The Dilemma

"Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's".
Jesus - Matthew 22:21.

Sometimes, life presents us with particularly tough moments.

Perhaps you're old enough to recall that moment in the movie Splash, where fruit distributing Freddie Bauer, played by the late John Candy, informs his packers that they're being far too picky about the fruit they are rejecting, as he pours the entire tray of disqualified items back onto the 'to be packed' conveyer.

A lovable rouge in a Disney movie (though I seem to recall Disney retracting its name at the time because there was - shock - a moment of mermaid nudity... those were such innocent days!) is one thing, but what do you do when that 'profit first' approach to commerce lands right before you in your own sphere of life and work?

I've currently been facing that very dilemma in a realm of employment I have served in for most of my working life. Until now, it's a role which has always entailed a great deal of integrity and has thereby engendered loyalty, but new legislation has meant a shift this year to require private companies becoming included to "rigorously manage" these contracts, and the business that has taken this role in our department's case has behaved, numerous times, in a manner that leaves me cold. To reference another movie, their behavior has often been akin to the car manufacturers in Class Action - they have preferred to pay out vast sums in fines in various court cases whilst they have neglected to prevent life-threatening actions to the public in their industry (note - this is not a single event, and I discovered recently that this manner of negligence is still practiced and under investigation).

What's even more dreadful is - this is the company our department has employed to monitor and ensure good standards are being maintained!

It's a truly unsettling moment - a new "Pharaoh' has arrived, and although my connection to this "office" will not in any way impact directly upon me in my day to day role for the department I work for - I hope! - it has raised a number of troubling ethical concerns that I certainly needed to think through further and address.

Such moments are all about gaining clarity - discovering how to properly respond to such issues.

Well, the process of finding that clarity has taken a while.

There's links a plenty on search engines for a 'Christian' work ethic (that is, sites which state Christians should work), but far fewer that examine actual Christian ethics in the workplace, and fewer still that are dealing with issues like this, that can be so very troubling. 

As is often the case in my life, I needed rescue, and as has often been the case the past few years, part of the answer arrived through Mockingbird's great website...
A quote from Augustine popped up there in their weekly review, which, I think, gives some meaningful context to these issues -

"The effects of original sin bear on society as much as they do on the individual. In his pastoral (vocational) role, Augustine once wrote to a believer who served as a Roman General that “we ought not to want to live ahead of time with only the saints and the righteous.” That sort of purity is a dangerous mirage. The church is an ark for sinners all. In its earthly sojourn, it is a mixed body: the church is in the world and the world is in the church. There is no escaping the age in which one lives, or its imperfections" (as quoted by James Smith in Awaiting the King). 

This quickly brought to mind Luther's very useful teaching on the two kingdoms, and particularly, how he employed this in his own life. He's supposed to have said that if he knew Christ was returning today, he would go and plant a tree, but the practical reality of how he  expressed this attitude in his own life is actually far more telling.

The changes that were unfolding in those days as a result of what he and others had begun were monumental, and this had charged the times with a sense that something even more astonishing - the end of the ages - could not be far away. It's hard for us in our secular age to understand just how palpable this sense was, but Luther's response is very telling... he marries! Right in the middle of all manner of other-worldly behavior and fervor, he does the most down to earth thing you can imagine. The response was total shock, but Luther knew it made perfect sense. His understanding that everything was Gods and therefore all of life was spiritual allowed him to say in his own life that we understand that God is for us and wants us to live well. He trusted God and put his soul back into the business of living.

Another example came to mind as I was reminded of this - Jeremiah's purchasing of land that was about to be conquered (see jeremiah 32). Naturally, it made no sense to do this, but it was making a clear statement which shows how sure and certain the promise of God - that the land would be restored - was to His people.

God often calls us to hard choices amidst harder times, and His reason is plain. What is happening around us is falling,  and shall not last, but amongst that decay, we can help express confidence in things which are far more substantial.

It's common practice, sadly, in our times, for us to see all manner of commerce and exchange that is unethical and thereby evil in the fashion it behaves, especially in its treatment of people, and we must certainly never seek to behave so, but our cause and course must be to trust in the one who renews what has been so stripped and abused.

Easter is there to focus up upon God's astonishing work of reconciliation.
He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be saved.

Whenever and wherever the sin of seeking to de-value what we are makes itself known, then God's children act... patiently and quietly, to re-affirm their confidence, not in the selfish behavior of wicked forces or men, but in the sure promises of God.