God's Way of Leading: A (Sort of) Godly Leader

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

When my son was in Afghanistan, one of the most important aspects of what his infantry battalion did was to meet and build relationships with the local tribal leaders. Afghanistan, like many other nations in the Middle East and Asia, is still organized along tribal, ethnic, and religious lines. We hear about these groups all the time on the news: the Kurds and the Turks are one very recent example.

It was important for the U.S. military to have these relationships. Because, through them, they could learn what the Afghan people were thinking, they could build alliances, and they could work together to root out the Taliban or Isis or other similar groups. 

If you were here last Sunday and you listened carefully as we read from the opening verses of Ruth, you might have heard these words: “During the day when the judges ruled…” You see, as the descendants of each of Jacob’s 12 sons had grown, each of these families became tribes. The 12 tribes of Israel.

So, by the time of the book of Ruth, these tribes had grown to the point where God had appointed leaders for each of them. Judges is the term used in Scripture. And yet, these judges, were really no different than the local tribal leaders that my son’s battalion dealt with in Afghanistan.

Today, though, we move into a new way of being for Israel. The book of Ruth acts as a kind of hinge in the Old Testament, moving us out of the early developmental years of the nation of Israel, into the years of the monarchy. The book of Samuel, broken into two separate books, begins to trace the kings who ruled over Israel. In Samuel we follow three main characters. Anyone want to take a shot at naming them? Samuel, the prophet. Saul, the first king anointed by God through Samuel. David, Saul’s successor.

First Samuel covers the reign of King Saul. A reign that begins magnificently, but eventually fails. It seems that Saul experiences what leaders often do - that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Saul has turned away from God, failing to follow what God has asked him to do. By the end of this first book, Saul has been killed, along with his successor - his son, Jonathan.

As our reading opens, Israel has just been through a civil war - a battle to determine who will be the next king. We read in 2 Samuel 5:1-5. 

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh. For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.” So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.  --2 Sam. 5:1-5 (NRSV)

How many of you have ever herded sheep? It is not easy. And I speak from experience. They often run in circles, are easily spooked, and regularly led astray by sheep within the herd who lead them in the exact opposite direction where you want them to go. It is a frustrating and crazy-making thing - this being a shepherd. To be a shepherd takes great patience. Great calm. And an ability to gently nudge the sheep forward. In the direction you want them to go. 

This is exactly what David - the shepherd of sheep - has been called to do by God with the 12 tribes of Israel. With God’s own people. To show great patience and calmness. And to gently nudge them in the way God wants them to go. This is what, in God’s eyes, a leader looks like. How God desires David to lead. How God desires us to lead.

Do you think of yourself as a leader? I would venture that you are. Perhaps you hold or held a leadership position in your workplace. At school. In your community. In an organization. Or among your friends. Certainly, if you are or have ever been a parent, you are a leader. What is your model of leadership? From what source do you understand what leadership looks like? 

We are living in fraught times at the moment. When this question of leadership looms very large, especially as we move into a season of elections. When we look in the public sphere, what kind of leadership do we see? Is it the leadership of empire? Of power and dominion? The kind of leadership the world seeks, where power is the goal. Power and wealth. And control. Leadership that seeks to keep people apart. That seeks to keep people fighting against themselves. To preserve its power and wealth and control.

Or do we see leadership that is shepherd-like? Like David. As complex and human, as much a saint and sinner as all of us, yet humble. Patient. Caring for his people as a shepherd preserves his sheep. 

Our reading continues in 2 Samuel 6:1-5. 

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.  --2 Sam. 6:1-5 (NRSV)

As they moved the Ark to Jerusalem, David and all Israel celebrated. Notice that this was their greatest celebration. Not the battle victories or even the unification of Israel. Instead it was this Ark. This place where God resided. Where God’s Word resided. David knew that Jerusalem was already the cultural, economic, and political center of Israel. But, he also knew that Jerusalem would not, could not, be complete, could not become the people God desired them to be, without the Ark of the Covenant. Without the presence of God. As the Ark was moved to Jerusalem, it was this that led David and all Israel to their greatest celebration. To dance with abandon, with all their strength. To sing and to dance in complete and utter passion and joy in the knowledge that God was present with them. 

I pray that as we act in ways of leadership in our homes and communities and workplaces. As we elect new leaders in our congregation next Sunday. And as we elect leaders in our state next month and in our country next year, I pray that we will keep in mind these images of God’s desired leadership. Leadership that is shepherd-like. Humble. Patient. Leadership that is like that of our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Leadership that seeks to bring people together. 

But, mostly, I pray that we will seek leadership that has, at its very core, the joy and passion for the presence of God. So that we, too, like David, may sing and dance with all abandon.

Amen.

Preached October 20, 2019, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY

Pentecost 19

Readings: Mark 11:8-10, Psalm 150, 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6:1-5

Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance (Letting Go of Being Cool and “Always in Control”)

When the Lord changed Zion’s circumstances for the better,
    it was like we had been dreaming.
Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter;
    our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.
It was even said, at that time, among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them!”
Yes, the Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are overjoyed.

Lord, change our circumstances for the better,
    like dry streams in the desert waste!
Let those who plant with tears
    reap the harvest with joyful shouts.
Let those who go out,
    crying and carrying their seed,
    come home with joyful shouts,
    carrying bales of grain! Psalm 126 (CEB)

Grace and peace to you from the Holy and Blessed Trinity: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.

Have you ever been in a really hard place in your life that suddenly turned around? Where you were struggling and struggling and, then, all of a sudden the path was made clear for you? That’s how we find things in tonight’s psalm. It opens with a look back to a difficult time in Israel’s history. To a hard circumstance. A moment of remembering. Scholars believe this psalm was written after the Babylonian exile. After the northern kingdom had been exiled. After the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. After the southern kingdom - Judah - was taken into exile.

But, this psalm is not actually about the exile. Instead, its focus is on the surprising turnabout of Judah’s fate. Of a people in exile. Suddenly freed from exile by the Persians - by Cyrus the Great - and restored to their homeland.  Psalm 126 is a pilgrimage song. It’s a psalm about the journey. A journey out of exile and disorientation. To a place of home and reorientation. This model of orientation - disorientation - reorientation is one created by Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann. It’s a model that fit Israel’s communal experience. It’s also a model that fits well for our lives. And for those times when things seeming to be humming along - a place of orientation. Then everything falls apart - that’s the disorientation. Then, just when we are at what feels like the very bottom, suddenly things turn around. They are restored. Not the same as what they were, but in a new way. In a reoriented way.

So, what’s our reaction, when everything turns around? When everything's made new again? When everything seems to work out? If we look at Scripture and, particularly, Psalm 126, we see a typical human response. “Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter; our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.” Think of Miriam at the edge of the Red Sea when Israel had been saved from the coming Egyptian army. Or of Mary at the birth of Jesus after finding out she was an unwed mother. Our human response is to laugh. To sing. To dance.

There is something about laughter and song and dance that shouts “life,” isn’t there. Barbara Ehrenreich in her book, Dancing in the Streets, documents the importance of engaging in what she calls “collective ecstasy.” She writes that we are “innately social beings, impelled almost instinctively to share our joy.”  And Brene Brown, after analyzing her research on shame for a couple years, learned that “laughter, song, and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration or healing: We are not alone.”

What makes you laugh? Perhaps it’s hearing a funny joke. Or watching your children or grandchildren do silly things. It’s not a laughing at, but a laughing with. What Brown calls a “knowing laughter.” It’s the kind of laughter that connects us. That comes from the power of sharing our lies and our stories with others. What makes you laugh? 

What makes you sing? When you hear a particular song on the radio, does it ever feel as though you’re right back to the first time you heard it? There are many songs on the soundtrack of my life. There is a whole playlist of Taylor Dane songs that, whenever I hear one of them, I’m immediately taken back to my early 30’s and a crazy, head-over-heels infatuation. What’s the soundtrack of your life? 

And, then, there’s dance! Perhaps dancing is the hardest because there is no other form of self-expression that can make us feel more vulnerable. Dancing is about full-body vulnerability. Have you ever watched a toddler dance? Writer Mary Jo Putney writes that what we love in childhood stays in our hearts forever. If this is true, then, dance stays in our heart even when our head tells us we should worry about what other people think.

And, that’s really the problem, isn’t it? Full-throated laughter, singing at the top of our lungs, and dancing with complete abandon require absolute vulnerability. And a lack of concern for what anyone else thinks.  As we mature and are socially conditioned, we limit this vulnerability. We learn that we are to be cool and “always in control.” We do this because we want to feel good enough. Because we feel as if we don’t measure up. That we aren’t good enough. We feel shame.

Yet, all we need do, like the psalmist, is look back. To look back at God’s response to our shame and our sin. How God, in Christ, has destroyed it. And how God, in Christ, has brought about resurrection. And continues to bring about resurrection. And new life. Constantly moving us from disorientation to reorientation. To a new place. 


May God help us to let go of fear and judgment and the feeling that we are all alone. May God lead us to cultivate courage, compassion, and connection. May God transform us into wholehearted people. Into shalom people. That we might experience all the laughter, song, and dance that God desires for us. And for all people. Amen.

Preached April 10, 2019, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Midweek Lent Worship
Reading: Psalm 126

In the Image of God

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you

from the One who is

and who was

and who is to come.

Amen.

Welcome to Holy Trinity Sunday!

Every pastor’s nightmare.

Why? You might ask.

Well,

it’s because no matter what I

or any other pastor tries to say about the Trinity,

it is inevitable

that we will lapse into some form of heresy.

So, I am not going to preach today

about the Trinity--

the Triune God,

the Three Persons of the Godhead,

or whatever other name

you want to give our God.

I will let the two-and-a-half pages

of the Athanasian Creed

attempt to do that shortly.

Instead,

I am going to the beginning.

The very beginning.

To the beginning of all time.

Because that is where our Genesis reading begins.

“In the beginning

when God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the original Hebrew,

the word used for God is Elohim.

Interestingly,

this is a plural word.

The singular word for God is El.

It’s also helpful to know that the word,

elohim,

is a simple, ordinary word for God.

It can be used to identify any deity.

It’s not a personal name.

Its use implies

that this God is not just the God of Israel,

but God,

the creator of the entire universe.

Already,

in just the first phrase,

we have a sense

of not only the plural nature of this God,

but also the sovereign nature

of this creator of the whole world--

of a sovereign God

who creates effortlessly,

freely

and with no limits.

So, God goes about creating the world.

God thinks,

God speaks,

God births,

God prevails,

God creates,

God builds,

God arranges,

God shapes,

and, then,

God delegates.

We read in verse 26,

where God says,

“Let us

(Do you once again hear

the plural nature of God there?)...

let us make humankind in our image,

according to our likeness.”

Two early church fathers,

Gregory of Nyssa and Chrysostom,

called this phrase--

”let us”--

the divine deliberation

among the persons of the Trinity.

Luther wrote

that it confirms the mystery of our Christian faith,

namely,

that there is one eternal God,

in whose divine essence

there are three distinct persons.

It was the eternal Triune God there,

fully present at the creation of the cosmos.

And it was the eternal Triune God

who made humankind in God’s own likeness.

In the image of God.

The image of God.

That’s an interesting expression,

isn’t it?

We use it often,

but I wonder if we know what it really means.

In the image of God.

All of humanity,

created in the image of God.

We read that in Genesis 9

as God is instructing Noah

upon exiting the ark,

“Whoever sheds the blood of a human,

by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;

for in his own image,

God made humankind.

It would seem to me that,

if each of us

and all of us

are created in God’s own image,

there is great dignity in that.

Great dignity in what it means to be human.

For me

and for you

and for every person we meet.

How does it change your reaction

or response to someone

if you understand that they,

like yourself,

have been created in God’s own image.

That homeless person on the street?

That next-door neighbor

who makes you a little crazy?

That person

who just cut you off in traffic?

President Trump?

Hillary Clinton?

Does it change things for you

if you view each one in that list

and of all humanity

as made in the image of God?

There is great dignity

for all people

in being created in God’s image.

It is the same dignity,

and glory and honor,

that the psalmist writes about in Psalm 8…

“When I look at your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars

that you have established;

what are human beings

that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them

a little lower than God,

and crowned them

with glory and honor.

You have given them dominion

over the works of your hands;

you have put all things

under their feet…”

Yes,

there is dignity

in being created in God’s image.

But,

there is also great responsibility.

There is this fancy word in theology

that I really like--

perichoresis.

Theologians often talk

about the perichoretic relationship

of the Triune God.

Perichoresis is a word

that describes this relationship:

as co-indwelling,

co-inhering,

and mutual interpenetration.  

Alistair McGrath writes that

“it allows the individuality

of the persons

to be maintained,

while insisting

that each person

shares in the life

of the other two.”

In this relationship of the Triune God,

there is separation,

yet there is togetherness.

There is individuality,

yet there is community.

How the three persons

of the Godhead

live in relationship to each other

is how God has created all creation to live.

Not just humanity,

but all creation.

Respecting the gifts

and individuality of the other.

Yet,

loving and caring for each other

and all creation

in full relationship,

together,

in community.

A community of being

in which each person

maintains its distinctive identity,

yet is interconnected to the other.  

Now,

we know

that we are not now perfect representations

of the image of God.

In our fallen state,

we constantly dismiss this

in others and in creation.

We ignore those who we think are unimportant,

or disrespect those with no power.

We manipulate others for our own ends.

We pollute and damage creation,

using it for our own selfish needs

instead of how God desires.

The good news,

however,

as we read in Colossians 3,

is that our new selves

are being “renewed in knowledge

according to the image of its creator.”

This renewal,

this creative work

doesn’t happen by our own understanding

or strength.

Instead it happens through God,

through the redemptive work

of the Son on the cross

and through the sanctifying work

of the Holy Spirit

that begins in our baptisms.

And, it happens here

in this place.

In community.

Here,

inside these walls,

with each other.

It is here

where we continue to be shaped

and formed

through the Word

and in the Sacraments,

in relationship with each other,

to become the people who God desires us to be--

people created in the image of God.

This is God’s desire for us.

This is God’s desire for all humanity.

God is determined

that we will all be reshaped

into God’s image,

just as God intended us to be

from the sixth day of creation.

This,

as the church,

is our task.

It is the same task given by Jesus

to the disciples:

to participate in God’s mission.

Did you hear that?

To participate in God’s mission.

Notice that it is God’s mission

and not ours

or that of the church.

It is God’s mission

that we will all be reshaped

into God’s image.

We are called to give witness

to that mission--

how we have experienced God

so that others might see

and wonder how God is working.

To witness through word and action

to what God is already doing

in our neighborhood,

our community,

and our world.

God is always ahead of us,

creating

and renewing.

Our task

is to join God in that work--

in God’s mission--

and to testify to God

as the source of all grace,

all love

and all community.

To join the dance of the Trinity.

To jump into that relationship of mysterious,

unexplainable,

yet, unbelievable

Three in One.

To be freed

in hope and love

and to be woven into full relationship

with the Triune God

and with all humanity

and all creation.

How else can we respond

except in the beginning

and ending words of our psalm today:

“O Lord,

our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name

in all the earth!”

Amen.

Preached June 11, 2017, at Grace & Glory Lutheran, Goshen, KY.

The Holy Trinity

Readings: Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20