Celebrating Servant Leadership

Homily Proper 22 Yr. A 2011

I want to tell you a story today about leadership. It starts with an eight year old boy growing up in the Montreal area. The minister at the United Church he worshipped at, John Shearman, recalls him as a hyper-active kid, the kind who could barely sit still.

His dad was an elder, and served as Sunday school superintendent. His mother was a member of the ladies group, and taught the minister’s wife the art of smocking.

The young lad grew up as part of that church family, and was part of an active youth group called “the infusers.”

The name meant all of life was to be infused with the holy spirit and the energy of the Gospel.

The young man’s father taught a Sunday night youth Bible in Hudson, Quebec.

Yesterday that young lad was remembered in a state funeral in Toronto. Jack Layton---whose father Robert was a member of Brian Mulroney’s cabinet, and whose ancestors had served in the Union Nationale provincial government in Quebec and were among the fathers of Confederation---died much too young of cancer.

But while he struggled with the disease, he demonstrated the kind of leadership, we heard about today in scripture.

Jesus says if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

This describes a kind of servant leadership that we need more of in our world today.

Moses led his people out of Egypt, and through the wilderness, but he never saw the promised land.

St. Paul likewise travelled the Mediterranean world, suffering persecution and shipwrecks to preach the Gospel. Yet he never lived to see the church grow and prosper. It was still a tiny persecuted minority when Paul died a martyr in Rome. But he had laid the basis for its growth during his epic mission to the Mediterranean world.

In Jack Layton’s last letter to Canadians he concluded with these words I’m sure you have heard often this week but bear repeating: “Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic, and we’ll change the world.”

That is spiritual message—a message of faith. Compare it to some scripture passages:

*”There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18)

* Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice and be kind to one another, tender hearted and forgiving one another” (Ephesians 4:31-32)

“Suffering produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)

Jack was a member of Bloor Street United in Toronto, and may have not been involved in a that congregation’s life in recent years due to his political career as a national party leader, but his actions and his words are testimony to his faith.

His causes have often been unpopular—support for AIDS sufferers and the homeless and the gay community in the 80’s before those causes were embraced by mainstream society.

That has always been so for Christians who follow the teaching of the Gospel. Jesus taught us to care for the poor, the disadvantaged, the marginalized.

It’s not an easy Gospel to live out. We are talking about self-denial, taking up our cross, undergoing suffering if necessary in the pursuit of our mission in life.

It’s much easier to follow what has been termed the prosperity gospel—and believe that if we behave well, we will be rewarded by God with riches. That kind of thinking—wrong headed in my view—is prevalent in parts of the Christian church—particularly in North America.
I think that kind of thinking would be offensive to Jesus.

It comes down to leadership. We as Christians need to practice what we preach. That’s what Paul was saying when he wrote to the Romans.

“Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them….”

This past week as Canadians remembered Jack Layton, they were affirming those qualities exemplified in his leadership.

Perhaps what made the tribute reach out beyond his own party is the yearning among all of us for more civility in our political life, more caring, more servant leadership, and more concern for justice and the common good.

Our faith, our spirituality can’t be separated from the rest of life. We may not all agree, and certainly most of the time do not agree, on many political issues.

But our faith can lead us to support leadership which is unselfish, passionate and caring. We need to pray for our leaders because in this complex world it matters so much that public spirited people offer themselves for leadership.

The 24 hours news cycle has resulted in many becoming cynical about politicians, but the outpouring of love and respect after the untimely death of the leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition reminds us that we want to have trust in our leaders. We want to believe they care for us.
Prayer for the Nation p. 678 BAS