Lead On!

Reading:

Today’s reading is taken from the book of Jonah in the Hebrew scriptures. In this passage Jonah hears a call from God to go to the city of Nineveh. Jonah responds by immediately trying to flee to Tarshish. Biblical scholars believe Tarshish possibly refers to Tartessus in what is now Spain. In other words, Jonah is trying to flee to the end of the earth.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Johah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”

The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” . . . So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. . .

But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Sermon:

I love the beginning of the story of Jonah. Jonah hears a call from God telling him to go at once to Nineveh. Nineveh was an Assyrian city to the east. So what does our biblical hero do? He immediately, with no hesitation, heads out at full speed in the opposite direction. He goes to the coastal city of Joppa and buys a passage to Tarshish, which is the furthest point west in the known world. He tries to hide in a place where God won’t find him. Jonah then proceeds from running away to complete denial. God sends a terrible storm to get his attention. So what does our hero do? He sleeps through it! The captain of the ship has to wake him up.

This reluctance to take on God’s call is a minor theme in the Hebrew scriptures. Even Moses, the great liberator of the Hebrew people, tries to get out of doing God’s will. When Moses sees the burning bush on Mount Horeb, the voice of God tells Moses that God has chosen him to go back to Egypt and free his people. What is Moses’ reply? He says to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Moses does not respond with enthusiasm and confidence. He asks how the Hebrews will believe him. Moses asks God a whole string of questions. Then Moses comes up with a reason why he should not do God’s bidding. “Oh my Lord,” he says, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” God reassures Moses, “Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.”

Then Moses just comes right out and says what he has obviously been thinking: “O my Lord, please send someone else.” Please send someone else. Haven’t we all felt exactly that way when some duty called? “I’m not the right person. Please send someone else.”

We can hear echos of Moses when God calls Jeremiah. God tells Jeremiah “before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” To which Jeremiah replies, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”

Now, I don’t take any of these stories literally. I doubt there was a real burning bush and I would bet my mortgage that Jonah did not spend three days in the digestive tract of a giant fish. And if someone comes up to me and tells me they heard the voice of God tell them they were chosen before birth to be a prophet to the nations, I suspect I would make a hasty referral to a mental health professional.

And yet, don’t these stories tell the truth about how we often react when we consider the possibility of taking on a major responsibility. “Who, me?” “But I am not comfortable getting up in front of people.” “Couldn’t you please send someone else?” Or, like Jonah, “No way; let me out of here!” And yet everything good that happens in human organizations, whether congregations, government, nonprofit organizations or places of work, happens because somebody said yes to taking on a big responsibility. Every human organization needs leaders.

This morning I would have each of us reflect upon how we react when we have the chance to assume a new, and perhaps frightening, responsibility. You and I will probably never hear a clear and loud call from the almighty. Yet every one of us has a small voice within our selves that challenges us to make a difference—a voice that suggests we stretch our selves, a voice that urges us to do something significant and courageous. And this morning I would also like us to reflect upon what we might be called to do together as a congregation. As we have grown, others are beginning to look to us for leadership. What is our proper role in the community? What is our proper role in our religious movement?

I used to hold some mistaken notions about leadership—notions that I share with lots of people. When I was young I thought of leaders as charismatic, eloquent, dynamic, tireless, fearless and decisive. I thought of leaders as somehow larger than life. I also tended to think of them as tall, male and white. Over the years, as I worked in education, government and business, I came to see that my images of leaders were silly fantasies. I worked with a variety of capable leaders with very different styles. One of the very best, the dean of the college at the University of Kansas, was quiet, soft spoken and thoughtful. I had the privilege of working under a couple of women leaders who, while brilliant and effective, were also caring and gentle.
One of the standard modern books on leadership, The Leadership Challenge, compiles results of international surveys of what people admire most in leaders. The results are consistent over many years and across many nations, including Asian and European countries.

Four qualities stand out. People want leaders who are honest, forward looking, competent and inspiring. Let’s look very briefly at each key quality of leadership.

First comes honesty. Honesty is the most important ingredient. People want leaders they can trust. And how do people determine whether someone is honest? They watch. Honesty is a matter of consistency between word and deed. Good leaders walk the talk.

Next comes being forward-looking. People want leaders that look ahead, who have a sense of direction and a concern for the future. This does not mean we expect our leaders to be clairvoyant. It just means we want our leaders to have a sense of where we are going.

The third characteristic people seek is competence. This is pretty straightforward. We want our leader to be capable and effective. We want a leader who gets things done. More importantly, we want someone who can work with others to get things done, who enables others to act and contribute to a common goal.

The fourth characteristic we desire in leaders is that they be inspirational. Yet when we look closer at what people mean when they say this, what they want is for a leader to be enthusiastic and positive about the future. A leader needs to be a bit of a cheerleader. Some of the best leaders I have known are inspirational in very quiet ways.

When the authors of The Leadership Challenge reflected further on the key qualities that people want, they realized that underlying these is a common theme: people want credibility. Credibility, they discovered, is the foundation of leadership. At one level all of this looks pretty obvious. We want leaders who are honest, look ahead, are competent and positive. The thread that runs through these qualities is credibility. But look at what is missing. People are not looking for leaders that are superhuman. We want leaders we can trust.

Leadership is a human relationship, an emotional relationship based on trust. Good leadership is essential to every human organization. Good leadership liberates and empowers people. In a healthy community leaders are trusted and empowered by the community. In turn, good leaders empower members of their community. Good leaders are entrusted with power and held accountable.

In one of my favorite hymns, “Let it Be a Dance,” there is the line “learn to follow, learn to lead.” When a community asks someone it trusts to lead, the relationship is very much like a dance. Leading is a kind of following; following is a kind of leading. A good leader listens carefully and sensitively. A good leader hears the longings, the aspirations, the frustrations, the concerns, of the community. An effective, responsible leader helps frame these desires and concerns into a compelling common vision.

There is another sense in which leading is following. The best leaders, I believe, are really following. The best leaders are deeply grounded in values, ultimately religious values. Leading is learning to follow these values and to serve a purpose that transcends our individual selves and that even transcends the immediate community the leader serves. In traditional religious language this was called following the will of God. Others might call it serving a vision of the greater good, working to create a blessed community or serving values of compassion, peace and stewardship of creation that they hold sacred. Behind all of these is a sense of leadership as following not a personal agenda (following a personal agenda always makes a leader dangerous), but as following a greater purpose and a common goal.

I believe we religious liberals and progressive people in general are often deeply conflicted about leadership and power. We have all seen too much tyranny, both in the political world and petty tyrants in our schools and workplaces. We have all seen leaders that disempower, leaders that do not listen, are not accountable and who subvert rather than serve a greater purpose. I think we too often overreact and are too hesitant to entrust good people with authority and power. Just because some romantic relationships become abusive is no reason to avoid marriage; the fact that some people abuse power is no reason to refuse to empower good leaders. I remember a student organization I was in that tried to share the presidency among three people so that no one would have too much power. The result was simply confusion and paralysis. We need to select our leaders with great care—and then let them lead.

Look at your self. Almost all of us are honest, forward looking, competent and enthusiastic about those things we care about deeply. The vast majority of us are capable of being effective leaders.

There are so many ways to lead. Many of you are already in positions of responsibility and leadership. I suspect many more of you are leaders without realizing it. Do people respect you? Do people think your opinion is important? Do people have confidence that you will do what you say and do it well? Whether at church, at work, at school or elsewhere, do you have a sense of what the future can and should look like? If you are honest, competent, have a vision of the future and are positive, you are already a leader whether you want to be or not.

We need you. This church needs you. Your community needs you. The world needs you. Don’t buy a ticket to Tarshish! Don’t fall asleep during the raging storm! We need you to find your place.

This spring we are beginning a series of workshops here at JUC to help people develop their capacity to lead. In effect, we are starting our own leadership school. Jodi King, who has a passion and a vocation for leadership development, is helping us put a program together. Think seriously about participating. Are you called to lead? Listen to the voice that calls you to be what you can become.
In our order of service this morning is a survey about your interests. Take it seriously. It asks about a number of ways to serve. Some of them are not positions of great responsibility, but all of them are necessary.

Listen to what is calling you. As a congregation we are only successful to the extent that we use the talent and the energy of our members. Each of us has so much to give.

And there is a collective dimension to leadership that we need to consider. In our community I see people looking to us for more leadership. It is a challenge, because as we grow more is expected. This is true in our religious movement as well. Now that we are one of the 25 largest congregations in our association and one of the fastest growing, people increasingly look to us. They seek our advice; they ask for help. Responding takes time, energy, and staff resources. Yet we need to help. We dare not buy a group ticket to Tarshish or fall asleep during the storm. We are already doing a lot. Our involvement in the Interfaith Alliance, our hosting a social action workshop in conjunction with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, our presentations at district and national assemblies are examples of our taking a leadership role. We will be asked to do more, and we must.

You and I are not likely to hear a voice emerging from a burning bush telling us to liberate a people in bondage. I do not expect to hear a loud and clear voice calling me to go to Nineveh and cry out against its wickedness. You and I were not consecrated before our birth to be prophets to the nations.
Yet each of us is called to serve. We are also called to lead. Sometimes were are called by a silent, persistent voice that calls from the depths of our being. Sometimes we are called politely by people around us—perhaps our own Leadership Nominating Committee—asking us to consider a position.
This I know: this congregation, this community, our planet, is calling to us help create a new world. We need people who will work. We need people who will lead in ways large and small.

This year’s theme for the stewardship campaign is “What the world needs now is you, UU!” It is so true. Each of us has something essential to give. Each of us can lead.

May none of us head off to Tarshish. May none of us sleep through the raging storm. May each of us answer our call.

Lead on. Lead on!

Amen.