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The
following manuscript is from a reflection given by David W.
Miller on May 26, 2000 at The Avodah Institute's event, Faith
in the Workplace: A Consultation for Leaders, held on
the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary. Some thirty
corporate CEOs and Chairmen, representing a broad range of
leaders from both "old economy" and "new economy"
businesses, attended the event.
If
you did not notice this is Reunion Weekend at Princeton. You
will be surrounded by thousands of grown men and women wearing
all imaginable shades and variations of orange and black (clothes,
face paint, hats umbrellas - you name it). Orange and black
are the school colors of Princeton University, the colors
of the tiger, Princeton's mascot. I'm not sure about your
own alma mata, but reunion weekend at Princeton, is well,
rather special, and not just a little bit silly at times.
Princeton prides itself on having generated some of the nation's
finest corporate, civil, social and religious leaders of our
times. But this weekend, instead of dispersal into the world,
is all about coming home, a gathering, about reunion.
Outside
of Princeton, this is also the beginning of Memorial Day weekend.
Contrary to popular belief, Memorial Day weekend does not
have it roots in hot dogs and hamburgers or in picnics and
potato chips, but in wars and wounds, and in daring and death,
in bravery and bombs. Memorial Day was first officially celebrated
in 1882, to remember the loss of life and to heal the pain
of the Civil War; it was to help re-unite the Union. We have
a reunion with those memories, too, and are enriched by them.
Moving
closer to home, over this Memorial Day Weekend, some of you
no doubt will be having family reunions of a sort, picnics,
barbecues, and other such events over the next three days.
We reunite with families and realize from our grandparents,
aunts, and uncles that we have roots, a history, a family
story, and that we now - as we get older - are the bearers
of that story for the generations to come.
Whether,
classmates, country, or clan, at a reunion we re-unite. A
reunion is "the act of reuniting"; it is "the
gathering of members of a group who have been separated."
We tell old stories, news of children and careers, deaths
and divorces, promotions and pains. We celebrate memories
of old, catch up on current happenings, and dream of events
still to come. At reunions we reunite, somehow leaving stronger,
more whole than when we came.
These
24 hours together at our Faith in the Workplace: Consultation
for Leaders is also a reunion of sorts. How can that be,
you might ask? Most of us are not linked by college, kinship,
or corporation. Indeed, this is not a reunion in the traditional
sense. But if re-union is understood as the bringing back
together, the re-joining or the gathering of something that
has come apart but that belongs together, I do see this Consultation
as a reunion in several senses of the term.
I
see this Consultation as a reunion in that we are trying
to bring back together things that have been divided and separated.
Separated, not necessarily by walls (like the former East
and West Germany), or by distance (like families without a
home town), or by laws (that divide instead of unite), but
by the forces of and responses to our modern times. This is
not the time or place to debate the merits and problems of
secularization and pluralism. But suffice it to say that most
of us here understand that work and faith have come to be
separated. Surveys consistently show that most people of faith
find a huge chasm between their weekend worship experience
and their weekday work environment. To survive, many compartmentalize
work and faith, which sometimes results in disjointed, even
schizophrenic lives. Even worse, some of us have given up
on God or work altogether; deeming the one irrelevant and
the other irredeemable.
Yet
these same surveys, books, and articles also say that there
is a greater hunger than ever among business and professional
people to find meaning in their work, to discover significance
in their success, and to live more spiritual lives. Many find
it difficult to align action with beliefs because of a perceived
tension between marketplace pressures and faith principles.
Many business, educational, and religious institutions are
unsure how to respond. People are searching for frameworks
for ethical guidance and spiritual nurture in the workplace.
It
is precisely this work-worship gap, this compartmentalization,
this "dis-union" of faith and work, that we at The
Avodah Institute are trying to re-integrate, to re-unite,
to bring together again. By virtue of your choice to come
here, you leaders have signaled your desire to investigate
the concepts of work and worship, and their
re-union. Indeed, as you all know by now, we chose the Hebrew
word "avodah" for our institute precisely because
it signals the intertwined relationship between work and worship.
However,
just as in family reunions, we must remember that this quest
to re-unite work and faith, this "avodah," can also
be problematic and a source of tension. Reunions are not always
blissful or pain-free. Reunions can stir up forgotten pain,
things change, time moves on, differences become more pronounced
than similarities. For instance, last summer I attended my
20th college reunion, and was asked to preach on Sunday morning
at an interfaith worship service. Some of my old fraternity
buddies looked at me with a degree of suspicion, misunderstanding,
even trepidation, as they wondered whether my call to study
theology would be a barrier to our relationship, our reunion.
They were relieved to learn that I still spoke their language:
I still read the Wall Street Journal, yes, I still let the
occasional unholy utterance slip from my lips on the tennis
court, and I even might just have the occasional beer.
Another
source of "re-union" tension can be a misguided
theology or spirituality, such as the simplistic sloganeering
and naive religious claims of the so-called "prosperity
Gospel," or the vacuous self-absorption of New Age Cafeteria
spirituality, or Religion-Lite. In addition, there is often
an inherent tension and resulting imbalance between work and
worship. Many of us slip into periods of our life where we
worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship...
Don't get me wrong, hard work and intense periods of dedication
are often necessary for business survival and commercial success.
But just as often, we are sacrificing at the wrong altar.
Work without worship, work without a balancing tether, work
without roots, work without a purpose, work without a greater
meaning, can become - as the Bible would say - an idol; a
false god. The Israelites understood, and the Christian tradition
fully agrees, that it is easy to get work and worship out
of alignment, to get separated from our roots.
Towards
this end, it was suggested yesterday by Max Stackhouse that
being aware of our roots matters; both our corporate and theological
roots. Looking backwards to see the roots and connections
can help us move forwards, and have a reunion, an integration,
an avodah.
To
assist us, in this goal of re-union, I would be remiss at
a place like PTS if I did not read to you a handful of insights
from the Bible. First, let's look at the Hebrew Scriptures,
or the Old Testament, and listen for the word avodah,
and how it unites the ideas of work, labor, craftsmanship,
and production with the ideas of worship, service, and ministry:
- Gen.
2:15 - "The LORD God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
- Gen.
29 - Jacob working for Laban to win his wives Leah
and Rachel
- Exodus
34:21 - Moses renewing the covenant with God says, "Six
days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall
rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall
rest."
- Numbers
8:11 - The Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron about how the
Levites, the priestly class, will do the service
of the Lord.
- Exodus
3:12 - And God said, "I will be with you. And this
will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you:
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will
worship God on this mountain."
- Exodus
8:1 - Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and
say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go,
so that they may worship me.
- Deuteronomy
10:12 - Moses tells his people what the essence of the Law
is: "So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God
require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk
in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul…"
- 1
Chronicles 28:21 - King David talking to his son, Solomon,
saying, "The divisions of the priests and Levites are
ready for all the work on the temple of God, and
every willing man skilled in any craft will help
you in all the work. The officials and all the people
will obey your every command."
- Psalm
104:23 - in a psalm about God as Creator and Provider, "Then
man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.
- Joshua
24:15 - Joshua asks all the tribes to renew the covenant,
saying, "Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord,
choose this day whom you will serve, whether the
gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the
River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are
living; but as for me and my household, we will serve
the Lord."
What
a powerful image to think that that the word for working in
the fields is the same that was used for worshipping the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Israelites understood that
work could be a way to honor God and neighbor, to serve God
and neighbor, yes to worship God and serve neighbor.
This
suggests that the life of a CEO for a dot.com company or the
chairman of a nationwide retail store can be a form of worship…
Law and investment banking can be a form of service. Being
in the food and beverage industry can be a form of ministry.
Is it always easy? Absolutely not! But is it worth it? You
bet. It better be; I've bet my whole life on it!
Returning
to the Bible, to the New Testament this time, we see that
Jesus and his followers expanded the notion of the union of
work and worship. We often forget that Jesus was well aware
of and interested in the economic sphere. For instance, we
know that Jesus worked as a craftsman for several years before
he began to teach and preach as the Son of God. Indeed, Jesus
located over half of his parables in the marketplace, not
the temple… and, did you ever notice that who Jesus hired
for his senior management team? He did select a single priest
or minister… all of his first disciples were members
of a business men and women; members of a professional guild
or small business owners! … I sometimes wonder if the
Bible couldn't double as a great MBA textbook! Cover-to-cover
it offers ethical guidance and marketplace teachings amid
a colorful array of real-world case studies filled with white
collar crime, bribery, profit pressures, sexual harassment,
and niche marketing!
So,
my friends, as we move into the rest of our Consultation on
the linkage between values, culture, and performance, let
us remember that we are celebrating a reunion here. While
this re-union is not without its tensions and hard decisions,
like family reunions, we come away stronger, better equipped,
and refreshed to meet the challenges and opportunities in
our capacity as business leaders. This reunion reminds us
to draw on our roots, our profoundly moral roots, our roots
of work and worship, of labor and service, of toil and ministry,
of avodah, in service to God and neighbor.
by
David W. Miller
May 26, 2000
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