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“Credibility” Vance L. Toivonen

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink." As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth." She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied; neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah. After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again." The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

READING Kouzes & Posner, Credibility

Credibility…is something that is earned over time. It does not come automatically with the job or the title… The credibility foundation is built brick by brick. And as each fragment is secured, the basis on which we can erect the hopes of the future is gradually built…. Especially in uncertain times, when boldness may be required, leadership credibility is essential in generating confidence among constituents. Without that, nothing can be built – at least nothing that can survive the test of time.

SERMON

As I reflect back upon my years of ministry, I must admit once again that I was a bit clueless. Where did I ever get the notion that I could do as I please and be a pastor at the same time? And I’m not being facetious. I can plead ignorance, for there was, and still is, a certain degree of that; but the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is that deep inside I did not want to come to grips with the kind of commitment that it takes to engender credibility in the office of pastor.

To some degree we all struggle with this same tension in our lives. We want to eat our cake and have it too. We wear the various hats of our socially defined roles, each demanding something of us, and yet we still try to carve out a little space for ourselves. The demands of parenting, working, and partnering can be overwhelming at times. We need to cut lose, untethering ourselves from those demands and expectations. But how do we do so and still maintain credibility?

Demands and expectations are not likely to diminish. Just look at the story of Elijah, the widow and her son. Elijah was sent by the Lord to live with this woman and her son. While the prophet lived in that home, God promised that the food supply would remain adequate to their need. No one would go hungry, in spite of the fact that there was a drought. The consistently full jar of meal, and constantly brimming jar of oil seemed miraculous enough, it would seem. Certainly this was a prophet of the most, high God.

But, circumstances change, the boy fell ill, and the boy died. Suddenly the credibility of the prophet was in jeopardy. The woman, who must have marveled somewhat at the providence of food, was now in full-fledged doubt as to the legitimacy of Elijah’s prophetic mantle. Elijah literally stretched himself out across the boy’s dead body, and prayed to God not once, but three times, we are told. There was not success on the first attempt to seek God’s healing. The prophet needed to be persistent, and persistence was the key. The boy finally breathed life into his lungs once again, and Elijah’s credibility was restored.

In this way, I suppose, credibility comes and goes. We have it for a time, but it is always in jeopardy. Credibility is a delicate balancing act between my need for authenticity, and your needs as a human being; between my vision for how I would like things to be, and your vision for how you would like things to be; between my interpretation of God’s will and your interpretation of God’s will; between the needs of the many and the needs of the one. This why the authors of today’s second reading recommend that credibility is built slowly, brick by brick.

Credibility is not a popularity contest. It is not something we have simply because we hang degrees on our walls. For far too long religious, political, legal, and medical professionals have been given instant credibility by virtue of their offices. This is no longer the case. I think this next election cycle will be focused to a great extent upon the issues of credibility and integrity. And yes, I am learning that the convergence of these two dynamics is also essential to my continued service here among all of you.

Two crucial elements of integrity in the pastoral office continue to ring in my ears after 60 hours of ministry training over the past six months. I heard over and over again from the leaders of that training that people in congregations want to know two things: Will you love them? (And) Can they trust you? In the early days of my time here at Hope I made some choices that did not engender trust. I stood apart from the congregation in ways that did not communicate genuine love and care. Some of us do indeed learn the hard way.

I think Jesus showed us the path to credibility. His credibility did not grow from his institutional loyalty or his exceptional learning. His credibility did not require the absence of tension or confrontation. His credibility grew from his daily encounters with people. His credibility grew from his willingness to live what he taught. His credibility grew from his care and compassion for those who were social outcasts, the oppressed of his world. His credibility is sustained today not so much by the miraculous as it is by the pure wisdom of his words and deeds.

The credibility of leaders comes from lives lived. In fact, to a certain degree our credibility as leaders is perpetually in question until the day we die, and perhaps even for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. This is also true of communities as a whole. What makes us a credible community here at Hope? The authors of the book Credibility suggest six disciplines for engendering credibility. Let me say that the degree to which we all put these disciplines into practice will be the degree to which we sustain a certain amount of credibility in this community. Just as my witness among you determines my credibility as a leader, so also our witness in the community determines the credibility of Hope Church in Door County.

The first discipline the authors list is Discovering Your Self. This process involves clarification of three essential questions: Who are you? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? Just as each of us must answer these questions for ourselves, so we must do so as a larger group. Our statement of purpose and the fact that we are an open and affirming congregation provide some strong direction for us in this regard. In order for us to be credible, others need to experience the truth of these words in the lives we live in the community. When there is congruence between the two, there is credibility.

The second discipline in the book is Appreciating Constituents. I admittedly need to do a better job of this. Sharing appreciation with one another is essential to our wellbeing. It is helpful for us to know that we are making a difference in each other’s lives. One of the best ways to appreciate one another is to pay attention to one another, to listen to one another. I want to issue a bit of a challenge at this point. I encourage all of us to occasionally leave our comfort zones in order to give some attention to someone we do not know. As people enter our community, the best way for us to gain credibility is to go out of our way to sit and listen to them. So when you go in to coffee hour, and you see someone you do not know sitting alone at a table, politely excuse yourself from the familiar territory of your regular coffee crowd, and get to know someone new. It is in these brief moments that we gain credibility with one another.

The third discipline is Affirming Shared Values. I suppose the most difficult part of this one at Hope is finding them in the first place. Our shared values of tolerance and diversity mean that we may discover our common ground on different ground altogether. The process of finding the common ground, however, will lead us toward one another, and toward others in the community too.

The fourth discipline is Developing Capacity. This is to say that our credibility as a community is directly related to the extent that we celebrate the full capacity and potential of everyone in the community. We need to encourage one another to grow in our capacities for leadership and to follow our passions. We must create an environment for choice making and risk-taking. We must provide support through learning and education. And we must create a system that liberates everyone to achieve his or her full potential.

The fifth discipline is Serving a Purpose. Ultimately, what keeps us connected to this congregation, and what engenders the most credibility in the larger community, is our sense of purpose. Each of us must discover why we are here, and follow that path. The leaders of Hope need to create an environment conducive to this discovery. Many of you have already discovered this: Jason and the beautification crew; the Munsons and the new cleaning efforts; Donna Vincent and the many who make the rummage sale happen each year; Floyd Wisniewski, who came forward at our last council meeting to volunteer his service as a sextant; the Circle Singers, Mary and the choir, and Camille who all bring healing and inspiration through song. Claire Minihan, Shawn Tauber, Jenny Lou Carmody, and Colleen Crocker MacMillin, who, among others, care for the wellbeing of our youth. And the list goes on. As we enter this community, as we worship here regularly, it is incumbent upon all of us to find our niche, and to serve in some capacity.

Lastly, there is the discipline of Sustaining Hope. Which brings us back to Elijah and the need for perseverance. Many of you in this community have hung in there through the most difficult of days here at Hope. Your sustaining presence encourages me as a leader, and builds confidence in the community as a whole. It is our namesake, after all, this Hope. If we do anything well among these six disciplines, let me suggest that this is the most important, and, perhaps, the most difficult.

The authors of Credibility conclude, “Renewing credibility is a continuous human struggle… Strenuous effort is required to build and strengthen the foundation of working relationships.” Like Elijah, we will all need to be persistent, persistent in our loving, persistent in our prayerfulness, and persistent in our listening to the voice of the Spirit, and to the voices of one another. The goal? It is that others will be able to say; “Now I know that you are a people of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”