Sermon: Looking for a leader (7th July: 3 days after a General Election) from Revd Sue McCoan
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Mark 6:1-13
The matter of leadership looms large in the bible. The people of God were meant to be led by God, but they have usually needed someone on earth to guide them in practical and spiritual matters. Some of those leaders, like Moses, were diligent and faithful; others less so. Some were roundly condemned for leading the people astray. King David was regarded as one of the better ones – certainly the best king they ever had. But David was a flawed and complex person, with a private life more colourful than any modern-day politician I can think of. So what was it that people saw in him as a leader? What do we look for in our leaders? We’ll look at David first, and then we’ll go on to look at a very different kind of leader, Jesus.
At the time of the reading we heard from 2 Samuel, David was already the king of Judah, the southern part of the kingdom, and had been for seven years. During that time, the Northern part of the kingdom, the tribes of Israel, was ruled over by one of Saul’s sons, Ishbaal, and remained loyal to Saul. So there was ongoing war between the two parts. Gradually, though, David had been gaining the upper hand, and just before our reading, Ishbaal was assassinated – leaving Israel without a leader. So the tribes of Israel, as we heard in the reading, asked David to be their king too. David accepted the role, he established Jerusalem – which lies on the border between Israel and Judah – to be the new capital city, and he flourished, under the guidance of God.
The tribes of Israel give three reasons for wanting David as king.
The first is that David is a great warrior. The line ‘it was you who led out Israel and brought it in’ is a reference to him leading out troops in battle, and bringing them back victorious. These people have been on the wrong end of David’s fighting for seven years – how much better to have him fighting for them, rather than against them. And how much better to unite the two parts of the country, Israel and Judah, thus creating a single new kingdom that could really be a strong witness for God in the world.
The second reason they give is that they saw David as the shepherd of God’s people. This is in contrast to the kings of other nations, who led their people by force – conscripting young men to fight, raising massive taxes to pay for military campaigns, imprisoning anyone who stepped out of line. A shepherd cares for the wellbeing of the sheep in his care, looking out for the weak, building up the strength of the whole flock. David is a leader who doesn’t just fight battles for his people but cares about their everyday lives. They could trust a leader like this.
And the third reason is that they know David has been called by God to this role. They say, ‘The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people’.
So David has courage; he has compassion; and he has a calling.
When we move on to our reading from Mark’s gospel, we see those same qualities in Jesus, though expressed in very different ways.
The first part of the reading gives us a fascinating insight into the way Jesus was perceived by the people who knew him before he was famous. We’re used to seeing him through the eyes of the disciples, who hung on his every word; we see him through our own eyes of faith as our risen Saviour. But here are people who knew him as a kid – who saw him grow up, who knew his mum and dad, his brothers and sisters. He’s just the lad from down the road – where did he get these weird powers?
They’re quite unsettled by him.
And seeing Jesus through their eyes, we realise how hard it must have been for him to break away from his family and friends to start his ministry. To turn his back on all that he knew, all the expectations of the family business and caring for his parents, all the people he loved, and to go out, alone, and start teaching and preaching to anyone who would listen. What if nobody did listen? Jesus faced much more overt opposition later, from the Pharisees and others, but the first real act of courage is breaking away from the well-meaning kindness of ‘don’t stick your neck out’. Jesus showed courage in many different ways.
Jesus also had compassion. When he faces setbacks, like his home town rejecting him, he reacts by doing something generous to others. He goes out into the surrounding villages to preach there, and he gives his disciples a kind of apprenticeship so that they can spread the good news too. If you’re not welcome in one place, he says, go somewhere else. Keep sharing. And we have many examples throughout the gospels of Jesus showing compassion to all sorts of people, especially those who were often overlooked.
And of course, Jesus had a calling, made clear to his parents before he was born, confirmed for him personally at his baptism.
So how does our new government, our new parliament, measure up to these values of courage, compassion and calling?
I’m not necessarily thinking of MPs being called by God, though some may be. I’m thinking more of calling in the secular sense – we use the word vocation, which means calling, to talk about nurses and teachers and other people engaged in public service. I hope Keir Starmer holds true to his words about restoring politics to public service, and to putting country first, party second. I hope that applies to all MPs, that they see their role as serving the country rather than their personal ambitions, and that this in turn brings a more constructive approach, one that builds bridges rather than stirring up divisions.
Certainly, our new MPs will need courage. Not to fight battles against other countries, I hope, but to tackle some of the huge problems that need sorting – the NHS, social care, the cost of living, sewage in our rivers, and so on. None of these will be easy to fix, all will cost money, and there will be hard choices to be made. It may mean saying no to deserving people, because there are others in even greater need. I hope that our government will have the courage to be honest about the situation, and to make those choices in the best interests of the country as a whole. I hope too that the opposition parties will have the courage to criticise constructively, rather than simply trying to shoot everything down in flames.
And I really hope that all our MPs have compassion. That they look out for the most vulnerable; that they stop talking about people in need as if they were a drain on our resources and instead see them as people whose lives are valuable because they are human. That they stop scapegoating immigrants and instead have a grown-up debate about what skills and resources we need and how we might find them in the short and long term. That they end the watering-down of regulations that protect the safety of people and the environment. Above all, that they find a way to engage with the public that builds up trust and confidence.
And where do we come in, as people of faith? Whatever our party preferences, whatever our level of engagement with politics, we need to pray. To pray for those elected to lead us, for their personal safety as well as their integrity in office; to pray for all who are involved in the structures of our democracy so that the checks and balances are upheld; to pray for the future for all of us.
When the people of Israel asked David to lead them, he made a covenant with them, and they anointed him as their king. This country has given Keir Starmer a mandate to lead; let us pray for courage and compassion, and an ongoing call to service.
Amen.
