08.25.07

authority, certainty and humility

Posted in community, formation, hermeneutics, leadership at 6:00 am by len

In times of transition in particular we search for clarity and direction. The faster change comes at us, the more desperately we look for places to cast our anchor. We want answers, and generally we look to leadership types to provide them. We want .. and need .. to reconnect with meaning. So we seek out leadership. We look for those who seem expert and reliable. When we find those who sound sure, we try to elevate them and so participate in their certainty. We seek assurance that the demons of confusion and chaos are under control.

It’s tempting to play to this dynamic. We feel attracted to those who have a sense of direction and purpose. At the same time, many of us who speak and write are concerned to move the body beyond dependence on human leadership. We want every believer to look first to Jesus. Eventually we run up against a paradox: in order to move forward as faithful communities, the body needs direction. Do we offer what we have and risk creating new dependence? Or do we withhold ourselves in the hope that others will grow beyond their need for direction and look to God themselves?

Rooting our dilemma is this: direction, wisdom and vision tends to come through a limited number of individuals. The body is diversely gifted. We label and set apart some as “leaders,” or prophets, apostles, pastors and poets. Whatever we call them, we perceive wisdom in those who are attentive to Spirit, following Jesus, loving His body and “tuned in.” They may not have perfect clarity, but we sense that they are listening, and they seem centered and peaceful. We know that “the wisdom from above is first pure… and peaceful..” James 3:17

Authority looks different in different cultures and contexts. When Watchman Nee wrote “Spiritual Authority” in China around 1946 the country had just seen war. The Communists were in control and were already beginning to ravage the Church. In modernity in the west authority has had a particular industrial, mechanical, hierarchical frame. It was easy to find strong, authoritative leadership examples to root that particular vision: Moses, Joseph, David. As we transition to a post-industrial and postmodern world, in the world of Quantum physics and Heisenberg, and as we rediscover the meaning of community, we are beginning to find a new frame for authority, rooted more in the letters of Paul and the new priesthood laos birthed at Pentecost. Here are a few things we need as we discern new paradigms for authority:

1) humility or “chastened rationality.” We ALL see though a glass darkly. There are no exceptions, whether “leader or led,” professional or “amateur,” theologian or babe in Christ. Any of us should be reluctant about making authoritative pronouncements. Even theology at one level is a learning conversation, and after a definitive statement we might be inclined to echo, “YES” but also “NO.” We need many voices, and often the weaker voices are most needed because they keep us on the path of humility, an appropriate stance for creatures of the dust. Authoritative pronouncements are just as likely to prevent learning, because they close the conversation to all but the boldest — those willing to challenge a new status quo.

2) mutual submission and vulnerability. Truth is often discovered along the way, sometimes where we don’t expect it, and when it is discovered it transcends us all. Finally the text must read us before we read the text. We need to hear one another, and then we need to discern together something larger than us all. When truth or direction or the voice of the Lord is discerned, we have a response to make and we become responsible to make it. We are responsible to God first and to community eldership secondly, in the awareness that most of our discernment is only partial but also in the awareness that truth resides in the community of the Spirit. The Spirit is given to the body.

3) truth rooted in covenant. To “know” Jesus is not merely assent to information. It is in the community of Jesus that truth is discerned, because the Spirit is the Spirit of truth who indwells the body. The old english word for truth was “troth” implying a commitment to obey that which is understood. Similarly the Greek word “aleithea” implies a relational covenant: the unveiling of a bride with the groom.

4) the larger context of the body catholic. Individual communities may be independent in polity, but are not independent in the Spirit. There is one body, one faith, one Lord, one Spirit. What is God doing in the world and what is he saying? It’s important to hear from contexts other than our own in order to achieve perspective. Even the emergent conversation is just one conversation, and sometimes it is a-historical or focused too narrowly. We need the larger community of God’s people worldwide.

5) discernment of gifts. Through discernment we recognize that some voices carry more weight than others, have greater clarity of sight or greater depth of hearing. We recognize the sovereignty of God in gifting the body. This often has no relationship to position or title: it is a spiritual reality. We might even perceive something we would call “apostolic” weight. It’s important to weigh individual voices, but even prophetic gifting doesn’t guarantee perfect clarity. The eldership of a community remains wiser than the individual, and the Word remains wiser than the eldership. The Word, the Spirit and theological reflection, the living body and tradition still form the matrix of discernment.

6) faith, hope and love. Truth that is trustworthy comes filtered through these three lenses, and takes on the qualities of each. It’s not usually difficult to discern leaders who are mature in these things from those who are not, but it does take practice and sometimes we get it wrong. Unforunately, our culture has largely trained us that charisma equals spiritual authority. This was Samuel’s mistake in 1 Samuel 16. We need the larger community to help us see and hear. It is always unwise to trust anyone who does not evidence the character of the suffering servant.

In short, we don’t need wonderfully gifted people or powerful speakers or motivators, we need faithful apprentices of Jesus who are ordinary broken people, growing in their relationship with God and with one another and who are reaching out in love to those around them. As Paul expresses in his note to Timothy on qualifications for elders, “its all about character, old boy.”

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