Looking through online tweets recently I saw, “the measure of your character is how you treat people who can do nothing for you.” Something inside of me intuitively nodded in agreement. Christians believe that all people matter. No one is expendable. Each of us is created with a divine purpose and calling. There is a reason we were born. We all have a destiny to fulfill. God, who knew each one of us before the foundation of the earth, planned in love for us to come into this world with a mission. No one is an accident, regardless of the circumstances of one’s birth. So, even if you were an “unplanned pregnancy” there is still a divine purpose for your life.
That is why the Scriptures warn us about “showing partiality.” Proverbs offers a telling comment: “To show partiality is not good- yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread” (28:21). Is that not our motive: we want something? We use people who will help us get our piece of bread. We think more highly of people who can help us and less of those who cannot. We network. We connect. We flatter so as to endear ourselves to those who can give us some sort of advantage. We surround ourselves with people who enhance our image. In conversation we drop the names of those who, by our association with them, put us in a better light. We aspire!
By contrast, we take little notice of those who cannot help us achieve our ends. These unhelpful people are those we marginalize. In our hearts we are indifferent to them even if we are outwardly courteous. If people oppose us they become our enemies. When others get in the way of what we want our job is to out maneuver them or thwart them. At our worst, our relationships become politicized and the gamesmanship, which entertains us on shows like “Survivor” becomes (only in more muted terms) the way we live our lives. We swallow the lie that the ends justify the means.
Does such Machiavellian behavior happen in church? Silly question! I once served on a committee whose responsibility was to offer to a nonprofit board our recommendations for officers who would stand for election. During that meeting I marveled at one of our committee members slander (in the nicest way, of course) people that he did not want to serve. I knew each of the people mentioned and I knew that what was being said was inaccurate. The comments were not lies exactly, just subtle innuendos that would present a candidate in a less than favorable light. What was his ”piece of bread?” He wanted officers who would support his plans for the future and did not want those who would oppose him. If challenged, he would never admit to outright dishonesty, and would justify his actions as “just the price of doing business.” His goal was getting his piece of bread. This is atheistic behavior regardless of the motivation.
I know that one of the temptations I face as a leader (but not the only one!) Is to spend more time building alliances and less time building relationships. There will be much to do and many tasks to perform. I will want to find people who will help me accomplish those tasks. I will need colleagues and coworkers who understand the vision and help me get there.
None of that is bad in and of it self. We all need colleagues and coworkers who both understand us and support us. We all need people who will help us achieve our goals. But I sin if I see people only as ends to my means, even if I give the outward appearance of caring. It could be very easy for me to use the excuse of “advancing the Kingdom” or “growing the Diocese” to justify very unChristlike behavior. Piety justifies a multitude of sins.
Am I capable of such sinful behavior? Well, aren’t you? It was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who famously said, “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” But I can say that my desire is to be a pastor and not a manipulator. How that godly desire begins to take root is when each of us to ask God to teach us how to “value others more than we value ourselves,” and to make room in our hearts for “the interests of others" (quoting Philppians 2:3-4).
I want to be one who leads because he loves God, knows he is called to serve, cares deeply for people, and is learning how to make room in his life for the compassion of Christ- a compassion that extends to all people, everywhere.
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