Theology of Work
29th September 2024
Duty Convenor Jason Fyfe
Duty Elder & Greeting Carolyn Goudswaard
Bell Ringer Kai Joeng
Greeting Elaine Pearse
Aisle Duty/Offering Rob Anderson, Marie Cross, Mary Gibbs
Host Heather Lane Allie Crombie
Morning tea Daphne Chua & David Tay
Sound Desk Kevin Joeng
Bible Reader Ginny Abernethy
Prayers for Others Paul Ramsay
Colossians 3:22-24
22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. 23Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, 24since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.
Ephesians 6:5-9
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; 6not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, 8knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.
9 And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.
WORK
We know the anxiety at the moment about job losses and the cost of living.
Lots of Government jobs being cut - pain, worry, uncertainty.
Others might feel “it’s just a job; just a way of earning a living”
How do we put our work into a bigger picture?
How do we understand the work we do as part of God’s goodness and purposes?
A theological description of work doesn’t divide our experiences - which means all kinds of work is valued, including those who are unpaid, those who are retired, those who are expecting to work in the future.
What counts as work? We've noted that Jesus's life included a majority of faithful, manual work, day in and day out, before he embarked on a period of dedicated ministry. For his followers, both aspects of Jesus's working are part of our working life, and both need to concern us: we're right to be interested in the goodness of putting bread on the table and the goodness of God's mission to redeem humanity.
When we try to think about good work, our contemporary Christian imagination struggles, swithering between ministry and "just a job." But this is an illusion, a variation on secularism's division of "religious" and "non-religious" spheres. The scope of what Christ has accomplished addresses all of work: all of our working is of interest to God, and we're called to devote all to him. (incl. parenting, art, community building)
Human beings love to divide things and play them off against one another. Work is often a means of differentiating between us: some work is called meaningful, some is not, and the workers are accorded status and meaning accordingly. But one of the notable impacts of the gospel on work historically has been a confidence that even the most menial task can be an occasion to glorify God, that the humblest labour has dignity before God. For the ancients, work was at bottom a servile matter. Those who ruled, who had prestige, or who were intellectuals, didn't work, but were understood to be men and women of leisure. While such divisions have cropped up throughout the centuries since (and still trouble us now) they were undermined in the early Church. The first Christians were not interested in work as a source of meaning and status. Every good employ was an occasion for God's glory, and no work was beneath his notice.
Both our readings are from Paul’s letters.
And in both, Paul uses an opening phrase “Slaves obey your earthly masters…”
SIDE-BAR: Wait… why didn’t Paul oppose slavery?
1. Slavery was very different then (wasn’t ethnic, wasn’t permanent – could buy/earn yourself out, slaves could even own other slaves)
2. Paul wasn’t able to challenge this massive social norm, he was addressing the question ‘What does the Gospel mean for how I live tomorrow?’
Although in a VERY different social and economic culture, this teaching offers us much about how to understand ‘work’.
Paul urges the Colossian church to work "not with eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord" (“22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. 23Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, 24since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:22).
Paul actually coins a new term here-"eye-service" —which literally means "to serve only when someone's eye is on you." Although he was addressing slaves (who more than most were tempted to only work hard when the boss was watching), I'm sure Paul knew that we all have a tendency to be motivated more by publicity than obscurity.
Seek survey reported this week…
New research from recruitment website Seek, which has surveyed employment happiness, has found six out of 10 New Zealanders were happy at work.
But among the Boomer generation, it was more like seven to eight out of 10.
Generation Z and Millennials were the least happy.
The top reasons people were happy at work were related to having a purpose, their day-to-day responsibilities, company culture, salary and stress levels.
Clark said workers in banking and finance were 80 percent happy, and accounting seven out of 10. But healthcare and medical workers and hospitality and tourism recorded the lowest levels of happiness, at five out of 10.
All work is a calling from God (Martin Luther)
Isn’t our work about service (to someone/s)?
“[We serve] one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph 5:21)
Most importantly, our work is serving God.
There is no division between ‘spiritual work’ and ‘non-spiritual work’.
Jesus was both a carpenter and a rabbi.
Work includes both having enough to live on, and joining in God’s purposes.
Tim Keller reflects on the story of Jesus calling the disciples. “Leave your nets and follow me” Does this mean we are all called to full-time mission work? It can’t mean that. So perhaps it means “I’ve got a fishing beyond fishing… I’ve got an art beyond art… I’ve got a business beyond business…
I want you to rest your heart in real purpose.
I want you to rest your heart in real beauty.
I want you to rest your heart in real wealth.
I want you to rest your heart in ME, and that will enable you (at the right times) to walk away from your nets. Catching fish is good, but there is more – and that’s where your heart belongs first and foremost. I’m your real boss, I’m your real manager, I’m your real master – don’t let anything or anyone else drive you, overtake you, own you.
This means all our work will be great, but we will never overdo our work.
Gospel…
Where do we see truly good work?
In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In him we see a new way of working that is from God, done through the power of God, and that is for God's redeeming purposes and glory.
Romans 11:36
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”
And so this, now, is the true condition of all good work: that it be from God, through God, and for God.
As it was with Jesus, so it is with us: to live and work in this way is to find yourself participating- in the whole of your life-in God's own good working, and to find yourself restored to our human purpose.
We serve Jesus…
Ephesians 5:21, 6:5-9
Slaves serve your masters…
Masters do the same (serve your slaves)
Because you are all serving Christ, out of joyful wonder for how he served you.
Here it is: Our understanding of work is transformed by the realisation that Jesus Christ served YOU by going to the Cross; he served you by dying.
When we ‘get’ that Jesus did this for us, we are ready to make him our ultimate master/boss.
This will avoid us making anything/anyone else our master…
In his book The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness, Tim Chester helpfully names some potential idols that can hide in our work practices:
• The need to prove ourselves;
• The need to meet everyone else's expectations;
• The need to be in control of everything;
• The need to feel under pressure and useful;
• The need to maintain a certain level of lifestyle; and
· The need to live a full and exciting life.
This list is not exhaustive, nor are the items in it inherently bad. It is the place they have in our hearts that matters. But if they are left unscrutinised and unchallenged, such needs can become a central concern, a dominating devotion, which in turn distorts our motivations at work. Christ saves us from these false or distorted ends. In trusting him, we are restored to our good role in creation, and freed to seek work's legitimate ends: providing for the needs of life; serving others and the rest of creation; and bringing glory to God.
We are protected by calling anyone else Master than Christ.
This will change the way you understand and experience work – those you work with: your boss, your colleagues, your staff.
Pause for reflection:
Why am I doing the sort of work or study that I am?
• Why do I work as much as I do?... or as little?
• Where now do I need to offer my work to God?
To speak, then, of work's redemption is to speak first and foremost about a decisive work of God in Jesus.
It's a work grounded in unbroken trust, one heaven-bent on blessing and bringing God's deliverance, and it is completed in free obedience to God's will.
“Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1Cor 15:58)
Insofar as our work is good - that is, insofar as it is rooted in God’s good purpose and offered to His glory - it is hopeful and purposeful here and now.
We are fellow-workers with Jesus…
The Spirit is present in our lives to enable, sustain, direct, and correct our working.
This why Paul describes us as synergoi, as "fellow-workers" of God (“we are God’s servants, working together (companions in work); you are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Cor 3:9).
This is no mere metaphor-Paul is naming the experience of the early Church. Like Jesus, they found God's Spirit at work in them, sustaining, directing, and enabling their endeavours. And we too are called to learn what this means where we are, with our particular roles and responsibilities: to be harnessed in tandem with Jesus, and to learn from a good master (“28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt. 11: 28-30).
Our work, aligned to the glory and purposes of God, reshapes the world.
Reshaping the world—what a glorious invitation!
As James K.A. Smith puts it, "for the most part, Spirit-empowered redemption [...] looks like our everyday work done well, out of love, in resonance with God's desire for his creation [...].
It looks like doing our homework, making the kids' lunches for school, building with quality and a craftsman's devotion, and crafting a municipal budget that discerns what really matters and contributes to the common good [...]. It's nothing short of trying to change the world, but it starts in our homes, our churches, our neighbourhoods and our schools."
During Israel's exile, the prophet Jeremiah sends a letter to all of those who were taken as captives to live in Babylon. In it we see God's encouragement to likewise contribute in large and small, seen and unseen, ways:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says [...]: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters [...] Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper" (Jer. 29:5-7).
We find ourselves in a situation that shares some of those same conditions of exile-living in a land that is not (yet) as God intended it to be.
But this encouragement remains: as we await the ultimate redemption of all things through the return of Christ, we seek the peace and prosperity of our cities and communities now.
It's with such good work in mind-and the challenges it entails—that we can reflect finally on Paul's words to the church at Colossae:
“We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light (Col. 1:9-12).
[ we can pray these words of Paul’s letter]
3. OUR FAITH PROVIDES HIGH ETHICS FOR CHRISTIANS IN THE WORKPLACE
Growing up in church, I always got the impression that work was a place where Christians were supposed to stand out-sometimes by awkward attempts to evangelise, but mainly by being kinder and more honest than everyone else. But that theory came unstuck once it dawned on us, as it has many times on me, that our colleagues from other faiths (or none at all) were often a lot kinder and more honest than we were! Losing that point-of-difference can be a recipe for much distress and discouragement, until a more robust theology of work reminds us that our efforts are sanctified because we offer them to God as part of our WORSHIP, not because we do them with purity or perfection. Having said that, our ethics do matter. While we would want to critique a Christian understanding of work that reduces our contribution down to simply behaving morally, we should also affirm that it should not be less than that. The ethical norms of the Christian life, grounded in the gospel of grace, should always lead believers to function with an extremely high level of integrity in their work. Grounded in the gospel of grace. Grounded in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and a way of living faithfully that he
both modelled and made possible - a life marked by genuine selflessness and forgiveness.
[forgiveness is] missing in much of the moral discourse we hear in workplaces today.
We can affirm the compulsory and ever-changing list of occupational, relational, and environmental standards to be adhered to, we also recognise that we can't secure our own salvation and freedom by living ethically—rather, we attempt to live ethically from a secure place of salvation and freedom.