University Christian Church

What makes for good leadership?

Right now, authors and academic types are claiming that the world is experiencing an uptick in authoritarianism. Larry Diamond of Stanford University in a media interview described it this way - “they can do whatever they want, they can repress and arrest and even murder whoever they want, they can rule as nastily as they want.” (and face no consequences)

Across the world from the Philippines to Turkey to Poland and North Korea and maybe even right here at home, leaders are choosing to behave as bullies, cracking down on their opponents, trying to silence those who might disagree with them… twisting what is fact and what is fake. Maybe it’s not new - maybe it’s been going on along time, but this kind of behavior doesn’t seem to get challenged on the international stage quite like it used to.

Especially when we hear of talk right here in our nation of a President who claims to be able to pardon themselves of all wrong - it’s okay if we get a bit nervous or fired up in alarm.

What’s clear - we are in need of some good leaders for a time such as this.

But what makes good leadership?

I wonder if part of the rise of authoritarianism is an ancient need buried within as human beings - a need for certainty. A need for security. A need for, even if it is not a tangible sense of a safety, someone or something in our lives and in our society who makes us feel grounded in all the uncertainty that swirls around us.

A tough talking leader can do that.

Walls and big guns and echo chambers (of people who believe things like we do) and people who look and act like us can do it too.

All of those things can seem to make life easier, make us feel comfortable and safe, even if the reality is that life is rarely safe. The unexpected can happen. Evil is on the prowl. There are bad guys with guns. We live in a world with nuclear weapons.

We want a King.

We want a King who can sort through all of that madness and convince us that it’s all going to be okay.

Who is going to stand tough and talk a good game and make our worry go away.

It seems scripture is prepared to challenge our notions of safety and security in one glorious leader.

In our text this morning, we come across a word from the Lord through the prophet Samuel that is as eerily timely today as it was a couple of thousand years ago.

Samuel the prophet, appointed by God as an intermediator between the people and the Holy, has seen his ministry begin to wane. He is old - and his sons have become corrupt. They are unable to carry on the family business. They take bribes. They showcase a leadership that is not aligned with God’s way.

So the people ask for a change - they ask for a king.

Place this in context - When the people came to the Promised Land, they didn’t initially have a King. They were a way of life that was quite free other than the specific religious laws that governed how they behave and settle disputes and care for the poor and vulnerable. But when trouble struck or the people needed a word, God gave the people prophets, sometimes called Judges, to gather the tribes and lead them to repel invaders or critique their way of life when they strayed.

But times have changed - the people have seen what other nations are doing. They are away of the instability and chaos of the world. Maybe those neighboring peoples raised their tariffs or tried to threaten them or have come across their border. The people don’t trust God’s way - they want a King.

Here, the people of Israel clamor for a King - and they clamor for a King for all the reasons that authoritarians today are having a run of success. They want security. They want a warlord who will lead them into battle. They want to be like other nations, strong and significant. They want to feel safe and secure in a world of chaos and challenge.

Give us what we want - the people seem to say.

The prophet Samuel, knowing that his ministry is coming to an end just like his predecessor, Eli, listens to the people and consults God. Samuel is reluctant. After all, Samuel knew what God desired of the people - not for them to be conformed to the way of the world but conformed to the way of God.

God tells Samuel - they are not rejecting you - they are rejecting me.

Surprisingly or lovingly or with a mischievous grin, God gives them what they want.

But there will be a price. There’s always a cost.

These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.

The price for that “perceived” safety and security? Your lives. Your freedom. The fruit of your lands. Your children. And ultimately, a loss of your identity. God may not hear your cry anymore.

But the people, hard-hearted, are willing to take that bargain. Anything to keep up with the Jones. Anything to look as strong and mighty as all of their neighbors. Anything to claim that certainty in a world that seemed out of control.

And who does Samuel go and pick to be Israel’s first King?

Saul, who in Chapter 9 we are informed, most important credentials are that he is tall and handsome.

At first, Saul’s reign begins well - he must have been a terrifying sight in battle, but pretty soon, it begins to fall apart. No one person can fulfill all of those people’s dreams and desires. No one person can sustain the weight of the people’s desire for security. No one can be everything that people want and hope for. Saul too became jealous, bitter, distant, murderous, and hard-hearted. But at least he looked good while doing it, right?

Most cutting of all, the people, who were led out of bondage by a loving and just God, reject that God. They don’t want God to be their King. They want someone else. Someone they can touch and feel. Someone they can hang a portrait of on their living room wall. Someone who will give them inspiring speeches. They choose an idol over God.

How many times are we invited to choose an idol of security and safety over the One Sovereign God?

How many times have we chosen a candidate to vote for who is tall and handsome?

How many times have we chosen an ideology that offers certainty over reality?

How many times have we chosen to follow someone who looks and acts and believes like us even as God is calling us to place our trust in the Creator?

The opposite of safety and security is not vulnerability and irresponsibility but it is trust.

Trust in God’s creative, life-giving power.

Trust in God’s sovereign ability to hold us even in the midst of grief and uncertainty.

Trust in God’s leading and shaping so that we indeed might reflect God’s will in a world gone awry.

It’s past time to cast out those false idols and images.

All of our leaders are flawed. All of our leaders at one point or another will let us down. Including your pastor! And yet, the greatest among us must be the lowest, Jesus says.

For we Christians, our image of leadership comes from Jesus.

It comes from the one who the crowds talked about, crying out, “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!”

The one who prayed in the garden, with sweat like blood dripping from his brow, “Not my will but your will.”

The one who was spat upon and mocked and tortured and who said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Jesus who as Paul’s letter to the Philippians said:

he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This for me - and I hope for us - is an image of leadership that we seek.

Granted, I get that we as a church have a challenge. In a world where people come to church to seek security and safety, we are embarking on a project that challenges us to go to the margins. We are asking of each other to be open to the Holy Spirit shaping us in God’s image and not our own. We are calling one another to be stretched to place our trust not in bank accounts and weapons of war and political parties of any kind - but place our trust in God to provide for us as we face the wickedness of our day.

Sometimes, we come to church saying to God, Give us what we want.

But if we dare to listen and be open, we might receive exactly what God desires to give us - a place at the table, a part in God’s unfolding story of salvation and liberation.

Our church is full of stories of God’s provision - of God showing up in times of challenge and hope - of God giving us vision to live in this world. We know what it is to be vulnerable - may we commit to that call over and over again.