The Kingdom of God is full of paradoxes: we receive by giving, we receive honor when we are dishonored, and as the Gospel illustrates for us today, we lead others to the kingdom by being in service to them. The Feast of Christ the King is an invitation to all of us to share in the kingship of Jesus, as servant leaders.
In so many ways we see that Jesus’ kingdom is totally at odds with any display of power in this world. You would expect
kings to receive important people and dignitaries, but Jesus received the lowly and rejected people of his time. A king might expect to receive gifts, but Jesus
gave gifts - he restored health to the sick and washed his disciples’ feet. Jesus was not the kingly type as we understand a king to be; he is a powerless king! Kings wear crowns. What sort of crown did Jesus wear? It was a crown of thorns. What throne do we see Jesus sitting on in the Gospel today? It is the cross.
Instead of an army marching forward on his behalf, the soldiers jeered at him and the rulers sneered at him. So Jesus’ idea of kingship and power is totally opposite of the world’s idea of kingship and power.
When invoking the name of Jesus we frequently use the name “Christ”, which means “the anointed one”. But interestingly, there is no instance in Scripture where he uses that name on himself. His disciples called him that, and so did other people, but the Lord, when he walked on earth, primarily referred to himself as one thing —
the Son of Man.
Many people believe that the reason Jesus called himself the Son of Man is because he was referencing his humanity and his ability to relate to people; however, but that’s only part of it. In Daniel 7, there is a famous passage in which the prophet refers to a
son of man coming to establish authority and dominion over the kingdoms of the world.
In the verses preceding that depiction, several nations were vividly described as beasts, having been overruled by men who violently took power from others, lorded it over them, defined what was good and evil in their own hearts, and then became like animals themselves.
Jesus, then, stood in stark contrast to these worldly leaders who were constantly pursuing more wealth, more power, and more control. Where they were about holding on, he was about letting go.
Yes, he
was and
is a
God-man who rules the nations, but
paradoxically, he gains power by being a servant. In fact, when Jesus proclaimed to be a servant of all, he used the Greek word
doulos, which describes a slave of lowest position; which is exactly what he taught his disciples then, and
still teaches us to this day. We are called to the same
honor.
And so, it is a law in the Kingdom of Heaven that if we want
power, we
serve, just as Jesus did. We become servant leaders. As we choose to lead, not with lofty words or as the conquering hero of our fiefdom, but through our
actions of love and acceptance, we inherit
true authority.
We may say to ourselves, I don’t consider myself a leader. I’m just trying to get through the day. If that is our response, we might want to challenge ourselves to think again. It’s easy to believe that leaders are those who have been given a position or title, granting them a measure of authority in a specific area or over a certain group of people. The truth is however, that all Christians are called to lead. How? In the same manner Jesus did — by being a servant in our everyday walk.
Simply said,
leadership is influence, and as we sow ideas and actions of love into the world, our goal is to make the Lord visible to others so they want to know more about him and receive his life into theirs.
There's no set of personality traits that makes one person more likely to be a better servant leader than another. A more gregarious person might be able to spread the net wider, but the more introspective person might be able to penetrate their "
prospects" more deeply. By being a living example of Christ's love, being other-centered- seeing the goodness and gifts in others that they might not be able to see in themselves, we’re sowing seeds in service, we’re making a difference.
In this time of uncertainty about the future of the Church, it might be worth our consideration to think about the role that each of us has in rebuilding it as leaders ourselves. We lament the fact that we no longer have pastoral leadership at each of our sites that we could reliably count on seeing each week (Fr Bob, Fr Chris, Deacon Jack). As much as we’d like to, we can’t wish those days back into existence.
In my mind, one of greatest needs that we all have is to feel worthy and feel like we belong. With all of the changes that we’ve encountered, it seems like more than anything our sense of community that once was there has been disrupted. How is it that we can remake our community and fulfill the need that we all have to belong? We can still find it here.
I’ve had it on my heart, especially recently, that we can build back our sense of community, maybe not through singular leaders that possess a title as in days gone by, but through servant leaders like you and I. We can rebuild our community one conversation at a time.
Is there an elderly person who can’t make it to Mass anymore that might feel disconnected, that would be greatly lifted up by a visit or a phone call? If we’re at one of our kid’s school events and we see across the way a mom and dad that we know or knew from church who are similarly looking on, can we walk over and pass the time together with a bit of friendly conversation? Can we participate in one of our parish Thanksgiving events or the Amen to Action event at the Convention Center?
If you are one of our seasoned citizens and say, “you know, my days of contributing are over – let the next generation pick up the slack.” Yes, the next generation does need to pick up the slack, but we still need your service. What’s that expression – “A society grows great when old men (and women) plant trees under whose shade they will never sit!”
No matter what each of us may think, we are all leaders. We all need healing and we all have the ability to heal, just as Jesus heals us. Rather than trying to control things that we can’t control, holding on to our narrow focus, we need to open ourselves up to Jesus and his surrogates all around us, as we affirm to each other that we are loved and are worthy of belonging. The picture of what is to come is, I believe, bigger and brighter, and filled with more potential than we ascribe it to be.
Let me share with you a story that has been told before, that reminds us that we can collectively do great things if in our modest efforts of service, we commit to a vision of what is possible. It’s about three stonecutters. It goes like this: “A man asked three stonecutters them what they were doing. The first replied, “I am cutting stones to earn a living.” The second kept on hammering while he said, “I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire country.” The third looked up with a visionary gleam in his eye and said, “I am building a cathedral.”
The first stonecutter is simply doing a day’s work for a day’s pay, for the material reward he receives in exchange for his labor.^ The purpose of his work doesn’t matter. The second stonecutter wants to be the best at his craft. His world is no more than a competitive meritocracy. His vision is incomplete because he misses the fundamental interconnectedness of humankind, of communities, and of our world. He fails to see there would be no stones to cut were it not for the community building a cathedral.
The third stonecutter embraces a broader vision. The menial nature of his work is part of a far larger undertaking, a spiritual as well as a physical construction, that aspires to the heavens, transcending the earthbound, for cathedrals are built not in years, but over centuries. The effect of his lifetime’s work… may last for centuries. It ignites past and future, connects humans across generations and becomes part of a purpose that is far larger than himself.”
We can rebuild our community one conversation at a time. We need to own that truth and know that Jesus has called each of us to influence the world around us, one relationship at a time.
Leadership
never equates to control or dominance. Instead, it is a choice to live like Jesus and invite others to join us on the journey of knowing him and making him known. Our example speaks leader, and speaks louder than our words. So, seek to love and over-serve those around you, and we can all watch how things will begin to change.
And so we pray, Dear Lord, we thank you for your patience with us. You are the same today as you were yesterday and will be tomorrow. Help us to live the paradox of faith that we share in the kingship of Jesus through our service. In this week of thanksgiving, let us live with a sense of gratitude for all that we’ve been given, and that we can help in our own small ways to spread salvation through our service to others!