Sermons

“Leadership Lessons”

Psalm 77:11-20; Luke 9:51-62 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – June 26, 2016

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words, that we might grow in our faith and deepen our commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ordinarily, on a special occasion like today, I might carefully hand-pick the scripture passage to build the sermon upon, looking for something that speaks to service and commitment and the body of Christ and such things. But this year, I decided to check out what the lectionary offered first, just in case it seemed appropriate to the occasion. The lectionary, as many of you know, is a widely-used three-year cycle of scripture passages for use in worship, four for each Sunday, that tries to cover a wide swath of the Bible. There is a gospel reading for every week. Sometimes you get story-telling Jesus; sometimes you get gentle, loving Jesus. This week, apparently, we got hard-core Jesus. I read the passage and it seemed like a somewhat harsh reading to try to turn into an inspirational message for lay leaders starting a new ministry year. But then it also started to feel like a challenge from the Holy Spirit, to encourage us to take our roles as leaders seriously.

So I’m going to try to draw out some lessons for us, but we all need to keep in mind that the harsh tone of these verses is balanced in other passages by gentle, loving, merciful Jesus who loves us just the way we are.   We’re just going to work our way through this passage, bit by bit, extracting the lesson that is helpful for leaders, and really, for all of us as Christians.

The first lesson is also the most amusing. Our first instincts are not always Christ-like. Jesus had some disciples go ahead to find a place for them to stay, but this particular Samaritan village had no interest in offering hospitality. The writer of Luke explains that this is because Jesus had already “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” It’s a bit of a mysterious phrase. How could the villagers tell, when he wasn’t even there yet, and how would they have known what that would mean? Regardless, what happens next is hilarious. James and John are terribly offended on his behalf, so they ask Jesus – no, really, they do – if he would like them to “command fire to come down from heaven and consume” the village! It’s like they’ve just discovered they probably have this superpower, and they really, really want to use it. You’ve heard of St. James the Arsonist, right? No, actually, you haven’t, because as Jesus makes completely clear, That Is Not How It Works.

I added in the extra words from the textual note, the ones that are found in “other ancient authorities”, because I think they make the point even clearer: “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.” What the heck, James and John? What were you thinking? It may be obvious to us that raining down fire on villages is not something Christians should do. But the truth is that too often, we do lead from our first instincts, from our awareness of our own power and our need for retribution and conformity to our vision, rather than checking out what Jesus would want. We forget that, in the church, leaders are first and foremost followers. This is the most important lesson of all of them. But let’s look briefly at the other lessons.

Lesson number two is also from this story: Don’t waste time punishing non-followers. When the church decides to do something, when a congregation as a whole catches hold of a vision for its future and chooses to move forward on a particular path, there are always some who don’t want to go there. Trying to compel them to get with the program is a waste of time. Let it go, move on, Jesus says. Don’t worry about the naysayers. Know what you are about, and don’t worry about those who aren’t into it. This may seem obvious, and yet, we spend a lot of time, in churches, trying to make sure every single person is happy. It doesn’t work, and it keeps us from building up the vision that the bulk of the congregation has embraced.

Lesson number three, from verses 57-58: Be aware that you may not know what you’re getting into. Jesus tried to warn this guy – If you follow me, it isn’t going to be easy. I’m basically homeless, and you will be too. You will be dependent on the kindness of strangers. He tried to warn him, but can any of us really know what that’s like until we’ve experienced it? Leadership in a congregation can bring all sorts of heartaches, and there isn’t any way of fully preparing ourselves for them. But again, if we remember that before we are leaders, we are followers, we will be okay.

Lesson number four, from verses 59-60, is the hardest. I’m not sure there is any way to spin these verses that doesn’t still leave Jesus looking like an insensitive jerk. “I want to follow you, but my dad’s funeral is this afternoon.” “No! You have to come now!” Really? What does “let the dead bury their own dead” even mean? That’s not really a thing. But if we want to find a way to extract something useful from this part, perhaps it is this: Leadership works better without baggage. If you are in a place in your life where grief or another emotional burden is drawing most of your energy and attention, it is probably not a good time to try to run things. Especially in a context where everyone else is invited to bring their emotional baggage in too.

This lesson is closely related to lesson five: There are times to get involved and times not to. Contrary to the tone Jesus uses in verses 61-62, we are not going to excommunicate you from Vista La Mesa Christian Church if you say No to an invitation to serve. It’s not always the right moment. I would rather you say No up front, rather than say Yes and not really mean it. When people take on leadership roles and then don’t follow through, it makes it harder on everyone else in leadership, because they will always be trying to cover for the person not doing what they said they would do. If this isn’t a good time for you to commit to showing up, don’t say Yes. We all have those seasons in our lives.

The most important lesson of all of these, as I said at the beginning, is that all leaders in the church are first and foremost followers. We became ministers of the gospel when we were baptized and confessed Jesus as Lord. So the most important thing for all of us to be doing is keeping our eyes on Christ. Whether it’s through Bible study, prayer, conversation with fellow believers, singing, or other forms of devotion, we must keep Christ’s heart in ours, so that we can be sure we are leading not just a group of fun people doing nice things, but the church of Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia and Amen.