Saturday Night Theologian
16 August 2009

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 (first published 17 August 2003)

I hate reading management books. Their advice tends to be either painfully obvious or patently ridiculous. Scores of people jump on the latest management fad and produce books on the subject, and tens of thousands of people buy them and read them, following their advice until the next management fad comes along. I've found one exception to this general rule, a book by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister called Peopleware. DeMarco and Lister dismiss much of the current mumbo-jumbo about management and give good, relevant advice about managing (specifically, about managing technical people). In a chapter entitled "The Hornblower Factor," they focus on the fictional character Horatio Hornblower, the hero of eleven novels by C. S. Forester set during the Napoleonic Wars. Hornblower, they say, is the ultimate manager. As he rises through the ranks of the British navy, he learns the ins and outs of sailing and tactics, but from the beginning he is a natural at understanding how to get the most out of the people who work for him, even when they lack the skills that he himself has. He is not perfect, and he is nagged by recurring self-doubt, but he is always able to overcome his own weaknesses and accomplish the tasks set before him. In the first novel, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Hornblower is a teenager who has received his first posting aboard a ship. He knows nothing about sailing and gets seasick right away, but he longs to do well in his new position. Solomon similarly ascends the throne as a young man without experience in leadership, and he is expected to rule a nation. He quickly shows his innate leadership skills when he asks God not for fortune or fame but for wisdom to rule his people. It is interesting to contrast Solomon's request for wisdom with his son Rehoboam's foolish decision to listen to his young advisors and ignore his father's advisors, with the result that the northern two-thirds of the kingdom rebel against him. Leading people does require wisdom, which is not the same as knowledge. Memorizing management books or going to seminars will not make someone a great leader. The wisdom to lead encompasses common sense, people skills, appropriate knowledge, and the ability to delegate authority. From what we know of Solomon's reign, he seems to have possessed these qualities. Different people may have some or all of these qualities in different amounts just by birth, but all of us can develop in those areas in which we are deficient so that we can become more effective leaders. If God thought that it was important for Solomon to have wisdom in order to lead his people, surely it is just as important for leaders today not only to pray for wisdom but also to work to develop their leadership skills so that they will be ready to lead when opportunities arise.

Psalm 111 (first published 17 August 2003)

The principal task of study is a perception into the reality of a given situation, encounter, or book, according to Richard Foster in his chapter on study in the modern spiritual classic A Celebration of Discipline. Foster talks about studying the Bible and other religious books, but he also notes the importance, even the necessity, of studying "non-verbal books," such as nature, interpersonal relationships, and current events. It is not enough to observe what goes on around us; we must also perceive. The psalmist says in verse 2, "Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who have pleasure in them." In my seminary classes we spent a lot of time learning how to exegete the Bible, but we spent very little time learning how to exegete the world around us. Foster, on the contrary, recognizes the value of studying things others than books, because in creation, other people, institutions, cultures, other religions, and the events of our time we can learn about God. Of course, when we watch the TV news or read an article online, it won't always be immediately obvious what that information has to do with God. That's why it's important to reflect critically on the object of our study.

To reflect, to ruminate, on the events of our time leads us to the inner reality of those events. Reflection brings us to see things from God's perspective. In reflection we come to understand not only our subject matter, but ourselves [Foster, p. 66].
Americans have grown lazy over the past two or three decades in regard to reflecting on current events. Too much TV "news" is really fluff, entertainment or marketing packaged to resemble news. Other "news," both on TV and in the newspaper, is sensationalized tragedy. It is all too easy to accept the pre-packaged "analysis" that we're offered, especially by TV personalities, rather than engage in critical analysis ourselves, but it is our obligation as prophetic Christians to think for ourselves. We have a perspective that comes from our understanding of God, and we must learn how to see beyond, or beneath, the presentation to the crux of the matter. For example, when we watch coverage of the electricity blackout in the Northeast (or perhaps, as we experience it directly), will we focus, with the majority of talking heads, on the fact that terrorism was not the cause (neither was the meltdown of a nuclear power plant or a riot, though for some reason the news people haven't mentioned these other non-causes), or will we begin to ask what was the cause? Does deregulation of the energy industry over the past ten or fifteen years have anything to do with the problems in New York, Michigan, and Ontario (and earlier, California)? If so, does it make sense to revisit the idea of deregulating an industry that modern people depend upon for living? Corporations eager to make big bucks in the newly deregulated market promised big savings and better service for consumers; have these things come about? Has the Enronization of the energy market been a good thing or a bad thing overall for those who depend upon electricity (i.e., almost all of us)? Most importantly, what theological principles are relevant in considering these issues (e.g., concern for the poor, ownership of community resources, the problem of greed, truthfulness)? We need to learn how to read the world around us, reflect on the theological implications, and take action based on our analysis.

Ephesians 5:15-20 (first published 17 August 2003)

Before about 10,000 years ago, all of our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. Anthropologists who have studied modern hunter-gatherer societies such as the San (Bushmen) in southern Africa use their observations to extrapolate back thousands of years and make generalizations about human society at that time. Ancient hunter-gatherers' days were spent largely in the search for food. The men would scavenge or hunt for game, and the women would care for the young children and gather food from plants. Other activities included preparing meals, making clothing, traveling, engaging in ritual, and playing. If we were to travel back in time and advise the members of such a group to make the most of their time, what would they say? I think it is likely that they would respond, "We already are making the most of our time!" When one's very survival depends on wise time management, natural selection chooses those who make the most of their time over those who don't. Modern life is much more complex than that experienced by our distant ancestors, and the admonition to make the most of our time is much more relevant to us. Those of us who live in the industrialized West have a surplus of food, so we need to spend relatively little time searching for it or preparing it (or eating out, as the case may be). We have jobs, but the very fact that we can say that we "have jobs" indicates that the job takes only a certain amount of our time. We have many hours of free time--that is, time not spent sleeping, eating, working, or traveling to work--every week. What does it mean for members of modern society to make the most of our time? There are many options available to us. If we have children, we will spend a certain amount of time with them, usually progressively less as they get older, particularly once they get their driver's licenses. We have time to spend watching TV or movies, reading, exercising, relaxing, doing yard work, shopping, doing volunteer work, working on hobbies, and much more. There is no hard and fast rule about what it means to make the most of one's time in today's world, but it is certainly something that we should take seriously. Some people have a tendency to fill their free hours with work, neglecting their families, getting little exercise and little sleep, and taking too little time to relax. Others are just the opposite. They spend all their free time relaxing, watching TV, or playing sports. None of these activities are bad in and of themselves, but making the most of our time requires balance. Everyone needs to spend time with family and friends, particularly those of us who are married or have children. As any doctor will tell us, we also need to exercise regularly. Not only do we need to exercise our bodies, but we also need to exercise our minds, perhaps by reading, or writing, or studying, or visiting museums, or taking classes. We need to spend time in worship and ministry, giving some of our time to help others. Finally, we need to spend time just kicking back, chilling out, and relaxing. The key word here is balance. In the complex world we live in, there are always choices about how best to use our time. Let's commit ourselves to ask God for guidance as we spend that valuable asset, our lives, that God has given us.

John 6:51-58

All of today's readings have something to do with proper worship, and they all use food and/or drink as a metaphor for communion with God. The Gospel of John does not have a scene describing Jesus' institution of the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, in the upper room, as do the Synoptic Gospels. Instead, John substitutes the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet. This deviation from the standard set by the earlier gospels does not mean that John or his community have no use for the Eucharist. Far from it, as the current passage shows. When Jesus speaks of his body as true bread and his blood as true drink, readers of this gospel could not miss the clear reference to the Eucharist. Why does the author portray the Lord's Supper in this way? Perhaps because by removing the discussion from the upper room and placing it in the Galilean countryside, he is suggesting that partaking of the body and blood of Jesus is more than just eating a piece of bread and drinking a little wine during a worship service. The body and blood of Jesus are meant to be transformative, to affect every area of one's life, particularly one's actions toward fellow human beings. Earlier this week Walt Staton, a member of the group No More Deaths, was convicted of littering and sentenced to 300 hours of community service (picking up trash) and a year of probation. His crime? Leaving full water bottles for undocumented immigrants walking across the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. It is clear that federal prosecutors singled out Staton because his actions benefited the undocumented, not because he littered. Since members of No More Deaths began leaving water for the immigrants, the number of deaths has dropped dramatically, with the last water-related death occurring in June 2008. I don't know whether Walt Staton or other members of the group act to save the lives of others because of their Christian faith or not. What I do know is that the compassion they show for their fellow human beings is just the sort of living out the gospel that the author of today's reading from John envisioned when he put his discussion of the Eucharist in a real world setting. Immediately before this passage Jesus fed and gave drink to thousands of people in the wilderness who were hungry and thirsty. The text makes no mention of the authorities harassing Jesus or his disciples about the mess that some who ate and drank might have left behind. That's because saving people from starving or dying of thirst is more important than littering. That's something federal prosecutors and the judge in this case should consider if they hear this passage read in church this Sunday.