Why We Work: Prov 24:30-34 Oct 1, 2006
Why We Work Proverbs 24:30-34 October 1, 2006
Do you remember making your first dollar?
I think I was 9 or 10 years old. I was helping our next door neighbor dig in his garden and move rocks… I was hot and sweating... 2 or 3 hours later… my neighbor Mr. Dirkich went into the house and came out and handed me $1.50 cents.
I didn’t walk back home that day, I floated… because I was so happy…
I immediately got on my bike went to the corner store and blew that entire $1.50 on candy…
When I was 10 years old (knowing I was technically underage), I got my first “job” as a paper delivery boy for Vancouver Sun, I learned how to toss a paper from my bike on the side, across the front year onto the door mat… hopefully without the Safeway flyer flying out en route…
And through a good part of my schools years, I worked… in the cafeteria serving meals, doing dishes or stocking cans of pet food…
I’m working now…. Though I really love what I do, one day I’ll likely technically retire, but I hope to never retire in the sense that I hope keep doing volunteer work till I die.
A good part of my life and yours will be spent working--either in a paid capacity or as volunteer, either “outside the home” or “inside the home.”
And if you think the Bible only addresses things like: “really spiritual” topics like piety, prayer or prophecy, think again… because the Bible addresses all kind of earthy subjects including work.
And this morning as we continue our series in the book of Proverbs that deal wisdom, competence in life, we’re going exploring part of what God’s word says about work.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Proverbs 24:30…
30 I went past the field of a sluggard,
past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I aw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
This past summer, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit some of the vineyards of Burgundy, France…
Whether you are in Burgundy, the Napa Valley, the Okanagan you’ll see that vineyards are carefully organized in rows… intentionally spaced and meticulously tended…
Vineyards don’t just happen by accident… they take great attention and care…
The author of these Proverbs points out that in this particular vineyard, the ground was covered with weeds and thorns, and that stone wall was in ruins…
This picture in this ancient near eastern context would have been particularly sad. For to own piece of land capable of growing crops in this time and place would have been considered a great gift, an opportunity of the lifetime…
Old Testament Professor Bruce Waltke commenting on this passage says that the image of the weeds and thorns growing and the stone wall crumbling suggests that there is a kind hostile force in the world that opposes our work.
There are external forces in a “fallen world” infected by sin that opposes work. There are also forces within us that also oppose work.
In Proverbs 6, the writers asks someone (who apparently is NOT clinically depressed), how long will lie there sluggard (AKA “Sluggo the slacker”)? The person is so lazy they won’t get out bed to begin their day…
In Proverbs 26:13 A sluggard says, "There's a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!" “Sluggo the slacker” has all kind of excuses for not starting the day and working….
Some people have all kind of excuses for not getting started on their work.
I with was someone who was talking how she needed to start do something in her life… she paused and said, but I don’t want to contradict my life “motto.” “Never do today, what you can tomorrow!”
We laughed about it. But, a lot of people actually live that way… they put things off…
The Proverbs in chapter 6:6-8 encourages us to avoid the way the “Sluggo the slacker” and learn from the industry of the ant. And over and over the Proverbs call us to be diligent…
By looking various throughout Scriptures, I want to explore how we can overcome the inner forces that oppose our work, by asking the question, why do we work?
There are many streams of thought that view work as a kind of necessary evil.
When people say I’m on the “Freedom 45 plan”? Or the “Freedom 55” plan… what do they mean? They mean they want to be free from work at 45 years of age or 55 as if work were some kind of slavery to be set free from.
The idea that work is a necessary evil goes way back…
In the ancient Mesopotamian myth of creation, the Enuma Elish… the gods make the earth… and then they realize, kind of like when you buy a house for the first time, “Hey this is going to require a lot of up-keep!”
So, the gods create human beings to do the necessary evil of caring for the earth!
But, in the very first pages of the Bible… we have a picture of a God who gets his hands dirty, working with the soil of the earth…forever ennobling “blue collar” work.
When God creates the earth… we see God working as a designer forever ennobling “white collar” work…
When God becomes a person in Jesus Christ, he becomes a carpenter forever ennobling blue collar work… later Jesus Christ becomes a teacher forever ennobling white collar work…
So, if you’re a “white collar” designer of the building or if you’re a blue collar tradesperson who builds the building, you reflect the character of God who works…
Part of the way we overcome the way of “Sluggo the slacker” is by understanding why we work and part of the reason we work is because our work reflects the character of the God who works.
Another way we can overcome the way of “Sluggo the slacker” is by understanding for whom we work.
When I was pursuing a graduate degree in the Boston area, I remember applying for a summer teaching job at one of the colleges in the Boston area.
As part of that process, I remember meeting with the grey haired academic dean of the college in his spacious office.
He began by saying, “I don’t think I will hire you…” You’re not an American, and the law states that we must offer this teaching position to a qualified American if one is available. Then, the dean said, but I wish I could hire you because from application, I can tell you’re a Christian.
I am not a Christian myself, I am not religious…
But at my yacht club, we hired this young man… to clean our floors… I remember how diligently he would work cleaning the floors… the tile were gleaming after he was done… We didn’t pay him very much, but he very worked hard and he never complained. I wanted to know why he worked so hard, he said because of my faith in God, I am Christian…
When I saw your application, I wanted hire you, because I sense as a Christian you work you work hard, you’d be conscientious…
But, I don’t think I can hire you… because you’re Canadian, but I did just want to meet you, because you’re a Christian…
I can’t remember the exact words I used, but I said something like this, “If you are a Christian, ideally you’re conscious of God in your work, so whether you’re scrubbing a floor, whether teaching a class you’re actually see yourself doing your work for God…”
It doesn’t mean you always do great, but it does mean you give your best…
Whether you’re scrubbing a floor, teaching a class, taking care of children, working construction, working in an office—if you’re a follower of Christ, you do that work unto God… Paul in Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it will with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for human masters.” And if you do it unto God it becomes a sacred…
This summer my wife and I saw the painting of the original painting of Millet’s Angelus…
In the famous painting… we see two peasants in the field praying. On the horizon we see a church steeple apparently ringing to call people to pray. But if you look carefully at the sun’s rays (it’s more clear on the original) they don’t fall on the steeple of the church as you might expect nor even on the couple as they pray, but they fall on the wheel barrow and the pitch fork at the couple’s feet. The peasants believed
that God was honored God not in just their church life, not only in their prayers, but also in their “ordinary work.”
Why do we work? because our work reflects and honors God.
Why do we work? Because our work blesses people.
The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and the second greatest is to love our neighbor as ourselves…
Throughout, thee book of Proverbs there is a really clear emphasis on the fact the wise, righteous person, lives for the well being of the community, whereas the wicked person lives for themselves.
The righteous person in Proverbs is willing to disadvantage themselves for the sake of the community, whereas the wicked person is willing to disadvantage the community for their own sake.
In our culture, it’s just assumed that people will pick a work that on what will personally advance them. So, many people pick a work based on status or pay or a combination…
Thomas Friedman in his engaging book the World is Flat points out that the North American industry faced strategic set back in 1990s a number of students gifted in science and engineering, decided to go into business because they thought they could make a killing in the dot.com boom. (btw, if pursuing a dot.com business is the best we can use our gifts and serve the common that’s wonderful, but if it’s not and the reason we’re doing is to making a killing that’s wrong).
As followers of Christ, we don’t pick jobs just because of the status or pay… but because it’s the best way to use our gifts to help people and serve the common good…
Some times it’s hard to trace how our work is helping others and serving the common good…
If you’re builder of houses, it’s pretty obvious how you’re helping someone have a home, but if you’re an architect it’s not so obvious because there’s a time lag between what you do and when it will directly help people.
If you’re a doctor or nurse, how you’re helping people is obvious, but if you’re a medial lab researcher it’s not so obvious… because there is a time lag between your work and how your work benefits people… so we’ve got to “connect the dots across the time lag… in our work”
Shirley works as a housekeeper at a 250-bed hospital. She says “If we don’t clean with a quality effort, we can’t keep the doctors and nurses in business; we can’t accommodate patients. This place would be closed if we didn’t have housekeeping. Shirley has “connected the dots” and understands that her work of house keeping is serving people—literally helping to keep them alive.
Have you “connected the dots” in your work so you can see how your work (paid or volunteer) serves people…?
(By the way, if your work has no direct or indirect benefit for people whatsoever—if you are able to do so you might consider changing your “work.” If you’re drug dealer, change you’re work… This is Vancouver, it’s statistically possible that some of you’re have grow ops… change your crops…grow tomatoes)
Why do we work? We work because our work honors God and blesses people…
We bless people through our work itself and we bless by HOW we do our work, but also in how we work.
I recently came across a story about a woman who was working for one of major TV networks, and she made a mistake on her job that could have gotten her fired. But her boss ended up taking the blame for it, so she could keep her job… The boss had enough social capital that if the he was blamed for the mistake he could “roll with it” and keep his job… But, she didn’t have enough social capital to keep job if her mistake was seen as being her mistake.
The woman at the network was so impressed as to why her boss did what she did that. She had had many bosses who had made mistakes that had they pinned on her, but she had never had bossed that had taken blame for a mistake she had done.
She approached him and asked him. “Why did you take the blame for me.” The boss said, “Don’t worry about it… She asked him again, I want to know why did you do what you did?” It was really nothing… She kept pressing him, I really want to know why you did what you did.
He said, ok I’ll tell you. I’m a Christian. I believe when Jesus Christ died on the cross he took the blame for my sins so that I could be forgiven, so it seems to me, why shouldn’t I be willing to take the blame for your mistake?
She began to attend church and seek, I don’t if she ever became a Christ, but she moved toward…
When allow our Christian faith to affect the way we work, from Monday to Friday, we will bless people and we will quietly transform our culture for the better….
Why do we work? We work because our works honors God and blesses people… and we work because our work has eternal significance.
Theologians like the Croatian Theologian Miroslav Volf who teaches at Yale… points our if we are eternal beings, as the Bible affirms, then our work on earth will have an eternal significance…
I was writing this sermon on my laptop on our dinning table, it’s simple a table, but it’s a table where we’ve connect with people, relationships have been built and those relationships will carry over into the next life… the building of a table has a kind of value that carry over into eternity…
In Mitch Albom’s novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Eddie is elderly person who works as an amusement park maintenance man. This has been his life-long job. He has patch on his uniform that says Eddie and his life been filled with pain and disappointment.
After he dies, he meets five people who help him bring meaning and understanding to his life.
After he dies, he sees the large amusement park where he worked and walks in. Several hundred people are there, welcoming him, smiling at him, nodding at him, happy to see him. They were there or would be there, because of all the accidents he had prevented, all the lives he had kept safe—and all their children, and all their children's children—there because of the simple things that he did, day after day."
In the movie Gladiator, the Roman General Maximus, while sitting atop his horse in the woods, says to his troops, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."
Christian Theologians have pointed out that in paradise, when everything was perfect before sin entered the world, God had Adam and Eve working… and theologians have pointed out in paradise future, pointing to various Bible passages that, human beings will be working…
Some people never have a chance to flourish in their work… here on earth… they have never chance to develop their gifts and fully bless people because of their circumstances…
I know of someone who was born who ought to have had c-section, but didn’t get it and as she was “naturally delivered” she experienced all kind of trauma on her brain and now though she’s 36 years old she has the brain the capacity 7 year old…
This past week my wife and I were talking about one of her friends, who was born blind and as result was disowned by his family… He’s never seen anything, never seen the color red or green, but he’s so intuitively sensitive that if he’s in front in something beautiful… he’ll say there’s beautiful over here… He’s accomplished a lot, but he’s been limited…
We know kids growing up in war-torn, improvised, environment, with hopes, dreams, and talent like every other, but will likely never get a chance to reach their potential.
As Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary professor Dr. Gary Parrett says, in eternity we will be able to reach our potential in work.
In the film version of Babette’s Feast someone says to one of the Phillipa the sister with the breathtaking singing gifts who’s talents never be widely celebrated because she’s stuck in a small, poor village says, “In paradise, you will be the truly great artist you were created to be.”
So our work on earth even if it not perfected here and frustrated, will serve as a kind of prelude for eternal work in the world to come.
“What we do on earth will be echoed perfectly in eternity.”
Why do we work? We work because our works honors God, it blesses people, and echos in eternity.
We now come to the Lord’s supper…
As we come to this meal and focus on Christ, this sacrament can shape our work life too.
When we look at the cross and realize that Christ took our sins upon himself so that we could be forgiven and freed from our sins and brought into a relationship with God, when we realize how much we are loved by God, we will be able to do our work passionately as unto Him,
But (and this a different sermon) we can be saved from the other extreme making an idol of our work, overworking because we try to legitimize our worth through our work, because we are trying to justify our place in the world, in the eyes of our parents, in our own eyes…through our work..
because as we look at Jesus, we will know how deeply we are loved…
On night Jesus was betrayed…. He took bread and broken…
Benediction… May God bless you so that the work or your heart and the work of your hand will echo in eternity.
(The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio htm)
Do you remember making your first dollar?
I think I was 9 or 10 years old. I was helping our next door neighbor dig in his garden and move rocks… I was hot and sweating... 2 or 3 hours later… my neighbor Mr. Dirkich went into the house and came out and handed me $1.50 cents.
I didn’t walk back home that day, I floated… because I was so happy…
I immediately got on my bike went to the corner store and blew that entire $1.50 on candy…
When I was 10 years old (knowing I was technically underage), I got my first “job” as a paper delivery boy for Vancouver Sun, I learned how to toss a paper from my bike on the side, across the front year onto the door mat… hopefully without the Safeway flyer flying out en route…
And through a good part of my schools years, I worked… in the cafeteria serving meals, doing dishes or stocking cans of pet food…
I’m working now…. Though I really love what I do, one day I’ll likely technically retire, but I hope to never retire in the sense that I hope keep doing volunteer work till I die.
A good part of my life and yours will be spent working--either in a paid capacity or as volunteer, either “outside the home” or “inside the home.”
And if you think the Bible only addresses things like: “really spiritual” topics like piety, prayer or prophecy, think again… because the Bible addresses all kind of earthy subjects including work.
And this morning as we continue our series in the book of Proverbs that deal wisdom, competence in life, we’re going exploring part of what God’s word says about work.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Proverbs 24:30…
30 I went past the field of a sluggard,
past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I aw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
This past summer, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit some of the vineyards of Burgundy, France…
Whether you are in Burgundy, the Napa Valley, the Okanagan you’ll see that vineyards are carefully organized in rows… intentionally spaced and meticulously tended…
Vineyards don’t just happen by accident… they take great attention and care…
The author of these Proverbs points out that in this particular vineyard, the ground was covered with weeds and thorns, and that stone wall was in ruins…
This picture in this ancient near eastern context would have been particularly sad. For to own piece of land capable of growing crops in this time and place would have been considered a great gift, an opportunity of the lifetime…
Old Testament Professor Bruce Waltke commenting on this passage says that the image of the weeds and thorns growing and the stone wall crumbling suggests that there is a kind hostile force in the world that opposes our work.
There are external forces in a “fallen world” infected by sin that opposes work. There are also forces within us that also oppose work.
In Proverbs 6, the writers asks someone (who apparently is NOT clinically depressed), how long will lie there sluggard (AKA “Sluggo the slacker”)? The person is so lazy they won’t get out bed to begin their day…
In Proverbs 26:13 A sluggard says, "There's a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!" “Sluggo the slacker” has all kind of excuses for not starting the day and working….
Some people have all kind of excuses for not getting started on their work.
I with was someone who was talking how she needed to start do something in her life… she paused and said, but I don’t want to contradict my life “motto.” “Never do today, what you can tomorrow!”
We laughed about it. But, a lot of people actually live that way… they put things off…
The Proverbs in chapter 6:6-8 encourages us to avoid the way the “Sluggo the slacker” and learn from the industry of the ant. And over and over the Proverbs call us to be diligent…
By looking various throughout Scriptures, I want to explore how we can overcome the inner forces that oppose our work, by asking the question, why do we work?
There are many streams of thought that view work as a kind of necessary evil.
When people say I’m on the “Freedom 45 plan”? Or the “Freedom 55” plan… what do they mean? They mean they want to be free from work at 45 years of age or 55 as if work were some kind of slavery to be set free from.
The idea that work is a necessary evil goes way back…
In the ancient Mesopotamian myth of creation, the Enuma Elish… the gods make the earth… and then they realize, kind of like when you buy a house for the first time, “Hey this is going to require a lot of up-keep!”
So, the gods create human beings to do the necessary evil of caring for the earth!
But, in the very first pages of the Bible… we have a picture of a God who gets his hands dirty, working with the soil of the earth…forever ennobling “blue collar” work.
When God creates the earth… we see God working as a designer forever ennobling “white collar” work…
When God becomes a person in Jesus Christ, he becomes a carpenter forever ennobling blue collar work… later Jesus Christ becomes a teacher forever ennobling white collar work…
So, if you’re a “white collar” designer of the building or if you’re a blue collar tradesperson who builds the building, you reflect the character of God who works…
Part of the way we overcome the way of “Sluggo the slacker” is by understanding why we work and part of the reason we work is because our work reflects the character of the God who works.
Another way we can overcome the way of “Sluggo the slacker” is by understanding for whom we work.
When I was pursuing a graduate degree in the Boston area, I remember applying for a summer teaching job at one of the colleges in the Boston area.
As part of that process, I remember meeting with the grey haired academic dean of the college in his spacious office.
He began by saying, “I don’t think I will hire you…” You’re not an American, and the law states that we must offer this teaching position to a qualified American if one is available. Then, the dean said, but I wish I could hire you because from application, I can tell you’re a Christian.
I am not a Christian myself, I am not religious…
But at my yacht club, we hired this young man… to clean our floors… I remember how diligently he would work cleaning the floors… the tile were gleaming after he was done… We didn’t pay him very much, but he very worked hard and he never complained. I wanted to know why he worked so hard, he said because of my faith in God, I am Christian…
When I saw your application, I wanted hire you, because I sense as a Christian you work you work hard, you’d be conscientious…
But, I don’t think I can hire you… because you’re Canadian, but I did just want to meet you, because you’re a Christian…
I can’t remember the exact words I used, but I said something like this, “If you are a Christian, ideally you’re conscious of God in your work, so whether you’re scrubbing a floor, whether teaching a class you’re actually see yourself doing your work for God…”
It doesn’t mean you always do great, but it does mean you give your best…
Whether you’re scrubbing a floor, teaching a class, taking care of children, working construction, working in an office—if you’re a follower of Christ, you do that work unto God… Paul in Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it will with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for human masters.” And if you do it unto God it becomes a sacred…
This summer my wife and I saw the painting of the original painting of Millet’s Angelus…
In the famous painting… we see two peasants in the field praying. On the horizon we see a church steeple apparently ringing to call people to pray. But if you look carefully at the sun’s rays (it’s more clear on the original) they don’t fall on the steeple of the church as you might expect nor even on the couple as they pray, but they fall on the wheel barrow and the pitch fork at the couple’s feet. The peasants believed
that God was honored God not in just their church life, not only in their prayers, but also in their “ordinary work.”
Why do we work? because our work reflects and honors God.
Why do we work? Because our work blesses people.
The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and the second greatest is to love our neighbor as ourselves…
Throughout, thee book of Proverbs there is a really clear emphasis on the fact the wise, righteous person, lives for the well being of the community, whereas the wicked person lives for themselves.
The righteous person in Proverbs is willing to disadvantage themselves for the sake of the community, whereas the wicked person is willing to disadvantage the community for their own sake.
In our culture, it’s just assumed that people will pick a work that on what will personally advance them. So, many people pick a work based on status or pay or a combination…
Thomas Friedman in his engaging book the World is Flat points out that the North American industry faced strategic set back in 1990s a number of students gifted in science and engineering, decided to go into business because they thought they could make a killing in the dot.com boom. (btw, if pursuing a dot.com business is the best we can use our gifts and serve the common that’s wonderful, but if it’s not and the reason we’re doing is to making a killing that’s wrong).
As followers of Christ, we don’t pick jobs just because of the status or pay… but because it’s the best way to use our gifts to help people and serve the common good…
Some times it’s hard to trace how our work is helping others and serving the common good…
If you’re builder of houses, it’s pretty obvious how you’re helping someone have a home, but if you’re an architect it’s not so obvious because there’s a time lag between what you do and when it will directly help people.
If you’re a doctor or nurse, how you’re helping people is obvious, but if you’re a medial lab researcher it’s not so obvious… because there is a time lag between your work and how your work benefits people… so we’ve got to “connect the dots across the time lag… in our work”
Shirley works as a housekeeper at a 250-bed hospital. She says “If we don’t clean with a quality effort, we can’t keep the doctors and nurses in business; we can’t accommodate patients. This place would be closed if we didn’t have housekeeping. Shirley has “connected the dots” and understands that her work of house keeping is serving people—literally helping to keep them alive.
Have you “connected the dots” in your work so you can see how your work (paid or volunteer) serves people…?
(By the way, if your work has no direct or indirect benefit for people whatsoever—if you are able to do so you might consider changing your “work.” If you’re drug dealer, change you’re work… This is Vancouver, it’s statistically possible that some of you’re have grow ops… change your crops…grow tomatoes)
Why do we work? We work because our work honors God and blesses people…
We bless people through our work itself and we bless by HOW we do our work, but also in how we work.
I recently came across a story about a woman who was working for one of major TV networks, and she made a mistake on her job that could have gotten her fired. But her boss ended up taking the blame for it, so she could keep her job… The boss had enough social capital that if the he was blamed for the mistake he could “roll with it” and keep his job… But, she didn’t have enough social capital to keep job if her mistake was seen as being her mistake.
The woman at the network was so impressed as to why her boss did what she did that. She had had many bosses who had made mistakes that had they pinned on her, but she had never had bossed that had taken blame for a mistake she had done.
She approached him and asked him. “Why did you take the blame for me.” The boss said, “Don’t worry about it… She asked him again, I want to know why did you do what you did?” It was really nothing… She kept pressing him, I really want to know why you did what you did.
He said, ok I’ll tell you. I’m a Christian. I believe when Jesus Christ died on the cross he took the blame for my sins so that I could be forgiven, so it seems to me, why shouldn’t I be willing to take the blame for your mistake?
She began to attend church and seek, I don’t if she ever became a Christ, but she moved toward…
When allow our Christian faith to affect the way we work, from Monday to Friday, we will bless people and we will quietly transform our culture for the better….
Why do we work? We work because our works honors God and blesses people… and we work because our work has eternal significance.
Theologians like the Croatian Theologian Miroslav Volf who teaches at Yale… points our if we are eternal beings, as the Bible affirms, then our work on earth will have an eternal significance…
I was writing this sermon on my laptop on our dinning table, it’s simple a table, but it’s a table where we’ve connect with people, relationships have been built and those relationships will carry over into the next life… the building of a table has a kind of value that carry over into eternity…
In Mitch Albom’s novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Eddie is elderly person who works as an amusement park maintenance man. This has been his life-long job. He has patch on his uniform that says Eddie and his life been filled with pain and disappointment.
After he dies, he meets five people who help him bring meaning and understanding to his life.
After he dies, he sees the large amusement park where he worked and walks in. Several hundred people are there, welcoming him, smiling at him, nodding at him, happy to see him. They were there or would be there, because of all the accidents he had prevented, all the lives he had kept safe—and all their children, and all their children's children—there because of the simple things that he did, day after day."
In the movie Gladiator, the Roman General Maximus, while sitting atop his horse in the woods, says to his troops, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."
Christian Theologians have pointed out that in paradise, when everything was perfect before sin entered the world, God had Adam and Eve working… and theologians have pointed out in paradise future, pointing to various Bible passages that, human beings will be working…
Some people never have a chance to flourish in their work… here on earth… they have never chance to develop their gifts and fully bless people because of their circumstances…
I know of someone who was born who ought to have had c-section, but didn’t get it and as she was “naturally delivered” she experienced all kind of trauma on her brain and now though she’s 36 years old she has the brain the capacity 7 year old…
This past week my wife and I were talking about one of her friends, who was born blind and as result was disowned by his family… He’s never seen anything, never seen the color red or green, but he’s so intuitively sensitive that if he’s in front in something beautiful… he’ll say there’s beautiful over here… He’s accomplished a lot, but he’s been limited…
We know kids growing up in war-torn, improvised, environment, with hopes, dreams, and talent like every other, but will likely never get a chance to reach their potential.
As Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary professor Dr. Gary Parrett says, in eternity we will be able to reach our potential in work.
In the film version of Babette’s Feast someone says to one of the Phillipa the sister with the breathtaking singing gifts who’s talents never be widely celebrated because she’s stuck in a small, poor village says, “In paradise, you will be the truly great artist you were created to be.”
So our work on earth even if it not perfected here and frustrated, will serve as a kind of prelude for eternal work in the world to come.
“What we do on earth will be echoed perfectly in eternity.”
Why do we work? We work because our works honors God, it blesses people, and echos in eternity.
We now come to the Lord’s supper…
As we come to this meal and focus on Christ, this sacrament can shape our work life too.
When we look at the cross and realize that Christ took our sins upon himself so that we could be forgiven and freed from our sins and brought into a relationship with God, when we realize how much we are loved by God, we will be able to do our work passionately as unto Him,
But (and this a different sermon) we can be saved from the other extreme making an idol of our work, overworking because we try to legitimize our worth through our work, because we are trying to justify our place in the world, in the eyes of our parents, in our own eyes…through our work..
because as we look at Jesus, we will know how deeply we are loved…
On night Jesus was betrayed…. He took bread and broken…
Benediction… May God bless you so that the work or your heart and the work of your hand will echo in eternity.
(The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio htm)
posted by Shigematsu at 11:34 AM
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