Lessons in Leadership: Power

https://youtu.be/kxTNKVayRI8

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Dr. David M. Oliver

First United Methodist Church

Massillon, Ohio

August 23, 2026

Texts: Exodus 1:8-2:10; Matthew 16:13-20

Opening Prayer: Almighty God, whose Word is authority and power and whose way is love, grant unto us clear minds, understanding hearts, and willing spirits so that we may wisely appropriate your Word of Truth. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

If you wish to complete the sermon listening guide in your bulletin, please take it out at this time.

This morning, we are going to look at power. Power has often been misunderstood in the church and the wider world. Worldly power often connotes something that is limited so that the more you have the less others have. As people of faith we see power differently. Power is unlimited because it comes from God who is unlimited. Power is energy used to influence an outcome.

Last Sunday, as we do on the third Sunday of every month, we used the power of our compassion and the power of our money to help fund the Family Living Center Homeless Shelter. We used our power not to control someone or something but rather as a tool of empowerment, to lift up, to support, to partner with and encourage an agency that is doing what Christ calls Christians to do, to help the poor and homeless. This is the case with all our ministries with the community. We seek to be Christ’s hands, feet, heart, and voice. We intend to be living witnesses of vibrant faith and transforming power.

Power itself neutral. How we use power is anything but neutral. It can be used for good or evil, betterment or belittlement.

Robert Linthicum, author of the book Transforming Power, which we read as a Thriving Congregations group, writes, “(Jesus) understood power as a positive

good and used it to oppose the power elite of his nation and to build a community.”

Some Christians are suspicious of power because they have seen its abuses in the culture and in churches. Power does have a dark side but it also has a bright side. It can be ruthless and destructive (what we refer to as unilateral power or dominating power) or very strengthening and liberating (what Linthicum refers to as relational power).

He goes on to write, “Power is always present in all human situations, because power is nothing more than the ability, capacity, and willingness of a person, a group of people or an institution (whether it is a church or a nation) to act.”  Simply stated, power is the ability to act. I like this definition because it is memorable and captures the essence of power.

With this in mind, let’s explore the texts we read this morning.

In the Exodus story we find several women who exercised power. We read about two midwives. We encounter a post-partum mother and her pre-teenage daughter. We see Pharaoh’s daughter defying the power of her father in accepting a Hebrew male as her own son and raising him in the palace of Pharoah.

In the passage we read from Matthew’s Gospel, we find a carpenter’s son and a group of fishermen. Jesus makes a strong affirmation of the statement of Peter, “You are the Christ, son of the living God.” Jesus used the power of his words to bless what God had revealed to Peter about Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior and Son of God.

In neither of these passages do we find people we would expect to headline a leadership seminar. However, in today’s texts these are precisely the people who use the power available to them to act for life and goodness in the face of oppression. Some acted on faith. Others acted in compassion but without knowledge of how God would use their actions. Shiphrah, Puah, Moses’ mother, and his sister, Miriam, (unnamed in this particular passage) as well as Pharoah’s daughter all chose to defy the orders of a death-dealing ruler.

Jesus teaches and empowers Peter and the other disciples to recognize and tell the truth in a society that attacks truth-tellers. In these two quite complex stories, we find a common theme which is – in a society where one man or political entity sought to hoard all power (to exercise unilateral/dominating power), these leaders recognized the relational power they had and acted according to their conscience and understanding of what was good, right, and godly. 

In our day, we seem to have a difficult time deciding whether power is good or bad. On the one hand, we want to empower people to live and act in ways that create a just and flourishing community for all. On the other hand, we talk about “the powers that be” in less than flattering terms, and we lament the actions of the powerful which harm the powerless.

There’s a proverb that says, “the dose makes the poison.” That is often the case with power. Too much of the wrong kind of power and it becomes a poison to us and others. However, if we shun power altogether, we can find ourselves controlled by people who will gladly use power to manipulate others and create gain for themselves.

Power can be a great gift, especially the power which comes from God to positively influence others, to offer forgiveness, healing, and wholeness, and to be effective witnesses for Christ in our community. How we use power makes all the difference.

Our two texts today are about many things but at the core they are both about power, power and identity. In Exodus, we find a ruler who governed out of fear and threats but was thwarted by the powerless who knew who they were. The Gospel writer Matthew and Jesus himself both ask, “Who do you say that I am?” How we respond to this question has power at its center.

I will illustrate. In Jesus’ day, Rome ruled over Israel. The Romans viewed Caesar as a god. In essence, the Romans affirmed the power of Caesar saying, “Caesar is lord.” The disciples saw things very differently. Peter’s confession of Jesus being the Messiah, son of the living God was a clear affirmation of a different power. In essence, Peter was declaring, “Jesus is Lord.” To declare Jesus is Lord is to place relational power, the power of love, over against unilateral power, the power of control and fear. These two types of power quickly come into conflict as we see in Jesus’ life, both with the Jewish authorities as well as with the Roman authorities.

Let’s return to the Genesis text. How do we understand power for leadership? Is it the ability for the leader to do what he wants to do saying, “Throw them in the river” (Exodus 1:22). It seems incomprehensible that a leader would be so afraid of immigrants that he would recommend throwing them in the river. This was a general edict. He told all his people, whenever you see a Hebrew baby boy, throw him in the Nile river. Drown him. Appealing to mob action, he inflamed prejudice and suspicion, stirring up the populace with fear-mongering and threats.

Pharoah went on to say, “But let the girls live.” Why was that? Let the girls live because they couldn’t do much? Because no one worries about girls? No one can be so mean as to kill baby girls, could they?

I very much doubt that sentiment was what caused Pharaoh to spare the girls. He probably did not think they were capable of causing him trouble, of rising up as a threat in case of battle or rebellion like a boy or young man could. That means Pharoah wasn’t paying attention, because two women got in the way of his first plan, and women, one from his own household, caused his ultimate downfall.

Pharaoh was unwise and off base from the beginning. He wanted to turn the river, a source of life, into a place of death. Fortunately, his plan didn’t work. He wanted the women, the midwives who were bringers of life, to be instruments of death, and it didn’t work. The women and little girls whom he did not think had any power, who were not worth his consideration, stood sentinel over a baby in a basket, floating on the river of life, a river of hope.

Shiphrah and Puah trusted in God’s power and presence more than in Pharaoh’s power and presence. Their example invites us to ask, “What would I do, what will I do, when I face the power of injustice, the power of fear, hate, prejudice and its myriad manifestations?” Will I exercise the relational power, the power of love, which comes from God or will I be silent in the face of unilateral power?  These are not easy questions. In some ways, we would rather not think about them. However, we don’t safely have that option. Our silence easily becomes complicity; our emotional paralysis readily cedes power over to those who exercise a power that is not of the kingdom of God.

If that is the case, why did Jesus tell Peter and the disciples, “Don’t tell anyone who I really am.” Why did he invite their silence? Maybe Jesus was just looking out for us. He knew his followers were going to have a difficult time, so maybe he was saying, “Don’t let anyone know. Keep yourself safe. Enemies are everywhere.” Is that the case or is something else going on?

The event in the gospel text seems to be an important moment in Jesus’ teaching ministry. The importance is attested by the repetition of this event in three of the four gospels. Something significant is going on here, but what is it exactly?  

Our first question must be, “Who is this about? Is it about Jesus, or is it about the disciples?” Matthew seems to come down on the side of the disciples. His expansion of the conversation between Jesus and Peter indicates that, for Matthew at least, this was a teaching moment for the disciples (and for us who are Christ-followers). It was not yet the moment for declaring to the world who Jesus really is; it was an insider moment, an inner circle moment, a called-out community moment.

One significance of this passage is that this is one of only two uses of the word church in the gospels. The other is two chapters later in Matthew 18:17, when Jesus tells us of the reconciliation purpose of the church. So, we need to listen closely to hear what is being said.

This is a passage about identity. It is, first of all, about the identity of Jesus. Who was he? Who is he? Peter got it right. Jesus says so. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Theologically, he is declaring that Jesus is the one we have been looking for, the one we need, whether we are aware of that need or not. “You are the Messiah.” This Messiah is God’s Son, the Savior of the world, the one we need to cleanse and release us from the power of our sin, the one who comes from God—is of one essence with God—the only Son of the living God.

Peter declares that Jesus is the one who uniquely and powerfully connects, who brings together human need and divine presence. Jesus is the one who reconciles; who, in our brokenness, puts us back in touch with God’s wholeness. This is relational power, the power of God moving to address our human frailty and our need for freedom from fear, from the bondage of sin, and the unilateral power that often accompanies it. 

Because of the identity of Jesus, our identity is transformed. We are no longer just individual followers; we have been called into a new community of love and faith under the lordship of Christ. We are different because of the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, our Lord. Our true identity, our lasting identity, is wrapped up in the person, the work, the relational power of Christ.

This relational power is the greatest power in the world because it is God’s power, it is God’s way of bringing about transformation. Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against the advancement of the church and the power of this relational connection. We know that in the end, God’s way prevails. God’s way of relational power is much, much greater than unilateral power. It lasts. It remains. It overcomes.

As the people of God, let us examine ourselves individually and as a church so that we continue to exercise leadership that is grounded in the transforming love and relational power of God.

The witness of the midwives, Moses’ family, Pharaoh’s daughter, Peter, and the disciples reminds us that faithful leadership is not measured by control, but by courageous love. Because we confess that Jesus is Lord, we are called to use the relational power God has entrusted to us to protect life, speak truth, to resist fear, and to build a community of mercy, justice, and hope. May our identity in Christ shape our influence, so that through us God’s relational power may bring healing, freedom, and transformation to the world.

Let us pray. Great God, active God, God of love, mercy, and grace, thank you for the ways in which you have empowered us to align with you. Collectively, this day, once again we affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord, our Lord. Nothing else comes close to the transformative power of his work in the human heart and in the greater world. Help us to commit ourselves to be your leaders, your witnesses to your ways of bringing about change in our world. May your kingdom come and your will be done in and through us, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.