“THAT’S THE WAY WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT: A LOSING FORMULA
St. Matthews Ecumenical Catholic Church
August 31, 2014 – 22nd Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Romans 12:1-2
David Justin Lynch, Esquire
“That’s the way we’ve
always done it.” We hear that in church a lot… in particular when anyone talks
about changing the liturgy. But I’ve yet to find
any saying of Jesus that sounds like, “That’s the way we’ve always done it”. Jesus was not a
creature of the religious establishment of His day. Here was a guy who broke
the rules: healing on the Sabbath, not washing his hands before eating, and horror
of horrors, he threw the established money changers and merchants out of the
temple with a whip of cords.
But the “that’s the way
we’ve always done it” attitude is also where people work. However, do we have to accept as a final
answer? In the beginning of the last century employees were one step above a
slave: Long hours, disgusting and unsafe working conditions, no health care, and
very low pay. The Labor Movement in this country didn’t accept “that’s the way
we’ve always done it” as a final answer. America saw massive street demonstrations, boycotts, and
election of representatives who passed pro-worker legislation which ultimately
humanized the workplace - somewhat.
Jesus and the labor
activists had something in common: They challenged the prevailing domination
system. In Jesus’s day, that was Herod and the Roman empire working together to
oppress the Jewish people, just like
government and business owners joining forces to oppress workers.
The history of labor
and management relationships has traditionally been one of confrontation
– us versus them, each side thinks of the
other as evil. Both sides think that they’re better off having an adversarial
relationship to achieve their goals.
But that’s not the way of
Jesus. What if workplaces were not all about adversarial relationships? What
about a company where there is mutual respect between management and employees? Isn’t that more in line
with what we as Christians expect from the Kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven is, among other things,
a place where the Beatitudes become a reality: where peace, mercy and justice take
the place of confrontation, cruelty, and what’s in it for
me.
What if work places
were truly based on Gospel values? A place where reconciliation replaces
conflict, where management and labor do
not look at each other as enemies, and where no one retaliated against each
other – for anything?
I’m a business owner –
I’ve owned my own law firm – and before that I owned an insurance adjusting and
investigation company – in total, I’ve been an employer for the last 28 plus years. But I never earned a degree in management.
It’s all been school of hard knocks and baptism by fire. If there’s one thing
I’ve learned is that I don’t want us versus them in my operation. That kind of thinking is what’s called
dualistic, the world of: good-bad, black-white, either-or, win-lose. Dualistic
thinking has no place in the work world. What I’ve done is NOT conformed to the
ways of this world when it comes to employee relations. I’m a non-conformist by
nature, so I don’t do things the way other employers do. I do it my way. My way is to listen to be open to God rather
than imitate what’s going on around me. I want, and I have, a workplace where
win-win, and both-and is the rule. My employees are as important as I am to the
company. I need them and they need me. If
I were a sole practitioner with no employees, I could never get my work done.
But I’m not the only
employer like that. In New England, where I grew up, there’s a grocery store
called Market Basket that’s been in the news lately. It’s a privately owned,
family operation with many stores and a substantial cash flow. The secret to
their success has been to treat their employees well and involve them in the
decision-making process. They don’t have a union because of the good
relations between management and workers.
At one time the company
was co-owned by two cousins, Arthur S and Arthur T. Demoulas. Arthus S. got mad
at Arthur T. for being kind to the
employees. Arthur T. was the CEO and Arthur S. the Chairman. Arthur
S sued Arthur T and won control of the company in court. But he really didn’t
win.
Arthur S, who wanted to
make more money, fired Arthur T. and made changes so that the company was more
oriented towards management than the employees, run in a more conservative way,
more like other companies.
The employees got mad
and went on strike. The public boycotted the stores in sympathy with the
employees. The company started tanking. Finally, Arthur S, fearing the total loss of his
investment, sold out to Arthur T. who reassumed control of the company. The
result? The employees returned to work, and the customers returned to the cash
register.The way I see it, management and labor both win when they play
together as a team, and nowhere was that point better illustrated than the
events at Market Basket.
The prevailing
psychology in many workplaces is to think of managers as parents and employees
as children. That’s wrong. I don’t conform to that.
At my office, I listen to God instead of to this world. I start with the idea we’re
all adults. I treat my people as adults and I expect adult behavior in return,
and for the most part, I get it. I respect that each person has value, not
based on their place in a hierarchy, but based on what the individual is as a
person. It’s like First Corinthians 12, where we read
about people having different gifts to build up the Body of Christ – prophecy,
healing, wisdom, ecstatic utterances, and many others. In other words, we all bring something to
the table and because of that, we’re all entitled to mutual respect.
Mutual respect is a
tall order challenge for many people. Most
folks are so wrapped up in “what I want for me”. The prevailing expectation is
either owners sacrifice for labor, or labor sacrifices for management. In other
words, the old win-lose nonsense. How do we get around that?
I did a bit of word
study. I focused on the phrase,
“spiritual worship” What stimulated my thought is that it sounded different
than what I heard growing up from King James Version, which translates the same
Greek work, “Logikos” as “reasonable” and “Latreia” as service.” In other
words, “reasonable service” rather than “spiritual worship” as in the New
American Bible and the New Revised Standard Version.[i] On this particular phrase, I personally think
the good old King James Version is a better translation to get the message
across.
The beginning of
today’s Epistle invites us to ask, “what’s reasonable? Not dualistic
thinking! Dualistic thinking is, by nature, not reasonable
thinking….it’s narrow-minded thinking…as it cuts off myriads of creative ways
to solve problems. The key to improving relationships between management and labor
is all about sacrificing the dualistic thinking of win-lose and instead think
to win-win, recognizing that the goals of management and labor are equally
important.
“That’s the way we’ve
always done it” thinking is not what will get you there. What will, is
conforming yourself to the will of God rather than the ways of this world.
So at your workplace, have
courage. Be creative. Paint a new picture. Compose a new song. Write a new book.
And think about a new paradigm that looks something like the Gospel. Always
remember, your real boss is none other than Jesus. AMEN
[i]
[Logikos=reasonable (3050), according to Strongs
Concordance, and it’s translated that way in the King James Verson
Latreia=service, as
in worship (2999)
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