Shepherds model servant leadership

Homily Easter 4 Yr. B 2012

Throughout history we have associated leadership with strength, power, decisiveness, determination. Kings, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Dictators, CEO’s of large corporations, Popes.


Even as our societies have move to democracy, the yearning for strong leadership has been evident in the focus of our democratic system on party leaders, and prime ministers.


But on this Good Shepherd Sunday we look at a different kind of leadership, a very different model which Jesus offers us.


This is the servant leader.


The image of Jesus offers of himself , according to John’s Gospel, is the good shepherd who cares for his sheep, no matter what happens. Who defends them from evil, who unlike the hired hand, does not flee from danger when the wolf approaches.


Now we are a long way from first century Israel where shepherds were among the lowliest workers in an agrarian society. I’ve never met a shepherd.


However this is pattern in the teaching of Jesus. He takes images of rural life from that time, and makes them timeless and universal.


How else can we explain the power of this passage and the 23rd psalm and the comfort it brings us at the most difficult times in our lives, as we face life and death situations.


Shepherds in Jesus time may have been poor, but they had great responsibility caring for the sheep in their charge. There were not only wolves, but snakes, scorpions and other dangers. When the sheep returned to their fold at night the shepherd would care for the injured and sick, anointing them with oil, and feeding them with herb remedies.


That imagery is applied to the Lord in the 23rd psalm, because it too offers a very different image of God than we see at times in the Hebrew scripture. We see God who is with us during our darkest times. God cares for us. God comforts us.


The kind of leadership we see in these passages is not the king who rules from on high, but of a servant, one who suffers with us.


This weekend I have been serving as a spiritual director for a program called beginning experience, a program which offers care for people who are dealing with losss like the death of a spouse, divorce and separation.


It is a Christian self-help program which operates on a volunteer basis. People are introduced to the program through six week coping with grief sessions. Then there is a weekend which includes talks, small group discussions, and personal reflection and writing sessions to reflect on themes involved in the grief process.


The ultimate goal is to help participants come to terms with the mixture of grief, guilt, confusion and many issues of faith and family dynamics which follow from the loss of a spouse.


It seems to be that as we minister to each other as we struggle with our life issues we are called to follow this servant leadership model Jesus offers.


Like shepherds, we need to care for those who are in pain who need our help. We follow Jesus by serving others, not by amassing power and wealth.


The motto of Rotary International which both Nancy Dease and I are members of is “Service above Self” and I think that is the essence of servant leadership.


In a sense what leads us to cynicism about our business and political leaders is that the prime objective seems to be winning at all costs. It is too easy to be seduced by the attraction of wealth. Just look at the growth of the salary of CEOs compared to their employees.


These business and political leaders lose touch with the realities of day to day life for ordinary people.


That’s something Jesus never did. He spent most of his life, we are told, as a carpenter, and then in his three year ministry lived as an itinerant preacher, teacher, and healer living with supporters wherever he travelled.


The images Jesus uses like this one are taken from everyday life. So we have in Jesus our true model for servant leadership; one who gains his reputation not from political power, or wealth, but from his care for others as reflected in his teaching his healing, and his personal relationships with his followers.


So how have we seen servant leadership reflected in the church?


In the early church Christians were strongest among the downtrodden, the marginalized in society. In the Book of Acts we see a Christian community based on house churches. Followers of Jesus often lived in community sharing their earnings in common. The community built itself up through serving each other.


The transformation of Christianity into the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, sanctioned by the Emperor Constantine was the culmination a gradual change in the church to a more hierarchical model.


While ministering to the poor and outcast has always been part of the witness of the church, much of the time since Constantine the Church has been aligned with wealth and power.


And servant leadership has been sidelined. While the church has done great service in education, work among the poor and missionary work, servant leadership and what it means in our modern society is very much a question we must address.


Amid the great changes in the economy, our political life, technology, the media, we have to redefine what servant leadership means for our time in the 21st century.


This image of the good shepherd is a reminder that we must reach out beyond our fold, in order to live out our faith. We must serve and care for others. It is in that way we can truly be good shepherds.