Inauguration Chapels
Chapel Leadership Series II
Dr. Maxine Hancock on The Heart of Leadership (pdf)
Chapel
Leadership Series IV
Dr. Jonathan Raymond
Click here to download the pdf version of the text below.
Dr. Maxine Hancock did a beautiful chapel the other day on Psalm 63 – just amazingly unpacked that so well in so short a time. And then yesterday Dr. Sherwood Lingenfelter, the Provost of Fuller Seminary, that world-class seminary in Pasadena, California, spoke to us on John 4 and the woman at the well.
The Spirit I believe guided me to talk about light and leadership this morning as a way of stepping off those banners that are around campus. So, Matthew 5:14-16.
“You” – yes, you – “are the light of the world. A city on the hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light” – an act of volition – “let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
About 36 years ago, my wife and I finished our undergraduate studies. Now in Irene’s case, cute lasts. But in my case, ladies, cute does not last. When I was just a little older, the following year, I got a great job – All my jobs have been a little bigger than me, and I have to grow into them – and I got a great job running a summer camp in Arizona.
For those of you who grew up on The Lone Ranger, this was right exactly where Zane Grey wrote the book series, The Lone Ranger. In Peppersauce Canyon, on the other side of Mount Lemmon, was the city of Tucson. But on the backside of Mount Lemmon is open range and ranches and semi-arid desert. And down in Peppersauce Canyon is a brook that runs through, and there are these enormous oak trees, and it’s just a great place to bring kids out of Tuscon and Phoenix and over from El Paso and give them a great week at camp, but also to introduce them to the gospel and to Jesus Christ.
One evening we would send cabins of kids on an overnight around a campfire, out under the stars. They would have to walk about a mile up a road, out of the canyon, up onto a ranch and then down into a little canyon where there was an old corral. And the rancher gave us permission to take the campers there and have campouts. So almost every day of the week there were two or three cabin groups around the campfire with their sleeping bags.
So I decided one night, as camp director, to check on how they were doing. A big spotlight moon was out that night, so I left camp and I took this lovely walk in the moonlight. And as I got up there and could look down this canyon, I saw a shortcut in the moonlight. And I thought, “OK, I can knock 10 minutes off this by taking the shortcut.” So I started down the hill and through this path, and as I got deeper into the path a cloud came and covered the moon, and it just became very dark. I kept going forward down this path, and, within a couple of minutes, I was covered with thorns and briers and I was stuck. My clothing was tearing and my face was getting scratched. The campfire was not that far away, but I had to navigate all these bushes and thorns to get there, and rather than turn back and cry out, in my pride I said, “I can do this.” Too long later, I emerged in the light of the campfire. I just must have scared the willies out of these kids because I was bleeding and torn – I was just a mess. And here I was, the camp director.
So there are a lot of lessons in that. But one of the lessons for me has been the importance of staying in the light, and having light and shining light. If I had had a light they would have seen me coming and not been so freaked out. I would have been satisfied to have a torch.
When I was a teenager in my home church, there was the idea of Torchbearers. So in the teen fellowship group in the church, that’s what they were called, we were the Torchbearers, meeting on Friday night to go do this or do that. I didn’t know what Torchbearers meant; I never stopped to reflect on it. It wasn’t until years later I realized that part of it was that, together as a fellowship, we would shed a light to other students – our peers in our high school, in our community – and we would bear a torch that would share the light of Jesus to teens and pre-teens. In other words, we would have a social influence. We would “let our light so shine,” as some translations say, or to shine in such a way that truly our peers and younger teens would see the light of Jesus in us and through us who were Torchbearers.
I got thinking about Torchbearers, and in a way it has to do with servant leadership. Do you remember when Jesus was arrested? When you see the Jesus film, there are torchbearers who are guiding this nefarious group to the Garden of Gethsemane to light the way, so they can carry out this task of arresting Jesus. The torchbearer is really a servant. The torchbearer is not the big time leader, but in a way they are the real leader because they are piercing the darkness with a torch, they’re making a way, they’re lighting the way for others to follow. It occurred to me that, as a teenager belonging to this fellowship, I was to be a torchbearer lighting the way, shining the way and serving others by making sure the way was safe. They could traverse that way and they could come to benefit by the light that was available.
Another way to think about servant leadership, the idea that our calling is not to be leaders that serve but servants to lead, is to be a servant that carries Christ’s torch and, in that role as servant, to lead others in ways that are good for them to go. Now I really believe that being a torchbearer servant leader is everything about shining a light on Jesus. In Acts 1, Jesus says “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Then they are empowered to do that. In other words, in one sense they will be the light of the world, but they are empowered to do that by the Holy Spirit we read about in chapter two, by their faithfulness. Jesus says, “Tarry, wait....” – they wait ten days, ten whole days together in fellowship and prayer, remembering the stories, remembering Jesus’ teachings, giving glory and thanks and praise to God.
And then after ten days, God honours that, and the Holy Spirit comes and empowers them to be witnesses, to fulfill that prophecy of Jesus that they will indeed be witnesses, that they will indeed share the light. And we find Peter in chapter three going to the temple, because he’s still a very good Jew, and on the steps is a cripple who’s been crippled for life. He’s begging because that’s how he lives. And Peter says to him, “silver and gold have I none, but that which I have I give you – in the name of Jesus Christ arise.” And he’s healed and he rises and he leaps for joy, and he goes off as a witness.
And then Peter does a wonderful thing. He gives a remarkable sermon. He gave a sermon in chapter two, he gives another one in chapter three, and in both sermons you can see that Peter’s behaviour has changed. His sermons are all about Jesus. He keeps the light on Jesus. He is a torchbearer that lights the way for others, and that light is cast on the way, the truth and the life, who is Jesus, and on Jesus’ wonderful gift – the gift of salvation. And the gift is not just a small idea of salvation – it’s not just that Jesus has done a forensic salvation of saving us from the penalty of sin – but that Christ has done something even more because redemption is just the beginning of life. You see, the light that Peter shines on Jesus is the light of this great gift of salvation, that Jesus has not only saved us from our sin, but saved us to Christlikeness.
It is a big salvation. It is a salvation that keeps on saving in the sense that we’re saved from sin, but now because of redemption we are reconciled with God. That relationship is restored. That relationship comes into play in a way that now, by Christ in us through the Holy Spirit, we can go on with the journey of becoming more and more and more like Jesus. It’s not just that redemption is there as a fact of reality of the past, but there is a reconciliation in the relationship. We are no longer out in the dark, we are brought in like the prodigal son, we are brought back into the family of God. We are reconciled with God. And now as we journey and as we are exposed to God’s grace as that journey continues, God shapes our life into Christlikeness.
So if you fast forward to chapters eight, nine and ten, you find a Peter and a Paul whose lives are significantly better, stronger, clearer, greater character development in their lives because Christ is restoring them to His likeness. You see that in the life of Luther; you see that in the life of Calvin and John Wesley; and you see that in the lives of William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army. In their early years, they had somewhat settled views, but you see those views shifting as the Holy Spirit has opened them up to be more inclusive, more circumspect and Christlike. It is redemption, reconciliation and restoration, which is that ongoing process of becoming like Christ, that makes us not only a people of faith, but a people of hope.
I want to say to you this morning that the light you shed is not just for your own backyard, not just for you and your special other, or for you and your friends in your residence hall or in the home that you live in. It’s just not for you and your family. I want you to really think this week about Isaiah 49:6. All throughout scripture there is reference to light, and this is one of my favourite verses. “It is too small a thing,” not too bad, not too immoral, not too dumb, not too inappropriate. The Lord is saying through Isaiah it’s just too small a thing for you to be my servant, my torchbearer, “to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.” It’s just too small. “I will also make you a light to the Gentiles.” In some translations it says a light for the nations. “You will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth,” Jesus said.
Here God is saying through Isaiah, I will make you a light to the nations. So, the question I have is how do we embrace that, how do we prepare for that, how do we not necessarily wait, but embrace this idea that God is restoring us to the likeness of Christ. While that is happening we still have work to do – not waiting until we graduate, not waiting until we come back as a faculty or staff member or waiting until we get that job with Microsoft – not waiting, but being a light now to the nations.
There was a time when Winnipeg was in the middle of nowhere. It’s in a sea of wheat. It’s a great city. But people would say, “Winnipeg, that’s in the middle of nowhere,” especially in February. But really, everywhere has come to Winnipeg. In my church on Sunday mornings there were ten first languages – China, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa – everywhere had come to my church. And what would I do about that but invite them into my home.
What light are you sharing even now? It’s too small a thing for you to be a torchbearer to your friends or your family or your own backyard. I want to encourage you today to think about the light you’re shedding. Jesus said “let your light shine” – are you letting your light shine brightly, consistently? That means not just on campus and then you snuff out the light because you’re a commuter. Or not Monday to Friday but Saturday night it’s time to put the light out and work the darkness. Are you letting your light shine brightly, consistently and with integrity because the light is not about you, it’s about Him? Let’s pray.
Jesus, we thank You that You are the light of the world, that You give us the high privilege of reflecting Your light to a world in darkness. We thank You that this university is about light and truth. We thank You for torchbearers of faculty and staff. We thank You for torchbearers of all students who choose to pick up Your torch and shine the light on You, so that a needy world may consistently, may brightly, may with integrity see that light, and may we keep the light on You. This is our prayer and our covenant this morning because we are a covenant people. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.