Readings (Track 1)

Today’s readings: on the one hand, each part of a semi-continuous reading (the leadership transition from Moses to Joshua, Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, Jesus’ final days of public ministry), on the other hand, each speaking in its own way to the question of appropriate leadership. Let’s start with the simpler texts.

Leadership transitions are often tricky. Moses has died; how will Joshua be received? That question sets the agenda. As we heard the Lord say to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.” So there’s a sort of reenactment of the crossing of the Red Sea under Moses in the crossing of the Jordan under Joshua, all Israel again walking through on dry ground. So no question that leadership is important, and needs to be respected.

But is leadership about serving or being served? That question sets the agenda for the remaining readings. We can use today’s psalm to set the benchmark: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, * and his mercy endures for ever.” Or, from Isaiah: “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (46:3-4). Of all the lies told about God, hard to think of a more damaging one than that God’s about being served, not serving. For that—of course—underwrites our assumptions about how to do leadership.

Paul gets it right (our second reading): “You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers.”

And then there’s today’s Gospel. Within Matthew’s story line it sets us up for the Passion. If this is what current Jewish leadership is like, if they get their hands on Jesus, it won’t end well. In the context in which Matthew’s writing the Gospel, it looks like part of the struggle of the early Church and rabbinic Judaism to self-define vis à vis each other.

But before going further, let’s notice that truly remarkable beginning: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it.” This is unique to Matthew, as is, early in the Sermon on the Mount, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” As you recall, in the New Testament there are vigorous arguments over which parts of Moses remain binding, and for whom. Matthew’s Jesus is clear: all of Moses is binding on Jewish Cristians, and the scribes and Pharisees are reliable interpreters of it, even as their conduct leaves much to be desired.

So back to that conduct: leadership about serving or being served. The arguments between the early Church and rabbinic Judaism made it too easy for later readers to assume that the scribes’ and Pharisees’ problem was that they were Jewish, to ignore Jesus’ exhortations to his followers.

Well, what of those exhortations? Call no one “rabbi…father…instructor.” So as long as we don’t use those three words we can use “bishop, your holiness,” etc? That doesn’t sound right. I think it’s more like this: never underestimate the cultural/societal pull to treat leadership as about being served. As the Lord said to Cain “sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen. 4:7). And too often—e.g., the stories that continue to break re sexual abuse of minors—we’ve done about as well as Cain did.

I’ve been talking about leadership. So those of us who don’t think of themselves as leaders are off the hook? Sorry. No matter where we are on the totem poll or in the pecking order there’s some sphere that we see as ours, that sphere is which we either—yup—serve or get served.

Today I’ve noticed two strong headwinds, the pressure to believe that God’s about being served, the pressure to believe that leadership is about being served. They’re connected. So—here’s the good news—any progress we can make with the one will help us with the other. As my poor image of God is increasingly the God who serves, it will be easier—more natural—for me to use whatever power I have to serve. As I use whatever power I have to serve it will be easier—more natural—to believe that that’s what God’s about.

Again, from Isaiah: “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

Or, more succinctly from today’s psalm: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, * / and his mercy endures for ever.” That’s a mantra to take into the coming week.