Daily Bread

From Mount Hor, Moses and the people of Israel set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Okay, so this is a weird story (at least to my ears) yet, there is something very familiar going on here!

Leadership is no easy task, and it would be fine if it wasn't for the people you're trying to lead! Even for someone like me, who enjoys risk-taking and new experiences, change is nearly always difficult to process. In fact, leading people into change can be so challenging within organisations and businesses that there is a whole science that has built up around it called 'change management'.

Something I have noticed in church culture is that once a change has been made, the change becomes the new norm! For example, when I took on the post of Associate Priest of St. Mark's in Bermuda, I was asked to help grow the church. Part of this strategy was that I stopped wearing robes in worship. I did this because I wanted to be more 'with the people', more accessible, and less differentiated. I am also a 'hot' person and even got heat exhaustion once from wearing robes. Anyway, the point is that some people found that change very difficult to process. Several years later and one Sunday I wore robes to see what might happen. There was a great outcry from the congregation — especially from those who had been vehemently against me not wearing them in the first place! Go figure!

In this Bible passage from the Book of Numbers, Moses was leading people into change and, to be fair, it had not been an easy ride for the people, but now people were complaining about the circumstances they found themselves in and the quality of the food. They had stopped trusting in Moses and they had stopped trusting in God.

Trusting in our leaders is not easy because it means relinquishing control over things we hold dear, and we have to remember that the very term 'leadership' means we will be led, and you cannot be lead somewhere without experiencing change — changes in your circumstances, changes in your environment, and changes in the way you do things.

You can always go back to the 'old ways' and so, if you think about it, trusting in leadership means you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Holy God
Forgive me when I have held on to
ways of living and having my being,
when I have refused to relinquish control,
and stood in the way of change.
Forgive me when I have failed to trust in you
and failed to trust in the leadership of others,
especially in the church.
May I continue to humbly pray for all those called to lead
and to support them as best I can.
For the glory of your name.