Servant Leadership
Christians have always proclaimed that they have good news to tell. The good news addresses whatever bad news is in the world, and is about new life because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Since the bad news I have been addressing this month has to do with the need for better stewardship of the environment, I must raise the question about what Jesus’ life and teaching can offer in the way of good news. Here is one perspective.
One of Jesus’ key teachings is about each of us taking responsibility for our place in leadership. Paying attention to this part of Jesus’ ministry is hugely important if we are to address environmental stewardship. On Saturday NPR reported on national polls indicating that environmental concern ranks as last among the top 20 concerns among Americans, despite the fact that the great preponderance of scientists agree that current warming trends pose a great threat to civilization as we know it. Without real leadership, we have no hope to turn this around.
Like theologian Douglas John Hall I believe that that true confession of faith must include stance, word and deed. We see this demonstrated through Jesus’ life.
1. Jesus took a stand
for humanity and for all creation, both now and into the future, by joining with us in the flesh in history;
2. Jesus took action
conferring the essence of his right-ness upon all of us, despite whatever wrongness is in us, first by joining us in the flesh and then through dying and rising—opening new possibilities for all who will receive it, and
3. Jesus took pains to teach
what transformed life is like—teaching both through words and through personal demonstration—so that we might begin to understand and participate in it.
I therefore wish to look at how Jesus took a stand, took action, and took pains to teach about leadership. I then challenge myself, and any who read this, to apply it.
To keep this to some reasonable length, I am summarizing Jesus teaching on leadership as finding proper understanding of human dominion over creation, and a proper understanding of being “the salt of the earth.”
In Genesis 1:23 of the creation story, God told the human creatures that they had dominion over creation. This makes a lot of sense today. No species on the planet is affecting the whole of creation, and throwing the delicate balances out of kilter, on the same order as human beings. We have dominion, which means responsibility, whether we want it or not.
As the one good human Jesus must be our model of what that dominion looks like in practice. Jesus is described in Colossians 1 as the Lord of creation. Yet, Jesus rejected the glory-based lordship and its potential for tyranny as proper understandings. Indeed, Jesus
• rejected James’ and Johns’ bid to aspire to become his top lieutenants. Instead, Jesus told them that whoever would be first must become the servant of all—the least.
• Jesus also employed a demonstration method to teach this at the Last Supper, when he did slave duty by washing his disciples’ feet. This kind of pointed teaching brought the true nature of Jesus’ leadership into focus when he paid the ultimate price on the cross. Dominion, as Jesus demonstrated it, is a humbling responsibility calling on us to take action, even at great personal risk or great personal cost.
Jesus also took a stand against “losing our saltiness.” If we disciples of Christ are the salt of the earth, called to preserve the earth as salt preserves food or hides, then we cannot hide behind the idea that God has everything in control and we have no responsibility. We have been given responsibility (dominion) by virtue of being human. As followers of Jesus, we must not lose our saltiness; we have been given this message to proclaim and to put into action.
Further, Jesus’ followers understood that Jesus’ salvation is for all creation. Paul wrote that “all creation groans” (Romans 8:22), awaiting the salvation of God. As Presbyterians, we proclaim that the church is the provisional demonstration of the salvation of God until He comes. We cannot escape the call for standing with creation, teaching about stewardship of creation, and putting our teaching into action. We are called to be like Jesus, and to lead in stance, word and deed.
Jesus took a stand against a false doctrine of dominion—i.e., believing either that we have tyrannical, glory-hoarding say about what happens in creation. God is King and we are not. But Jesus also took a stand against claiming that God’s sovereignty absolves us from responsibility. We are called the same kind of leadership as that demonstrated by Jesus: leadership that responds to the needs of the world around it. Or, to put it in other words, leadership that operates out of the same responsive love we saw in Jesus’ life as proclaimed in the Bible, and as we find it at work today through the action of the Holy Spirit. A proper doctrine of sovereignty calls us to be responsible stewards of creation, caring for the Earth on God’s behalf.
Today, the Earth needs people who see and feel its distress. Humanity is over-consuming, and over-polluting. We are called to be stewards and find that we are stewards of God’s creation, whether we want to be or not. So, since we do have that much impact on the world, how can we take effective leadership, today?
There is a great contrast in this between the understandings of dominion and of saltiness that are often proclaimed. Some teach dominion as hierarchical control. Such teaching stands in great contrast to Jesus, who emptied himself of glory (Philippians 2:5), and who never controlled other human beings (though Jesus did show control over nature and demons). As theologian Douglas John Hall points out, Jesus demonstrated human leadership by always honoring God as King. If God is King, we don’t have to be…and shouldn’t be.
A teaching of dominion strictly as hierarchical control always has negative spiritual. Observe these examples:
1. Domestic violence is a huge issue in Alaska largely because we don’t know how to share leadership in our relationships, and because we have not been taught how to hold onto our own sense of personal integrity unless we have personal control of others in important relationships.
2. Recovery from addictive behavior (drugs/alcohol, gambling, and relationship addictions) only begins when we come to terms with right leadership in our own lives—which includes the fact that we can’t control our own addictive behavior on our own, that God and God’s people can help, and that we must take responsibility for a program of recovery that includes that help.
3. The environmental changes are affecting the whole world but are showing the first signs of drastic change near the polar regions like Alaska. In the short run Alaskans might smile at an October without the inconvenience of snow and ice—not to mention smaller heating bills—but down deep we all know that this is not how it is to be. Scientific models indicate that the entire world will suffer greatly if this trend, strongly enhanced (if not caused) by human behavior, is not turned around.
Nor does teaching that God is King absolve us from all human responsibility. Jesus cried out to God to “take this cup from my lips.” Yet, as a human being, Christ knew that ultimately God’s will might call for him to take up this cause and its consequences for him, even though he did not want them.
Leadership, then, is for everyone. All of us are called to make a difference whenever we are present. All are called to seek an understanding of what kind of difference we are called to make. All of us are to stand out as called, to come to know and be able to explain why we stand out, and to put our explanations into practice. None of us are called to be on this earth without making a difference.
The question I am seeking just now is: how to make a difference as stewards of God’s creation?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Signs of the Times
Faithful people need to relate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the times in which they live. This means paying attention to the signs of the times, and joining in on how God is responding to these times in holy love. Indeed, the Scriptures tell us that paying attention to the signs of the times is important.
The 24th Chapter of Matthew relates how Jesus told his disciples that we would not know the time for the end of the world. Even so, there would be signs that show the beginnings of the end (wars, rumors of wars, etc.), and we should pay attention to them. Earlier (Matthew 16:1-4) Jesus berated the Pharisees for wanting miraculous signs from Jesus, when they were not paying attention to the signs of the times that God had provided in the world around them. Clearly, faithful people are to pay attention to the signs of the times they live in and shape their ministry to relate the gospel to those times.
We now live in a time where there are 6.8 billion humans on the world. Our cumulative impact on the rest of the planet is huge. Indeed, one of the big issues right now is climate change. The warming trend of the globe is happening faster than the most dire warnings scientists gave ten years ago. Updated science has resulted in updated estimates, and we now know with a high level of certainty that the planet will warm by at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit no matter what we do. However, by repenting of our current fossile-fuel dependent life, we can arrest the warming trend to only two degrees and, over time, turn the warming trend around. Two degrees will already mean huge, life damaging changes in the planet. More than that would threaten the very future of our grandchildren.
The problem, of course, is that we must respond to the signs of the times now, and not after the worst of these predictions (flooding of low-lying countries, spread of deserts across Africa and even parts of the United States, etc.) begin to come true. There is momentum behind climate change trends, and letting that much momentum build would make any reversal come too late. We must respond now to God’s signs provided in nature.
Of course, Scripture depicts another moment like that. Noah was considered crazy for building an ark in the desert (Genesis 6:1 - 9:17). The coming flood was years away, and no one would believe him. In such times, the faithful are called to pay attention to God’s voice, however God speaks to them, and respond faithfully. This is just such a time. We need to be the ark builders for future generations.
Not all members of the Presbytery of Yukon interpret the signs of the times the same. As a result, not all believe that the looming crisis is that drastic. Obviously, I do [For more on why I think this is so important, see the following book: Orr, David W. Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford University Press, USA, 2009).]
Yet, all who read their Bible know that humans are to be good stewards of God’s beloved creation. On Monday, I’ll add some thoughts from that perspective, sharing thoughts that I believe all Christians must support strictly due to the biblical witness—even without the signs of the times.
The 24th Chapter of Matthew relates how Jesus told his disciples that we would not know the time for the end of the world. Even so, there would be signs that show the beginnings of the end (wars, rumors of wars, etc.), and we should pay attention to them. Earlier (Matthew 16:1-4) Jesus berated the Pharisees for wanting miraculous signs from Jesus, when they were not paying attention to the signs of the times that God had provided in the world around them. Clearly, faithful people are to pay attention to the signs of the times they live in and shape their ministry to relate the gospel to those times.
We now live in a time where there are 6.8 billion humans on the world. Our cumulative impact on the rest of the planet is huge. Indeed, one of the big issues right now is climate change. The warming trend of the globe is happening faster than the most dire warnings scientists gave ten years ago. Updated science has resulted in updated estimates, and we now know with a high level of certainty that the planet will warm by at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit no matter what we do. However, by repenting of our current fossile-fuel dependent life, we can arrest the warming trend to only two degrees and, over time, turn the warming trend around. Two degrees will already mean huge, life damaging changes in the planet. More than that would threaten the very future of our grandchildren.
The problem, of course, is that we must respond to the signs of the times now, and not after the worst of these predictions (flooding of low-lying countries, spread of deserts across Africa and even parts of the United States, etc.) begin to come true. There is momentum behind climate change trends, and letting that much momentum build would make any reversal come too late. We must respond now to God’s signs provided in nature.
Of course, Scripture depicts another moment like that. Noah was considered crazy for building an ark in the desert (Genesis 6:1 - 9:17). The coming flood was years away, and no one would believe him. In such times, the faithful are called to pay attention to God’s voice, however God speaks to them, and respond faithfully. This is just such a time. We need to be the ark builders for future generations.
Not all members of the Presbytery of Yukon interpret the signs of the times the same. As a result, not all believe that the looming crisis is that drastic. Obviously, I do [For more on why I think this is so important, see the following book: Orr, David W. Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford University Press, USA, 2009).]
Yet, all who read their Bible know that humans are to be good stewards of God’s beloved creation. On Monday, I’ll add some thoughts from that perspective, sharing thoughts that I believe all Christians must support strictly due to the biblical witness—even without the signs of the times.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Yukon Presbyterians For Earth Care
Yukon Presbyterians For Earth Care
Curt and Cindee Karns' Bioshelter
For my wife, Cindee and me the stewardship of the earth is a real passion. We are so passionate aboutit that we bought a special “green-built-house,” both to live easier with the planet ourselves, and as a teaching platform for sharing various ideas on how we all can make a difference. We were therefore thrilled to learn that the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Presbyterians for Earth Care had decided to join the world-wide 350 Day effort.
350 Day is part of a world-wide effort to bring down greenhouse gas emissions to the
point where people and the planet can continue to coexist. Current estimates indicate that th
e maximum concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that would allow something similar to our current civilization would be somewhere between 295 and 350 parts per million. Recent measurements indicated the planet was passing 384 ppm. Grassroots efforts like 350 Day are aimed at raising awareness and encouraging human response to the problem—including bringing our CO2 emissions down to at least 350 ppm.
Much of the current efforts are aimed at forging a political solution to the problem, and I agree that politics must be a part of the solution. But I also believe that Christians are essential in making the theological and moral case for the effort. Reducing greenhouse emissions will not be easy, and without strong moral arguments it won’t happen. Happily, we have very strong biblical and theological support for making this case.
I will add a few thoughts on this biblical and theological material in the next few days. In the meantime. W O O H O O ! for Presbyterians for Earth Care and for 350 Day.
For my wife, Cindee and me the stewardship of the earth is a real passion. We are so passionate aboutit that we bought a special “green-built-house,” both to live easier with the planet ourselves, and as a teaching platform for sharing various ideas on how we all can make a difference. We were therefore thrilled to learn that the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Presbyterians for Earth Care had decided to join the world-wide 350 Day effort.
350 Day is part of a world-wide effort to bring down greenhouse gas emissions to the
point where people and the planet can continue to coexist. Current estimates indicate that th
e maximum concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that would allow something similar to our current civilization would be somewhere between 295 and 350 parts per million. Recent measurements indicated the planet was passing 384 ppm. Grassroots efforts like 350 Day are aimed at raising awareness and encouraging human response to the problem—including bringing our CO2 emissions down to at least 350 ppm.Much of the current efforts are aimed at forging a political solution to the problem, and I agree that politics must be a part of the solution. But I also believe that Christians are essential in making the theological and moral case for the effort. Reducing greenhouse emissions will not be easy, and without strong moral arguments it won’t happen. Happily, we have very strong biblical and theological support for making this case.
I will add a few thoughts on this biblical and theological material in the next few days. In the meantime. W O O H O O ! for Presbyterians for Earth Care and for 350 Day.
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