"Sinners, Saints and Servant Leaders" - Sermon for All Saints Sunday

Sinners, Saints and Servant Leaders

All Saints Sunday – Narrative Lectionary 2

November 1, 2015

Grace, Mankato, MN

1 Kings 12.1-17; 25-29; Mark 10.42-45

“If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” (1 Kings 12.7)

So Jesus called them and said to them, “…whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10.42-45)

It occurred to me this last week how important the events depicted in our reading for today were for God’s people. Our focus reading from the Old Testament gives us a snapshot of one of the most important events in the life of ancient Israel. It is one that will have consequences for hundreds of years, if not thousands: the dividing of the kingdom. King David, whom was anointed last week, was able to unite the northern and southern tribes into one kingdom. He did it through his strong personality and his military prowess, bringing peace to the land that had only known conflict for so long. David’s son, Solomon, was able to consolidate this kingdom through wisdom granted from God, his administrative ability and ambitious building projects, notably the temple at Jerusalem.

Now Solomon has died and his son, Rehoboam, is poised to take the reins of the kingdom. It is these building projects that have become a bone of contention with the people, especially the northern tribes. So, it seems after all that succession is not a done deal as these folk from the northern tribes come for a consult with the newly crowned king. Rehoboam has an opportunity to lead the unified kingdom into a new era but, as Richard Nelson my seminary Old Testament professor notes, he “chooses slogans over wisdom and machismo over Servanthood.” The effects of this ill-advised decision are disastrous: the kingdom splits forever, leaving it vulnerable to being conquered and worse, a line of kings starting with Jeroboam who abandon YHWH. Jeroboam will devolve into a king who will become the negative standard of bad kings who follow after him.

Periods of leadership transition can be chaotic and unsettling at best, as we are witnessing now in our own world. I grieve for our country as we seem to think that the best way choose leaders is to line them up and insist they tear each other apart while tearing our country apart as well. It was ironic that on the morning of the recent debates, I saw a blurb on Facebook about Queen Elizabeth II, who recently surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the longest reigning English monarch. In the blurb it noted that she has always emphasized her role is not to rule but to serve.

Our celebration of All Saints today might be able to shed some light on what healthy leadership could look like. Certainly, it’s a day to remember those who have passed away, who we now refer to as the saints in heaven. The have moved from the Church Militant on earth to the Church Triumphant in heaven. But it’s also an opportunity to remember what Martin Luther pointed out about our saintly life now. He noted that because of Jesus Christ, God looks on all of us as fully redeemed saints in God’s eyes even while we are still sinners. We are “already, but not yet.” We can see this with even Rehoboam and Jeroboam who, for all of their faults, were a mixture of faithful and fallible. It wouldn’t be until 1,000 years later that someone from the tribe of Judah and line of David would emerge and show us what true servant leadership looks like: Jesus of Nazareth.

On this side of heaven, being a saint doesn’t mean being always good or dead for that matter. Saints are those who in spite of their frailties are set apart for godly service. Whenever you lead, you do so by serving and whenever you serve, you are being a leader. All of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ have been set apart to serve, in spite of our failings. Even Winston Churchill, the English Prime Minister on one of the greatest modern day leaders knew that when he said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Of course, that started with Jesus who shows us that true life is found in giving ourselves away and that God will work in, with and through us as sinners, saints and servant leaders. Amen.