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Last updated on
Sept. 30, 2002
Wondering About Work
Delivered September 1, 2002
by Pastor Werner De Jong
Text: Genesis 1:26-2:3, 2:15
Main Idea: Work is a calling and blessing from God, designed to give meaning to our lives, to enable us to serve others, and ultimately to bring glory to God.
Purpose: To encourage the listeners that God has blessed them by calling them to work so they may be able to live meaningful lives by serving others and glorifying God. To challenge the listeners to give of their best when they work, whatever the work may be, for ultimately when we work we serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction: Tomorrow is Labour Day, a holiday which is observed across the country in recognition of workers. It provides a natural opportunity for us to reflect on the nature of work. Work occupies a very significant place in our lives–most of us spend the majority of our waking hours doing work of some sort or another, whether in or out of the home. Therefore it is crucial that we know how to think about work from a Christian perspective. There is nothing that we spend more of our lives doing, other than perhaps sleeping! How then should we view work?
Before we look at what the Bible has to teach about work, let me ask a few questions: How do you view your work? What do you think about work? Why do you work? Do you place any religious value on your work? Or is it largely a distraction, something that seems irrelevant to your faith journey?
Canadians have many different attitudes regarding work. For some people work is a drudgery to be avoided at all costs. These people find no redeeming virtues in work, and try to spend all of their time in leisure and recreation. For other people work is a necessary nuisance. It must be done in order to survive, or to make money, but in their minds life is really only lived after working hours, especially on the weekends. A large number of people fall in this category, people who live for leisure time. Even some Christians would locate themselves here, for they view work more or less as a curse, as a necessary hardship, as a consequence of "the fall," of Adam and Eve's disobedience in the garden. Still other people have no particular understanding of work. They have really never stopped to think about it. They may not consider work to be a nuisance, they may not try to avoid it, but it is just something everyone does, it is something everyone has to do, so, "just do it!"
The Biblical View: Work is a calling and blessing from God: None of these sentiments seem adequate from a Christian point of view. Did God really intend that we spend most of our lives simply grinding through the hours of each day? Did God create us to be no more than non-thinking labourers, people who don't make any meaningful connection between their work and the rest of their lives, not to mention their faith? Perhaps the best way to answer questions like that is to go back to the account of the beginning, back to the creation story in Genesis, to see if we can discern what if any purpose God had in creating people with the ability to do work.
1. God is a worker: The first thing which becomes immediately apparent, if we funnel the first two chapters of Genesis through a work filter, is that God is himself a worker. Stage by stage we see God's creative work unfold, beginning with the genesis of light and darkness and climaxing with the creation of humankind. Then we read in Genesis 2:2, "And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done." So the Scriptures declare God to be the very first worker.
If we consider the New Testament, we once again see God portrayed as a worker. We see Jesus as a manual labourer, working behind a carpenter's bench. Doesn't this also suggest how highly God values work? Does this not give dignity and a divine stamp of approval to the work of our own hands? Furthermore, after Jesus changed careers and became an itinerant preacher, he described his ministry as work, saying to those who accused him of breaking the law by healing a blind man on the Sabbath,"My Father is still working, and I also am working" (John 5:17). There are so many more references we could point to, but this retort and the other two examples we examined are surely enough to demonstrate our premise that God works, that the Bible portrays God as a worker.
2. As people made in God's image, we are created to work: That fact has immediate implications for us as God's people. For we read in Genesis that we are created in God's image. Much has been said about what this means, but Waldemar Janzen, (the same Waldemar who was with us a few years ago) is surely correct when he points out that to be made in God's image is to be created a worker. In his booklet "Work and Rest in Biblical Perspective" he draws attention to the text which immediately follows the statement of being made in God's image. It reads like this: "God blessed them (those whom he had made in his image) and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (1:28). In other words, to those made in his image God gives the mandate to work, to administer creation for him. Being made in God's image may mean more than this, but not less.
As a point of interest notice how, in contrast to modern times, out text makes no distinction between domestic work and work done outside of the home. Both are considered work, both are part of what it means to be made in God's image, whether the work of homemaking and parenting, which is referred to as "being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth," or whether it is tending God's creation and working the land, which is referred to as "subduing" the earth. So from the beginning, all of God's people are expected to share in God's work. From the beginning, God has entrusted his creation to us. From the beginning, we were created workers. The garden was not intended as a place to loaf around. Genesis 2:15 puts it like this, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." God gave us the responsibility to care for his creation with the same love and concern for it which he modelled when he created it carefully and called it "very good" (see Janzen, p. 5).
In light of some Christians' misunderstanding of work, it is necessary to point out that this work was given to humanity before "the fall" ever occurred. It was given to us as a blessing and a privilege. It was given to us so we could participate in the activity of God. While everything in the garden was still pure and pristine, before the first bite was ever taken out of the fateful apple, the first couple were already happily at work. Certainly as a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience the original blessing of work was diminished, when God announced that a burden would be added to their characteristic work activities, but nonetheless the ability to raise a family and work the land are still considered blessings all throughout the Scriptures.
Towards a Christian Understanding of Work: To summarize our thinking so far about work, we've begun by affirming that we were created, at least in part, as workers, crafted in the image of the master worker, God himself. In light of this understanding, how are we to understand work itself? If nothing else, this should tell us that work is good, and not bad. In addition we can say that work is part of God's plan for us, and not an evil consequence of humanity's rebellion against God. But what can we say beyond this? What can we say beyond this about the meaning and purpose of work? Yes, we are workers, but to what end? What purposes did God have in mind when he created us with the ability and the mandate to work?
1. God gives us work to bring meaning and satisfaction to our lives: We can derive our first answer to that question by asking another one: "Why would God want to work? God doesn't need to earn a living. God doesn't need to work to survive. Why would God want to work?" While I don't presume ever to be able to give a full answer to questions like that on behalf of God, at least one answer is suggested in our text. After God finished the work of creation, and looked over all that he had made, he delighted in it and pronounced it "very good" (1:31). Surely we can say from this that God enjoyed perfect job satisfaction. And surely this tells us something about why God gives us work. It is a gift to us, work is a gift meant to provide a context of meaning for our lives. Who among us has not experienced the same thrill of looking back over something that we have done and deriving satisfaction from it? Why do those feelings arise? Consider them a gift from God, they are a result of our being created in the image of God. We were designed to derive satisfaction from work, it is built into the very fabric of our beings. Finding meaning in work is a wonderful gift from a thoughtful Creator, who wants us to experience fulfilment in life, not frustration. Dare we even suggest, as Dorothy Sayers has, that "work is not primarily a thing one does to live, but a thing one lives to do?" (see "Work and Unemployment" in Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today by John Stott).
Perhaps we can, but at the same time we need to add a word of caution. Waldemar Janzen warns that work can become idolatry, that we can become so obsessed with it that we are no longer able to find meaning in life apart from work. Many people today are workaholics, and consequently devote little attention to relationships with family, friends and God. Their entire identity is wrapped up in what they do, rather than who they are as people created by God. God doesn't want this to happen, which is why God instituted the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a command that set limits on the idolatrous tendency of human work to try and manage human life on one's own apart from God. But the Sabbath is also a gift to us, a gift perhaps even greater than the gift of work, it is a wonderful provision from God whereby we can take one day a week and simply rest and enjoy God and one another. God deliberately set the example for us when he himself rested on the seventh day, in effect saying to us, "Go ahead and take a break. I did." In the words of Walter Brueggemann, the Sabbath "is an assertion that life does not depend upon our feverish activity of self-securing, but that there can be a pause in which life is given to us simply as a gift" (Genesis, Interpretation Bible Commentary).
Along another line we should perhaps also say that, while God wants us to find satisfaction in work, doing so is much more difficult in some places and in particular lines of work. There are some occupations, like coal mining, which are dirty, dangerous and uncomfortable. Then there is the tedium of working on the factory assembly line. Knowing that God wants work to be meaningful do we not as the church have an obligation to support every attempt to "enrich" or "humanize" the working conditions of others? John Stott points out that improvements are possible even on the factory assembly line. He uses the car manufacturer Volvo as an illustration. Since 1974 every new manufacturing plant built by Volvo operates without a conveyor built, for the benefit of the working conditions of the employees. Rather than monotonously rivetting in the same piece of sheet metal hour after hour, year after year, which numbs the mind and depresses the spirit, Volvo has now adopted a teamwork concept, where teams work on stationary cars so that a sense of craftsmanship is nurtured. Efforts like this the church should support and applaud–it is a very practical outworking of our theological position that God wants our work to bring satisfaction and meaning to our lives.
2. God wants us to work in order that we may serve others: To develop a full Christian perspective on work, we must now move beyond the question "What does my work bring for me?" If work is only about our personal fulfilment, and nothing else, it again becomes idolatry. From a Christian perspective we also need to ask the question, "What does my work bring for others?" For surely a second purpose God had in mind in creating us as workers is that we work in order to help others and build up the community. In the Garden of Eden we can imagine that Adam did not only farm the land for his own benefit and enjoyment, but to feed and clothe his family. In the NT we learn the same lesson from an intriguing instruction which Paul directed towards converted thieves. In addressing the saints in his letter to Ephesus, Paul writes: "Thieves must give up stealing; rather, let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy." That is a remarkable commentary on Paul's view of work. You should work, he says to the thieves, in order that you may share with others. I am sure he would say the same thing to all of us. If you have strength and the ability to work, then do it, so you can help others. In many other places as well the Bible regards work as a community project, undertaken by the community for the community. God created us as workers for the mutual benefit of one another. To some degree, therefore, all work needs to be seen as public service.
Regarding our work, it is good at times to reflect on it and ask questions like these: What does my work bring for others? Is someone else's life better because of what I do? In most legitimate occupations, we can answer that question positively, and it is good to look for those connections. The knowledge that our work is beneficial to others will add considerably to our sense of job satisfaction. John Stott tells the story of a garbage collector who used to work as a clerk, a coalminer, a window cleaner, a tool-setter and a decorator (p. 168). The man told Stott that of all his positions, he found garbage collection the most meaningful. Why? Because he found it most beneficial to the public, for collecting garbage is vital to public health and safety. All we need do to prove that point is to think back to medieval Europe when refuse used to be thrown in the streets and left to rot, and of all the diseases and plagues which subsequently broke out. Today we sadly consider garbage collection to be among the lowest of jobs, but in terms of public service it is one of the most important. So next time you see your garbage collector, consider thanking him or her for their vital public service. It will go a long way in helping them find satisfaction in their work.
3. We work to serve and bring glory to God: Before we conclude there is a third purpose of work which we must examine, for it is the highest purpose of all. As Christians we believe that our ultimate purpose on earth is to glorify God. The well-known first question of the Westminster Catechism asks: What is the purpose of man? In other words, why did God create human beings? And the answer: To glorify God and enjoy him forever. One of the most significant ways we glorify God is through our work
We honour and glorify God through our work when we further his purposes for humanity and all creation. For some reason God in his wisdom has deliberately chosen to cooperate with us in establishing his kingdom, he has arranged life in such a way that he depends upon our cooperation for the fulfilment of his purposes. We bring glory to God when we cooperate with him, when we see that our life's greatest purpose is to help build his kingdom.
You've probably all heard of Stradivari, who lived some time ago and made violins that are now the most famous in the world, the "Stradivarius." The following are his words as interpreted by George Eliot: "When any master holds ‘twixt chin and hand a violin of mine, he will be glad that Stradivari lived, made violins, and made them of the best...For while God gives them skill I give them instruments to play upon, God choosing me to help him....If my hand slacked I should rob God–since he is fullest good–leaving a blank instead of violins....he could not make Antonio Stradivaris's violins without Antonio" (A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, p. 263). Stradivari had a healthy grasp on the concept that when we cooperate with God in our work we bring glory to him. His words are not prideful, they are faithful, for he was faithful in doing the work God gifted him to do, and in so doing glorified God.
Any legitimate work, if offered up to God in a spirit of worship and thanksgiving, can be used as a means of cooperating with God to build his kingdom. In some cases it is easy to see the connection: the farmer sows the field, God sends the sun and the rain, and together they help to feed others, which certainly is honourable and brings glory to God. In other cases the connection is not so obvious and we need a little sanctified imagination in order to grasp it. For example, the story is told about a man walking down a country lane who came across a stone quarry. A number of men were working in it, and the man asked them what they were doing. The first responded irritably, "Open your eyes, man, can't you see, I'm cutting stone." The second man responded rather resignedly without looking up, "I'm earning $500 a week." But when the same question was asked to the third man, he stopped and put his pick down, then drew himself up to full stature, and answered with dignity, "If you want to know what I'm doing, I'm building a cathedral" Ultimately it is a matter of how far we can see. The first man couldn't see past his pick, the second couldn't see past his paycheck, but the third man was cooperating with the architect. However small his particular contribution, he was helping to construct a building for the worship of God (Adapted from Stott, p. 172). Ultimately we can make the profound statement that our work is worship, provided we can see how our job contributes, in however small and indirect a way, to the fulfilment of God's purposes for humanity, and provided we offer it up as a sacrifice to him. You may want to take some time tomorrow, on Labour Day, to reflect on how your work contributes to the growth of the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion: It is time now to conclude. As we do so let us go into the new work week remembering that our work is a calling and a blessing from God, who created us in his image to be workers. Through our work we are privileged to cooperate with Jesus in building his kingdom, through our work we are granted the opportunity to serve others, therefore through our work we can know God's gift to us of finding satisfaction and meaning in life. So let us offer our work to God with enthusiasm and thanksgiving. Whatever our task may be, let us give it our best, for by so doing we honour God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, and bring glory to the greatest worker of all. Amen.