Rev Doug Horner
January 20, 2008

Sermon Archive

A tourist visiting a church in Germany was surprised to see the carved figure of a lamb near the top of the church’s tower. He asked why it was there and was told the story of the renovation of the steeple a few years back. A workmen who was rushing around, slipped and fell from a high scaffold. His co-workers rushed down, expecting to find him dead. But to their surprise and joy, he was alive and only slightly injured. How did he survive? A flock of sheep was passing beneath the tower at the time, and he landed on top of a lamb. The lamb broke his fall and was crushed to death, but the man was saved. To commemorate that miracle, someone carved a lamb on the tower at the exact height from which the workman fell.

We all need someone to catch us when we fall. It must be someone we can trust . . . someone who has compassion . . . someone who is human . . .who listens without judging us. I don’t know if you have been thinking this way . . . but, this is about you. I see this sermon is about your qualities for leadership. Put your humility aside for a moment, and admit that there are certain qualities about you that make you fit for leadership. You all have leadership traits in you; your friends, family, neighbors, they all know you go to church, they know you believe in God’s power, love and goodness; and that you put your faith in to action. I want you to claim it and I want to give you some tools to help others develop their own sense of faith.

Choose an area of your life where you have power. For example, Nina Hoffman is great with plants. Every time she comes, she enlists a volunteer to help water and care for the plants of the church. This is leadership. Greening the church is the area where Nina shows Christian leadership. Jesus calls all of us to be a friend, volunteer, mentor, listener, role model, dreamer of a better world. There is a comfort that comes with this type of leadership commitment. But the commitment takes you deeper into the faithful leadership role, deeper into servanthood, serving others. Think about where you are powerful and can take leadership. Why?

Why be a friend? Why volunteer to serve others? Why be a mentor for youth? I can think of at least three reasons. First, Christian service gives us the opportunity to demonstrate personal concern for others; second, in our service we demonstrated that we place a value and meaning on life; third, our serving others gives us a sense of hope for tomorrow.

Here is a story about Miss Donna. Donna is a member of a suburban church. She is a mentor in the Kids Hope program. Every week she comes into a nearby city elementary school to be a friend, encourager, and mentor to a little boy named John. John looks to be 7 or 8 years old. Donna and John have bonded in a beautiful way. Though there is quite a difference in their ages, Miss Donna – as John calls her- has become John’s best friend. Once each week, she visits him at school, helps him with his school work… and then “going the second mile” every Saturday, Donna takes John to do exciting things that without Donna, John would likely never get to do – things like the zoo, the museum, the Galleria.

A few months ago, Donna’s husband died in his sleep. Little John came to the funeral to support his friend Miss Donna in her grief. At the reception in the Hines Baker Room after the memorial service, John stood beside Donna and held her hand. She had been there for him and now he was there for her. He would not leave her side. It was a beautiful moment and people in the room had tears in their eyes, so touched by John’s intense commitment to lovingly stand by Miss Donna, his friend and mentor.

Some of us saw John eyeing the goodies on the reception table – punch and chocolate chip cookies in abundance… and some of us said to him, “John, would you like to walk over here and have some refreshments?” But no, he would not leave Donna’s side. “I want to stay here with Miss Donna.,” he would say. The love between the two of them was so radiant and powerful in that room.

Also in the room that day was a man from Chicago. He had flown all the way from Chicago to Houston to be with Donna. Do you know why? Because 38 years ago when he was in first grade, Donna had been his mentor at an elementary school in the Chicago area. He flies from Chicago to Houston every summer to see Donna and to thank her for what she did for him 38 years ago – and then he made this special trip to be with Donna when her husband suddenly died. That man from Chicago says to Donna every time he comes, “I am what I am today because of the love and support you gave me 38 years ago.” He says, “Ms. Donna, you were the first person in my life who believed in me.” And today little John says to her in words and actions: “Miss Donna, I love you. I know you love me. You are my best friend.” Now, where did Donna learn to love like that, to reach out to people in need like that, to make a difference in people’s lives like that? You know, don’t you? The same place the disciple Andrew learned it – from Jesus.
This is the type of friendship that God calls us to. . . sacrificing our own luxuries – time, talents and treasure – for others. It is the type of commitment that calls one to give of himself or herself. Even if giving ourselves means going to our death.
Back to the question at hand, why be a Christian friend? Why take leadership in the community, when so many things occupy our time, sap our energy and steal our precious resources? We will be a leader because, first of all, we care about life. Second of all, because life is too short to look inward only. Life is not a static, concrete, daily grind like we may think sometimes. Life is a mystery and we have a huge part in creating how life around us goes. Every person we encounter, every piece of the world that we live in, every time we add some love and happiness to God’s equation; these things reveal the mystery of the divine in the universe. Life is enhanced, life is beautiful when we take part in enhancing it. The divine spark in us is part of the universal equation which holds together all the corners of the cosmos. To develop our understanding of this connectedness, we must pray more, center ourselves more, retreat for silence more. Life is too short to waste time sitting in front of the TV. Add something; life is beautiful when we add our own personal touch to creation.
And so we move into the third reason I believe God is calling us to be Christian leaders and that we should claim our journey towards servant leadership. A leader will be ready to bring hope to a world that appears to be overcome by negativity, violence and grief. Reading the newspapers, watching the news and just talking about current events can sometimes be depressing. It would be easy to dwell on the negativity that is swirling around us. For example, I loaned someone $200 out of the emergency fund and they never repaid it. The church could use that money to help someone else, so I was hoping to get it back soon. But, this person does not appear to be ready to return the money; is still struggling to get back on his feet and so I am going to wait, without jumping to the conclusion that I will never see repayment. I will not feel sorry that I made the loan; God will work it out in God’s time. I am hopeful.
“Hope prevents us from clinging to what we have,” says Henri Nouwen. “Hope frees us to move away from the safe place and enter the unknown and fearful territory. Hope allows us to enter into our neighbors’ fears with him or her, and to find in the fellowship of suffering the way to freedom.
Since our country celebrates Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day tomorrow, I thought I might share this passage from a sermon of his. Perhaps his words can be an expression of hope for us as well. May we be found to be so faithful in telling the truth that others will know our commitment to Jesus, and they will desire to experience faith for themselves. King preached: "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind."

"And that's all I want to say…if I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living would not be in vain." May we all be so fortunate as to live those words.

Choose an area of your life where you are powerful; where you exercise your gifts and you have a sense of pride and satisfaction. This is the area where you can show Christian leadership. There is a comfort that comes with this type of leadership commitment. Bring others in to that area of commitment with you. Be a friend , volunteer, serve others in that area. Why; because Christian service gives us the opportunity to demonstrate personal concern for others; because, in our service we demonstrate that we place a value and meaning on life; and also because our serving others gives us a sense of hope for tomorrow.

What we do for others adds so much to our own lives. That is the meaning of serving others. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. went to his death knowing that, although he might never see it come to fruition, his dream of a better world where all people live in peace and as equals, was his calling from God. As controversial as it was, it still seemed reasonable. His vision, while impossible, was worth the risk of death. Looking back, we see how his service seemed so natural, as if that type of service happens every day. As if we have the opportunity to catch people as they fall every day.

Whenever God calls someone, that call involves servant leadership – the sort of leadership that is crucial to our nation and for our community. We are thinking about leadership these days because it is an election year. We are wondering who is going to be carried into the white house, who will be elected to the seat currently filled by Dennis Kucinich? What kind of a leader do we want? I believe that the leader who liberates us to be the best we can be is the best leader; the one who opens more doors for us, the one who calls us out of complacency, the one who rallies us to a higher level of public participation. This is the kind of leader we want. And it is not just in our public officials. Servant leadership is required from our church council members as well.

The servant leader has a new vision, is translating that vision to the rest of us. The servant leader has a vision and is willing to help his brothers and sisters see that vision and enlists them in forming the path that others will follow. If you comprehend this, then you will understand that the servant leader has accepted the call that God has placed on his or her life. Gordon Cosby says that accepting God’s call is a movement from seeing to the accepting. There is a big jump that happens in the servant leaders head and heart that says this: “I don’t know how to do it. The task seems impossible. I don’t know how to do it, but I will do it. If I can’t do it I will be faithful unto death. I will hold that vision. People will know that I am holding it. And one day it will happen.”

Jesus’ kind of leadership is the kind of leadership needed in our time if society is going to survive; if the kingdom is going to come in; if the church is going to be the church that Jesus is calling the church to be. We are called to serve and to wait for others to step up into the leadership role with us. We may die waiting, but we go on calling friends and neighbors to the kingdom and wait for their response.

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