The readings for the eighth Sunday after Pentecost share a consistent theme. It is simple. The people come first. The people come first. The people come first. Godly leadership always displays this single characteristic.
The reading from the Gospel of Mark tells a story about Jesus and the disciples seeking respite to recover from their labors. “He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (Mk. 6:31). No matter how hard they tried, though, it was not to happen. The people saw where they went and quickly followed. Jesus had compassion on the crowd and taught them. Then he and the disciples tried going somewhere else. Again their plans were thwarted. People gathered the sick from all over the surrounding area and brought them to be healed. There is no rest from doing good.
There is a similar theme in the Old Testament lesson for this week, 2 Samuel 7:1-14a. I particularly like this story. King David, having settled himself inside a palace in his new capital at Jerusalem, tells the prophet Nathan that he intends to build God a palace in which to dwell. God, however, is having none of it.
Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” (vv.5b-7).
The people come first. Always. Even to God. Especially to God.
That is the very thing that defines godly leadership. It isn’t some idea of earthly glory. It isn’t wealth. It isn’t even piety. It is people first.
The alternative Old Testament reading, Jeremiah 23:1-6, contains a warning about that. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord” (v.1). But even more to the point, the words of Jeremiah also contain a promise. “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply” (v. 3). It all comes back to caring for the people. God will assure it.
In this time of almost unprecedented national division, the lens of putting the people first might be a useful one to apply. It isn’t a left or a right thing. It’s a people come first thing. Always.
Agape,
+Stacy