Central to the theme of this blog is my commitment to work a nonchurch job, in the world, specifically and intentionally as an Ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
It is my intention to use this blog, among other things, to explore and to reflect upon the meaning of the life I've chosen.
The job...the MINISTRY...allows me to practice, on a small and intimate scale, tremendously important, big-picture principles of Kingdom living.
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Here's something I am, WE are, dealing with:
There's an elderly bagger on our team, who's about to turn 80, who's only coming to work because he needs the money.
His health is bad and has been deteriorating for years.
However, he's gotten to the point now that all he does is clock in, walk to the area where the cash registers are located and sit down in one of the chairs provided for customers to sit in.
His wife packs him a lunch and, during the course of the time he's scheduled to work, he munches on it...
...but he doesn't do his job.
...he just sits and watches the rest of us do our jobs. When his shift is over, he clocks out and goes home.
He's been doing this for months!
I'm certain that he's not goldbricking. He's clearly incapable of doing the work. And, he's poor.
He doesn't do his job right out in the open. The owners of the store see him not working.
The front end managers have gone as far up the company chain of command in reporting this as we can...several times...
It's up to the HR guy to talk to him, warn him and, if, appropriate, terminate him.
The HR guy knows. He, too, sees it daily...
And, I'm not sure what he would do on his own...
But, the owners of the store are committed Lancaster County Sermon on the Mount living Anabaptists.
You know, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." It's right up there near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
Clearly, the company's not rolling in the dough as well as it might be, and for many reasons, and this merciful attitude toward unproductive employees is one of them.
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Here's the problem: Call him Bob, isn't even the oldest person who works at the Front End. And, his health probably isn't the worst of the lot.
As only one example, there's a petite and frail woman in her late 70s who is a cashier, and who, about three months ago, was in a car accident in which she cracked ten ribs and is still in pain...
...but who also needs the money.
And, when Bob is assigned to be her bagger, she has to do the job without help.
You may not realize how physically demanding cashiering in a grocery store can be.
Our store doesn't serve many vegans.
At holiday time in the autumn and winter, a cashier in a typical hour many easily push around nearly a ton of turkeys and hams and beef fillets.
Image your granny doing that five or six hours a day, five days a week.
Then, think of the guy who's supposed to be helping nanna sitting by, munching on a pretzel, and joking with a customer.
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I can only guess that the disciples of Jesus who own the store are choosing to show mercy to Bob.
And, as this case makes obvious, showing mercy rarely takes place in a vacuum. Usually, in my experience, when I show mercy to Person A, there's a Person B, and, perhaps, many others, paying a price.
At Faith, it's probably about five years ago that we began to struggle with the question:
How do you show mercy without enabling sin?
I have no better an answer to that question now than I did then.
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In my opinion, if the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC want to lead a resurgence in our ministry, this is the sort of thing they should be leading.
Tell me, Lance, or here in the east, Nick, how you, personally, do this in real life.
Teach me...if you want to preach to me about something, preach to me about the connection between mercy and injustice.
Because, as much as I'm committed to showing mercy, I rarely do it, in actual practice, in a way that doesn't produce at least some negative consequence.
Jesus did warn that if your righteousness doesn't surpass that of the Pharisees and the Scribes you won't see the Kingdom.
We have to get righteousness right. I don't think we are.
I'm pretty sure I'm not.
Serious stuff.
Thanks for bringing this difficult situation to us for consideration. These are the types of things we need to wrestle through. There are a lot of dynamics in that situation. The most frustrating to me (in response to your telling of it) is that Bob doesn't even seem to be trying. It would be one thing to make a diligent effort and simply not be able to do it. Like if he bagged a few bags worth of groceries and was so weak or hurting that he had to sit down for awhile before trying again.
ReplyDeleteIMO, it is the responsibility of the owners / managers to have a frank conversation with him. He seems to not be living in integrity.
If he literally can't do ANY work, the business owners, his family and/or his local church (if he's part of one) should help him.
If he can do something, he should be lovingly rebuked.
In any case, I can't see where this situation as it sits is an example of the kingdom in practice.
He seems to be abusing the system, not gratefully receiving unmerited mercy.
Answers are hard to come by though, aren't they?
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding on the blog.
In relating the situation, I abridged an account of something that's been developing for several years.
Bob's health had been deteriorating slowly for years and, for a long time, he struggled valiantly to do his best.
It's actually interesting, in a way, to see what can happen when you simply give up. Bob was once known on the team as someone with courage and integrity.
And, I'm certain that part of the way ownership is treating him now is based on who he used to be. But, clearly, as you say, these days, he's not trying. He's gotten to the point that he's brazenly taking advantage of everyone.
Emotionally, it's conflicting for all of us on the team.
And, I, with the prophet's heart, am inclined to fight for the victims of injustice, in this case, as I see it, those poor old ladies trying to bag 30 pound frozen turkeys while also running their cash register, who, then go home to clean their house and cook the meals.
And, I want to stick my finger in the face of the store's General Manager and say, "Don't you see how SHE is struggling!?"
The question for me, as a disciple of Jesus and as an ambassador of His Kingdom, is what do *I* do? Figuring that out is a moment by moment struggle when Bob's scheduled to work.
One reason I entered this on the blog is that the teachings of Jesus, I believe, have created the tension that my team is encountering.
To show mercy is, by definition, to create injustice.
As soon as ownership determined to allow Bob to behave as he is, it, immediately, put others in a position of not receiving the support they deserve from the people who manage and lead them.
When Jesus taught that people who show mercy are blessed, He designed the existence of this tension among the people of His Kingdom.
By all accounts, in the first centuries of the Kingdom, disciples showed mercy in a way that built the expansion of the Kingdom in the world.
And, it seems to me that most "revival" movements do that well. I think the Church of God in its movement days, did it well.
But, we never talk about it today...