Jesus-led leadership isn’t something new to us with the teachings of Jesus. We begin to learn what it is to lead as God intends in the very beginning of our faith stories. God, the ultimate of communion and community of persons, the image in which we are all created, we are told in the first creation story said ‘let US create humans in OUR image’. There is no distinction between the male and the female, God created both in the likeness and image of God. The author of the second creation story said that after creating the male of our species, God says it is not good for this human to be alone and then has some fun making all sorts of animals to keep him company until finally making another human so the two could make more humans. The Hebrew word used to describe why God made the woman is the same word used over and over again in the Psalms to describe the help that comes only from God, a rescuing, restorative help the completes and makes whole that which has been disrupted by human frailty and failings. The word is never used to describe a submissive form of help. Neither of the creation narratives indicates that one human is supposed to be over another.
It isn’t until the humans act less than the humans God made us to be that God tells them they will struggle together. Had they not listened to the lies of the serpent that caused them to doubt God’s word (this is the true sin), perhaps they would not have gone on to act competitively toward each other and toward other humans.
When we back our theology up to the beginnings of our faith origin stories we start with equality and mutuality as God intends. It was human behavior that brought about the discord between us. It was not God’s design that we compete for power or control of others. Both the man and the woman made the choice to not trust God. God named the consequences of their actions, God does not ‘curse’ them. The serpent is cursed and the ground is cursed because of the man’s behavior. God doesn’t discard the humans or send them out to fend for themselves. God works within the disruption the humans caused and provides them with clothing better than they could make themselves and sends them to continue to do what humans were made to do – to care for and make use of God’s creation (see Genesis 2:15 & 3:23).
Just as the first woman and man pointed the finger at each other and the serpent instead of taking responsibility for their own behavior, we humans have continued with the tendency to make God responsible for our own troubles. But if we look to these stories for God’s intent for us and all of creation, rather than for excuses, we see what it means when Jesus tells us we are to die to ourselves. We have to, with God’s help, let go of our tendency to compete, our need to control, our desire to be better than or have power over others.
Those of us who are in leadership positions cannot lead as God intends for us to lead when we are distracted by competition and our need for control. To be Jesus-led leaders, we have to follow Jesus daily, moment to moment, into the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. And this means seeing others not as beneath us or separate from us but as part of who we are made to be: humans interdependent on each other to be whole and complete in our relationship with God our Creator. To be Jesus-led leaders, we lead with love as we are enabled and equipped by God to love.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 