The twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne (Revelation 4:10).
Having been in a position of leadership for over half of my working years, that word still casts a long shadow. When I hear it spoken, whether in political or ecclesial context, I notice it usually elevates heart rates. Leadership is a tender and a scary topic. Even historians who have provided the course materials for college or university education may be harbingers of information usually including inspiration or lament. Those of us who are baby boomers, who have lived the good life after World War II, speak with considerable candor and freedom, opinions spoken either eloquently or ignorantly depending on education and political leaning. This morning my wife and I read an excellent little article “Complaint or Lament?”[ii] a reminder especially for people of faith, that complaining and trash talk only makes us part of the problem, while lament is the better way to be honest. Good reminder especially for us in our Western society. We live in democracy unless of course would-be dictators start getting elected. So far we can still think and talk about leadership from the vantage of the good life.
Recent events worldwide suggest that even thinking or talking (relationships) are stressed, or in fact under threat. Government is probably the first thing
that comes to mind; its form oft-times the hue and cry of competing ideologies
so boisterous that the moderate voice seems muted, not necessarily
because anybody is doing the muting, but because the moderate perspective is kind of boring - not the loudest voices in the coffee shops or pubs, does
not make good media clips. So we live in a rather insecure world. Russia is no longer
communist, but present form of government is a dictatorship; North Korea and
China are still communist, but also ruled by dictators – not pure communism as per Karl Marx; [iii] The
United States is still a democracy, but latest presidential
elections would suggest that noble character and clear-headedness is no longer
a worthy platform to get elected on. Opponents are vilified and the populace is joining the smear. The British Commonwealth of Nations, still a monarchy,
with individual countries selecting government by democracy. Given,
however, the vulnerable state of democracy in many countries, the Commonwealth also not immune! Furthermore,
the Monarchy is no longer an inspiring guiding force (family problems just like everybody else). Given this worldwide
government phenomenon, democracy contains no guarantees.
Government by capitalist motif does not work, as argued by Marx many years ago, and government by socialism also not, because the cooperative motif is elusive, as repeatedly demonstrated in last century or so in democratic countries. Therefore, we have a dearth of government models in the political realm. Is it perhaps better in the ecclesial? No: I shall go here a bit, but my bias will be obvious.
Ecclesial is also a story of human
structuring. Ecclesial is structure created to represent faith. Canada's current commonwealth
monarchy is our political knit with ecclesia. Church of
England, the King’s church (sentimentally the Queen’s church, Anglicanism), is
the guiding light for Canada, and a purified version (Episcopalians,
Wesleyans, Revivalists) for the United States. So we Canadians sing God Save the King, and the Americans stamp In God We Trust on their coins! This faith identification is actually North
American colonialism. How about the Indigenous and African Americans? That is still discomforting for us. 😞 South America similar colonialism with the ecclesial equivalent being the Roman
Catholic Church. Institutions, whether political or ecclesial, therefore are
not the bona fide!
The limitation of institutions is spelled out in the Old Testament of the Bible. The called-to-faith people (read Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses …) are nervous. The Judges are in charge - kind of - but there is corruption (investigations? court cases?). There is a delegation, “then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.’ 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to govern us.’ “(1 Samuel 8:4-6). In order to address these problems, Samuel is called upon. Interesting about Samuel, his leadership is not just one role. He had heard God calling him as a young boy, that got him a priestly role, but more than that, also recognized as a prophet. My Google search gives me Study.com, and adds a little more, “Samuel served as an important transition from the era of judges to the eventual monarchy used to govern the Israelites in the ancient history of Israel.”
Interesting also, it is elders speaking to Samuel and they speak honestly, reminding him he’s old (like some elders in the U.S?). A consultation followed, decisions made, and further reading of the O.T. suggests that Samuel’s apprehensions were well advised. This was not a saving moment of O.T. history; it is a teaching, warning, learning moment. Kingships granted, but many of those later kings forgot their leadership responsibilities and began serving their own interests.
It would be foolish for me now to attempt a corrective - a reasonable and believable system of government. It is however not foolish to note something about leadership. Genuine leadership reaches up and beyond, definitely beyond religious or political systems. It encompasses the whole variety of components and contributions. Leadership is an organizing principle required among all peoples (meaning even us colonialists, indigenous, and immigrants). Veterinarians and horticulturists will tell us there is order and leadership also present among animals and plants. Our indigenous brothers and sisters know all about that. Multi-talented Samuel 'got it', thick-tongued Moses at a burning bush (Exodus 3:1), spoken to Isaiah in the temple (Isaiah 6), and it is announced to Jesus (Matthew 3:17; Luke 12:24), and fully recognized as one of the gifts needed in the community (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).
It has been, is, and will be. Something old, something new? And something bigger, larger than any might have foreseen. Another sentence from our devotional writer, "human institutions lack the transforming power to save the world." Hopefully we will not be so busy arguing about the politics or the ecclesia that we miss the parousia (a seminary word, not a trucker's word 😆).
Nobody can ignore the end. Note the epigraph at top. At the end of time, all earthly thrones, kings, presidents, along with all of us earthly citizens, must bow before the One seated on the throne.
[i]
“Seniors and Elders,” https://www.jcfroomthoughts.blogspot.com.
November 3, 2022.
[ii]
Graeme Lauber, “Complaint or Lament?” ReJoice! https://www.MennoMedia.org. July 17,
2024.
[iii]
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (Hamburg: Verlag von Otto Meissner, 1867).
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