LEAD AND FOLLOW

November 21, 2010
Reign of Christ – Pentecost Last
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Colossians 1:11-20

(prayer)

Do you remember Raffi? He’s the famed Canadian Children’s singer of such songs as Baby Beluga and Shack Your Sillies Out. Raffi's recent musical work focuses on social and environmental causes and appeals to the generation who grew up with his children's music ("Beluga Grads") to affect change in the world. He also promotes those causes through his books, academic lectures and as a speaker.

In recent years, Raffi has devoted himself to "Child Honouring", his vision for creating a humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children. His "Covenant for Honouring Children" outlines the principles of this philosophy. There is a copy of the covenant on the bulletin board in the hallway by the west entrance. This is what it says:

“We find these joys to be self evident: That all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, worthy of respect. The embodiment of life, liberty and happiness, children are original blessings, here to learn their own song. Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving “village.” And to pursue a life of purpose.

We affirm our duty to nourish and nurture the young, to honour their caring ideals as the heart of being human. To recognize the early years as the foundation of life, and to cherish the contribution of young children to human evolution.

We commit ourselves to peaceful ways and vow to keep from harm or neglect these, our most vulnerable citizens. As guardians of their prosperity we honour the bountiful Earth whose diversity sustains us. Thus we pledge our love for generations to come.”

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November 20th is Universal Children’s Day recognizing the dates that the United Nations adopted the Declaration (and the Convention) on the Rights of the Child.

In years when Christmas Day falls on a Thursday to a Sunday, the Sunday closest to November 20th is also the last Sunday before Advent begins – the final Sunday in the season after Pentecost: AKA “Reign of Christ Sunday”. This year because Christmas is a Saturday, Reign of Christ Sunday falls one day after Universal Children’s Day.

For a variety of reasons, I think these go well together. First and foremost, Jesus knew the value of children and he showed leadership in a culture where children were to be excluded from real society: 1...The disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (Matthew 18:1-5)

As well, the concept of the Reign of Christ is to view Jesus as sovereign in our lives, as in control, as responsible for the well-being of our lives…like we would expect of someone “in charge”: in Jesus’ day, a king, or in modern political systems: a president or prime minister or dictator.

In whatever leadership we are given to exercise in our lives, we do well to remember what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."

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Jesus clearly had natural leadership qualities. People flocked to his presence because he spoke and acted with authority: an authority some even claimed came directly from God. As we read the biblical narrative, we don’t find examples of Jesus claiming the leader role, but in the conversations around him, the topic surely came up. In fact, it was claims to leadership that ultimately got Jesus’ killed. While our gospels also describe the religious concerns of the Jerusalem Temple leaders towards Jesus – that he was a blasphemer, claimed to be the Son of God, a misguided teacher, a threat to the practice of faith, none of that would have mattered much to the occupying roman authorities. What got Pilate and Herod’s attention were the rumours that Jesus was being proclaimed as a king! This is seen really well in Luke’s gospel, where internally, the Temple Assembly was concerned about the claim that Jesus was Son of God; when they took him to Pilate, they said: We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king. (Luke 23:2). The charge that lead to Jesus’ crucifixion was ‘treason’: “Are you a king?”, Pilate asked Jesus.

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Jesus had authority, that much was clear to everyone, but the nature of that authority was anything but clear. Was he a revolutionary, bent on overthrow? Was he inciting anti-empire activities? Did he intend to topple the religious structure of the Hebrew people with his ‘new ideas’? What kind of authority did Jesus have and what difference did it make?

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In some circles, this Reign of Christ Sunday, is also known as Christ the King Sunday. I prefer Reign of Christ, because “king” seems to be an inadequate word – If Jesus was a king, he was unlike the kings of this world.

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Our first scripture reading today from Jeremiah, comes from that time (600 years before Jesus), when Judah was being overrun by the Babylonian Empire, when the Hebrew leadership was turned into a puppet government for the empire. And so the prophet speaks on God’s behalf: 1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD ... 5The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.

In the gospel of John, Jesus is called the ‘good shepherd’, picking up on this image of leaders as shepherds from Jeremiah and elsewhere in the Biblical record.

The nature of the leader Jeremiah preaches about is justice and righteousness and safety. There is no mention of self-aggrandizing or the accumulation of power and wealth.

The letter to the Christians in Colossae uses wonderfully poetic language to describe the nature of Jesus’ authority to its first century audience – the incarnation is described by saying that Jesus was the [visible] image of the invisible God; in Jesus the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. I remember former United Church Moderator, Bill Phipps, saying one time that, in Jesus, we see absolutely as much of God that con be contained within the limits of a human life.

The book of Colossians says that Jesus holds all things together – everything that has been created is given order and purpose through the risen Christ. That is a statement of the impact of faith in the life of a Christian. As Christians, by definition, we connect to God through Jesus, his story, his life, his teachings, his example, the mystery of his eternal presence following his crucifixion and resurrection, and the joy of knowing that we don’t journey this existence alone. Since, our connection to God is through Christ, we can find great value in these ancient poetic words: 16for in [Christ] all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through [Christ] and for [Christ]. 17[Christ] himself is before all things, and in [Christ] all things hold together.

To be a follower of Jesus is to believe that we live as part of the Reign of Christ.

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The evidence of Jesus’ life is that this leadership and authority is not what the world is used to: empowerment over domination – invitation over occupation – compassion over criticism – love and peace over war and hate.

When Jesus made his triumphful entry into Jerusalem (on what we now call Palm Sunday) it was not aboard an armoured war horse, but on a coat laden donkey. When Jesus wanted to give a tangible example of what was needed to be great in God’s eyes, he didn’t call forward Peter or John, he asked a child to come sit on his knee.

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Jesus got into a lot of trouble because of who he spent his time with. According to Luke’s gospel, when Simon the Pharisee’s dinner party was crashed by a woman whose reputation was among the lowest of the low, Simon’s other guests were shocked that Jesus was not shocked. In fact, as the woman came and touched Jesus and anointed him, he was accepting and appreciative. “Who” people had judged her to be was not important to Jesus.

That was a powerful kind of new leadership.

Jesus sowed these seeds of authority over and over again in his ministry: inviting Zacchaeus to dine with him, in spite of the fact the whole community had shunned him because of his complicity with the roman authorities as a tax collector for the empire; also there was the time when Jesus highlighted to everyone that it was okay that he had been secretly touched by a woman, considered unclean, even though he was on his way to the home of the leader of a local synagogue. Instead of making Jesus unclean, the act actually healed the woman after a dozen years of community estrangement; and there were countless other, outsiders, outcasts and (so called) sinners who were not rejected, but welcomed by Jesus.

This was a powerful kind of new leadership.

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Shepherds play a really significant role in the story of Jesus’ life. Shepherding in the first century was a valuable life blood of the Judeah economy – the wool, the meat were wanted and needed by all people. But the actual work of shepherding was not considered high society. It meant spending most of one’s time outside – regardless of the weather and it inevitably left one bringing their work everywhere they went. If it was true (as Luke claims) that shepherds were the first to visit Jesus after he was born, everyone should have had no trouble finding the Christ-child – they could just follow the ‘scent of manure and mutton’.

It is interesting that throughout the scriptures a shepherd is used as a metaphor for a leader of the Hebrews. We can draw a conclusion that there is a care and compassion expected within the leader – the health of the flock is paramount, even more so than the shepherd’s own safety – you make recall the quote from the gospel of John: 10:11...The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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It is fair to say that a shepherd is an odd image for a king-ruler – sure the guiding part fits, but everything else seems at odds with the lifestyle that is usually assumed goes along with high leadership.

And when we add to that another image of leadership that was espoused by Jesus, it is clear that the kind of ‘ruler’ that we see in Jesus is quite different from the kings and emperors (and presidents and prime ministers and dictators) in this world.

Listen to this verse from Mark, chapter 9 (it is a loose parallel to one I read earlier from Matthew): 33Then they came to Capernaum; and when Jesus was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

Jesus’ view of leadership is a king who was like a good, dedicated shepherd; one who serves rather than expects to be served; one who sees the welfare of all as the norm – from the so-called least to the greatest.

Jesus is no ordinary king.

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And so, as followers of this servant, shepherding, child-honouring king, we should portray the same attitude in our lives in this world, shouldn’t we? Doesn’t that just make sense?

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What do we need? Well, we need to buck the trends of greed and selfishness. I think Zack Galifianakis’ character in the new movie Due Date said it best: “We better check it before we wreck it!”

We are up against strong opposition here: you know how it is, every time there is some proposal based on compassion and fairness for those on the outside –

the Not-In-My-BackYardigans start to shout. And the ideologues begin to speak the language of prudence and say, it sounds nice, as long as taxpayer’s dollars aren’t involved (i.e. as long as we all don’t have to participate).

Jesus’ followers are up against entrenched attitudes that try to convince us that we are not our brother’s and sister’s keepers. This winners-and-losers world we have, trends against the kind of leadership Jesus showed and encouraged.

And yet the prophet promised that “a righteous branch from David’s family tree would surely sprout and reign wisely with justice and righteousness and the result is that the people would be saved.”

Now I know that some Christian’s interpret salvation very specifically, as meaning an assurance of an eternity with God. That’s cool – who doesn’t want that! But, I think that Jeremiah was less concerned about the next world as he was about the situation his people were in at the moment (in 586 BCE).

Extrapolating things to our time, we need to be saved from all that separates us from God’s vision of shalom (peace, wholeness, unity) for this world – in this world, NOW – all of those attitudes that find ‘servant, shepherding, child-honouring leadership’ threatening.

We need to be safe from that!

And so, in the paradox of faith, we can offer leadership by following the one who is our righteous branch.

Not easy. Real leadership never is!



#210VU “Christus Paradox – You Lord Are

Both Lamb and Shepherd”