Sunday
10/02/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Leadership” (“Spiritual Gifts” Series
– Part 5 of 7)
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 137
New Testament
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 17:5-10
My brothers and sisters, my friends, welcome once again on
this the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. Twenty Sundays after the Holy Spirit
moved and the Christian Church was born.
As many of you know, I have been preaching a series on
spiritual gifts. While there are many scriptures that discuss the various
spiritual gifts that we all have, I have been preaching on the seven spiritual
gifts that the Apostle Paul discusses in Romans 12:6-8.
Thus
far in this spiritual gifts preaching series, I have preached on the gifts of “giving”
or generosity,” of “mercy,” of “exhortation,” or “encouragement,” and last week
of “teaching”.
This
week, I want to talk about the spiritual gift of “leadership”. As many of you
know, whenever I present a concept or idea, I like to define what it is, so
that we all can know better what we are talking about.
In
the Christian context, a leader can be defined this way: “This gift speaks to the various leadership roles found
in the Church. While many think of roles such as administration, management of
funds, strategy planning, etc. as functions outside of the supernatural realm,
in reality individuals in these positions are just as in need of supernatural
empowerment as are ministers of the gospel. Some writers consider
the gifts of governments and leading to be the same gift, but others consider
them closely related yet different” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_gift).
Given this definition within the Christian context, this
means that leadership isn’t just the pastor. Leadership is a variety of
positions, ministries, and etc. Being a lay leader is leadership. Being a choir
director is leadership. Being one of our many beloved United Methodist Church
committees is leadership. Leadership means that you have been called by God to
take on certain responsibilities, make certain decisions, and to shoulder more
than others might have to shoulder.
Being a leader means that you are able to carry more burdens,
more stress, and sometimes much more work than others. It is truly a gift from
God, and some of us have it abundance, and some less so. I do think though,
that we all can be leaders in our own ways to.
In a more secular context, a leader can be defined like this:
1. A
position as a leader of a group, organization, etc.
2. The
time when a person holds the position of leader.
3. The
power or ability to lead other people (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leadership).
So are you a leader? Do people follow you? Do you hold a
position of leadership in this church, in your work place, or in the world? Do
you know what weight and responsibility of leadership feels like?
How many of us, if we are honest, are content to have as
few leadership positions as possible? You see some of us don’t want to be the
President of the United States. Some of us don’t want to be the boss where we
work, and some of us don’t want to be the pastor of the church that we may
attend. Yet while all of this is true, we so often have something to say about
the President of the United States, the boss where we work, or the pastor of
the church that we may attend.
The spiritual gift of leadership, in the context of the
Christian Church means that God has called you to lead, guide, inspire, build
up, love, and make decisions. Many of us have opinions about church leadership,
but many of us also don’t want anything to do with church leadership.
For me personally as a pastor, I remember watching the
preachers of the churches that I attended as a child. I remember thinking one
Sunday, “man, pastor so and so, must have such a good and easy life. He does a
church service, then lays in a hammock all week until next Sunday when he does
another church service”. What I know now though, is that when someone is dying,
when someone is spiritually devastated, when families are on the brink of erupting,
when there are crises, I often get called. As a pastor, as this kind of
Christian leader, I am called to shoulder the pain, the burdens, and the
struggles of churches, of people, of communities.
I don’t know some days if I have the spiritual gift of
leadership as much as I would like to, but what I do know is that while
Christian leadership can be hard, if we put our trust in Jesus we can do all
things.
The spiritual gift of leadership, I believe begins with
putting our trust and faith in Jesus Christ, and allowing the power of God to
lead and guide us. Strong Christian leaders then don’t just trust their brains,
their instincts, and their training, they also have a strong faith in God. To
be a Christian leader like a United Methodist District Superintendent or a
Bishop, means that you must have incredible faith, to allow God to maximize
your spiritual gift of leadership.
Once again, the spiritual gift of leadership can manifest itself
differently, and having the spiritual gift of leadership does not mean that you
have to be a pastor, a district superintendent, or a bishop. Yet believe me when
I say, that they all shoulder more than you will ever know.
So, do you have the spiritual gift of leadership? Do you
have the gift to motivate, guide, and direct people towards Jesus Christ? Do
you have the gift of leadership in such a way, that people follow your
leadership in the church and outside the church? We so often can be critical of
leaders, yet I find that many people don’t want to be one of them. The gift of
leadership is a great gift, but with it comes great responsibility. Do you have
the spiritual gift of leadership? My sisters and brothers, our churches are
always in need more leaders.
I remember back to December 14, 2016, when there was a mass
shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. On that day,
as many of you know, twenty-children were killed brutally and without cause.
Amidst this terrible national tragedy, I saw great
leadership. I saw a community come together, I saw leaders lead, and I saw the
clergy of that community come together. Imagine the kind of leadership that the
pastors and the priests in Sandy Hook showed in December of 2012. Yet, I would
suspect they were and are so blessed by God for shouldering some of that pain,
suffering, and grief, and doing it for God.
My sisters and brothers, the spiritual gift of leadership
is a great gift. Do you have it? Do you know anyone that has it?
One of the goals of my ministry is and has been to train
and raise up leaders, for anything from committees, to serving in other
capacities, and maybe even pursing becoming pastor. One of the things that a
good Christian leader or pastor does is inspires, challenges, grows, and leads
the people they serving, and this all starts with faith in Jesus Christ.
One of the great leaders in the Bible is the Apostle Paul.
A Christian covert, who would go on to show great leadership, among many other spiritual
gifts. This morning, we were given a small portion of the Apostle Paul’s second
Epistle or letter to this young friend and brother in Christ Timothy.
The Apostle Paul begins this Epistle or letter by saying,
“Paul, and apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the
promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy beloved child: Grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (2 Tim. 1:1-2,
NRSV). What Godly words, and what words of a true, humble, and loving Christian
leader.
The Apostle Paul tells Timothy that he remembers him
“constantly in” his “prayers night and day” (2 Tim. 1:3). He tells Timothy, “I
long to see you so that may be filled with joy” (2 Tim. 1:4). The Apostle Paul
then complements and encouraged Timothy in his faith, and then says, “For this
reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the
laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but
rather a spirit of power and love and of self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:6-7, NRSV).
The Apostle Paul this great Christian leader, is doing what Christian leaders
do, which is to raise up leaders like Timothy, through the power of God.
The Apostle Paul then encourages Timothy to keep the faith,
to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ, to cling to the love of God (2 Tim.
1:8-14, NRSV).
My brothers and sisters, do you have the gift of spiritual
leadership? Where is God calling you? Is God calling you to give, to show
mercy, to encourage, to teach, to lead?
This morning in our Gospel of Luke reading, we have a great
scripture. In this scripture, the disciples are asking to Jesus to give them
more faith. In fact, this gospel reading begins by saying, “The apostles said
to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (Lk. 17:5a, NRSV). Jesus then replies by
saying, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this
mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you”
(Lk. 17:5b, NRSV). Jesus is calling us not be self-righteous, but to lead by
example, and to trust God.
Jesus then gives an example of serving a slave, instead of
asking a slave to serve you. Jesus tells us to lead, by example. According to
one of my Bible commentaries it says this, “what God needs is a faith that is
pure and simple, that is, faith with integrity (17:6-10). Our faith does not
make us powerful authorities by humble servants of God” (Africa Bible
Commentary). Christian leaders, good Christian leaders, are strong, but humble.
My friends, my brothers and sisters do you have the
spiritual gift of leadership, in that you a called to serve in one of the
various leadership roles in the church, or serving God in general? If you think
you do, let me know, as I want to raise up as many leaders that God enables me to
raise up.
In closing, I want to tell you a story about a leadership.
A story about one of the best military generals that this country has ever had,
General then President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower. As many of
you might know, on June 6, 1944 the United States, in concert with our Allies
launched the largest amphibious military invasion in world history. This
invasion was called “Operation Overlord,” or as many of us now know it, “D-Day”.
That fateful day that many of us have seen reenacted in movies like “Saving
Private Ryan,” where thousands of our young men hit the beaches in France on a
quest to rid the world of Nazi terror and evil. On this day, we lost many good
men.
Well
this story comes to us from Time Magazine, and this story was written by Relman
Morin on June 6, 2016, on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. This
article more specifically is read as an
excerpt from the book 'Dwight D. Eisenhower: An Associated Press Biography' (http://time.com/4358164/dwight-eisenhower-d-day/).
This
article therefore will give us a glimpse into the mind of General Dwight D.
Eisenhower on how he personally felt the day before he would lead the largest
amphibious military invasion in the history of world. This article begins by
saying: “Here, we pick up with Eisenhower on the day before the invasion of
Normandy… Dwight
D. Eisenhower stretched out in the back of his staff car, closed his eyes, and
tried to sleep. He was bone-tired. A feeling of numbness began creeping over
him. For many months all his thoughts had been concentrated on this hour,
planning and working toward it, and now it was at hand with all the
unimaginable consequences for good or evil, for success or the most disastrous
military debacle in history. His watch showed 9:10. It was the night of June 5,
1944, the night before D-Day”.
“The car rolled through the gates of
the airfield and started the long journey to his headquarters in Portsmouth,
passing through the blacked out towns and villages. His aides in the front seat
of the car remained silent. They thought he was sleeping.”
“Instead of sleep, a montage of
memories passed through his mind, pictures new and old. They all pointed toward
this hour and came together in it, the apex of a pyramid”.
“The paratroopers on the airfield he
had just left were camouflaging their faces with linseed oil and paint and they
had said, “Don’t you worry, General. We’ll take care of this for you”…men of
the 101st Airborne Division…he shook hands and turned away and a tear glistened
in his eye…theoretically, to an officer, soldiers are just “bodies”…you don’t
think of them in terms of Joe Jones or Charlie Smith; you think of casualties
in terms of percentages, statistics…some of these men, Eisenhower knew, would
be dead very soon and he did not think of them as statistics…he stayed with
them until they began boarding the C-47s and gliders and now they were on their
way to the drop zones, the Douve and Merderet Rivers and the town of Sainte
Mere Eglise”.
While you probably want
to hear more of this story, I decided to tell you just some of this story about
General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the “D-day” invasion, to emphasize that
leadership is great, but can be very hard. Yet God makes men and women with
different gifts and graces. Some of us are given small, medium, large, and even
massive amounts of the gift of spiritual and general leadership. My brothers
and sisters, do you have the spiritual gift of leadership? Is it a great gift,
but it can also be a tough and a hard gift. Next week I will be talking about
the spiritual gift of “Prophecy”. Today, this week, and always, may we put our
trust in the greatest of teachers, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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