Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
October 18, 2009
Mark 10:35-45

Called to Servant Leadership

In his book, Journey to the East, published in 1932, Hermann Hesse tells the story of a band of men on a mythical journey. The central character is a man named Leo who accompanies the men as their servant. He tends to their menial tasks and, when the work is done, sustains them with his spirit and his song. We can imagine them sitting around the fire as the stars come out over the desert, with Leo strumming on his instrument.

Everything goes well on the journey until Leo disappears. Without him, the men cannot function and the group falls apart. Years later the narrator of the journey finds Leo and is taken into the Order that had sponsored the journey. Much to his amazement, he discovers that Leo, whom he had known as servant, is actually the head of the Order, a great and noble leader.

Robert Greenleaf uses Hesse’s story to open his book on servant leadership to show how great leaders are seen first as great servants. Leo was a servant deep down inside, a servant first, before he was the leader – one might even think it a prerequisite for true leadership.

Long before Hesse wrote his story, Jesus gives the same lesson to the disciples: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” We can imagine such a teaching not sitting well with the disciples. And here Jesus is doing it again, presenting another counter-cultural model to baffle them, turning the order of things upside down! Again and again, Jesus critiques the way things are. Here he is picking apart the pre-modern domination system that makes the rich, richer, and the poor, poorer, by taking away the peasants’ land and much of their production. Jesus says, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.” But here comes a different vision: “But it is not so among you;...”

Today, we know that ordinary people can work hard to get a good education or learn a skill or start a business that can bring financial rewards. But even in our day, we see that wealth equals power, and power equals position. And once one has position, nobody wants to give it up voluntarily – not the religious right, nor the banks, nor the insurance industry, nor those happy with their insurance coverage. We can all add to this list . . ..

In today’s text, James and John are trying to cozy up to the teacher. They have misunderstood what this messiah is all about: Jesus has just told them for the third time about his coming condemnation, humiliation, and death. But they are still dreaming of power and position – when Jesus rides into Jerusalem to rule over the city and the nation as king – and they are putting in their reservation for the best seats in the kingdom.

We can understand these sons of Zebedee, can’t we? We, too, covet a lot of things that we never admit out loud: the ideal family, the best job with the biggest salary, the classiest car, a secure pension, a life without fear – of bankruptcy, or terrorism, or illness.

Jesus treats them gently, but one might imagine his frustration: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” he asks. “We are able.” they say, not knowing what they are saying.

Jesus doesn’t chide them for wanting greatness – but the greatness that Jesus wants for them comes not from being served – but from serving – just as Jesus did when he healed and fed and knelt down to wash the feet of the disciples. “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Greatness in Jesus’ kingdom has to do with sharing a way of life that embraces sacrifice, generosity, and love as the way. Greatness in Jesus’ kingdom has to do with loving God and one’s neighbor as oneself, the heart of his ministry. Jesus calls the church and each of us to be servant in the world. The word for “servant” in the Greek is “diakonos” which we know as deacon – servants of God in this congregation. True greatness lies not in exercising authority over others – but in serving others.

Mahatma Gandhi is a modern example of a great leader whose leadership was characterized by humility and service. Although Gandhi was an Indian Hindu, he was a close follower of Jesus. In fact, he considered becoming a Christian for a while until he visited a church in South Africa and was turned away by a white usher because of his brown skin.

Once, when he was meeting with independence leaders, Gandhi surprised both guests and servants by taking the tea set and serving everyone. In a society structured by a rigid caste system, this was scandalous. Yet it is in keeping with Jesus’ taking the towel from around his waist and kneeling down to wash the disciples’ feet, is it not? And Gandhi was willing to suffer on behalf of others, to put himself out in the front line where the danger was, to suffer beatings to demonstrate that one’s body could be broken, but not one’s spirit.

We see servant leadership, too, in the lives of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and just plain folks like us – teachers, doctors and nurses and medical technicians, small business owners, social service workers, and public leaders who have taken positions to serve – not their own interests – but the public good.

One of the characteristics of a servant leader is the commitment to the community, to the growth of the people, not to one’s own position and prestige. I have on my desk, under the clear blotter, a fortune cookie that says, “A leader is powerful to the degree he [or she] empowers others.” I leave it there as a reminder that I am called to be a servant leader, to the best of my ability.

Servant leaders listen well, understand their people and what they long for. They are able to envision a preferred future and persuade people to move toward it. Like Leo, they sustain people with their spirit and their song. The Chinese Tau Teh Ching captures this idea in this familiar saying, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists . . ..” And the people will say: “We did it ourselves.”

Servant leaders are able to do this because they have come to terms with their own insecurities that drive one to greed and coveting and needing to lord it over others. Servant leaders are on a journey toward wholeness – holiness – and are willing to serve as well as to be served. This is the kind of leader we all are called to be in our homes, and in our schools, and in our workplaces, and in our churches.

In this day and age when so many people go church “shopping” for the best Sunday School, the best preacher, the best mission program, we need to remember what President John F. Kennedy said about this country and reframe it. The question is not, “What can this church do for me? The better question in light of our Biblical passage this morning is, “What can I do for this church!”

Let us remember the words of St. Francis of Assisi:

O divine Master, grant that I may not seek so much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Through God’s grace, may it be so!

Amen.