Scripture: I Corinthians 12: 4-11
- It’s a bit surreal to have the inauguration of this particular new president falling on the same day we honor Rev. Martin Luther King tomorrow.
- The contrast between the visions of Dr. King and Donald Trump could not be starker.
- The irony gets deeper with the recent death of Jimmy Carter and a review of his career
- And then, the reflections this week from outgoing President Biden
- I’ve been reading the words of these people:
- King’s letter to his white clergy colleagues from the Birmingham jail,
- Trump’s and Carter’s inaugural speeches,
- Biden’s final address as president this week
- Their words have gotten me thinking about how leaders lead, who influences them; what their imperfections and contributions amount to, and the ways we trust or distrust them.
- Americans have become deeply distrustful of leaders in the last few decades
- We’ve been hurt by leaders in the past; and we can’t always assure that they will be held accountable,
- Some of us have given up on trusting leaders entirely, even down to our school boards and pastors or the teachers of our children.
- So we may transfer our anger and blame about the world’s problems from one leader to the next, wondering why leaders are so inept.
- But if we don’t at least try to trust and work with the leaders around us, it gets harder and harder to accomplish anything.
Carter said in his inaugural: If we despise our own government, we have no future.
- I admit, it’s scary to observe the lowering standards for elected leaders;
- And threats we see and feel around us are real.
- But how do we address those threats?
- I wonder if, instead of putting so much focus on the flawed and corrupt leaders around us, we could try to focus on the positive leadership skills of people we admire, and to build on those.
- The leaders we’re thinking about this month, whether we like them or not, have each shown gifts for leadership in their particular places and times;
- History shows they all had their faults and cautionary tales.
- Our incoming president likes to take a strongman posture,
- to bluff and bargain and threaten to get the advantage over his opponents
- He demands complete loyalty of those around him; or else, they are publicly humiliated.
- One of his mentors was Roy Cohn, a man who “showed Trump how to exploit power and instill fear…to attack, counterattack and never apologize”.
- Trump has accomplished things for himself that way.
- Some people think he can accomplish things for the nation that way. Maybe history will bear that out.
- We cannot be sure what positive outcomes in history might result from this presidency and his leadership style.
- We do know in the past his style has made him a lot of enemies
- and that he will be the first president who comes into office as a convicted felon.
- So, many people are distrustful about his future leadership.
- But even in our distrust, we can learn something from a negative example.
- King was not an elected official, his leadership came from the grass roots.
- he came into leadership in the civil rights movement by the persuasion of his peers, and by the circumstances of history.
- He was a forceful, charismatic personality,
- His influences included Mahatma Gandhi and Howard Thurman, people steeped in spiritual practice and methods of non-violent social change.
- King (like Trump) also sought loyalty – not so much to himself, but loyalty to the goals of the civil rights movement;
- And (like Trump) he asked for the kind of loyalty that got people into trouble. (what today we would call “good trouble”)
- But he didn’t rely on his own singular appeal’ he built a wide network of people who carried out their own leadership.
- He was also distrusted by many people, including other clergy:
- In his Letter from the Birmingham jail, he was very critical of his White clergy colleagues—people who saw themselves as sympathetic to his cause, but who didn’t agree on his tactics or on the pace of change he was fighting for.
- For a movement to have success, people need to trust their leaders, and he was frustrated that many in the white Church didn’t trust his instincts.
- But history has born out that his tenacity and the style and his pace were shrew
For example, one writer observes that {King} mastered “the politics of respectability,” leading demonstrations characterized by a disarming dignity and restraint. The movement achieved a high moral ground. King deliberately marched in harm’s way, using TV footage to show a nation the unfairness and ugly face of Jim Crow.
- I read Jimmy Carter’s inaugural address this week, too. His style was different than both these leaders, I think.
- He presents himself less as a leader and more as a humble co-worker with the American people.
- He writes, “You have given me a great responsibility–to stay close to you, to be worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.”
- He pledged himself to what he saw as foremost American values:
- “Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced”
- Those values came out of his Christian formation, probably more than any other president in my lifetime.
- Carter spoke of his mother, Miss Lillian, as a major influence;
- she had been a Peace Corps volunteer and a midwife to black families during the Jim Crow era
- But Carter didn’t fit in in Washington. He didn’t know how to schmooze or do favors for people or play golf.
- He had a depth of character that seems to have been uncorrupted by life in Washington.
- In the long run, it doesn’t seem like holding the highest office in America was enough for him.
- He turned out to be a person who lived out a spiritual calling, whether in office or out of office,
- Some would probably say his life touched the world more profoundly after he left office than while he was in office.
- Maybe what makes Carter most compelling to Christians is that he chose to serve the poor, whether in Africa or in rural Georgia.
- He made me believe that it’s possible for an elected official to be a good person; and I still want to believe that.
- But who are we supposed to believe in and follow these days? Is anyone worthy of our trust?
- In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the focus is not on individual leaders, but on the team, with every spiritual gift in the room used to advance the cause of Christ.
- In the Church, the leader is not just that one charismatic person at the microphone;
- Leaders are those who use their unique spiritual gifts for the common good of the whole body, regardless of what those gifts are.
- Wisdom, knowledge, faith, powerful deeds, prophecy, interpretation…
- Today you might think of gifts like creativity, community building, a sense of humor, organizational skills, computer skills, listening skills,
- These gifts are distributed so that everyone has something to offer
- In other words, the gifts of leadership are all around us; in each other.
- In the Church, the leader is not just that one charismatic person at the microphone;
- Think about the people you have chosen to trust and follow as leaders…
- I’ve told you Jimmy Carter is one of mine.
- Anyone want to name someone out loud whose been worthy of being followed as a leader or mentor in your life?
- Look around and think about the leadership abilities in this room
- Is there someone here you admire, who is worthy of being emulated or a mentor?
- As we watch the changes in leadership happening around us—including here at Lyndale this coming year with a new pastor–maybe instead of focusing solely on the perils of poor or corrupt leadership, we should try to focus on and learn from the positive gifts leaders around us bring, and build on those as we’re able.
- And ultimately, the model of leadership we follow comes from Christ.
- None of us can perfectly live up to that model, but we need to always keep our eye on the Christ-like model
- I know many of us are fearful about the damage that may be done by poor leadership in the coming administration.
- But the Christian response to tyrants, from the early Church on, has been to resist poor leadership with faithful, transparent, courageous, cooperative leadership that draws on the gifts of every person at the table.
- You are one of the people at the table! What spiritual gifts and unique leadership will you bring to the time ahead?
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