structural power – Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

*Mural of King Solomon and building the Temple, Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles*

Solomon ordered 30,000 people from all over Israel to cut logs for the temple, and he put Adoniram in charge of these workers. Solomon divided them into three groups of 10,000. Each group worked one month in Lebanon and had two months off at home.

He also had 80,000 workers to cut stone in the hill country of Israel, 70,000 workers to carry the stones, and over 3,000 assistants to keep track of the work and to supervise the workers. He ordered the workers to cut and shape large blocks of good stone for the foundation of the temple.

Solomon’s and Hiram’s men worked with men from the city of Gebal, and together they got the stones and logs ready for the temple. (Contemporary English Version)

A lot of labor went into construction of the temple in Jerusalem. King Solomon raised a massive workforce, and placed them under the command of Adoniram. The work was not voluntary, but compulsory; no tribe or citizen in Israel or Judah had a choice of whether to labor in the forest and the quarry, or not.

This treatment of the Israelite people, in being required to work in Lebanon one month out of every three months, became a significant reason for the kingdom’s split after Solomon’s death. (1 Kings 11:26-28; 12:1-16)

There was an even larger group of workers to quarry and dress the stones in the hill country. The workforce was likely made up of both Jewish and non-Jewish persons, because of the needed manpower.

King Solomon was a master administrator. All of the planning, and movement of supplies and people, was a major endeavor to pull off. And this gets to the nub of working relations, both then and now.

*Cedars of Lebanon, in “The Land of the Book,” by W.M. Thomson, 1894*

Oftentimes, what looks good on paper, and makes sense to those in charge, is short-sighted. The actual people who will do the work are rarely consulted. This is especially strange and unacceptable in this day and age.

If companies can put a lot of time, energy, and expenditures into marketing focus groups to determine things like what color to use on packaging in order to sell more, then it is curious that no time and energy is placed into communication and interaction with workers.

It is sad and tragic that the corporation with high levels of effective engagement between management and employees is so very rare.

At the core of it all, I believe, is our anthropological view. Show me a workplace with sour relations and strained negotiations, and I will show you a management and executive team who use workers as replaceable parts in a machine.

But show me a company that discerns people as inherently worthy of respect and kindness, and I will show you a place where effective communication flows freely, and worker satisfaction is high.

Furthermore, our anthropology determines how we treat safety on the job. Rather than putting some safe policies in place because of government oversight and pressure, a view of people as important above all else will ensure that both the physical and psychological environment are secure – and they will take a zero tolerance approach to any and all unsafe practices, in order to preserve human dignity and life.

Therefore, why we do what we do is just as important as what we do.

And the only effective way to answer the why is through a broad and involved connection with a diversity of people within an organization. There is absolutely no substitute for this. Taking shortcuts only leads to ineffectiveness, and more importantly, to human duress and harm.

In order to achieve such an ambitious goal of constructing a temple – along with a palace and administrative buildings – a large corporate government was required to make it all happen.

Essentially, King Solomon enacted a massive administration akin to ancient Egypt and their construction of pyramids. With such a government came classes and ranks and opportunities. Frankly, it was a lot like a totalitarian regime, in which the major function was to bless what was happening.

This resulted in a humungous structure and system that became intolerant of any alternative thinking. Thus, the kingdom (the government) was prepared to crush anything or anyone that threatened the established status quo of how to operate. This is why the Old Testament prophets were not viewed well by the state, and many of them were killed.

So, if you have been following me through these reflections on King Solomon over the past several days, you may wonder if I like him, or loathe him. The fact of the matter is that Solomon, like us, is a complicated person. He tends to get hailed as the wisest person who ever lived, to the neglect of some of his unwise choices. For many, Solomon too easily gets off the hook.

Along with all of Solomon’s grandeur and sagacity, he also had a slave labor force that toiled in quarries, forests, and mines. He was given to excess in most things, and didn’t seem to have a stop button. And, later in life, he honored forbidden gods with sinister sacrifices at shrines on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

The truly wise person in the room will view Solomon in his totality; will have a broader and more contextual view of work and labor; and will discern people as majestic creatures in God’s image, who also have a tragically twisted heart which can easily be prone to foolishness and harming others.

So, as we remember the temple Solomon built, we can keep in mind its beauty and architectural wonder, and the skill needed to make it happen, as well as the thousands of people who endured harsh and sometimes inhumane treatment.

Looking at history from only one angle is really not seeing history at all. We need a full-orbed understanding of people, their situations, the context of events, and the challenges they faced. Otherwise, we’ll get a sanitized version which only ends up demeaning everyone.

Lord God Almighty, who has made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of this world a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, so that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The prophet Jeremiah, 6th century mosaic, Ravenna, Italy

Early in the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, this word came from the Lord: The Lord proclaims: Stand in the temple courtyard and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who have come to the temple to worship. Tell them everything I command you; leave nothing out. Perhaps they will listen, and each will turn from their evil ways. If they do, I will relent and not carry out the harm I have in mind for them because of the wrong they have done.

So tell them, The Lord proclaims: If you don’t listen to me or follow the Instruction I have set before you—if you don’t listen to the words of the prophets that I have sent to you time and again, though you haven’t listened, then I will make this temple a ruin like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse before all nations on earth.

The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah declare these words in the Lord’s temple. And when Jeremiah finished saying everything the Lord told him to say, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! Why do you prophesy in the Lord’s name that ‘this temple will become a ruin like Shiloh, and this city will be destroyed and left without inhabitant’?” Then all the people joined ranks against Jeremiah in the Lord’s temple.

When the officials of Judah heard these things, they went up from the royal palace to the Lord’s temple and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s temple. The priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people: “This man deserves to die for prophesying against this city as you have all heard firsthand.”

Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, “The Lord sent me to prophesy to this temple and this city everything you have heard. So now transform your ways and actions. Obey the Lord your God, and the Lord may relent and not carry out the harm that he’s pronounced against you.

But me? I’m in your hands. Do whatever you would like to me. Only know for certain that if you sentence me to death, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man. The Lord has in fact sent me to speak everything I have said to you.” (Common English Bible)

When it comes to the spiritual and religious life, on the one hand, we hold the joy and contentment of divine connection and peace; and, on the other hand, we hold the sadness that many turn their backs on divine realities. In Christian terms, Jesus is both the cornerstone of faith and the stone which causes people to stumble and fall. (1 Peter 2:8)

Frankly, the Lord is not okay with cruel injustice, hollow worship, and inattention to both the divine and human. There is a way to make things right. But not everyone wants that. Systemic evil persists because there are always those who benefit from the current structures of power – and they care little about how it impacts those on the underbelly of their control.

Things may be going well for a large chunk of people. And, conversely, things may not be going well at all, for an even larger group of folks. Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge that the world is not only good, but also quite broken. We must speak truth to power. I understand that this is no easy task, because rarely are things simply black and white, all good or all bad.

Jeremiah preaches in the temple gate, a woodcut by Unknown artist, 1886

In the prophet Jeremiah’s day, it was not that his opponents were pure evil with no acknowledgment of God. Rather, the problem was that the power brokers in Judah tried to keep a strict separation of religion from everything else; they were perfectly fine with God, that is, if the Lord would stay in the temple where he belonged.

But Jeremiah would have none of this sort of mentality and behavior. Keeping Yahweh out of matters of social justice, geopolitics, and institutional governance led to severe humanitarian problems. Jeremiah became God’s voice to a generation of people who ignored the divine in everything but religious ritual.

Bifurcating worship and work disconnects daily life from divine resources. Without God infused in all of life, a lack of grace fills the empty places. What’s more, the sovereign Lord can neither be silenced nor dismissed; God will find a way to accomplish peace and justice for the common good of everyone, and not just the few.

The heart of Jeremiah’s message was for king and people to be obedient in all of life, to recenter themselves around God’s law – not just the religious bits but the social ones, as well. Jeremiah did not proclaim something new. He was calling those in places of power and authority to a proper Torah observance.

The true needs and interests of our communities can never be addressed and lifted-up in the narrow self-serving interests of persons in power who turn a blind eye to anyone unlike them.

The needs and interests of our world lie in becoming who we were designed to be from the beginning: A people belonging to God, tapping into the deep reservoir of light and spirituality within us. It is to acknowledge the image of God inside us all.

We are to follow in the way of grace and truth. There is to be no division between the sacred and the secular because, for the Christian, Jesus is Lord of all.

We are to continually use our voice for both praise and prophecy, for shouting celebration to God and for speaking truth to power.

Holy God, the gracious Sovereign of all, we give you praise for your steadfast love toward us, your people. Keep us grounded in humility, sensitive to sin, attentive to that which is just and right, merciful in all things, pure in worship, and peace-loving through Christ our Lord in the strength of the Spirit. Amen.