Isaiah 42:1-9 Here the Prophet talks about a new kind of leadership. It's not exactly clear whether he has an individual leader in mind, or whether he envisages a reinvigorated nation of Israel offering that leadership to the peoples of the world. What is interesting, however, is the kind of leadership he talks about, which will be characterised by a gentle but persistent quest for justice. There isn’t an absolute convergence of the two styles of leadership, but last year’s celebrations of the political leadership of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela surely come to mind when we are thinking about Isaiah’s new style of leadership. One political commentator remarked that both men were characterised by a huge ego, a sense that they were destined to lead their people; so much so in Nelson Mandela’s case that - to the astonishment of his fellow prisoners - he predicted quite early on during their imprisonment that one day he would become the first Black president o...
A blog by a Methodist minister in the UK