Ordinary Time
January 22, 2023
Scripture Reading:
Matthew 4:12-23
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. –Matthew 4:18-23
I read the book Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership by Laurie Beth Jones when it was first published in 1996, and I was still working. I thought of it as I read the above scripture recognizing that Jesus’s leadership role was much like a CEO’s job. I remember that I thought the book provided good guidance for people who supervise other people. I could not remember the author’s name, so I searched for it on the Internet. I was surprised to see that the book had been republished and updated on its 25th anniversary in 2021. I guess I will read it again.
One does not have to be a CEO to learn from Jesus’s way of dealing with people and drawing out the very best in each person while helping people to work well together as a team. Jesus was a great coach. Being a leader is both an art and a science. I strongly believe that God created each person with unique skills that are necessary to fulfill the Kingdom of God. Our role is to be the very best person we can be while helping others do the same thing. That requires us to recognize the skills and abilities of others and understand the best way to communicate with them. When working as a team, we must develop our own skills to negotiate and compromise and surround ourselves with people who make the group with whom we are working whole.
Because all teams require the meshing together of differing skills, we all must learn to love ourselves as the person God created us to be so we can recognize that the talents and skills of others do not diminish who we are and what we are contributing. We are all called to make each other whole. The talents of a good surgeon would be wasted if the cleaning crew had failed to do their job. My paternal grandfather died because a scalpel had not been sterilized properly.
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10). Amen
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.