Text: Proverbs 31:10-31, Mark 9:30-37, James 3:13-4:8a
Author’s Note: No audio or video for this one, maybe I’ll be able to talk them into an upgrade. :)
Our world is hurting for heroes, longing for leaders. Just look at our TV shows. According to TV Guide’s top ten list, 3 of the top ten are “reality” shows, 3 are dramas, and 3 are mysteries.
Right. That only makes 9. The last one is about vampires.
Let’s sum up. Three shows about beautiful people scheming and manipulating their way to victory. Three more about beautiful people falling in and out of love. Three about beautiful people saving the day. And one about mythical creatures of deadly beauty and power. Anyone sensing a pattern?
We are hurting for leaders, and our natural human response is to follow the famous and the powerful. That’s the world’s criteria for leadership: fame and power. If that were not true, half our media wouldn’t even exist! Entertainment Tonight? It is gossip packaged as a news show! Tabloids? Gossip packaged as a newspaper! They make millions off of us because we cannot help ourselves. We are drawn to celebrity like moths to a flame.
Sociologist call it the Halo effect. It’s a form of cognitive bias we’ve been scientifically documenting since the 1920′s. It means we tend to see people as all one way or another. If we see one trait that we like, we assume the rest of their traits must be good too. In real life, that means we give huge bias toward beautiful people because the first trait we can evaluate is looks. Hence, Paris Hilton is worthy of her own TV show.
By show of hands, how many of you have ever seen VH1′s Behind the Music? For those of you who haven’t, let me fill you in. Every single episode follows the same pattern. Act 1, a group of scrappy musicians united by a little talent and a love of music plays back yards and bars for free. They get their big break through a combination of luck, talent, and drive. Commercial break. Act 2, they make it big, playing for stadiums of screaming fans, hot and cold running women, and drugs. Commercial break with a teaser that includes the phrases, “spins horribly out of control.” Act 3, the band falls apart and at least one member winds up in rehab or dead. Commercial break. A four minute snippet of hope, where the musicians pull their lives together and get back to the music, playing tiny venues for little money, and loving every second of it.
Ever wonder why rock stars always seem to get caught in sex and drugs? Because everyone around them gives them what they ask for. They keep pushing the boundaries, keep finding there aren’t any, and they go a bit insane. Some part of us always recognizes fake adoration for what it is, and it leaves us feeling empty. And here’s the twisted part, after we put celebrities on the pedestal, following them for no other reason than their fame, we laugh at them when they finally crack under the strain.
God’s criteria for leadership are totally opposite. Instead of fame, Scripture lifts up the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31. Let’s review that picture for a moment. What exactly does she do? The short answer is she devotes herself to serving her family with every once of her ability.
She runs a profitable cottage industry, but she’s not too proud to get her hands dirty. She’s wealthy, but not from an inheritance, and not because of her husband. She’s earned her wealth, and yet she’s still generous. She gives instructions to the children and the servants. She is aware of everything that goes on in her house, but her words are wise and gentle. Her husband is known in the city gates, but she isn’t. Her work is recognized, but nowhere in here does it say she gets any credit, except from her husband and her kids.
What’s missing from this description? That’s right, there’s absolutely nothing in there about her looks. If this were written today it might sound like this:
“A perfect wife, who can find? She has rock hard abs and buns of steel. She can sing. She can act. She can dunk basketball. Her dress is Dolce and her shoes are by Prada. She has more sex appeal than Angelina, more talent than Beyonce, and more power than Hillary. She’s the ultimate triple threat. Her boyfriend is both the most admired and most hated man on the planet, at least until she finds a new one.”
Are you getting the picture here? The world lifts up celebrity. The world admires beauty. The world follows charisma, but God’s priorities are different.
But wait a second. If worldly leaders are beautiful, how do you explain Donald Trump? No way that guy’s making US Weekly’s top ten sexiest of ’09 list. And yet he’s clearly a leader.
This is the world’s second great criterion for leadership: power. Power comes in many forms, but ultimately it comes down to control, the ability to make other people do what you want. I can pay you, persuade you, or threaten you. It doesn’t matter. If I can get you to do what I want, people will see me as a person of power, and they will follow.
Ever wonder why people with limited options keep committing crimes even though they know they’ll probably wind up in jail? It may be the only control they ever feel, the only time people treat them with respect. This person, who has been ignored and sidelined since birth, [gun] now has your complete attention.
Unfortunately, power is just as destructive as celebrity. We follow the rich. We fear the strong. We admire the powerful, but always from afar. Power is just as isolating as fame. Imagine the psychological toll it would take to be constantly surrounded by yes-men, never having a real discussion, always watching your back.
The world worships power, but Jesus lifts up a child. “The one who wants to be first must be the servant of all. Anyone who welcomes a child, welcomes me, and the Father who sent me.” In his culture, the only one less powerful than a woman, was a child.
What exactly does this kid do that’s so great? What does this little boy or girl do that’s so worthy of our attention?
Nothing! Absolutely nothing!
Jesus says, “Come here.” And the child comes.
That’s it? That’s it.
If this story were written about a modern-day adult, it would go something like this:
Jesus says, “Come here.”
“Why? What do you want? What’s in it for me?”
Jesus says, “Please come here. I need to teach something.”
“I probably could learn it anyway. I’m stupid like that.”
We would talk for hours, and you know what we’d never actually get around to doing? Coming here! This is what makes the child so mighty in God’s kingdom. The child comes when called, without fear or attitude, without arrogance or self-hatred. Jesus says, “Come.” And she says, “Ok.”
James says we have not because we ask not. We don’t bother to ask, because we’re self-centered. We don’t include God in the daily stuff of life. Or we ask, but we do not receive because we ask selfishly. We have not followed the example of the virtuous wife or the reckless child. They looked outside of themselves, and in the moment they forgot themselves they became worthy of honor. They became leaders worth following.
And here’s the wonderful part, just as worldly leaders self-destruct over time, godly leaders get better with age. Look around you and you will see wisdom in some of those wrinkled eyes. This world is hurting for leaders. We have some right here in this congregation, and you can be one too, if you look outside yourself. Want to lead? Learn to serve.
Want to lead? Learn to serve. by Rev. R.J. Brink is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at revsmilez.com.
