Grounded in God’s Wisdom
Proverbs 8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; James 3:13-18
Introduction
Like we did in Children’s Time, I invite you to take a moment to think of someone you respect and admire–someone you look up to. Think of someone who is a significant role model for you. You want to be like them, imitate them, follow them, maybe even model your life after theirs as much as possible. You have learned much from them. This could be a parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, team captain, a team leader, co-worker, someone in your church family. What are they like? What is it about them that makes them a good role model? Can you think of a word or a phrase that describes them? Can you think of a quality or characteristic they have that makes them someone you would like to follow or imitate? Do any of these qualities make it onto your list?
Show Leadership wordle slide
When we talk about the qualities that make someone a good role model or mentor, we are talking about leadership qualities. What is good leadership? Is it all about charisma, passion and dynamism? Or is it about vision, courage and risk taking? Or is it mostly about responsibility, integrity and trust? Unfortunately, with election season in full swing in the USA and talk of early elections here in Ontario and Canada, it might seem easier to say what good leadership is not! Sadly, it seems we have many examples. Selfish ambition, boasting and twisting the truth don’t make for good leaders, as our excerpts from the book of James reminded us. Let’s not get too distracted by some of the current toxic dynamics around leadership in our culture. Perhaps, through this fall worship series we can broaden our perceptions of what makes for good leaders.
Our fall worship series is called Living as God’s People: Leaders in the Land. The stories we will explore come from the Old Testament books of Ruth, 1 and 2 Samual, and 1 and 2 Kings. These books are part of a collection in our bibles that we call “historical.” They tell the story of how the Israelites settled in the land God promised to them, prospered, gained power and influence, and then over time lost it all. More than just retelling history, the writers of these books seek to explain what the events meant and how God was at work in them.
In these stories we meet people like Samuel, David, Abigail, Solomon, Ruth and Elijah who were all leaders in some way in their community. What made them good leaders? Some had wealth, power and fame, but that is not what made them good leaders. In fact, those things often distracted them from making good choices. Others were poor, young or powerless and yet God chose to work through them even though they were a bit of an unlikely, surprising choice to be a leader.
So how were all these different kinds of people good leaders? Is there a common thread? They were good leaders when they learned to listen for God and connect with God. Their wealth, power, their knowledge, their position or role or responsibility, or even their age wasn’t the deciding factor, but rather that they were tuned into God. They were grounded in God’s wisdom. As they learned to trust God’s wisdom, they began to understand what God was inviting them to do. Sometimes they struggled to make wise choices, but when they connected to God’s wisdom they were able to live according to God’s way. As we go through this fall series we will learn from them how to trust in God’s wisdom to guide us as we grow into leaders who share the love, peace and compassion of God in our communities.
Our texts today about God’s wisdom and how it works provide an overview for this series, a grounding for us before we even start to look at specific characters from the bible. As we have prepared for this series we have made a few observations that we will want to explore more fully as the series unfolds.
Good Leadership is Grounded in Divine Wisdom
First of all, leadership is grounded in Divine Wisdom, personified in the excerpts from Proverbs as Lady Wisdom–a feminine aspect of God’s character which serves as our anchor. This quality of God’s character is described as being present from the very beginning, from the very foundation of Creation. Divine Wisdom is baked right into the Creation, as our reading from Proverbs reminded us. Before anything else was created, Creator God formed Wisdom to undergird, to ground, to anchor all of Creation. Wisdom permeates, infiltrates, fills all that is. We have access to it when we listen for God. When we seek God’s Wisdom first, turn to Wisdom before anything else, she can fill us, guide us, ground us and centre us. As we go through this series we will see how various characters did seek God’s wisdom, and what that meant for their leadership.
Our trees here remind us that being rooted and grounded in God’s Wisdom provides us with what we need to nurture our “leadership leaves” as we discussed in Children’s Time. How is good leadership grounded in God’s wisdom? Leadership starts with our God-given gifts–with who we are and how we are created, with our unique talents, strengths and abilities built into us, and given to us from the foundation of our life. Leadership means using the God-given gifts we have to do good things. It means using our strengths and gifts for the good of others. It means stewarding our God-given talents, abilities and opportunities and using them to influence and serve others and point to God.
Some of my favourite things to watch at the Olympics are the equestrian events, especially showjumping. There is something so thrilling, so magnificent about these powerful yet nimble, graceful, agile horses, flying over huge jumps making it look so smooth and effortless and easy. But a whole lot of listening and communication is going on between the rider and the horse. It’s so subtle, we don’t often see it. The horse and rider partnership is a wonderful example of gathering strength and courage and effort and determination, and harnessing all that together for the outcome of clearing the jump. A good rider empowers the horse to do what it is built to do. And the horse learns to trust its rider for the cues that it needs at just the right time to make it over the jump. I like this horse and rider team as an image for leadership. Taking the best of what we have, and harnessing all that good to accomplish what God is cuing us, guiding us to do.
The Unlikely Choice
But sometimes, maybe even often, we don’t feel we have the gifts we need for the job at hand. We may feel underqualified, underprepared, and inadequate to the task. Maybe we think we are too old or too young. Over and over again in the biblical story we meet characters that are woefully inadequate and unprepared, lacking confidence or the skills they need.
So our second observation about leadership is this: God can call us beyond what we think we are capable of, give us tasks that seem to surpass the scope of our gifts, and still trust us to grow into what we have been invited to do. The 1 Corinthians part of our text reminds us that the unlikely choice is a key biblical theme. Few of us were wise or powerful or wealthy when God called us. Instead, God calls those that are powerless, those that are despised or discounted or ignored or overlooked. This is often God’s preferred way to work. God accomplishes much with the help of people who are unlikely choices for the job. Some hesitate and try to get out of it, like Moses and Jonah. Some are so young and inexperienced when they are called, like Samuel, David and Mary. Some are poor and disadvantaged like Ruth, or lack respect and power like Abigail. Some teach ideas that challenge the beloved traditions, like Jesus. And God still calls. Still encourages. Still empowers. Still stands with us.
Maybe we think we lack charisma or drive and ambition. Maybe we feel like we are not decisive or strong enough to be a leader. Maybe we feel like no-one will respect us as a leader. Lots of biblical characters felt the same! Some were called out of necessity to fill a void. Some were called in a time of crisis. Some were called when they were very young. But the thing they have in common is that they heard the invitation, and they listened. They tapped into God’s wisdom and trusted God’s timing. Like them, especially when we feel inadequate we can count on God’s Wisdom to guide us.
Pitfalls of Power
Of course, we can’t talk about leadership without talking about that tricky thing, power. At a basic level, power simply means the ability to make something happen. But power is always relational (there are people on all sides of it) and that leaves it open to being misused, abused and corrupted. So our third observation about leadership is that there are pitfalls when it comes to power. During this fall series we will meet some characters who really mess up as leaders when it comes to power and how they use it. They take advantage of their power. They get tempted by the things they can make happen when they have power. They manipulate and twist things to fit their selfish ambitions. The text from the book of James named these temptations and pitfalls. I do find it interesting, and I admit, troubling that God continues to work through flawed and misguided leaders. Both David and Solomon were revered leaders, but both of them also made big mistakes. And yet God calls, and guides and stays present, and God forgives, and starts again, even when these characters mess up. I will admit this bothers me. How can God still work through someone who has failed so spectacularly? How can God trust someone who has gone so out of bounds with their power? I don’t have a good answer for that. I do take some comfort from knowing that God does find ways to hold them accountable for their abuses.
If power is relational, then it means that when someone has power it impacts other people. So it’s always helpful to ask, Who has power and how did they get it? And how do they use it? It’s also important to ask, who doesn’t have power? Why not? Some of us don’t even recognize that we have authority, responsibility and influence, built right into who we are in the culture we live in. At its best power is shared in a relationship of mutual dependence, and mutual benefit. Good leaders empower others.
Leadership: Wisdom in Action
Leadership is power in action. It is about making things happen. It is practical. And lived. Leadership comes with the opportunity to harness power to do good things.It shapes how we live and how we interact. One more thing we will have observed so far about good leadership is that it does look different among followers of Jesus. As we read in the James passage… “if you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honourable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.” Perhaps among Jesus’ followers, leadership looks just a little bit different than how we and our culture think of leadership most of the time. This kind of servant leadership model is worth unpacking and exploring more as we go through this fall worship series. And here I am going to call on Larry to put up a slide, a wordle about leadership Jesus style. Here we see examples of the kinds of qualities we are cultivating by tapping into God’s wisdom to shape and guide us as leaders.
According to the excerpt from the book of James, wisdom, which grounds our leadership, is pure, which means it is concerned with truth, truth telling and integrity, not with image and false facade. It is peace-loving and gentle. It will not seek to coerce or manipulate with threats or with force and violence. It is willing to yield to others. It can listen, consider and include the viewpoints of others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. This kind of leadership is compassionate, caring, and focused on doing good for others. It aims for peace and justice. Tapping into God’s wisdom, grounding our leadership in God’s character, responding to God’s invitation to live out the gospel, fuels us, prepares us, equips us to lead in ways that are inclusive and empowering.
By corporate boardroom standards, this kind of leadership might sound weak, ineffective, it takes too long to get everyone on board and bring everyone along. It reminds me of the saying, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” There is something about good leadership that brings people together for a common purpose, that brings people along who are normally left out, that empowers others without feeling threatened by that sharing of power. The circle of characters up here on the display table is a good reminder of that kind of dynamic. We often think that leadership belongs with those who are in the so-called prime of their life–they are at their creative best in terms of their work, family, strength, growth, development. What about other age groups? We have lots of people who are retired, who are seniors in this church. Does that mean your leadership days are over? And what about our children and youth? Are they too young and inexperienced to be leaders? What does leadership look like when you don’t hold any position of power or responsibility or authority?
No matter what age we are we can all be mentors and role models for others in the way that we live our lives. If we are seniors we can offer experience and insight gained through years of life tapping into God’s wisdom. If we are young we can offer our enthusiasm and fresh perspectives that allow us to try new things. We can all live out some of the qualities and characteristics we see here on this slide. We can be active, intentional mentors through lots of different types of relationships. We can be informal mentors simply by the ways that we live our lives. We can be up-front leaders. We can be behind-the-scenes leaders. A church like SJMC is a great place for these kinds of intergenerational mentoring relationships. The question is, are we tuned in, listening and grounded in God’s wisdom?