BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS…BUSINESS

MONDAY AFTER FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Research shows that only 30% of family businesses survive the second generation, and only 12% the third.* Why do I bring that up? I will get to that in a minute.

First, today the reading for Mark’s Gospel is from chapter 2, verses 18-28. Verses 23-28 focuses on people asking Jesus why his disciples pick grain on the Sabbath; verses 18-22 on why they do not fast when apparently it is a day to fast. It is this fasting situation that Bishop Wright concentrates on. He makes some powerful points and again has a wonderful analogy to help us understand. A day of fasting in the Jewish culture signifies a big important day. Some of us grew up with a different tradition of fasting that deserves a separate blog. In Jesus’ day you fasted when the nation mourned, remembering a solemn event. Bishop Wright’s analogy is America’s 9/11. He had just returned from a very solemn 9/11 commemoration. Imagine if, in the middle of this solemn remembrance, clowns and a parade appeared with people laughing and playing. I expect we would take great offense. In this era of social media, I further expect it all might go viral.

That is the scene in Mark 2:18-22. Please do not misunderstand. There is no inkling that Jesus and his disciples were clowning around and being disrespectful…but they were not observing the fast. Why? Because something so new, so wonderful, is breaking into the world, that while it does not erase 9/11, it points to a future of hope and peace. All the suffering, all the loss, and all the mourning will come to an end…there will be no more 9/11’s. That is what Jesus’ coming to this world inaugurates. And Jesus is not critiquing the Jewish people or the Law. He is simply saying that all that they have been pointing to in hopeful expectation is beginning at last…so catch the vision.

Vision…the first generation of family businesses possess it. It resides in the owner/entrepreneur. He/she is driven to bring into being that which they dream. When they succeed not only is a vision advanced, but it is done so with values; the result is often a culture. The succeeding generations, when they succeed, catch some piece of the vision, values, and culture. Sometimes they just ride on earlier success, but when they spend the time to learn the history, when they spend the energy to understand all that their predecessors endured to bring to life that which did not exist before, when indeed their hearts are converted that in their own day the business, the endeavor, is worth a similar expenditure of the blood, sweat, and tears that their forbearers expended…when that happens…the enterprise lives.

Christianity is no different. One of my priests, and a good friend, says that Christianity is always just one generation away from extinction. In this phrase he is communicating the same idea. That we need to catch the vision. That we need to understand that Jesus coming to earth is so “earth-shaking” that a new world order is emerging. The challenge of course is that we live in a world where “God’s Kingdom has been inaugurated, but has not yet reached it fullness.” That means we still live in a world where the 9/11’s of our day continue. It means that we should not expect to ride along on Jesus’ success. Yes there is power in the Resurrection. It is the Resurrection, Ascension, and the Holy Spirit that has brought this enterprise we call “church” into existence, and also sustains it...but we cannot ride along on the coattails. We must spend the time to learn the history. We must spend the energy to understand all that Jesus endured to bring to life that which did not exist before—His Body on earth. We must go deeply into God’s love of humanity. Can we fathom our worth to God, worth so much that the blood, sweat, tears, and death that Jesus endured is more, much more, then metaphor…when we do this we do not merely catch the vision, but we enter and become intrinsically connected deeply to the Body...and the enterprise, the Body, lives. Lent is the season given to us for such a time.

*http://www.jsaadvising.com/facts-figures-2 accessed February 23, 2015