Under New Management
First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham
Rev. Dr. John Judson
January 10, 2010
“Under New Management”
Luke 3:15-22
I want to take quick survey this morning. First how many of you while you were with family and friends over the holidays heard a story that you have heard at least two times, three time, more? Second, how many of you told a story to your family or friends that you have told at least two other times? Now I don’t know about you but what tends to happen to me when I hear one of those stories coming is that I tend to zone out or get up and move. “Oh, I know that one, where is the food?” Occasionally however as one of those stories unfolds there comes a moment, when I stop and say, I have never heard that before. Whatever is new may have always been part of the story but suddenly it stops me, and makes me reconsider the entire story. I tell this because this is what happened to me about a month ago in this sanctuary when Amy was reading one of the Advent lessons. That lesson was the first part of the story I just read. Having heard it so many times before I tended to not be concentrating as much as I ought to have been, but then suddenly something in the text just hit me like a ton of bricks. It was as if I had never heard it before. What was that unexpected part of the story? I will tell you in a minute.
First I want to set up my “say what” moment. To do so means to return a bit to the beginning of this story which we did not read this morning. In it John the Baptist is inviting sinners to come out from Jerusalem to be baptized. He calls them a brood of vipers, tells them that God can make better disciples out of rocks and that if they don’t get their act together they will be cut down like a fruitless tree…and then thrown into the fire. In our text John tells the people that God has a winnowing fork ready to separate the wheat from the chaff and through the useless chaff into the fire which is unquenchable. This, my friends, is Old Testament wrath of God kind of stuff. John the Baptist is speaking like most of the Minor Prophets who call the people of God to account for lives that are not being lived in the appropriate manner. With that as set up I want you to look at verse 18. “So with many other exhortations he preached the Good news to the people.” Let me say that while I don’t know about you somehow the kinds of declarations that John was making do not qualify as Good News. I suppose if you were part of the perfect elect of God it might be Good News, but if you are an ordinary kind of person this would seem to be bad news. So how is it Good News?
It is Good News because it says that God is suddenly ready to act decisively in releasing, renewing and restoring God’s world. What do I mean by that? What we need to make sure of as we head into this new year is that we have a solid grasp on God’s plan for the world. As Christians we have often been led to believe that God’s plan in Jesus was simply to save us from earth to heaven and give us eternal life. While Jesus will indeed insure that those things happen the bulk of what Jesus is about has to do with this world…this earth and the people in it. And what Jesus is about it more than being a great moral teacher. Jesus is about changing the entire structure of how we are to live as humanity upon the earth. You will hear more about his plan in two weeks when Amy is back in the pulpit, but this morning what we are hearing is that before this transformation of humanity takes place, before humanity is released, renewed and restored there has to be change in management; a change in the management of humanity. That is what this story of John the Baptist is all about.
If any group of people ought to understand the need for a change in management in order to insure that an organization can achieve its fullest potential it ought to be all of us living in Detroit. As a regular reader of the local paper and the Automotive News, thanks Lloyd, it has become more and more clear to me that in order for the Big Three, as well as many other companies in this country not associated with the auto industry, there needed to be a management change in order for the companies to live up to their true potential. What this means for me is that those who were in charge before the change were good people trying to make things work in very new and very different world. The trouble was that even as they tried new things the system could not change without new leaders…too much systemic baggage. So a wholesale change was required…which is exactly what is taking place in this section of the Gospel of Luke. What I would like you to do in order to see this is to open your Bibles and return to chapter three, verse one.
Where Luke begins is with the old Management team. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Phillip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis and Lysinias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John.” Here you have the people who thought that they are in charge of the world and the religious life of God’s people. While not wanting to be critical of any of these people the reality was that they were not maximizing the Godly potential of God’s creation. They were dealing in death and not in life. So as we follow Luke’s story John begins by inviting people out of that organization to the Jordon where they would be reoriented. Then he begins to tell them how they are to live as part of this new organization (share your coats), finally he tells them that new management is on the way (one is coming). Then Luke introduces us to the new CEO of God’s people. “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with Thee I am well pleased.”
The change in leadership has been made. The new leader has been given the stamp of approval by the only power that matters. The road ahead, as we will discover will not be easy, as we will see in the weeks ahead, but it is the road to the release, renewal and restoration of God’s world. The question with which Luke leaves us then is this…will we work with the new management? That is the critical issue for anyone who reads these words. Jesus is now the leader, will we follow or will we simply act as if the old leadership team is in place. Again any of us who have been through a leadership transition in business or in the church, know that those who are part of the organization ultimately have to decide if they will be part of the team. Today we will be installing elders and deacons as servant leaders of this congregation. Part of their task is to help guide us as a people in the ways of Jesus’ leadership. Their task is to seek out what it means to be under the leadership of the Son of God and what that means for our life together. At their installation you the congregation will be asked two questions. “Will you accept these people to lead us in the way of Jesus Christ?” and “Will you encourage them, respect their decisions and follow as they guide us, serving Jesus Christ, who alone is the head of the church?” My hope is that your answers will be yes and that we will not only do these things but that we will pray for them that they might be guided in the way of the new management team.
So here is my challenge for you this day, to ask yourselves this question, “Am I willing to let Jesus the Christ by the leader of my life so that his way becomes my way?”
