New Year’s resolution: A measure of leadership?

Part 1

I have been an active member of the gym health club for over 15 years. Every January the gym is full. The reason for this is that people make new year’s resolutions, and I am one of them. There is nothing wrong with that. However, as we approach winter, the numbers at the gym drop.

Recently, I could not help but wonder if seeing your resolutions through has something to do with leadership? Leading one’s self. I believe that leadership starts with leading me. Is it not the reason why some people will say, a leader is born?

In Luke 8:42–48., the story of a woman who led herself is narrated. Jesus felt her leadership amid the crowd that pressed Him at all sides. For those who might not be familiar with the Bible, this is how Luke narrates the event:

“A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed.

If the above is not leadership, that get out of the comfort zone, I am not sure what it is. She took leadership and made sure that she positioned herself and occupied the space that she was not supposed to occupy. According to the Levitical laws, she was unclean, and touching the Rabbi was regarded as an intolerable presumption and wrong. Yet, she did it, and took position in the space that was not made for her. By accommodating that act of leadership Jesus in turn positioned Himself in the scrutiny.  Therefore, both leaders, met in the compromised space. The woman led herself, and by doing so, she was giving others authorization to be. John Quincy Adams put it this way, “if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”. That in my opinion is successfully leading yourself.

 Jesus was leading the crowd, and the woman was leading herself from behind the crowd and in the vulnerable position. This shows that, one does not need position to lead, as you lead yourself, the others will follow you.

According to Mark 1: 5, Jesus led Himself. The gospel of Mark.1:35 reads,

“Early in the morning, well before sunrise, Jesus rose and went to a deserted place where he could be alone in prayer”.

Jesus led Himself to the solitary place. The other translations say it was His custom. That means, He taught His body to wake up.  Waking up early to go and pray in the solitary place or waking up at 4h00 in the morning to go to the gym before going to work is one thing. Doing that every morning unceasingly is quite another. It is relentlessly training one’s body to comfortably operate out of comfort zone. It is only a leader who does that because the leader is always the one who has a vision for her/his life.

To answer the question of the title of this devotion, yes, to stick to the new year’s resolutions is the measure of leadership. It takes commitment, stubborn determination to teach the body to be comfortable in an uncomfortable routine.  As we are about to begin, yet another year, with new resolutions, let us remember that, it is not about how many times we fall, but it is about getting up every time we fall.

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Jesus Christ always respected and cherished women, and was always next to especially marginalized women. In our first Scripture reading we see the so-called “sinful woman” enter the house where Jesus was the guest of honor. It was normal to have neighbors invite themselves when one of the neighbors is hosting the guests like Jesus. The so-called “sinful woman”, was not completely out of line, however it looks like she was not expected to show up, because of her immoral reputation. What she did also was not out of the ordinary. She did what the host should have done.

Let’s look at how she shows resilience in the midst of woundedness. She unfastens her hair, removing whatever she may have tied her hair with, and let it fall free. She knelt down and began to wipe Jesus’s feet with her hair. To go about in public with her hair down was considered a shameful thing to do, to top it all, the woman of her reputation. Yet she was not discouraged. She did not ask for water, her tears were already coming down; she used her tears to wash His feet. This tells me that; the sight of Jesus brought the thanksgiving tears in her eyes. Those tears washed NOT only Jesus’s feet, but also washed away the shame she felt before she received forgiveness.

The other woman in Luke 8: 43-48 was this nameless woman with a chronic case of bloody discharge. According to the Levitical Law, she was ceremonially unclean; this had separated her for a very long period from all contact with the outside world. For someone who was not supposed to be in contact with people, it must have taken her an inner strength and great courage to go across that line. She probably crawled to get to the hem of Jesus’s robe. Her gentle, yet profound and loud touch was enough to get the attention of Jesus. In addition, Jesus drew the attention of the crowd to her when He asked this question: “Who touched me?

When Jesus pronounced the healing in verse 48 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” She already received healing. It applies to the so called “sinful woman”, when Jesus pronounced her forgiveness of sins, she already acted like a forgiven person. These two women claimed the healing and forgiveness before they received them. This kind of resilience we need today…..a resilience, which could change the hearts and minds of people.

What we see in these two Scriptures, we see Jesus, the embodiment of grace, and the two women, as the embodiment of resilience.

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JESUS with the Unknown woman: break the walls & build bridges 
John 4:1-25 (MSG)

Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people.

Because of this, Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. To get there, Jesus had to pass through Samaria. He then came to Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph.

Jacob’s well was still there, so, worn out by the trip, Jesus sat down at the well. It was noon. A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days would not be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!” Jesus said, “Go call your husband and then come back.” “I have no husband,” she said. Jesus then said: “That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”

“Oh, so you’re a prophet!” the woman said. “Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”
“Believe me, woman,” Jesus said, “the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship, guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews, but the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you are called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. “It’s who you are and the way you live that counts before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That is the kind of people for whom the Father looking: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.

The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”

“I am he,” Jesus said. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

For many years, big walls had separated Samaritans and Jews. They were cultural walls, gender walls, religious walls and racial walls. Jesus had to break down all of those walls. Like us today, Jews and Samaritans developed thick skins not to feel or see the injustices that was happening around them. Just like us, they normalized something that was not normal. The walls that separated them felt normal to both sides, (the Jews and Samaritans). Jesus came and intentionally broke those walls, brick by brick. One has to be intentional to break the walls. There are three things in this text that Jesus used to both break the walls, brick by brick and build a bridge.

1. Jesus connected with this nameless woman as a human being, not as a woman. They both met each other at their points of need. Jesus needed to quench his physical thirst, and the Samaritan her spiritual thirst. In verse eight, Jesus asks: “Would you give me a drink of water?” In verse fifteen, the Samaritan woman says, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!” Right there, the wall between the Samaritans and Jews started to break down and the bridge was formed. It is through vulnerability not power that bridges are built and walls are destroyed. Power destroys but vulnerability builds.

2. Jesus connected with her as a spiritual being: In verses twenty-three to twenty- four, Jesus says: “It’s who you are and the way you live that counts before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. Those are the kind of people for whom the Father looks.” SPIRITUALITY is what they had in common with Jesus.

3. Jesus connected with her as a person: In verses sixteen to seventeen, Jesus tells her: “Go and get your husband,” and she replied: “I don’t have a husband.” I believe that Jesus did not question her to get her. Jesus wanted to know the person behind the woman. In turn, Jesus introduced himself. Then Jesus told her in verse twenty-five: “I am the Messiah. One cannot get more personal than that. Jesus intentionally, not artificially broke those walls everywhere He went. He tore down the walls we use to keep each other at a distance.

Conclusion: It is not the person from a radically different culture on the other side of the world that is hardest to love, but the nearby neighbour whose skin colour, language, rituals, values, ancestry, history, and customs are different from one’s own.

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INTRODUCTION
I do not know about you, but I was introduced to the vindictive judge and to what Louw call, a rigid bookkeeper of our mistakes. As I grow up, the image changed, it was an image of a blesser or Father Christmas. (EXPAND ON IMAGES)

The image of God as a vulnerable God is the image we do not emphasis it enough. May be it is because of the myths about vulnerability. The common myth is that within vulnerability there is weakness.

On the contrary, Brown is suggesting that within vulnerability rests an uncommon strength – not the strength of power but of authenticity, not the strength of getting what you want but of being seen, not the strength of imposing one’s will but of being authentic, available, and real”.

When we look at Divine figure however, we do not really want to imagine God as vulnerable.

READ: JEREMIAH 8: 18-22 & 9:1-2
18-22 I drown in grief. I am heartsick.
Oh, listen! Please listen! It is the cry of my dear people reverberating through the country. Is God no longer in Zion? Has the King gone away?
Can you tell me why they flaunt their plaything-gods, their silly, imported no-gods before me?
The crops are in, the summer is over, but for us nothing has changed.
We are still waiting to be rescued.
For my dear broken people, I am heartbroken. I weep, seized by grief.
Are there no healing ointments in Gilead?
Isn’t there a doctor in the house? So why can’t something be done to heal
and save my dear, dear people?

9:1-2, 1-2 I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes fountains of tears. So I could weep day and night for casualties among my dear, dear people.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. AMEN

Yet! In this scripture, we see the image of God with tears, the God who weeps for His people through Jeremiah. Classen in her book, Mourner, Mother, Midwife put it this way, “the image of the God who weeps, speaks to people in a way that few others images are able to.”

God desire more than anything to be connected to us, to be in relationship with us, to be, in a sense, completed by our participation in God’s divine life. That is why God becomes so vulnerable – because the only way to connect truly and deeply with another is to become vulnerable. God, therefore through Jeremiah was dismayed, grieved and maybe even disgusted, that the condition of the people have gotten so bad.

We had our own share of misery in our country these past few months. 

God probably has been weeping day and night for those dear, dear daughters of His. To inflict injury on a fellow human being is to wound God Himself. Is it perhaps a time in our society to re-image the vulnerable God ? Is it not the time to introduce a God who is inviting us to dwel in him and Him to us? A God who cares.

So I wonder…
Can we allow our images of God to conform to the vulnerability we see in this book of Jeremiah? Can we see the Bible itself as a collection of tales about this vulnerable God? Can we imagine that to be a follower of Jesus is to embrace vulnerability rather than to use our faith to defend ourselves against it? And can we imagine that church isn’t the place you go when you’ve got it all figured out but instead where you go to gather with others on the way, meeting at the point of our brokenness to hold onto each other with the promises of God?

CONCLUSION
Classen: 2012, “The weeping, the pain that a person undergoes by one’s self alone, may have the effect of breaking and bringing down a person, so that the person is incapable of doing anything. But the weeping the person does together with God, that strengthens the person,. It is hard to rise repeatedly above the sufferings, but when one summons the courage, stretching the mind to engage in Torah and divine service,- then one enters the inner chambers where God is to be found. There one weeps and wails with God, as it were, TOGETHER.

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Luke 10:25-37 (NLT)
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here. “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

What???? A Samaritan help a Jew???? Impossible!!!! It was impossible in Jesus’s time, but not to Jesus. The Jews and the Samaritans during the time of Jesus did not like each other, no let me rephrase that statement, they hated each other. In addition, Jesus is calling the best enemies neighbors, because of “care”. ‘The good neighbor was a despised Samaritan. This Samaritan, is hated and despised by the Jews, yet he restored the dignity of a Jew. This Jewish man was robbed of his human dignity, love and self-respect.

What made it easy for this Good Samaritan to help the Jew? The Bible said he felt compassion towards the victim. He dirtied his hands by cleaning the wounds and bandaging him. What this Samaritan did, there is no amount of money can buy. I am talking about the caring and loving heart. How many has the enemy robbed and we passed them by? I wonder how this Jew felt when people passed him by, instead of helping. We have thousands of excuses not to be involved. Some of those excuses are; I do not have money, I do not speak the language, I do not have time, and it is not my calling or I do not trust people. The list goes on. People want somebody who cares, not someone who has time or money.

This parable is about the “care” that does not CARE who you are, or where do you come from or which language you speak. Whether you are my enemy or my friend. We are called to CARE radically.

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