Born to servant leadership

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

                                                            pic:http://cronkitehhh.jmc.asu.edu/blog/2013/10/consider-servant-leader

Mark 9:30-37 (Year B: 17th Sunday after Trinity, 23 September, 2018)

Whoever leads must be servant of all..

At the heart of this story is a tension between leadership and service. The disciples hanker after a type of leadership that means sitting in a position of honour and authority.  Not infrequently, people like positions of authority and honour.

States, companies, associations, churches and other human organisations create titles of honour, places of special honour, conditions of privilege and roles of authority in decision-making.  Many churches – up until recent times – had pews or seats specially reserved for Lord so-and-so or for the mayor or state dignitary (in the case of a Cathedral). This was quite apart from one-off reservations in cases of special celebrations including for example funerals. And the whole lay-out of medieval churches spoke of social hierarchy with the Lord Bishop sitting on a throne (usually) far too big for him and a sanctuary and choir reserved for those next to the bishop followed by a nave where, presumably, the great and good sat towards the top while the great unwashed knelt or stood (usually the latter in medieval times) towards the back. Even up until recent times, it was not uncommon for the men folk in many rural parishes in Ireland to congregate somewhere around the porch at the entrance to a church where, technically, they ‘heard’ mass! (Indeed, they may have heard it far more profoundly and effectively than many inside the building. We should never judge).

Such is life and such is church and what Jesus found the disciples up to in arguing about positions and greatness is not at all surprising if we know anything about modern-day ecclesiastical politics.

Conflicts start over little things hiding in front of positions..

Many a war and many a feud has started over what, at first sight, might have seemed a secondary and less important matter.  However, deep beneath the ‘position’ adopted by people are values, beliefs, needs, hurts and wants that shape and drive human behaviour. A lot of the time we are not even conscious of these drivers.  In this context, reactions of the disciples to Jesus’ talk of cross, suffering and rejection doesn’t fit with their preconceived ideas of a powerful messianic saviour. Moreover, it doesn’t fit with their agenda which is about promotion and the pleasure of leading.

The idea of servant leadership is about leaders who are appointed or who emerge to serve – if necessary to the point of giving their lives in loving service. Now, authority is necessary and with it some differentiation of roles and responsibilities. Inevitably there is a hierarchy of responsible power. However, the prevailing ethos and practice among the authorities of Jesus’ time – just as today – is characterised by values of dominance, control, an imbalanced power-over-others, self-assertion over others and the value of wanting the limelight that goes with such positions. Rare is the leader who doesn’t want to lead or be in authority but is compelled or drawn to respond to a call to service in a world crying out for servant leadership.

Competition for kudos in the game of honour drives many to behaviour that distorts the very idea of vocation to leadership. Instead, the focus is on titles, procedures, control and how many dollars or Euros is in the budget over which one has jurisdiction. Such competition may start early on via facebook or later through linkedin or twitter! Success and fame go with the number of ‘followers’ or ‘friends’.  But, being ‘friends’ with Jesus and others through him and being ‘followers’ of the master who lived and died to serve all is a whole different scene.

A practical lesson in greatness..

Mark’s passage moves quickly to an illustration of what wisdom and leadership really involve. He takes a child and declares that anyone who welcomes a child welcomes the gospel. Matthew (18:4) goes further and declares that:

Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Putting children in the centre to illustrate a point about leadership would not have fit with the prevailing culture. Notions of children’s right were unheard of. A contemporary illustration of these gospel narratives is in the practice adopted in the community of Taizé in France where the Prior (the first in the community) takes the last seat in the central section of the make-shift wooden church of the resurrection. Accompanying him is a child or children who process to the service of prayer at the beginning. These telling symbols and gestures are important because much of the way we have ‘done church’ over the centuries seems at odds with the values of the gospel as outlined here in Mark as well as in the other three gospels. If only these values were absorbed and practiced we would be in a far better place today.