And calling them to Himself He said: You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But is shall not be so among you.  Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wisher to be great among you shall be the slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Mark 10.42-45      

I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  John 10.11

             That moment in history is often described as a triumph of Christianity.  I always ask my students if they agree – if the community established in the 1st Century upon the teachings of Jesus had indeed conquered the Roman Empire.  Invariably they answer that the faith community begun in Jerusalem, that is reproduced in Antioch, years later in Thessalonica and Philippi, and decades later still in Smyrna and Philadelphia, has largely disappeared.  It has devolved from a sisterhood of autonomous faith communities, lead by a plurality of shepherds, into an institution with extensive property holdings, a clergy/laity system, and a hierarchical authority structure with bishops and popes.  How can one say that Christianity has finally triumphed over Rome when New Testament Christianity has largely been replaced by an institution not at all unlike Rome itself?

            And what is the source of this displacement, this devolution into something that doesn’t represent Jesus’ values, but consolidates power in the few, and replaces the authority of God’s Word, with the authority of men, their institutions, and bureaucracies?  Did folks reject Jesus?  Did they offer some other way of salvation?  Did they tolerate idolatry? No.  Their theology remained intact and sound.  Read the Nicene Creed and you will find nothing with which to disagree from the clear teaching of the New Testament (understanding the word “catholic” means “universal”).  It is not the theology of the Nicene Creed that is the problem, but its existence at all.

            The problem is not in theology but in authority.  What authority does Constantine, who is not even a Christian, have over the Church? What right does he have to demand a council, to preside over it, to authorize a creed statement? What right did those leaders have to write a creed statement?  And what was the result?  Within 20 years the Nicene Creed was being used to identify and kill heretics.  For another 1500 years and more “Christianity” was used as a vessel to legitimize and promote the exploitation of Feudalism, the atrocities of the Crusades, and the savageries of Colonialism.  How many were robbed, raped, and butchered in the name of Jesus, and under the banner of the Cross?

            In the Mark 10 and John 10 passages above Jesus unmistakably and unequivocally rejects Western authority models for His Church.  Jesus preaches, and fulfills a different model altogether.  It is the model of the shepherd, who expresses his authority through service and sacrifice.

            Let us never forget this important lesson from the Word and from history.  There are a variety of authority models available to us – the Corporate Board Room, the Military Chain of Command, the Coaching Staff, The Superintendent at Central Office, The Department Head, the Traffic Cop, the Middle Manager……all of which have their place in society; none of which have their place in the Church. In the Church we are to have Shepherds who lead us the way the Good Shepherd does (I Peter 5.1ff).

            In this Church we do have such Shepherds.  Let us thank God for them, for their wives, for their service, for their fidelity to Jesus’ way; and let us, as a flock, never be satisfied with anything else.