Thoughts on Hebrews 13: Immitating our leaders

In the closing statements, the author of Hebrews throws out a lot of quick admonitions.  The two that stick out at me today while I am writing this are: 1) Help those in need, and 2) Obey your leaders/imitate them.

The list of those in need aren't necessarily those we might think of today.  Show hospitality.  Remember those in prison and who are otherwise being tormented.  Bear the abuse Christ suffered. Share what you have (while being content with what you have).  I've said this before, but I think Christians in the West today are spoiled.  We never have to interact with those in prison (or recognize they are there).  We don't personally encounter the tormented (at least that we know of). I'm not sure we have any concept of what it means to bear the abuse Christ suffered.  We're generally not content with what we have and not willing to share what we have with others.

The other thing that might sound odd to our modern Western ears is that we are to obey and imitate our leaders.  From the context I am fairly certain this references spiritual leaders (although Peter and Paul in their writings certainly make it clear that we are not exempt from obeying political leaders).  Even outside Protestant circles, Western Christians tend to have a post-Reformation mindset.  We pay so much attention to the malfeasance of a few bad leaders that we fail to recognize the good in most of them.  If we don't recognize that good, it becomes very hard to both obey and imitate.

But I think there is a secondary problem as well.  In our post-Reformation mindset, we want to choose our own leaders.  As someone with a Ph.D. in Government, I can safely say that popularly choosing leaders is not always a good thing.  People tend to choose the most charismatic leaders, not those whose lives should be imitated.  A look at history shows the damage this can inflict (Hitler was popularly elected).  Why would we do this in the Church?  And we do we get up and find someplace else to worship if the leaders say something that makes us uncomfortable?

Again, these are just a few thoughts.  Take them for what they are.