Wise Leadership
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Object:
Solomon asks for the right thing: He asks for wisdom. He asks for it from a very humble place, the place of knowing that he is but a child and still he has been put in charge of large things. Leadership is a treacherous thing. How can we possibly know so when we are but children? That is what Solomon knew. He knew, even as a child, just how much help he was going to need to be a leader. He already had some of the wisdom he seeks. Ironically, he was wise beyond his years. God rewards him with wisdom for already being wise.
Sometimes we get involved with very circular matters. We need wisdom to know we need wisdom! We need love to be able to love. We need to be appreciated in order to be able to appreciate. Jesus makes it clear in gospel after gospel that we are able to have what we can give away. The irony and the circularity of life is some of the wisdom we need.
One of the large issues that leaders face is being criticized and being unappreciated. I just heard a presidential candidate conclude a speech with that wisdom: "I will now take your questions and comments and any insults you have to throw at me." He was a wise leader. He knew what to expect. Many pastors simply wither on the vine; they just can't take the constant criticism. One pastor I know put out a letter to her whole congregation. In it she said, "If you must criticize my sermon, at least wait until Monday to call me. I am tired of having my Sunday afternoons ruined."
Now here follows immediately another irony. If we are wise enough to put out a letter asking for delayed criticism, or wise enough to know that in the Q and A, we may get insulted, still and nevertheless, we have to appreciate the very people who criticize us. We need to appreciate them without manipulating them. We need to give what we may or may not get. Nor may we boast about what we are doing. We can't even be too preachy about it. While we work to reverse the appreciation deficit disorder, we can't boast about what and how we are doing it. That is both manipulative and a sneaky way to pat ourselves on the back. Leadership, such as that to which Solomon was called, keeps the boasts transcendent and the details immanent. We may boast about God, the cosmos, and the largeness in which we all reside. We may ask God for wisdom but not boast about it when God gives it to us.
What changes the world back to its creation is a combination of boasting in the greatness of God and hauling the world back to its root. The wisdom of a leader is to stay in the positive, even when the negatives are hurled at us. Instead of constantly whining about how bad things are, we talk about how good things are in our godly gifted way. Instead of declaring environmental doom, we speak of environmental enchantment. We mean the words, "How great thou art."
We also know the second verse, "How small we are." Our souls connect the two in speech and in action. We make our mantra that, as the world social forum tells us, "Another world is possible."
We pray for the wisdom to boast in God's great possibility. And then we go to work as skillfully as we can. As leaders we expect conflict and we expect to be able to handle it.
The capacity to be an intercessor, like Solomon was to God, is a strong approach in conflict. One night, our dinner guests' children were swimming in our pool. The neighbor children threw rocks at them. They were jealous at hospitality to others and not to them. Our guests were frightened and huddled with their children inside. One of us went out and talked to the neighbor children. Did they want to come in for a swim? Did they want to apologize to the children they had "bombed" before doing so? The answer to both questions was, "Yes."
Our guests had a great time talking about their own parents as the evening progressed. One said, "My parents would have beaten the tar out of me if I had thrown rocks." Another said, "My parents would have never let me play with children who were my enemies." Wise leaders intervene with strength in situations of conflict. They are wise and hopeful in their interventions. Wise leaders know that fight and flight are the normative responses -- and then intercede in a different way.
Whether it is genetic engineering, abortion, pulling the plug, making peace, raising the minimum wage, keeping children from blowing up their schools, or something simpler like organizing a family reunion, we humans find a lot of difficulty strewn on our soiled red carpet. We get weak. Our middle name is "thwarted." The good that we would do, we can't. The evil that we would not do, we do. We want to be tough doves -- serious proponents of peace -- but often we look like dead birds, legs akimbo on the soiled red carpet of our lives. Leaders have to be more than wise! They also need luck to manage the human condition.
Leadership may not always be up front or totally visible. Lyndon Johnson said to Martin Luther King Jr.: "Martin, you go on out there now and make it possible for me to do the right thing." Many of us are more blockers than quarterbacks in the great war for peace and justice. We help others do things. Football fans know that no offense manages without good blockers. We can be a part of things too wonderful to know by understanding that even in dumb meetings and sideline conversations, we can be blockers. So if you think you are a leader, still ask God for wisdom! There is plenty for you to do even if you are not Solomon.
I think of fights of an intimate nature. Families need wise leadership, too. Often we just shift the burden back and forth. Your fault, his fault, and not my fault is the language of love at war. Leaders are prepared to assume the burden and the responsibility (not fault but responsibility) for what they may have done "wrong." We don't avoid burdens, we assume them.
In public and in private we know the difference between fault and responsibility, the difference between being a child and being wise. Wise people know that even huge things, like racism, are not our fault, but they are our responsibility. We bear the burden. We pay from our extravagant budget line called love. We go further than we can. We have a need to use what little wisdom we have every day.
We can speak up when hate enters the conversation. We can refuse to nominate known neurotics to positions of power in our churches. We can question authorities at school, home, bank, and stadium. When small people refuse to give a pass to trouble, leaders get the wisdom they need. When you feel like speaking up, speak up. Open your mouth. If you didn't speak out of fear, write a letter and say what you should have said when you didn't say it. Repent silence.
Jesus never missed a chance to show and say love. Good leaders also opportunize each moment, the way Solomon did when he went straight to God, while still a child, and asked for wisdom. Amen.
Sometimes we get involved with very circular matters. We need wisdom to know we need wisdom! We need love to be able to love. We need to be appreciated in order to be able to appreciate. Jesus makes it clear in gospel after gospel that we are able to have what we can give away. The irony and the circularity of life is some of the wisdom we need.
One of the large issues that leaders face is being criticized and being unappreciated. I just heard a presidential candidate conclude a speech with that wisdom: "I will now take your questions and comments and any insults you have to throw at me." He was a wise leader. He knew what to expect. Many pastors simply wither on the vine; they just can't take the constant criticism. One pastor I know put out a letter to her whole congregation. In it she said, "If you must criticize my sermon, at least wait until Monday to call me. I am tired of having my Sunday afternoons ruined."
Now here follows immediately another irony. If we are wise enough to put out a letter asking for delayed criticism, or wise enough to know that in the Q and A, we may get insulted, still and nevertheless, we have to appreciate the very people who criticize us. We need to appreciate them without manipulating them. We need to give what we may or may not get. Nor may we boast about what we are doing. We can't even be too preachy about it. While we work to reverse the appreciation deficit disorder, we can't boast about what and how we are doing it. That is both manipulative and a sneaky way to pat ourselves on the back. Leadership, such as that to which Solomon was called, keeps the boasts transcendent and the details immanent. We may boast about God, the cosmos, and the largeness in which we all reside. We may ask God for wisdom but not boast about it when God gives it to us.
What changes the world back to its creation is a combination of boasting in the greatness of God and hauling the world back to its root. The wisdom of a leader is to stay in the positive, even when the negatives are hurled at us. Instead of constantly whining about how bad things are, we talk about how good things are in our godly gifted way. Instead of declaring environmental doom, we speak of environmental enchantment. We mean the words, "How great thou art."
We also know the second verse, "How small we are." Our souls connect the two in speech and in action. We make our mantra that, as the world social forum tells us, "Another world is possible."
We pray for the wisdom to boast in God's great possibility. And then we go to work as skillfully as we can. As leaders we expect conflict and we expect to be able to handle it.
The capacity to be an intercessor, like Solomon was to God, is a strong approach in conflict. One night, our dinner guests' children were swimming in our pool. The neighbor children threw rocks at them. They were jealous at hospitality to others and not to them. Our guests were frightened and huddled with their children inside. One of us went out and talked to the neighbor children. Did they want to come in for a swim? Did they want to apologize to the children they had "bombed" before doing so? The answer to both questions was, "Yes."
Our guests had a great time talking about their own parents as the evening progressed. One said, "My parents would have beaten the tar out of me if I had thrown rocks." Another said, "My parents would have never let me play with children who were my enemies." Wise leaders intervene with strength in situations of conflict. They are wise and hopeful in their interventions. Wise leaders know that fight and flight are the normative responses -- and then intercede in a different way.
Whether it is genetic engineering, abortion, pulling the plug, making peace, raising the minimum wage, keeping children from blowing up their schools, or something simpler like organizing a family reunion, we humans find a lot of difficulty strewn on our soiled red carpet. We get weak. Our middle name is "thwarted." The good that we would do, we can't. The evil that we would not do, we do. We want to be tough doves -- serious proponents of peace -- but often we look like dead birds, legs akimbo on the soiled red carpet of our lives. Leaders have to be more than wise! They also need luck to manage the human condition.
Leadership may not always be up front or totally visible. Lyndon Johnson said to Martin Luther King Jr.: "Martin, you go on out there now and make it possible for me to do the right thing." Many of us are more blockers than quarterbacks in the great war for peace and justice. We help others do things. Football fans know that no offense manages without good blockers. We can be a part of things too wonderful to know by understanding that even in dumb meetings and sideline conversations, we can be blockers. So if you think you are a leader, still ask God for wisdom! There is plenty for you to do even if you are not Solomon.
I think of fights of an intimate nature. Families need wise leadership, too. Often we just shift the burden back and forth. Your fault, his fault, and not my fault is the language of love at war. Leaders are prepared to assume the burden and the responsibility (not fault but responsibility) for what they may have done "wrong." We don't avoid burdens, we assume them.
In public and in private we know the difference between fault and responsibility, the difference between being a child and being wise. Wise people know that even huge things, like racism, are not our fault, but they are our responsibility. We bear the burden. We pay from our extravagant budget line called love. We go further than we can. We have a need to use what little wisdom we have every day.
We can speak up when hate enters the conversation. We can refuse to nominate known neurotics to positions of power in our churches. We can question authorities at school, home, bank, and stadium. When small people refuse to give a pass to trouble, leaders get the wisdom they need. When you feel like speaking up, speak up. Open your mouth. If you didn't speak out of fear, write a letter and say what you should have said when you didn't say it. Repent silence.
Jesus never missed a chance to show and say love. Good leaders also opportunize each moment, the way Solomon did when he went straight to God, while still a child, and asked for wisdom. Amen.
