Rarely do I compare biblical passages with television, let
alone reality TV. But in preparing this week's Century lectionary column, somehow I started thinking about the
show Undercover Boss, in which a
high-level executive joins his or her own company's working ranks incognito. I
couldn't let it go.
A few weeks before I was ordained, a gunman entered a
Benedictine monastery just north of Kansas City. The man parked his car in the
parking lot, walked into the monastery and opened fire. He shot and killed two
monks and wounded two others; then he marched into the chapel and shot himself
in the head.