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The Rev. Christopher Brdlik
February 18, 2007 - Last Sunday after The Epiphany

Ladies and gentlemen! Members of the press!  And the radio and television audience!  I am proud to announce today the formation of an exploratory committee to explore my candidacy for President of the United States! Though I am not yet officially announcing that I am running for the nomination, this exploratory committee will help me raise money as I run without officially announcing whether I have decided to run. Therefore, following the services today, I will embark on a “listening tour” to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, listening to the American people tell me what I want to hear: that I should officially announce I am running. 

Well, just kidding, of course. But I’ll tell you who’s not kidding: those dozen or more ambitious politicians who have made such an announcement — some of them many times more than just once. President’s Day Weekend should remind us of the dignity of the office of the Presidency and of the importance of some of the great leaders who have held that office.Yet the eagerness of modern politicians to get in the race early underlines the out-sized egos of those who desire to lead us. And why the coy trick of exploratory committees and unofficial announcements? This campaign has started early — maybe too early — and we are going to be hearing about it for many months to come. 

Another, different sort of campaign is also closely associated with President’s Day Weekend. We see it in splashes of red, white and blue across our television screens.  Then images of Abe and George W. appear — that’s George Washington, by the way. With computer-generated graphics they move their mouths, and a voice over the air tells us to hurry on down to our local car dealer — the one with the huge American flag blowing over the traffic on Route 22 — to hurry on down this President’s Day Weekend and do the patriotic thing: buy a Japanese car. If President’s Day Weekend should remind us, as I have said, of the dignity of the office of the Presidency and some of the great leaders who have held that office, it has become instead an opportunity for commerce and maybe even for commercial exploitation of the memories of those leaders. 

Leadership is important. Good leaders seem like gifts from God who can “guide their nations into the ways of justice and peace.” Bad leaders think of themselves as gifts of God, and their nations as opportunities to wield personal power and exercise personal whims. You could say the whole Bible is a history, a record, of leadership good and bad. From the patriarchs to the prophets to the kings of Israel and Judah, generals, conquerors, legal experts, the Bible remembers how leadership has affected the people of God not just in their daily affairs but often in their relationship with God.   

Three of the most prominent leaders in the Biblical tradition are represented in today’s Gospel (Luke 9:28-35): Moses, the great law-giver of the people of Israel; Elijah, regarded as greatest among the prophets; and of course Jesus Christ himself, the preeminent leader of all times. (That’s not to mention Peter, James and John, also in the reading, who became leaders of the early Church, because I want to focus on the first three, the central figures of the Transfiguration.) And these three had some qualities in common that influenced their leadership, namely reluctance or humility, and a clear sense of their dependence on God for strength and guidance.

First, Moses. When he received his call to lead the people of God, he was actually a felon on the lam from Egyptian authorities. He was hiding out in the mountains, lucky to find a job working as a herdsman for his father-in-law.  Success was not written on his resume. In fact when the angel of God approached him through the burning bush, Moses declined the offer. I suppose he would have been content to stay on his father-in-law’s payroll.  He said to God, “Who am I to confront Pharaoh?” He told God the people were unlikely to accept him as their leader. He claimed that he was not eloquent — indeed admitting he was slow of speech and hesitant of tongue.  But to every objection Moses raised God laid out an answer. And the plan, basically, was that God would help him, God would enable him to confront Pharaoh, to escort his people to freedom, to lead those people even when they became fractious and stiff-necked and grumbling as they wandered around the wilderness for forty years, a very long time. Moses learned to depend on God, and God’s grace and providence enabled him to lead. 

Elijah, too, was a reluctant leader. His antagonist was King Ahab, an example of poor leadership, in fact the worst king in all the history of Israel, according to the Old Testament, married to the evil Queen Jezebel. Elijah would engage Ahab and offer a prophecy of condemnation and judgment.  The he would flee — he would hide out, away from potential conflict. One time he ran to Trans-Jordan, far away from Ahab’s power.  Another time Elijah took refuge with a poor widow in Zarephath, living on the fringes of society. On a third occasion, very odd, he escaped from his greatest triumph, his total humiliation of the pagan prophets of Baal; he escaped to a cave in the mountains where he heard the still, small voice of God telling him to go back to the fray. For all his success against a powerful political force, Elijah was a reluctant prophet who clearly depended on God to accomplish his mission. 

Then, finally, Jesus Christ, who never acted without prayer and who never strayed from the will of his Father. Epiphany season brackets two life-changing events in the story of our Lord. The first is his baptism, recalled early in the season on the first Sunday after the Epiphany. For Jesus, baptism was his call to ministry — it functioned as his ordination. Luke tells us he was about 30 years old when he was baptized. We don’t know what he did as a young adult, whether he worked as Joseph did in a carpenter’s shop, or spent time studying the scriptures as a rabbi would, or maybe both. But we do know, after baptism he engaged in a public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing around his hometown in the northern province of Galilee. He attracted quite a following. But that wasn’t all of his ministry. Epiphany season ends with the other bracket, the Transfiguration, on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany.  For Jesus, the Transfiguration transformed his mission. Now he knew he had to take his message to Jerusalem and confront the political and religious authorities there, challenge their hypocrisy, and endure the inevitable punishment. In this major transformation of what he was to do, Jesus knew he’d have to depend on God to complete his mission.  Even so, he expressed some self-doubt, coupled to courage. He wouldn’t let Simon Peter flatter him with the declaration that he, Jesus, was Messiah. In the garden of Gethsemane he asked God to “take this chalice from me.” Yet in all things, he concluded, “Not my will, Father, but yours be done.” We have here the pre-eminent example of self-giving leadership, of committed courage, of dedication to what’s right, not what’s best for someone’s ambitious political career. 

I am not suggesting that we should make America a theocracy, a government by those declared pious, nor that we should select our leaders based on their religiosity.  And of course, you need some level of ego strength to get the job done.  I am pointing out that the greatest leaders do not seem to be in it for themselves, for ambition, for their reputation or legacy.  The best leaders are those who serve, who do it for others, with modesty, humility and grace.  The Bible has taught us the nature of true leadership time and again. 

© copyright 2007, Christopher Brdlik

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