2024-12-04 A Meditation on Leadership

“24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. 28 “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, 29 and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Lk 22:24-30 ESV)

Coping with heightened alert, suddenly we are of one mind, for the customary has ceased to be and we find ourselves suddenly in a spacious realm, yet in this realm with an intent to Act. All of a sudden the striving for milk money and the homework assignments and the daily grind, this ceases to Be, because the foundations are shaken and we are left marveling at the copious Space, and with it the more copious Intent of the Heart, to do a deed of Service, to act Responsibly though liberated and personally judicious to choose and forge a Way. It is a vacuum created by the onset, the undercurrent and tug, of distant War.

Such is the heightened alert that bore us Homeward: we are of One Mind with our fellow or gal, to Act as though no indebted servitude, banal sickness, persistent wheezing, or general malaise can quite Affect the One who is now coasting as though in a Broad New World. There is now room, because we no longer hoard or boast, room for ample forgiveness because sin almost has become a joke to which we are party and insider. That is, we are living in this Realm because we lacked the safety nets that in truth distance others from the genuine article. We lacked the merry story line, noting that those who speak of the Doctrine, speak of the Gospel, may tell a familiar line while also not quite yet being “likeable”. We may not “like” these people, except by God’s preventive grace, and instead prefer—like we laugh at the comedian on a stage—the awkwardness in someone else, the weakness in someone else, the lack of all questions answered in someone else.

At some stage in the heightened alert there is a strange sixth sense that we share and revolve and alternate in the true role of Head. Each of us might literally be, in some divine confluence of actors, actresses, the bearer of the Ark, the frontline into battle, the sage One whose words spell a brand of wisdom unheard of, and untaught. Test scores, success at the job, all this is mocked by the Spirit who says, give me three of These Ones, or two of Those Ones, to be sent out and to know, we act in synchronicity, each an over-determined (to use Freud’s term for reality, meaning many causal explanations each in themselves suffices, but all are also true) lode-bearer. We bear the lodestone, we Matter, our personal Calm and Composure: these Matter. Our simpler decisions, to break from custom and share a dollar with a beggar, these Actions all conspire to hedge us forward on some one side rather than the other in Salvation History. We are brought to mind by our deed (call it a good deed? To give a dollar?) of much that money cannot even buy.

So to the Heightened Alert of a world gone Mad, we are literally Immune to the careful manipulations and calculations of our forgone peers, whether sharing in the Good Name or not, each of us basks in our own self-congratulatory calculations a bit, but allows that these are Blessed foibles, that God Himself is sharing His own approval with our good deeds, when those come, and we are forgiven for basking a bit in the Approval Ratings. Or for saying “hurry up” to the others in the faith, Lord do we need mercy.

The malaise, general or particular, is real, and so are the unguarded moments, the ability for One Word to change the spirit in the air, for One Love Letter to bring out the honest side of a peer; we do not lump it all under damnation or malaise, but eagerly Hope that these finer tests will work out for the betterment of the community. Therefore we Learned. We Grew. We Toughened. And too we had a vast latitude that others simply hadn’t the courage to Claim. Only we are hearing the first intimations and fruits of this Together Exploration.

The soldier is ready, because he or she was born for this. He or she was long ago lumped with the ones who serve, with those who fight, with the patently Saved Constituent, only not fussing around this but being all the more Urgent and Persistent to leap at the wound rather than to mock the fellowship, to Give without measure and to self-deny or self-accuse without paycheck. We are literally leading—in some strange weird way that first one and then another of Jesus’ little ones, leads the day: “A child shall lead them” (Is 11:6). And we teach this child to warm to the finer points of life Together, to life in Community, to Sharing the Burden, even as they are our Persona and Leader, we still Teach and add on and build up, in the finer points as they come to mind. Such is the Body of Faith that enabled a Christ, that enabled a Mary and a Joseph, that sent a Gabriel and Simeon, that orchestrated a surprisingly peaceful Story, borne in that fruit of civilization and of Vision, that affords seasons of Peace in which a Christ germinates. In which we germinate, and defer or demure around any sense it is us who shall be honored. Honor the one God has chosen. Honor the ones who made that choice reasonable and justifiable. But also honor the Vision, the unilateral License of the Father Above to make bold moves and decisive Investments. He invests in your community and mine, through flawed souls called to Lead. These flaws, in spacious latitude for Action, cease to carry any stigma or burden, but wither and dry up, mitigate and dissipate. Even ones we cannot rightly see, for the shame or nervousness they entail.

To bless and produce, is to arrive with zeal at the spacious realm, not confused as though it were okay—now that the guardrails are gone—to laze about and indulge, but also though that temptation exists, so too exists the gladsome Room for Endeavor, and we choose well honorific deeds, to honor the Father, to keep ourselves Humble, to blink and see in an instant a whole world before us, and we the ones called to keep its peace, to wage its wars, to be zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). We are called to use our freedoms responsibly, and are able to do this because the sin-bearer dictated a world in terms of Mercy. Not in terms of our goodness, but in terms of a child shall lead them, in terms of a sinner shall be at the helm, because he or she—like King David—repented. Therefore we do no self harm because of our sins, but thrive and let the spiritual war and enthusiasm and courage and invite lead us forward into tomorrow. We belong, after all.