Christian Leadership — Homily by Rev. Canon Bryan Biba

Assist us, O Lord, as we enter into the

contemplation

of those mighty acts whereby you have

given us life and immortality.

In the name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit. Amen. You may be

seated.

in my study at home.

The second shelf on the left hand side,

there's a small little section

uh next to some history books on

leadership.

I've collected books on leadership for

many, many years. I've read many. I've

thrown out many. Uh, but this shelf at

my home is where I keep the ones that I

think are the most truthful, have the

most wisdom, I have found the most

helpful.

And my favorite book of all on that

shelf is a book by the retired Army

Colonel and professor at Princeton,

James McGregor Burns. He wrote a seminal

book called leadership

where he analyzes human leadership and

comes to some pretty interesting

conclusions.

He starts the book by saying leadership

is one of the most observed

and least understood phenomenon on

earth. And isn't that true?

All of us can think back in our lives at

the good leaders and the not so good

leaders. those who shaped us in powerful

transforming ways and those who did

their best but maybe didn't leave the

impact that others did.

McGregor Burns names two kinds of

leadership in the conclusion. He says

all human leadership fits into one of

these two categories.

transactional leadership where bargains

are used to aid individual interests of

persons or groups who go about their

separate ways.

Transactional leadership is all about

quidd proquo. You scratch my back, I

scratch yours. Transactional leadership

is the grease and the gears of much of

business.

But there's another kind of leadership

that's very different and that's

transformational leadership.

Transformational leaders shape, alter,

and elevate the motives, values, and

goals of their followers.

Transformational leaders cast vision

that our separate interests are achieved

through pursuing a common higher

purpose.

In transformational leadership, leaders

and followers raise each other to higher

levels of motivation and morality.

Now, both kinds of leadership have their

place. Leaders can do good with both

approaches. And throughout the book, he

surveys all kinds of leaders from Hitler

and Stalin to FDR and Lynden Johnson,

naming the different ways they exercise

power and influence.

But no matter how you lead others

through transaction, through

transformation,

you and I must always lead as

Christians.

And tonight, the night before Jesus

suffers, Jesus shows us what Christian

leadership looks like.

Christian leadership is love

manifest through humble service.

We see this clearly in our gospel

reading from John 13.

We're told that before the feast of the

Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour

had come to depart out of this world to

the father,

having loved his own who were in the

world, he loved them to the end.

John gives us insight into the driving

force of Jesus's mission. It's love.

Indeed, as he would write later in his

epistle, God is love.

Jesus knows his time has come. He will

love his disciples to the end. But this

love is not just a transaction. Jesus

will love his disciples in a way that

will change them as he hands the baton

over them to them so they can carry on

his mission.

Love, friends, is the goal of all

Christian leadership.

And immediately John gives us a

contrast. During supper, the devil

entered into the heart of Judas's

scariot to betray Jesus. And Jesus

knowing that the father had given all

things into his hands, that he had come

from God and was going back to God.

Now, let's stop there.

Jesus knows that God, his father, has

given him all things. He's not just

given him a mission. He's given him

something to steward the lives of his

disciples, those who love him. He knows

that all things come from God the

Father, and that we humans are called to

give everything back in love.

And the greatest gift that Jesus has are

these 12 men, his disciples, his

followers, those he's been training up

for three years to take over leadership

after him.

These are his comrades, his brothers in

arms. They have been to spiritual battle

together. Jesus loves these men and

these men love Jesus.

And yet Jesus knows that one of them

will betray him, Judas.

He knows that one of these disciples who

he has loved, who he has poured into, is

not worthy of his love.

And yet

Jesus chooses to love anyway.

He rose from supper. He laid aside his

outer garments. He took a towel and tied

it around his waist. He poured water in

a basin and began to wash the disciples

feet.

In the ancient world, foot washing was

one of the most humble acts of service.

According to uh the rabbitical texts, it

was such a low form of service that

Hebrew slaves were forbidden from

washing the slaves of their Jewish uh

the their Jewish masters. Instead,

footwashing was reserved only to gentile

servants.

And yet Jesus who is God incarnate, who

is love,

who has come to transform the world,

Jesus takes on the form of the lowest

servant,

washing the dirty, nasty, grimy feet of

his disciples,

washing even the feet of Judas who

betray him.

True love must be manifest practically

or it's not love of all. And that's why

if love is the goal of Christian

leadership, then the manifestation of

this love is always in humble service.

It's not enough to love in theory. Love

must be put into practice by the way we

serve. Not with pride, but with

humility.

This is so shocking to Simon Peter that

he wants none of it.

Lord, do you wash my feet?

Peter wants Jesus, I think, to be a

strong leader, to be like Herod or to be

like Caesar Augustus or Judas Mcabas a

generation before, to show forth his

power and his might, to cast a

compelling vision and to charge ahead.

But he does not yet understand the truth

of the gospel. And as a result, he

misunderstands the true nature of

Christian leadership. He's still

thinking according to worldly wisdom.

But Jesus is showing him a very

different way.

Jesus willingly humiliates himself.

He does this in order to demonstrate

that true leaders love.

And they manifest their love through

humble service

not only to their friends, to their

followers, but also to their enemies,

their betrayers.

Friends, each one of you gathered here

is a leader.

You have some area of your life, your

home, your work, your family, your

friends, your neighborhood, your

community. There's some area in your

life you exercise influence and lead

others.

You might be a transactional leader,

someone who's just seeking to get a deal

done, to make a remedy, to make a trade.

And that's good. Nothing wrong with

that. You might be a transformational

leader. You might want to cast a vision

to seek those around you be renewed into

a new way of being in the world.

But however you do it, however you lead,

you must always lead as a Christian.

And that means washing feet.

Love manifest through humble service.

So wherever you lead, whatever spear you

exercise your influence, the question we

must all ask ourselves tonight is, do

you lead like Jesus?

Is your leadership Christian?

Do you love those who follow you by

humbly serving them?

Or are you like Peter?

Do you measure effective leadership by

worldly wisdom? Do you pridefully reject

Jesus's humility in favor of worldly

power?

Or worse yet, are you like Judas? Do you

betray Jesus and his servant leadership

through greed and violence?

Tonight, Jesus is willingly betrayed

into the hands of sinners

for you

and for me.

And tomorrow Jesus will suffer and die

unjustly at the hands of the leaders of

his day.

And thanks be to God, on the third day

he will rise again from the dead,

proving once and for all that love is

stronger than death.

Jesus does all of this so that we, his

church, his body and bride, might die

and rise with him and manifest his love

to those around us through our humble

service. That's what it means to be the

church. That's why we follow Jesus, to

serve the world around us in love.

So, whose feet is Jesus calling you to

wash tonight?

Who is Jesus asking you to love through

humble humiliating service?

Tonight on this Monday, Thursday,

receive the new commandment of Jesus.

Love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also

are to love one another.

By this all people will know that you

are my disciples

if you have love for one another.

In the name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.