"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win favor for service when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart."  –James 6:5-6
 
     During lunch, Harvey holds court among the pallets in the warehouse. Surrounded by stockroom workers, truck drivers and assemblers, he entertains the group by skewering the latest management memo, or poking fun at a particular manager. He never fails to get a chuckle out of the group, and when he's incensed, can really unleash a torrent of abuse at an absentee victim, usually a manager. Loud and overbearing, no one remembers a time when another employee challenged Harvey’s diatribes.
 
     True, Harvey never tries to hurt a manager’s feelings intentionally, or to embarrass them in person. Nevertheless, it's obvious Harvey respects no one who “doesn't get their hands dirty”, and everybody knows it.
 
     Did we mention Harvey’s other role? The one on Sunday morning?

     Sunday School teacher.  
    
     Last week we cautioned those in positions of responsibility not to be guilty of favoritism in the workplace. The truth is, though, nearly all of us have our “favorites”, a group or class we think positively about while viewing those not in that group with a jaundiced eye. With our natural tendency to root for the underdog, we can work up a great deal of indignation when the well-to-do look down on the poor, but we just can’t imagine that it’s sinful for the poor to look down on the well-to-do; or for workers to look down on their boss.
 
     So we gather around the water cooler to criticize the department head, or sit around the lunchroom complaining about our managers, failing to see them as the objects of Christ’s command when he tells us to “love our neighbors as ourselves.”  Or perhaps we’re more subtle; instead of complaining we merely participate with our silence like the audience in Harvey’s Pallet Parade. Among those gathered in Harvey's noonday grilling sessions are other believers, endorsing Harvey’s harangues with their silence, branding their own kind of arrogance onto the culture of the workplace, and marking that silent arrogance as a trait of their faith.
 
     When James admonishes us not to play favorites, as in last week’s verses, the sin he disdains is one of judgment, valuing one person over another. In this week’s verses, we discover we are not allowed to think less highly of our managers--those in authority over us—regardless of our position or circumstances. In fact, James describes a rigid standard of earnest respect and fear (awe) which makes our beefing sessions spiritual disobedience.
 
      Search your hearts this week for traces of the biases and favoritism in your own work world, and seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit in rooting out that sin.
 
--Randy Kilgore
 
Next week: Reason to Hope: Brush Fires of Change