Hollie Benton 0:04
You're listening to Doulos, a podcast of the Ephesus School Network. Doulos offers a scriptural daily bread for God's household and explores servant leadership as an Orthodox Christian. I'm Hollie Benton, your host and executive director for the Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative. And co-host Fr. Timothy Lowe, a retired priest and former rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem is with me today. Good morning, Fr. Timothy.

Fr. Timothy Lowe 0:30
Good morning, Hollie. Nice to see you again.

Hollie Benton 0:32
You as well. So, it's not uncommon in a new year, in this first quarter, Q1, that we see a lot of recruitment for all sorts of leadership roles. People are hiring new managers and executives, we're recruiting for new board members, new parish council members. We seem to be on this endless quest for able leaders. And now even as we approach the beginning of Lent, we enter into the story of the search for the Anointed One, the Savior, the Messiah, the only able leader who can write the wrongs, and redeem us from the mess we find ourselves in. A mess often created by our own hands, it's our own doing. The Bible tells its own story about the struggle, resistance to the will of God, disobedience, and then crying out for help seeking for any sign of hope, a just judge, prophet, a conqueror king, a Savior. I remember our professor of Old Testament, Fr. Paul Tarazi, would always say, "There's nothing new under the sun." We're always looking for a leader, an able leader, aren't we Fr. Tim? And then we continue to resist the wisdom carried by an able leader who suggests that we look not only to our own interests, but then to the interests of others, as a good leader would have us do. Say more about this quest for leadership.

Fr. Timothy Lowe 1:58
Well, let's talk about my week, it started with a balloon, you know, that now famous, not so famous Chinese balloon. I'm sitting at my desk last Saturday, and I'm looking out the window at the front of the house. There's all my neighbors outside peering into the sky, in an odd way. They're peering, not moving. So like any other curious person, I had to pop outside, and there was the Chinese balloon right overhead in all of its glory, its simplicity, its silliness, its intrusion, and then all of us surrounded it. And so you know, I watched it, and then it finally blows off the coast of Myrtle Beach, boom, boom, goes down. But what was most interesting was the jets, the fighter jets. They were circling it around and around, and you can see the jet stream, and you can see the jets themselves around, around, around. I'm just sort of laughing because I find it a bit comical because I'm not threatened by any intelligence gathering of any sort because there's certainly things more sophisticated than a balloon, So it's actually sort of comical from my point of view. Okay, so that's Saturday. Monday, we have the earthquake, earth shattering earthquake at which we're still beginning to see the fallout of that in terms of just the numbers killed. And then the criticism of leadership on both sides. And it's a difficult area because it's a border area with Syria, and leadership chaos. And you see not a manmade calamity, but something coming from the depths of the earth. And then, you know, the concerns about bringing aid to the country, lifting sanctions so that Syria has access to international aid and goods and all that discussion of leadership in the midst of regional politics and difficulties. And not to say nothing of civil strife and war, everywhere. I'm thinking, obviously, of Ukraine and Russia, because that's the largest one. And then what is the body count, we get daily body count numbers on the earthquake now. And it's taking over headlines, the disruption of life and so on. So you mentioned mess. So we are desperately looking for a way out, a solution. So we're going to see how the Bible deals with that in the next coming sessions. This is just the beginning of one and however many you and I do together between now and Pascha. We're going to go back into the Old Testament and begin to just highlight some of the same issues. Because as you mentioned, Fr. Paul and "nothing new under the sun," from Ecclesiastes and, and I encourage people to read Ecclesiastes because he goes into more detail about the lack of newness and the cyclical nature of problems and the human being. And we're stuck on this treadmill, a generation repeating the next mistake in the next generations. I'm old enough to see that for myself. We're getting ready for Lent. The Bible, specifically the Bible, Old Testament, is a depressing book because it highlights the depressiveness of the human being. And we're gonna see this in a little vignette we have here from First Samuel, and I'm jumping all the way to First Samuel instead of starting with the earlier stories, Genesis, Exodus, and so on and so forth. Because I want to focus on the idea of the Messiah, the Savior. So that what it means and how it manifests itself in the Old Testament so that at some point when Christ, when finally he's acknowledged as the Messiah, what does that mean? And how in fact, he's an anti-Messiah functionally. In other words, how the Messiah is usually conceived of in our brains and how it's actually revealed to us in the crucified Messiah is a different reality. And until we perceive that, we will continue to look for false messiahs. And so we're going to talk about Messiah-ism, what a real Messiah is ultimately, and that'll take us all the way to Pascha. We've talked about it a little bit previously, how we are so quick to follow other messiahs, who in fact are false messiahs and strictly from the scriptural text. Let's begin.

Hollie Benton 5:49
Yeah, beginning of the quest for a leader. And we'll start in First Samuel, like you suggested. The two verses at the end of chapter 15 and beginning of 16 reveal the tension that we see in this quest for a leader. "And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, saying, I have rejected him from being king over Israel, fill your horn with oil and go, I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehem might, for I have provided for myself a king, among his sons." Fr. Timothy, I think some people may hear this passage, and identify readily with the sentiment of the Lord regretting that he had made Saul king. People in this country are quick to regret those that we elect as president all the time. We regret having hired certain people in our companies. Sometimes we regret certain people that join parish council. On the one hand, no matter who is in position, there will likely be some regret and disappointment because no one is the Messiah, except the Lord Jesus Christ himself. But on the other hand, I don't think this passage is really about the Lord expressing his empathy for our predicament with our leaders. Quite frankly, we have already rejected Him. And this is just the reality of the situation, rejecting His Kingship. And now this is just the result of what happens when we don't submit to the Lord's Kingship.

Fr. Timothy Lowe 7:33
Yes, this is true. This is true. So let's get a little background about this story of Saul. We know it's rooted in the request for a king. Implicit in that request was a rejection of God's kingship, God's direct oversight of them. So he took it as an affront. Still, he allows the decision. He even blesses it. Saul is chosen. And that's the key point, he is chosen by God. Samuel does the bidding, anoints him, and the story begins. Saul, of course, turns out to be a disaster, disobeys, and therefore he is rejected. And that's what we have here, this division of rejection, the anointing of Saul. But I want people first of all to catch this technical language here, that the Lord repented, changed his mind, regretted. What I want people to understand, it is the same word that is used in Genesis chapter five and six, when God regrets that he had created the human being, totally. In other words, all of those first chapters, finally, things are so bad, that he regrets it. And he's ready to, of course, proceed in athe biblical story, to do away with all of them except the one Noah who's righteous. So again, my point is that it's the same dynamic, the same word is used to express God's regret. So this might disturb people's comfort zone when it comes to God. But they need to realize that he is the bearer of good and evil, He determines, because later on, it'll say that the Spirit of the Lord will depart from Saul and He will send an evil spirit. So my point is, let's just hear what the Bible says about who is in charge, and that is the Lord God. So anyway, this idea that Saul is rejected. Samuel is having a pity party. And that's constant with Samuel. He's also a much troubled leader, prophet. So we get to this point, he's rebuked and says, "I have chosen a new leader." Now, here's the difference about leadership. Our problem with leadership is we think we get to choose our leaders. We get to choose them. And you're right, we complain all the time about our leaders, first of all, our governmental leaders. Every four years, we anoint our new king slash our new leader, under whatever constitutional, it's not dynastic, it's something we choose. So we have this mentality that we get to pick and choose, and it's a democracy. That's how it's supposed to function. It's not dynastic. It's not handed down from Queen Elizabeth to Charles and William. But that's neither here nor there. The key point is God will raise up the leader, he will send someone and he will be anointed. And this idea of Messiah, it's a very simple idea. It comes from the word to anoint, in the sense of consecrate. And it's used a lot in Exodus, actually, Moses is told to anoint Aaron and his children to be the line of priests, the Levitical priests, so then they have to anoint all of the religious articles related to the tabernacle and the tent and the ark. It's consecrated, it's set aside for a specific purpose. And that's its function. So the idea of the anointing is functional. So it happened to Saul, it was taken away. And this is the point, it is God who anoints and God who takes away. Let's use my own example. This might disturb people, and you are free to erase it from the podcast, Hollie. I was ordained a priest. It's a type of an anointing set aside for a specific purpose and role that can be taken away. I can be laicized for canonical reasons or whatnot. So it's not something that is mine, that I possess, it is given as offered and there are conditions. I'm a retired priest, which means I am not functioning as a priest. Now I can if I'm asked, and the bishop can say no, but it is not something I possess, it is something given. It's not something ontological, it's not part of my essence. Okay, it's external. So the idea of the Messiah, as someone who has been anointed, and specifically to lead. Now, it's in this section, we didn't read it all because there are so many verses in this little section about the anointing of David. But with Saul, it has said he was anointed to be a prince. And it's an interesting Hebrew word for leader. It is one who goes in front of, in other words, a leader walks in front of, he doesn't sit behind, and specifically it's related to like leading the armies into war, which is one of the reasons they wanted a king who would go fight their battles for them, but they'd be taxed and whatnot, go, go read it again in the first part of Samuel. But my point is, this is the function, this is the role. So when someone is the Messiah, it's simply a rite of anointing. And so it'll move to the idea of okay, Saul's been rejected. We have another one. He sends him to Bethlehem. Again, it's an interesting dynamic. Samuel goes, he's been told that there is another king being provided for the people there. And he's concerned about his life, because it's treason functionally. But he has to go and do the bidding. A feast is thrown to disguise the process of anointing, because it's going to be done in secret, because the king is not dead. And he asked Jesse to start parading his sons in front of him. The first one comes, and he thinks the first born, of course, this is the one. And God says, no, no, no, no. He says, you're looking externally, I'm looking at the heart. I'm interested in the heart of the new king. And then the second one comes, and they have beautiful names, by the way. Eliab means God is my Father. Abinidab means God is generous. So these are all set up to finally, God rejects all the seven sons. And Samuel is confused, and finally asked, is there any other? And Jesse says, oh, yeah, the youngest, he wasn't even invited to the feast. He was not important. So what is he doing? He's tending to the sheep. Now, you know, we've been around Fr. Paul Tarazi enough to know the importance of the Shepherd as the quintessential image, biblical image of God as the Shepherd. The shepherd is the one who's seated on the throne ultimately, in the Psalms, read 78 and 81. The idea that he starts off as a shepherd, and he's leading the sheep, because that is the perfect image. That's the only image we have adopted in our own reflection on the functional role of the bishop. So of course, Samuel will not continue withthe feast until the last one, most unexpected one, and this is typical. God chooses who he wills, and it's always the most unexpected. And of course, the name of the youngest is David. He has one of the most beautiful names in the Bible, because it means beloved one, beloved one. He comes in, God sees his heart and sees his handsome sort of ruddiness, and he says, that's the one, anoint him. So Samuel does the high act of treason anoints him privately in the presence of his brothers so his brothers will know that he's chosen so that they will not compete. Because if you know anything about leadership, sometimes there's competition. One leader trying to supplant another, we call them coups in a political arena, but we also see it in corporate America, we see it everywhere, trying to undermine and steal someone else's anointing, if you will, or someone's position, someone's power, someone's authority. And it's interesting that Samuel is wise. His brothers have to see that so they cannot fight against it. The youngest, the surprise is the one who is called to leadership. So this is the beginning. Now, when it says he is anointed, just read the text, it says, "The Spirit of the Lord came into him." Spirit is another word, the wind, the breath, the power of God, consumed daily, which is a sign of the anointing. You can read it in Acts and Pentecost. But then it says the opposite happened. God took the Spirit of the Lord from Saul, and then sent an evil spirit to trouble him. Now, that's basically the end of the story and the beginning of this idea of the Anointed One. It started with Saul and Samuel anointing him as king. It will continue with David. So in this beginning, that we will see why the New Testament picks up this term, this idea of kingship, and how it ultimately will relate to the person of Christ. But we're way ahead of ourselves. Okay, I'm just teasing people. So come see us in the next five or six weeks, and we'll track this and see what it ultimately means for us as we seek good leaders. The world desperately needs them on every human front, from the local, civil, administrative, to the state, to the national, to the International, to the functioning of churches, and anything you name it, it has to have leadership. And I must admit, the more I've been involved in leadership outside of parish structure, that's its own separate issue, I've seen very poor leadership, because I haven't seen shepherds, people who go before and guide. I've seen people who are insecure, want to dominate, want to command, want to hide behind power and structure, and not by example. So we're gonna follow David and the David story here as it's just beginning. It is because the evil spirit is troubling Saul, he will need someone to soothe and calm him. So he orders one of his servants and suggests, we'll get someone to come and play the harp. That's David's inroad into being recruited, if you will, to be an underling, all the while, we know that he is functionally the King, the one with the Spirit of God. And then you can read the story between Saul and David and its tragic ending. And we may cover that, we may skip over, because ultimately, I want to move forward so that by the time we complete the journey to the annual celebration of the Lord's resurrection, we can say something about his Messiahship, how it is different and fundamental to our understanding, and therefore, to what we're looking for, and where our hope lies. And we've touched on that all the time when St. Paul says, Look on things above, not on things of earth. But what has happened now is in the biblical story, Israel is stuck with their request for a king, which comes from the seed of Adam. This is the point I want to stress, Hollie, it comes from the seed of Adam, it's a human leader. And that is functionally problematic, and will be something that we've just already talked about, that will dog us, all of human life, human structure, it's merely coming from the seed of the predecessor, the flesh, and not the seed of the Spirit. But anyways, just so people begin to sort of think about these things, formulate them, and we'll walk them through them as we continue during the Lenten season.

Hollie Benton 18:13
I like the understanding of anointed and temporary. It's not earned, it's not assumed. It's not a possession, it's not a given. Any leadership status that you might fulfill, not to see it as a possession, but to see it as something temporary, that the Lord can take away at any time. And even to consider it as the Lord's appointment, the Lord's anointing for this time, for this purpose, for this particular context, I think we would actually serve potentially as better leaders if we understood the temporary-ness of it all.

Fr. Timothy Lowe 18:47
Absolutely. And the fact that we are not the Messiah, at our very best, we are never the Messiah.

Hollie Benton 18:55
That's right.

Fr. Timothy Lowe 18:56
And that self understanding is critical. Because we are going to come and go, trust me, I talked to my brother priests in retirement, and some of them it's a crisis moment because all of a sudden, who and what they've been doing for 30, 40, even 50 years, and they've been functionally replaced by another parish priest, and letting go and re-understanding themselves in their place and so on. And the fact that they have been minimized because there's nothing like minimization to mess with one's sense of identity and self worth. Because at some point life itself is going to minimize us to the grave. And if we think we're the Messiah, the alpha and the omega, then we're going to have some issues when the weight of just age itself, that alone, age and illness and the other sort of minimizing that life brings us. Come on. This is where I get irritated. I look at these tragic pictures in Syria and Turkey and the destruction of life. It's as graphic as people want to see them and to see it again that people's lives have been completely crushed. Okay, we come we go. We do it what we can, but ultimately it is by the spirit and power of God. Anything else then we're taking its glory. And then it's us, we want to be enthroned and glorified and praised. It doesn't work

Hollie Benton 20:12
It doesn't work that way. Thank you, Father Timothy, for this. Looking forward to the series and this quest for the able leader. Thank you so much.

Fr. Timothy Lowe 20:21
Ok, absolutely take care. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai