Tag: workers

Leadership Matters (2 Kings 9:30-37)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Jehu Commanding Jezebel’s Death, by Philip Galle, c.1561

Jehu then went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard of it, she put on her eye shadow and arranged her hair. She looked down out of the window. When Jehu came through the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you master murderer?”

Jehu looked up to the window and said, “Who’s on my side? Anyone?” Two or three high officials looked down at him. Then he said, “Throw her out!” So they threw her out of the window. Some of her blood splattered against the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her. 

Jehu then went in to eat and drink. He said, “Deal with this cursed woman and bury her. She was, after all, a king’s daughter.” They went to bury her, but they couldn’t find her body. Only her skull was left, along with her hands and feet. They went back and reported this to Jehu.

He said, “This is the Lord’s word spoken through his servant Elijah from Tishbe: Dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh in the area of Jezreel. Jezebel’s corpse will be like dung spread out in a field in that plot of land in Jezreel, so no one will be able to say, This was Jezebel.” (Common English Bible)

“Jezebel” is not a common name for a reason. Few parents would ever give their child such a moniker. Jezebel is portrayed in Old Testament Scripture as a pagan priestess who cared nothing for Israel’s one true God; and would do anything to get her way – even if it meant fabricating false witnesses and committing murder (1 Kings 21). Here name is used synonymously in the New Testament with spiritual prostitution and opposition to God (Revelation 2:20).

Jezebel was from the city of Tyre, and married King Ahab. She introduced her husband and his nation to the chief Canaanite god Baal. Jezebel promoted the worship practices of Baal. She brought to Israel 450 prophets of Baal, and 400 prophets of Asherah. What’s more, Jezebel’s commitment to Baal led her to persecute and kill the prophets of God (1 Kings 18:4, 13).

Jehu was a military man, called by God through the prophet Elisha:

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel. You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’”  (2 Kings 9:6-10, NIV)

Eventually, Jehu made his way to Jezebel – and she knew full well that he intended on killing her. So, Jezebel readied by presenting herself as beautiful as possible. It seems that she intended on seducing or currying favor with Jehu so that she might continue in the royal court. But Jehu wasn’t having it.

The new king of Israel, Jehu, in seeing Jezebel, didn’t even bother to go up to her when she showed herself out of the upper level latticed window. He simply asked where the loyalty is, from those attending her. The eunuchs responded by throwing Jezebel out the window to her death. Thus, the details of Elijah’s earlier prophecy came to pass in a gruesome way.

In my reading of the story this time around, I wondered how many people are in jobs who are working for someone they see continually doing selfish and unfair things. My mind gravitated toward the eunuchs – Jezebel’s servants – who daily dealt with her. I wondered:

  • Were the eunuchs ever disturbed by Jezebel’s actions?
  • Did they ever get angry over all the injustice they saw? Or, were the eunuchs just like their mistress, having no regard for the many lives she destroyed?
  • What was the nature of their loyalty? Was it forced, or was it just shrewd?
  • Did the eunuchs dispose of their mistress because they finally saw a way out, or did they toss her out the window as a mere watching out for themselves and wanting to be on the winner’s side?

The text never tells us about the life or motives of the eunuchs. Yet, I imagine they most likely saw the situation for what it was at the time. And I suspect they had a sense that Jezebel’s reign of injustice needed to be finished.

In saying this, I’m in no way advocating for dislodging an unjust and unfair leader by violent means. But what I am saying is that, if one has a strong sense of goodness within them, its distressing to see a bad leader act in sinister and malevolent ways day after day. Consider the following statistics from the Niagara Institute:

57% of all workers have left a job in their lifetime because of bad leadership. 32% say they have considered leaving a job due to poor management, and/or due to unbearable working conditions.

69% of workers would pay better attention to their work if they were treated with more respect by their employers. 79% of employees have quit a job in their lifetime due to a lack of appreciation.

96% of employees said that management showing empathy would make them want to stay with the company. Moreover, management thinks they’re doing a good job, with 92% of managers saying that their company is empathetic; whereas only 50% of employees agree.

35% of employees say their direct manager is their biggest source of stress at work.

Over 120,000 deaths every year may be attributed to how U.S. organizations manage their employees. This doesn’t even account for the physical and mental toll an ineffective leader can take over a period of time.

Maybe Jezebel’s eunuchs knew their own deaths were just a matter of time.

I’ve been on both ends of being an employee/worker and a leader/manager. I can say that I have suffered abuse in both roles. Yet, in my judgment, the onus on making a workplace a good and positive environment is on management.

Whatever role we occupy in this life, it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that there is no injustice; and that integrity and fairness are ubiquitous. Leaders are especially called to exhibit what is good, right, and just in everything they do.

Let’s all be willing to hold one another accountable for how we work and live together in this world. If not, we’ll keep having stories like Jehu and Jezebel.

“A Blessing for Leaders,” by John O’Donohue

May you have the grace and wisdom

To act kindly, learning

To distinguish between what is

Personal and what is not.

May you be hospitable to criticism.

May you never put yourself at the center of things.

May you act not from arrogance but out of service.

May you work on yourself,

Building up and refining the ways of your mind.

May those who work for you know

You see and respect them.

May you learn to cultivate the art of presence

In order to engage with those who meet you.

When someone fails or disappoints you,

May the graciousness with which you engage

Be their stairway to renewal and refinement.

May you treasure the gifts of the mind

Through reading and creative thinking

So that you continue as a servant of the frontier

Where the new will draw its enrichment from the old,

And you never become a functionary.

May you know the wisdom of deep listening,

The healing of wholesome words,

The encouragement of the appreciative gaze,

The decorum of held dignity,

The springtime edge of the bleak question.

May you have a mind that loves frontiers

So that you can evoke the bright fields

That lie beyond the view of the regular eye.

May you have good friends

To mirror your blind spots.

May leadership be for you

A true adventure of growth.

Blessings or Woes?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment
The Sermon on the Mount, by Miki de Goodaboom

There are many persons who currently feel angry and powerless in the face of recent and contemporary political events. All of this has large implications, especially for workers.

I admit to being one who is frustrated and saddened by the U.S. government’s unwillingness and inability to simply care about all of its citizens (as well as the citizens of the world). Along with their spirit of the age, they are failing to ensure the common good of everyone.

What’s more, there are large swaths of American Christianity who are either complicit or actively involved in establishing and perpetuating a system of governance which is fundamentally out of sync with biblical norms.

The Church and the Christian have a responsibility and a call, based in the words and ways of Jesus, of whom we purport to follow. In some of the first words uttered to his disciples, establishing what is of upmost importance for us to know, Jesus said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh…

“But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now,
    for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
    for you will mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:20-21, 24-25, NRSV)

Jesus was building and upholding an alternative kingdom to the political systems of the time. Christ came to this earth to set things right amidst a corrupt world whose authority was held in the hands of evil.

But change would not come through the typical means of worldly power such as coups, revolutions, or economic exploitation of some persons over others.

For those who feel helpless and without power, Christ brings a liberation which transcends all other powers and authorities. He brings blessing.

What this means for those who are enamored with worldly aspects of power (money, wealth, resources, political authority, etc.) the words and actions of Jesus brings woe.

An evil grip of the world cannot be loosened with practices and responses of hate, class warfare, verbal and physical violence, and economic takeovers. For those with spiritual eyes to see, and ears to hear, the sandy and shifting foundations of this present government administration are being, and will be, washed away. (Luke 6:49)

It’s important that people of faith participate with what is good, right, and just – that they are concerned with the public good of everyone; and are attuned to a social and economic vision for humanity that is concerned for all citizens, and not just some or a few of them.

For the past few hundred years, much of the church has made spiritual deliverance and socio-economic freedom a matter of only the individual. As long as one embraces a personal salvation in Christ, well then, all is well, right!?

Wrong. Holy Scripture is filled with concerns for the whole of humanity because of the exploitive powers of this world. We have stories in the Bible replete with such powers as the Pharaoh who enslaved and exploited workers for his and Egypt’s own wealth, power, and benefit.

Jesus came not to the religious leaders and the kings of the earth, but instead made it his purpose to spend time amongst the least in society, those for whom the rich and powerful had no inclination to pay attention to and help.

“We have for much too long settled for a gospel of private other-worldly possibility.”

Walter Brueggemann

Even amongst God’s own ancient people, King Solomon built an empire on the driving force of both slavery and cheap labor, exploiting a large class of persons in order to feed the behemoth of structural wealth.

Economic systems which exploit workers do it so that they can maintain cheap labor. They seek to keep those persons invisible and outside of any safety net of security which might cost the system money.

Unfortunately, there are extremely rich persons who rely upon workers remaining on the underbelly of their companies and of society. Embracing unrestrained individualism and unbridled capitalistic practices make for a permanent class of exploited workers who remain poor on purpose by those wishing them to remain there.

Such extremely rich individuals become political players only because of their wealth. They know little about statecraft and how a politics concerned for the common good really works. And, frankly, they don’t seem to care.

I bring up these things because many Christians have been complicit in the injustice and exploitation; and because many churches and church leaders try to operate like the super-rich, instead of trying to follow the words and ways of the Lord Jesus, whom they purport to follow.

The Apostle James minced no words in addressing the rich within the church:

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. (James 5:1-6, NRSV)

Meanwhile, the poor and exploited are suffering. Christians are not to kiss-up to those in power, nor try to be like them. And, for God’s sake, we are never to get into the game of systemic evil, like those who mistreat us.

Instead, we learn to practice patience and endurance in the face of suffering, while we work toward a better society. We strengthen one another’s hearts through faith. We do not grumble and turn against each other, like a pack of wild dogs, but pray continually and practice forgiveness, so that we can be compassionate and merciful.

Since we are all connected on this planet, any time an individual shows unmitigated kindness toward another, chooses to love the enemy, expresses gratitude, or offers sincere forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve it, we shift the balance of the world back toward the axis of grace.

Unless we all work together to embrace our collective poverty of spirit and acknowledge our grinding emotions (and sit with them), we will eventually go the way of the already condemned who spend, eat, and laugh with sinister abandon.

Life is not a 100 meter sprint; life is a marathon. We are in the long haul of life, and do not live for the pleasures of the moment. So then, let us live up to who we are in Christ, created in the image and likeness of God, and possessing divine light and living water which will nourish us through our time of need.

For humanity does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I, for one, want to be blessed by Jesus, and not experience a woe from him. That means paying attention to the people and the matters of importance to Christ.