Tag Archive: Leadership

The Altar Between Us

December 15, 2021 0 Comments

Sometimes we see only what others have constructed and then in our minds, our hivemind constructs an explanation. Caution is required. Our interpretation of what they have done may not be right.

Usually co-brooding produces the most negative explanations. Goodwill evaporates across the distance and the borders.

A counsellor shared with me years ago that children are incredibly perceptive; they pick up the cues indicating something is going on relationally in the family or in the room. However, children are usually terrible interpreters of what has happened.

In these days of Covid, of distance, and the speed with which we see what others have constructed or written, we are all children. We are quick to perceive, but we are terrible at interpreting. Then, from the distance, sure of ourselves, we strap on our armour, take up our swords sure that annihilation of the other is the only answer.

This is an old problem. In Joshua 22, when the Eastern Tribes returned home after battling alongside the rest of the tribes of Israel under Joshua’s leadership, they constructed a massive and imposing altar alongside the border on the Israelite side near the Jordan river. When the rest of tribes heard of this altar they assumed the worst, idolatry and treason against the Lord, strapped on their swords and issued a call for war.

Fortunately leaders were sent to Reuben, God and the half-tribe of Manasseh ahead of the hastily formed army to launch an inquiry and seek an explanation of the altar. War was averted. An acceptable explanation was heard. The altar was built with the future generations in mind. The altar was a reminder and a prompt meant to affirm their connection to the LORD and to the other tribes.

Devastation was averted and the altar was given a name: A Witness Between Us–that the LORD is God.

Through the years I have found this story very helpful. The people I have served alongside and been in the same family with have done their own thing. I have too. Their actions seemed strange to me. On the “other side of the Jordan” we each are left wondering what the other is up to. Often we each have our good reasons. But across the space I am astonished at how quickly trust and good will evaporates. The stories we construct in our heads and with our co-brooders need to be tested.

Whether its a Tweet or an absence, an off-hand comment, or a transition in their lives, my internal narratives must be tested. I have found its good to keep assuming good-will and “the best” unless it has been sufficiently explored with “the others.” James said, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…” (James 1:19).

Our digital lives seem to shrink the physical distances marked out across the globe. Yet, phones attached to our hands, social media and zoom have not improved the quality of our internal narratives. These narratives still need to be sifted. People still need to be given the benefit of doubt. This kind of move requires humility, time, kindness and gentleness. Paul put it this way, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5)

The Lord is near.

Leadership, Relationships

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How to save a city?

February 7, 2020 0 Comments

Do you know the parable of the poor wise man who saved a city?

I’m reading through the Bible again. I love the moments where the Word of God catches me by surprise. What I used to blaze through quickly I find myself pausing over, praying over, meditating over, and bringing deeper into the marrow of my existence.

This week the Teacher of Ecclesiastes caught me by surprise. Is there anything that could truly impress this person equipped with all the privilege required to sample life without fear of social consequence? And then there is. He is “impressed with a great example of wisdom.” It’s an account of a poor wise man who saved a city. I’m sure I blazed through it in my former readings.

13I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

17The quiet words of the wise are more
to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

18Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good.

Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

When the church has a full-bodied vision of discipleship it will seek out men and women of Jesus who are full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. These wise folk may not be on the platform. We will probably need to get off the public ramparts and poke around in the corners of our congregations to find them.

We won’t elevate the wise unless we are willing to share life with those who seem “poor.” Unfortunately we seem to be more inclined to elevate the people who are able to make a good show. So many folks are looking for a leader who will save the day; yet, they love the shouts of a ruler who gives them reasons to feel good about being bad. Such a leader is “a ruler of fools” says the teacher. This kind of leader is puffed up and full of the celebrated strengths of humanity, willing to be combative and rushing to implement the weapons of war. One leader like this “destroys much good.” For this leader everything is about competition, being the survivor whose existence at the top must mean they were right, and who reflexively treats another’s commitment to righteousness and integrity as “weakness.” This leader shouts and will gain more applause from his or her congregation of fools.

Unfortunately our visions of leadership and even of discipleship do not lean toward the wisdom of Jesus. We are being trumped by our desire for a show. 

For any who lead and for any who have the ambition to serve (to make a difference) by being the person who invites people to do what they would never do unless a leader was present, this parable will strike deep into the desire for applause and position. Am I willing to be the poor wise man who saves a city but may be forgotten, unnamed, and even despised?

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Leadership, Society

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Six Women God Raised Up Making the Torah Possible

June 13, 2018 0 Comments

Preserving life and pursing God’s vision of human flourishing requires leadership.  Resisting a culture of death requires leadership. Within the regular conversation of the Church is what some may experience as an annual interruption provided by the Incarnation of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus: women who lead. The women who showed up at the tomb became the first to proclaim and give witness to the Good News, “Jesus is alive!” Its this work of God that inspires the New Testament.

 

Likewise, though not as regularly considered in the church, the redemptive work of God in the exodus of Israel from Egypt provides us with what is not meant to be an interruption. In fact, I believe its because these events are treated as “interruptions” and not the normal activity of God that we find ourselves so shorthanded in the church and the mission of Jesus. If only we remained hitched to the full testimony of the whole Scripture, we would see that the interdependence of men and women in leadership has been God’s way in all our beginnings.

 

The extraordinary redemptive work of God precedes our texts. Exodus gives birth to Genesis. Moses emerges from the influence of the Egyptian empire because God has heard the cries of His people and is working. Genuine leadership in the Kingdom of God, is a response to the graceful stimulus of God. Such leadership takes its form in the promotion and preservation of life.

 

Exodus 1:15-22 (NIV)

15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

 

Exodus 2:1-10 (NIV)

1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

 

Exodus 2 is most often read as an introduction to Moses. But actually its an introduction of God and how He is working. These six women are called out by God. They are called “out” because they act in resistance to the culture of death. They have gotten out of step with the empire and the king’s insistence that every male child be thrown into the Nile. They are out of step with the culture of death.

 

The Company of the Committed

Let’s list out the company of those who resisted, who became aligned with God. They  surely had to make internal decisions to pursue life even at the risk great cost, even their lives. That’s what leadership does: a leader counts the cost for pursing a vision greater themselves especially when it aligns with God’s righteousness.

Shiphrah and Puah: The midwives who delivered boys and girls equally and resisted the king’s death edict. They entered into a form of civil disobedience against evil; they did not give in when confronted by the king.

Jochebed: The mother of Moses. She kept her son and then strategically let him go. She built an ark for the preservation of his life. Her name means, “YAHWEH is glory.” Her husband is Amram.

Miriam: The sister of Moses. She assisted the redemption of Moses from death by strategically floating Moses in the Nile, waiting to see what happens, and then intervening with Pharaoh’s daughter to strategically find help (Jochebed) for nursing the child. Her name has several associations but the most direct is to her own birth: bitter – in reference to her birth in a season of bitter labour and harsh treatment at the hands of the Egyptians. (It should be noted that in some commentary Jochebed and Miriam are sometimes identified as the brave midwives, Shiphrah and Pauh.)

Bithiah: The Pharaoh’s daughter. In direct opposition to the king’s edict, she ordered the rescue of Moses from the Nile, had compassion on the baby, adopted him as her own, named the child, paid for his care (which came to Jochebed), and welcomed him into the Pharaoh’s court and family. She is named in 1 Chronicles 4:18. In Midrashic tradition is considered to be the one and the same daughter who rescued Moses. Her name means, “Daughter of Yah” — most often understood in reference to Yahweh.

The slave girl and the attendants: As persons under the leadership of Bithiah and as witnesses of Bithiah’s life preserving actions they have become complicit with her resistance to the king, and are aligned with her great value life.

 

 

Leading Agents of God’s Redemption 

These six women are raised up by God as agents within His redemptive work. Together they conspired to preserve the life of a vulnerable child. They knew his name. They knew his history. They knew the treasonous actions that preserved his life. Yet, over the next twenty years they never yielded. As far as we know they never used the subversive knowledge as a threat. They did not know what Moses would become, but God did. They did not know what Word would create God’s people. They became participants in the supreme flow of God’s purpose.

 

The exodus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is the Passover. But the Passover has a history too. It is built on a series of redemptive acts inspired by God, making His values visible, and leading up to His dramatic intervention. Likewise the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus was not just one redemptive act; our focus is Easter. However, the story of God’s Kingdom is an extended series of redemptive actions inspired by Jesus before and after His Resurrection. In both the Exodus and in the Resurrection, women and men led themselves and others to respond to God even in the face of raw, violent, oppressive power. They chose to obey God in the regular course of their lives rather than those who would project a false supremacy and a culture of death. In so doing, they became leaders and participants in the flow of God’s true life. We can celebrate, we must celebrate how God works. God has always chosen to work redemptively through the leadership of both men and women.

Discipleship, Leadership

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André Trocmé, a genuine protestant

June 5, 2018 0 Comments

Today, 5 June 2018, marks the anniversary of André Trocmé’s death in 1971.

André and his wife Magda, served Jesus in the French village of Le Chambon for fifteen years. During those years of service their village and parish because known as “the republic of Le Chambon” because of their persistent resistance to the Nazi violence against Jewish people. It is estimated that over 2500 people found safe refuge through their village, as the villagers took seriously their calling to be a city of refuge,” a sanctuary.

 

André was equally concerned for the victims and the perpatrators of violence. Jesus had arrested André’s anger and channeled his passions through deep convictions regarding the sanctity of life and the great value of a soul evidenced through the Cross of Christ. But still, André Trocmé was known as a “dangerous pastor.” Author Phillip Haille, opens a window on the struggle André and the village of Le Chambon faced:

World War II, between the Axis and the Allies, was a public phenomenon; military, journalistic, and governmental reporters made it abundantly available to the public. It impressed itself powerfully and deeply upon the minds of mankind, both during and after the war. The metaphors that descried it have a flamboyant cast: the war itself was a “world war,” with many “heroes”; there were “theaters of war,” and soldiers who participated in major “campaigns” received “battle stars.”

 

No such language applies to what happened in Le Chambon. In fact, words like “war” are inappropriate to describe it, and so are words like “theater,” While the story of Le Chambon was unfolding, it was being recorded nowhere. What was happening was clandestine because the people of Le Chambon had no military power comparable to that of the Nazis occupying force, or comparable to that of the Nazi conquerors. If they had tried to confront their opponents publicly, there would have been no contest, only immediate and total defeat. Secrecy, not military power, was their weapon.

 

The struggle in Le Chambon began and ended in the privacy of people’s homes. Decisions that were turning points in that struggle took place in kitchens, and not with male leaders as the only decision-makers, but often with women centrally involved. A kitchen is a private, intimate place; in it there are no uniforms, no buttons or badges symbolizing public duty or public support. In the kitchen of a modest home only a few people are involved. In Le Chambon only the lives of a few thousand people were changed, compared to the scores of millions of human lives directly affected by the large events of World War II.

 

The “kitchen struggle” of Le Chambon resembles rather closely a certain kind of conflict that grew more and more widespread as the years of the Occupation passed….

 

But the people of Le Chambon whom Pastor Andé Trocmé led into a quiet struggle against Vichy and the Nazis were not fighting for the liberation of their country or their village. They felt little loyalty to governments. Their actions did not serve the self-interest of the little commune of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the department of Haute-Loire, southern France. On the contrary, those actions flew in the face of that self-interest: by resisting a power far greater than their own they put their village in grave danger of massacre, especially in the last two years of the Occupation, when the Germans were growing desperate. Under the guidance of a spiritual leader they were trying to act in accord with their consciences in the very middle of a bloody, hate-filled war.

 

And what this meant for them was nonviolence. Following their consciences meant refusing to hate or kill any human being. And in this lies their deepest difference from the other aspect of Word War II. Human life was too precious to them to be taken for any reason, glorious and vast though that reason might be. Their consciences told them to save as many lives as they could, even if doing this meant endangering the lives of all the villagers; and they obeyed their consciences.

 

Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The story of the village of Le Chambon and how goodness happened there. Philip Hallie, 1979.

Both André and Magda Trocmé and their nephew Daniel Trocmé have been included by Yad Vashem as the Righteous among the Nations. As well the whole village of Le Chambon has been honoured by Yad Vashem, only the second whole community to be honoured in this way.

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Leadership

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If Jesus doesn’t show up.

February 3, 2017 0 Comments

Photo Credit: Todd Diemer

Reluctance to lead can infect any of us at sudden notice causing us to loose our nerve. Crossing the threshold into leadership by showing up, speaking up, remaining warm but firm and pursuing righteousness and the Kingdom of God, takes us outside the comfort of our couch and screen. Jesus has called His disciples to be salt and light. We are on the King’s Mission in all our circles of influence. We are called to participate in a mission of grace and truth for the redemption of people. Impossible situations abound and God calls leaders into them.

 

Deborah, the prophet and judge in Judges 4 and 5, issued God’s call to Barak to summon an army from the tribes of Israel so they could throw off the oppressive regime of King Jaban and his army commander, Sisera. The odds were against them. Israel was living scared, avoiding the roads for fear. They had no standing unified army. They did not have sufficient defence against 900 chariots. If they showed up by the Kishon river in front of Sisera’s army, surly they would be routed. Unless… the Lord showed up.

 

Barak said he would go if Deborah came with him. We are like that sometimes so find someone to go with you if you are loosing your nerve. Some in Israel stayed away without a second thought. Some had much searching of heart, but stayed away too. Others volunteered willingly and joined Barak and Deborah in their stand against Jaban.

 

It rained. God sent the rain and the chariots sank and slowed in the mire and muck. The situation changed because God showed up.

 

What are you doing that won’t get done unless God shows? What are you aiming at that requires grace? What are you trusting Jesus for? Into what relationships, what circles of influence will you bring hope, forgiveness, kindness, conscientious and quality work, and the Gospel? Are you trusting Jesus to do something there, at work, in your neighbourhood, in your family, in a friend, that can’t be done without Him?

 

“Our Father in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Discipleship, Leadership

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