the disciples and to leave behind a movement that would carry on his work required leadership skills well beyond what most of us can muster. Yet, getting people to leave the usual well-worn grooves of their lives and take up risky lives of uncertainty is part of what we are called to be about in the church. According to the gospel reading for this Sunday, the kingdom of heaven is like this. If readers are going to get anything out of this story then they had better be ready to have their comfort zone thoroughly expanded. Here the conventional is confounded as it is in so many of Jesus' stories and teachings. As a matter of fact, one sees in much of the gospels an attempt to lessen the tension nature of Jesus' speech so that it might accommodate a fairly safe conventional morality.
Jesus' story of the laborers in the vineyard resists most of our futile efforts to limit its impact on our well-worn certainties. It does give us some insight about how Jesus sought to lead people to places and understandings they never have been before.
None of these texts will make the vote we cast next month any easier. However, each of them will give us an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of leadership.
Exodus 16:2-15
The first crisis Moses and Aaron face is the issue of whether their leadership can feed their people or will it lead to starvation and death in the wilderness. This is more than not being able to get your favorite New York deli-style sandwich in Austin, Texas. This goes to the viability of the community and its future. On the face of it, the opposition has a case. The wilderness is the barren place without potential to feed a people trying to find their way toward the promised land.
However, the story takes a turn here from the reasonable and prudent. In their indictment they quickly succumb to false truths and hyperbole, "The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.' " This seems to be a fairly selective reading of past history. A small thing is left out here such as the price of suffering and loss of dignity that was the price to pay for such bread -- the inconvenient detail of the Hebrew's slavery is glossed over.
Certainly, this lack of candor seems beyond our imagining. However, on the other hand I find myself reflecting on this practice of making sports stadiums and post-season college bowl games after business as in TD Dominion, Garden, for Boston Garden, or Verizon Arena -- money to be had, dignity to be lost. In the fleshpots of Egypt slavery takes over. Our slavery to large expensive SUVs has caused many to use bio-fuels whose production takes up arable land and the cost of food beyond the reach of many of the world's poor -- in Egypt many would readily feed their cars at the expense of the poor. In what can only be described as addictive slavery to technology, we have created a medical system that rewards high-tech solutions and specialization at the expense of general practitioners and rural practice. Moses and Aaron, in employing their strategy, remind us that true forms of leadership resist slavery no matter what form of bread it provides.
However, the presenting question here is will the journey into the wilderness lead to disaster or can the people survive beyond a slave economy? At this point another possibility is interjected into the story. Suddenly the Lord God speaks to the moment. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.' " Through the bread and meat the Lord provides, history will take another turn that no one had anticipated. This is a pattern that runs through scripture: In the breaking of the bread there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. The marginalized are enfranchised on equal terms with the mighty. The prayer for daily bread rearranges an economy that is based on haves and have-nots with the haves pulling away. In an economy based on avoiding the wilderness, the promise is that nourishment can be found in its very midst.
It is important to note, the Israelites in their despair and anxiety have gotten wrong some details of their own story. "The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.' " They blame Moses for the seeming catastrophe ahead but in fact, "So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, 'In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.' " It was the Lord who has led them out of Egypt and will now lead them through the wilderness. It reminds me of the rewriting of history that leaves many school children believing that the pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians rather than to God on the first Thanksgiving, or not knowing that Martin Luther King Jr. was an ordained Baptist pastor, or the only act of protest and nonviolence in American history is the Boston Tea Party. Part of redemption embodied in the Passover and sacrament of communion is to get the history right.
The reaction of the Hebrews to all of this is to ask the question, "What is this stuff?" In a way, they are asking, "What are you talking about? None of this appears in our calculations as a way to go." However, that is the testimony of scripture: We are saved by what is beyond our calculations or our usual habits of being. The task of leadership as we face our own wilderness is to point out that this "What is it?" is what saves. It is the Lord who we will find in the wilderness, who will sustain us there, and lead us beyond acceptance of a slave mentality.
Philippians 1:21-30
There can be no doubt that Paul was a major leader in the formation of the church. As a matter of fact, most scholars of the early church attribute to Paul the organizational savvy that lifted the early church from sect status to a significant worldwide influence. It is hard to imagine the church today without acknowledging his influence on our understanding of the resurrection, our practice of communion, and the drive to be inclusive of all people. His words here form the basis of a hymn that has been a part of my own denominational hymnody, "Jesus I Live To Thee."
In writing to the Philippians, Paul exercises the talents that he has manifested in so many areas. The context is that Paul now finds himself in prison and prevented from exercising his leadership in person. It is hard for many of us to imagine prison to be the ideal platform from which to exercise leadership. Indeed, letter writing for most of us is hardly seen as a method of any communication let alone as a way of bringing our influence to bear on the group.
However, prison has often been a place where significant leadership has been developed. Yes, they have been places of recidivism but they have also been the breeding ground of the witness of people such as Mohandas Gandhi, Malcolm X, Henry David Thoreau, the Suffragettes, and Martin Luther King Jr.
The heart of Paul's understanding of leadership is that it can be exercised from places that we don't seriously see as providing the credibility of a leader. This is at the heart of leadership that seeks to follow the path of Jesus. Jesus reigns from a cross. This proved to be no more popular or acceptable in his day than ours. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.' " This comes as a form of strange good news for those in church life who peddle comfort and riches as the outcome of the Christian life.
Paul expresses his ability to live faithfully in success as well as failure. "... Are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God's doing." Faithful in success as well as failure, Christians often have to lead from a place of failure. God's kingdom is probably built as much upon our failures and how we handle them as our successes. Some have said that in a way Jesus himself gave us a sacrament of failure when he said, "If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." After all, we are engaged in the seed planting business. Any farmer knows that they are in for a run of failures. Our witness in the midst of failure may even be persuasive than otherwise and only God knows what might sprout from our efforts.
The letter contains more than a hint of uncertainty about the future, "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." The only way to resolve this conundrum for Paul is to choose. "But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you." Christians have to live faithfully with a lot of not knowing. This is not usually the leading virtue we expect to find in most leaders. However, the notion of "when in doubt resolve it in favor of human relationships, humility, and mutuality" is something that we might look for in our current crop of leaders.
The letter to the Philippians provides us some keys to his leadership style as Paul embodies a persuasive, influential life that is able to bring many to Christ.
Matthew 20:1-16
It takes little more than a casual reading of the gospels to find if nothing else Jesus' teaching has a way of confounding the conventional. Certainly, the transaction that takes place in this Sunday's text is not standard practice in any economic system that I know. Look at the problems that the actions of the landowner pose. Just how many workers does he expect to show up bright and early to work the next morning when his approach to compensation hits the streets? Furthermore, what of the other landowners in the area? Just how many laborers will show up at their doors? The story remains impervious to our attempts to square the circle. By leading us to the edge of seeming madness, Jesus has set up a tension that we cannot resolve. Leadership today is, for many, the ability to lead people around rather than leading toward deep, perplexing tension. Nevertheless, in such places we might find not resolution but evolution into a new state of being.
Application
In recent years, as churches and other institutions have faced an unending series of crises, there has been a search for adequate leadership and an understanding of what leadership means in our day. Much of the work of Edward Friedman and others has focused on the individual who can be self-differentiated yet keep in contact with others maintaining a non-anxious presence. In each of these texts, the protagonists -- Moses, Paul, and Jesus -- while seriously challenging the social, spiritual, and conventional have fulfilled Jesus' command to be not anxious. I suspect that church leaders of whatever theological hue should begin with this as the litmus test of their capacity to lead. We are more than not likely to add to the world's woes if we cannot meet this test whatever our convictions and however worthy or unworthy that might be.
Alternative Application
Exodus 16:2-15. The flip side of being a leader is to be a follower. Of course some describe leadership as "a therapeutic modality" in which our well being is contingent on our ability to exercise leadership as parents, teachers, workers, and so on. Yet, there are times when we do not exercise leadership so much as choose it, follow it, or accept it from others. The role of skill and expertise will bring some to the fore whatever their leadership talents. What should we expect of leaders? Do we expect too much or too little from them? Is our prayer and liturgical life supportive of their self- differentiation? I appreciate the Book of Common Prayer tradition that weaves into worship prayers for national and political leadership. The task of leadership is daunting and the work of following is no less challenging. Choosing which mode to be and when it is appropriate is no less difficult. The texts invite us not only to identify with the main protagonists but to place ourselves in with the hungry crowd staring Moses down, being the readers of Paul's letters, and with the disgruntled laborers.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Here is a psalm, like many, which leans into praise and rejoicing. We are called to sing and to tell out the wonderful works of God. It is a call, especially to those who are seeking. "Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice." "Seek the Lord, and his strength...."
It is an interesting hiccup here to notice that those who seek are called to rejoice. Usually the popular mind assumes that those who rejoice are the ones who have found and experienced the Lord. Yet, here we find an out-and-out call to go ahead and "seek the Lord." One could, without much imagination, put forth the argument here that God -- or those seeking God -- are lost a good chunk of the time.
Why would someone who hasn't found something wish to rejoice? Having spent the better part of a morning looking for keys, this writer can tell you that the seeking is not much fun at all, and that rejoicing was the furthest thing from thought or intention. Yet, even in the contemporary world, seekers seem to get a lot of attention. There are worship services oriented to "seekers." There are whole conferences teaching pastors and lay leaders how to be "seeker sensitive." What is going on with all this, anyway? What about those who have found it? Don't they deserve some attention?
The whole discussion brings to mind a T-shirt seen at a youth rally lately. It said, in crazy comic lettering, "The journey is my home." Is it possible that there is another path between those who have "found it," and those who ... have not? What if the faded, multicolored T-shirt raised the same point that this psalm subtly asserts? What if the journey is our home?
What if finding God is not a process with a finite end point, but a way of being alive? What if God is so holy, so awesome, so huge, and so infinite that even if one seeks a lifetime there will only be momentary flashes of brilliance and gasps of sudden revelation?
If this is the case, and this brief missive would offer that perhaps it is, what does this do with all of our religious trappings and doctrine? If we are called to a lifetime of seeking after the holy, how do we address those who believe they have it all locked and finalized?
Perhaps the answer is as simple as the psalm suggests. Just praise the Lord and keep on seeking.
