Snowfall and Servanthood

Whatever happened to servant leadership?

Snow falls on Virginia. After three winters with no snow to speak of, Virginia has been enjoying a good deal of snowfall this season. Now, not everyone in Virginia enjoys a deep and lengthy winter, but I do. I love hunkering down for a season. The stillness and quiet are a balm.

Stillness and quiet are a helpful foil to how I am experiencing our present political moment. My attentions are scattered and chaotic. I try to stay off The Socials. I listen to a local Classic Rock station rather than the news when I am out making my rounds. And yet, staying informed is a civic duty. Our society is under attack from within. It’s difficult to stay out of the fray.

Bullies abound.

Servants are scarce.

Servanthood, we are told in Christian circles, is the mark of a cruciform life. Christ took the form “of a slave,” or so the story goes. We are encouraged to do the same.

Today’s Franciscan Nugget: “Day Nineteen - The Third Way of Service - Work - Jesus took on himself the form of a servant. He came not to be served, but to serve. He went about doing good: healing the sick, preaching good news to the poor, and binding up the broken hearted.”

That’s good work. It’s laudable work. It is needed work. Such work is predicated on love, human and divine. Such work brings about the fruit of the Spirit. Nowhere in scripture, however, are we told to laud “efficiency.” Servanthood is not efficient.

Jesus is tempted by Satan in the desert with all manner of alternative leadership models, shows of power, prestige, and privilege. He rebukes the Tempter and chooses another path. Servanthood.

I keep running into this conceptual wall. Efficiency. The government, they say, is a business. America, some say, is a business. It’s not a society. It’s not a community. It’s a business. And businesses must be efficient. Trimming the so-called fat is a hard necessity.

Similarly, it is not uncommon for some to say that churches are businesses. I disagree, of course. No Christian “enterprise” is a business. They are always communities. They must be served and not “run.” Servanthood is the life blood of life together.

Spending as much time as I have crafting community, I find it increasingly disappointing to encounter the language of the marketplace in those communities. The Christian excitement over the Trump presidency is equally disappointing.

We have forgotten ourselves.

When will we hear the language of servanthood and humility again? Will we? I am thinking it may be a long time until we see charity, humility, and servanthood from our leadership again.