Sermon for April 6th, 2025

Acts 6:1-7 (NT p.123)

(Scripture incorporated into sermon)

Word & Table: Leadership at First Presbyterian Church

A traveler drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn't move. Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn't respond. Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!" Nothing. Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch. The motorist was most appreciative but also very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times. The farmer said, "Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try!"

We, as human beings, are a lot like Buddy. Most of us are capable of doing incredible things, but we don’t like to think we are the only one pulling! Fortunately, in any healthy organization, the workload is shared. This is especially true of Presbyterian Churches, which operate on long-standing principles of shared responsibility and decision making. Last month at our annual congregational meeting, you elected 20 church members to serve as elders and deacons—the primary leaders of our church. A lot of what I say in today’s short sermon is directed at them, since we’ll be ordaining and installing them later in the service. But in a broader sense, the biblical principles of leadership apply to all of us, in our families, our workplaces, and our community.

In the medieval church, leaders were appointed: the Pope appointed the cardinals, the cardinals appointed the bishops, the bishops appointed the priests, and the priests made the decisions for each local church, or else delegated them to others. But the Presbyterians of the 16th century took a radically different approach: They turned to the scriptures, and asked the question, "How were decisions made in the early church, by the earliest followers of Jesus?"

And they found this story in the Book of Acts, chapter 6, which is our scripture passage today.

1 Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

So already, in the earliest days of the church, there are two factions arguing with each other! The Hebrews are the Jewish Christians, like Peter, Paul, Mary, the disciples. They are the "originals," the "O.G"'s, many of whom knew and vividly remembered Jesus. The Hellenist faction are the Greek-speaking converts like Mark, Luke, and Cornelius. They are the "newcomers"--and they were probably responsible for most of the rapid growth of the early church. You can see how tensions would arise: "Hey--you're taking care of their people better than our people!"

2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Now that sounds harsh, but you have to remember that when the apostles say it's not right for them to "neglect the word of God" they are referring to the very last command that Jesus gave them before he ascended in to heaven: GO into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples and teaching them all that I've taught you. We call that the GREAT commission for a reason: It's great. It's important. It's our prime directive. And the 12 apostles are doing exactly that, so the church is growing like crazy.

Feeding the poor (in this case, the widows), what the disciples call "waiting on tables" is also important. Jesus said to do that, too. But here's the twist: One supports the other. In order for people to understand WHY they should take care of the poor, the sick, the needy, first you have to teach them, you have to share the gospel with them.

So the twelve apostles are not wrong. But they're also not without compassion. They see the validity, the importance of the request, so they say, in verses 3 through the end:

3 Therefore, brothers and sisters, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Ok, now back to the 16th century, and to our Presbyterian founders: They took several guiding principles from this text and put them into effect in their churches:

1. A local church community should choose (or elect) its own leaders from among its membership. No one from the outside gets to impose a leader upon you without your consent. For what it’s worth, this also applies to pastors in the Presbyterian church—I was chosen and elected by the members of this congregation, and will serve for as long as we both are willing for for me to do so.
2. To be a leader, one should be in good standing with the community, full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom. Those are the only criteria, regardless of the office.
3. Leaders, when elected, should be recognized publicly, with prayer and the laying on of hands (we still do that--you'll see it later in the service today!)
4. There should be a division of labor--different offices to focus on different things, all important, but also in the right order, the right "flow."

For the early church in Acts, this was two offices: The Apostles, who focused on the ministry of the Word, and the Deacons, who focused on the ministry of the Table.

By the way, the Greek word for "waiters" in the Ancient Greek world was διακονεῖν, which is where we get the word "deacon" from. The word for elders in the Bible (which corresponds to the ministry of the apostles in our scripture passage) was πρεσβύτερος. It literally means “old people” (sorry, elders). It’s also where we get the name of our denomination, “Presbyterian” because we are a church governed by elders--more specifically those who are experienced, and have demonstrated “wisdom” beyond their years.

So... Word and Table: Those are two powerful symbols, and I urge all of our officers, as you discharge your duties in the years to come, to always keep those two symbols in mind. Elders serve the Word of God, and are laser focused on promoting and spreading the gospel—inside and outside of these walls. Deacons serve the Table—which is another way of saying they serve and care for the people who come to this table. Sometimes that means building the table, sometimes it means putting food on it, sometimes it literally means serving from it. Deacons, in our church, have a variety of roles, but all of them have to do with serving the people.

So as the Elders serve the Word and the Deacons serve the Table--we, the members of the church, support them, encourage them, pray for them, and most importantly, we help them--so that they never feel like they are pulling the load alone.