The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the
service of others.
Popularly
attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in
front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take
the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your
leadership.
Nelson
Mandela
Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You
don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your
subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul
generated by love.
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Servant-leadership is more than a concept, it is a fact.
Any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see
herself or himself as a servant of that group and will act accordingly.
M. Scott
Peck
If you want to be great in God’s Kingdom, you must be the
servant of all.
Some guy
named Jesus
__________________________________
Jesus said it
Some very amazing people have lived it
Not perfectly, no
But profoundly
We know their names
The great ones like Mandel, Gandhi, MLK Jr
More
The not-so-famous ones, like Alex Pretti, Steve Hayner
(I’d list folk, but you won’t know them)
In God’s game plan
Leaders are servants
Their job is to serve
They are to be people for others
Maya Angelou said it well,
“A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she cannot
be much of a leader if all she sees is herself.”
Jesus was a servant leader.
He emptied himself, he humbled himself for the sake of those
he loved
(which is everyone)
He gave of himself, expended himself to the point of
Death
This tells us a lot about what we call
The Kingdom of God
It’s a bad name (sorry, Jesus)
Because we don’t understand it
Kingdoms have Kings
Kingdoms are places where some people dominate
Where they rule over other people
In kingdoms, the people at the top get served
By the people on the bottom
That is the earthly equation
Yeah, I guess it is fine to talk about a Kingdom
But only if the ruler is the God who is Love
But most of us really don’t get it
We cannot conceive; it does not compute
That God is a servant God
We say we see God in Jesus
But do we?
Or do we identify God with the powerful ones
The rich ones
Are we the disciples of dominion?
Do we have a colonial approach to power
Seeing ourselves as those with the right to conquer,
to occupy, to plunder?
How did we get to a place
Where a greedy and predatory leader
Turns the People’s House into a gross and gaudy palace?
Where those who are supposed to protect us and fight for
justice
Fly around in private jets, chug beer with men who, in
the thrill of victory
Reveal toxic masculinity
Where one who is to protect us cosplays authoritarian
leadership?
How did we get a leader who says
“I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who
have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution".
This does not line up with Jesus teachings about power
You know, that inconvenient stuff most of Christianity
ignores
The first shall be last and the last first
Those who would be first must be the servants of all
Give all you have and give to the poor (you know, those
lazy moochers)
This does not line up with Jesus on the cross
With “Father, forgive them.”
At so many places
In our capitals, in the boardrooms of our corporations
In our churches
We have leaders who are predators.
Who see the systems they lead
as there for their own personal pleasure and benefit
Who take rather than give,
Who dismantle services for others for their benefit?
Who destroy the planet for profit
True leaders serve
Faux leaders abuse
And we see it every single day.
So what do we do?
We become the conscience of Empire
We become the thorn in the side of the oppressors
We stay faithful to the teachings of Jesus
We advocate for the vulnerable
We seek to help and heal
We do what Jesus did.
