At the heart of the readings today the issue seems to me to be one of the nature of leadership and its exercize. What sort of king or leader is appropriate under God? Certainly that is the central issue in the passage from the prophet, Ezekiel. The prophet condemns those kings and other leaders of Israel who have been “false shepherds” in the verses preceding today’s reading and extols God who is the True Shepherd. In wonderfully moving and familiar words Ezekiel speaks of God as Shepherd, the classic Good Shepherd, who cares for his flock, who seeks out the lost, who leads them to good pasture, who protects the weak, who binds up the injured, who feeds his sheep and who keeps them united as one flock. Here the prophet alludes to some of the great themes of Scripture. For the shepherd God he describes is the compassionate, saving, seeking God of the Burning Bush; it is same God who cared for, fed and led his people through the wilderness to the good pasture of the Promised Land; and indeed it is the same God who judges his people with justice and mercy as he judged them in the Wilderness years in earlier times. God through his prophet even goes so far to say: “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep”. In other words God is the true king or leader. He is the model for all earthly leadership. Or to put it another way the Bible reminds us that all authority ultimately derives from God, who is the source of all leadership, be it by kings, presidents, prime ministers, governors or administrators, or indeed bishops or rectors to come closer home.

The passage about judgment ought not to be overlooked especially in light of the Gospel. In Ezekiel God judges those who have abused their leadership, who “have pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide”. What a dramatic portrayal of leadership gone astray: leadership which has come an end in itself rather than serving those who were being led. Just as an aside I have been following the current tensions in the Anglican Communion this past week with the publication of a letter by a group of Third World bishops criticizing the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the issues before the Communion. By contrast to the rather bullying tone of the letter and what I see as the grandstanding by certain of the African Archbishops the Archbishop of Canterbury has given the very model of reconciliatory, pastoral and indeed Christ-like leadership to our church. But the chapter from which the Ezekiel passage is taken concludes with the promise of new leadership, leadership modeled on God, the true shepherd. “I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them.” Again the God of the Scriptures is the God of promise, of future hope, the God of the new thing, and above all the God of the new Creation. It is this note which leads us forward to the person and work of Jesus who is the embodiment of the Davidic Messiah, of the shepherd King, the Good Shepherd, who is the one in whom the promises of God find there fulfillment, Jesus in whom the New Creation comes into being, Jesus who is the ultimate leader and king.

In the gospel passage which is the well-known Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats we find the Son of Man on his kingly throne judging the nations like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats. It is the basis of judgment which startles not only those being judged but those who like us hear the gospel read. For the judgment is made on the basis of “as you did it or did not do it to one of least of these who are members of my family, you did or did not do it to me.” In other words not only is God the embodiment of leadership, and his Christ “the Word made flesh”, that is the embodiment of God, but Jesus presses the image even further to identify himself with those who are to be served by the leaders, those “described as members of my family”, or in the Greek text, “these my brothers”, or perhaps we could say today “the human family”. It is this type of leadership we see modeled in the gospels, in the stories of the ministry of Jesus, how he was drawn to those in need, how he had time for the unloved and the unlovely, the outsider, the foreigner, the socially unacceptable, how he heard their need and responded with love and compassion. It is this identification with the weak and the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed, which is another mark of true leadership.

The best example of such leadership I know is a famous Australian, Edward Dunlop who was a surgeon with the Australian forces captured by the Japanese at the Fall of Singapore in 1942 and endured almost 4 years in prison camp and particularly working on the construction of the infamous Burma railway. The death toll and the cruelty associated with those years are distressing to say the least but the survivors never forgot the heroism and service given by Edward Dunlop at that time. He cared for the sick and the dying under almost impossible circumstances and saved many lives in so doing. Dunlop had every reason to detest his cruel captors. Yet after the defeat of the Japanese in 1945 and the release of the allied prisoners of war Dunlop was asked why he bore no bitterness to his former captors. In response he described an incident that took place a few days after his liberation. Observing a group of Japanese prisoners being escorted along a road he noticed one who stumbled and then was trampled on by other prisoners. In that moment Dunlop says he identified himself with all those of the human race who are downtrodden, Australian or Japanese, American or Iraqui or whatever. After that he no longer felt bitterness for his former captors and committed himself to Australian-Japanese reconciliation. For me Edward Dunlop embodies something of that Christ-like quality of leadership.

Finally in the lesson from First Corinthians the passage which comes at the end of Paul’s great exposition of the Resurrection of Christ Paul speaks of the Risen Christ completing his reign by handing over the kingdom to God who is all in all. “Then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” The vision includes Christ the first fruits and those who belong to Christ. In other words we the Faithful are part of the Christ’s kingly reign and recipients of its benefits and achievement. Here we are reminded that we are the Body of Christ, the embodiment of the divine in the world, the vehicle or agency called to be God’s witness and presence in the world. So leadership exercized in the name of the church, the Body of Christ, will be grounded in the leadership of the shepherd king and his servant Christ.

What has all this to say to us, to this parish, to today’s church, let alone to our society? It is pertinent to this parish as it eventually considers what style of leadership is appropriate in the future. The readings point us to God and his Christ as the true source of all leadership. They speak of the shepherd like leadership, leadership which is pastoral: compassionate, caring, concerned, people-centered, saving and seeking; leadership which feeds and directs us to the source of nourishment which truly satisfies. But above all they point us to leadership which is embodied, where the leader by his or her example models God’s leadership, which points us to God, which identifies with God’s “little ones”, the poor, weak and marginalized. But Corinthians and other Pauline writing also reminds us that this leadership is not just to do with individuals, but belongs to the whole church, the Body of Christ of which we are all part through our baptism. So as we reflect on future leadership of this parish for instance, we need also to focus on the leadership in which we all participate in the church. The question we need to keep asking is “does our life here at Transfiguration embody the things of God; do people experience the love, compassion, reconciliation, healing and justice of God through the ministry of this church: does our life and worship point people to God and his Christ? The readings from Ezekiel and Matthew are salutary reminders of the consequences both positive and negative. Above all they remind us that we will be held accountable before God for what we do or don’t do.

So we gather for eucharist once again in penitence and faith, mindful both of our sins and shortcomings as well as the source of grace and strength. It is our King, Jesus the Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who is our leader, who in this sacrament forgives, feeds and strengthens us so that we may more truly become his Body in the world, that we may in fact “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”   Amen

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