Holy Employed (Sep. 07, 08)

Holy Employed Sept 7, 2008
Ken Shigematsu

I remember well my first day at school. We were living in London, England. I was sitting on my mom’s lap with a white short-sleeved collared shirt and grey wool flannel shorts. We were meeting with the headmistress of the school in her office. I had a coin wrapped in foil that I handed her—my lunch money…

I recall well some of those first days of school… sitting on the floor—looking at pictures on the wall of a bike, a dog, a house… and putting sentences in my mind together like, “This is a bike.” “This is a dog.” “This is a house.” That felt like hard work.

When we were students, whether in elementary school, junior high, high school or university, school feels like work… that’s why we call school work, school work or homework.

After you finish school and you begin to work in a job that obviously does feel likes work.

If you are unemployed and looking for work, that is definitely work. Looking for work can be a full-time job!

Being a mom or dad is certainly work… especially, if you’re the parent of a young child—that is an all consuming, around the clock job.

When you retire, you are probably going to be very active. At least, the retired people I know are very active. They have no shortage of things to do. They aren’t bored. One retired person said, “I wake up with nothing to do, but by the end of the day I realize I’m only ½ done.”

If we’re a typical person, we will spend most of our waking hours of our lives working.

Throughout history, from the earliest days, work has been viewed by many people as bad.

In the Babylonian myth of the earths origins, the Enuma Elish, there is a battle of the gods and Marduk, the highest god of the victorious side, creates a world from the body of his arch enemy Tiamat. All the gods say, “Now that you have created the earth, you have to work to keep it up!” Marduk says, “I will create a lowly creature called ‘man’ to take care of it.” In this account of creation the gods are above work and they create man to do what they don’t want to do.

The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle viewed work as a kind of necessary evil. We put in our time at work, so we can then enjoy leisure.

And today there are numerous evidences of how people view work as bad.

There is a bumper sticker that says, “I am in no hurry. I am going to work.”

There is bumper sticker, “I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go.”

“I live for the weekend…” I.e. my real life occurs when I’m doing something other than my work.

Or people talk about “Freedom 45 or 55,” meaning that they are able to retire at 45, or 55, or 35 from work, they will truly be free. Then they will have a real life.

Or if we have to work, the ideal job is one where we don’t have to really work.

I remember when I was living in Los Angeles, my friend Todd approached me and said, “Do you know what the best job in the world is? The best job is to be a second-string quarterback in the pro football. All you do is stand on the sidelines with a baseball cap, a headset and a clipboard. You don’t really do anything but you make millions of dollars.” Work is not that bad if you don’t have really work in your work.

But is work a necessary evil? Is work a four-letter word? Do we only work so that we can enjoy recreation and leisure?

The Word of God, the Bible gives us a much more hope-filled and meaningful way to view work.

This morning we are going to begin a series on work and faith. We are going to begin by starting at the beginning of the Bible (We’re not going to work our way through the Bible. We are going to begin at the beginning in Genesis.)

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Genesis and turn to Genesis 1:26-27.

(As you turn--I want to gratefully acknowledge the inspiration and idea for the general structure of this message that I received from Bryan Wilkerson a pastor of a church I intended in Boston when I was in seminary).

26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 2:1-8:
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth [a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams [b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the LORD God formed a man [c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
Genesis 2:15:
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
In Genesis 1 we read that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Jesus said in John 5:17: "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working."
Because God only does what is good, the fact that God works means that work is intrinsically good. It is good in and of itself.
It’s important to note before Adam and Eve turned away from God in the Garden of Eden, before they sinned and certain curses came into the world because of sin, Adam and Eve were working… so work is NOT part of our world as result of our world being under a curse because of sin. Human beings were working before sin came into the world. AND according to Jesus in Luke 19 in the life to come we will be working…
In the very first pages of the Bible we see that God is doing what we might call both “white collar” and “blue collar” work. God is doing white collar work as he makes “executive plans” for the universe. We see God working as a kind of architect, designing the universe—God is doing white collar work.
But we also see God getting his hands dirty. In Genesis 2 we read that God formed man out of the dust of the earth.
We see God getting his hands in the dirt to create man. He then blows into man’s nostrils the very breath of life. (The name Adam by the way literally means “from the earth.”).
In Genesis 2:9 we also read that God is a gardener, planting trees, and crops…
So when we work, whether we work in so called white collar or blue collar job—we reflect the character of a God who does while and blue collar work.
Miroslav Volf, the Croatian theologian who now teaches at Yale, says that when we work we are co-creators with God.
We read in Genesis 2:8 the Lord God planted a garden in the East in Eden and then he put the man he had formed in the garden. In Genesis 2:15 we read that the LORD God took the man into the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
In Genesis 2 vs. 5, we read “Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth [a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.” Part of reason there we no shrubs on the earth is because there was no human being to work the ground.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:7 says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” The Apostle Paul here is using agriculture as a metaphor, but he could have been speaking literally, too. We may plant the seed. Someone else may water that seed, and God causes it to grow. God’s work is done in partnership with us. God has arranged life in such a way that he cooperates with human beings so that his purposes are fulfilled.
The respected British pastor, John Stott, tells the story about a Cockney gardener who is showing the pastor the beauty of the garden has he tended with its flowers in full bloom and its borders perfectly trimmed. The pastor was deeply impressed and he broke out into spontaneous praise of God. The gardener was not very happy, however, that God should get all the credit. He said, “You should have seen this garden when God had it all to himself.” The gardener, as Stott points out was right. Without a human gardener that garden would not have been what it was.
This idea of co-creating with God applies to all legitimate work. Your work may not feel particularly spiritual, but if it is legitimate work, you are co-creating with God.
Many of us here have the practice of pausing before a meal to thank God for our food (prop).
But, when you think about it, there are a lot of people we could thank God for when we thank him for our food--the farmers who grew and harvested the food, scientists who helped the farmers produce good crops, the bankers who helped the farmer with the loan, the farm equipment manufacturers, the truck drivers, the people who built the road over which the food is transported, the distributors, the supermarket employees, people preparing the food at home or in the restaurant. If you are a scientist or a truck driver, you may not think of your work as being particularly spiritual, but when you look down the line and you realize that your work is helping to feed people, and then you can know that in your work you are co-creating with God.
Think about beauty (prop). Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, “The poor need beauty as much as bread because they live in ugliness all the time.” (That statement reflects some of the more pronounced profound lifestyle differences of different social classes in the 16th century, but we all need both beauty and bread). We all need bread, but we also need beauty. If you work as an artist, a musician, writer, film maker, a designer, in fashion industry, hair dresser, photographer, a gardener, you’re creating something that people desperately need—beauty.
Now think about your work—whether paid or volunteer….
If you trace your work (in may not be food or beauty related) forward and can consider what it is ultimately producing, do you see that work as being something you co-create something with God?

Pause

Your work may not be that glamorous.
As a new father, my job description over the summer was to change diapers for our son Joe. Changing diapers is not the most glamorous job in the world, but it is necessary for the health of a baby.
Your job, if it not changing diapers, may feel like changing diapers. It may be unpleasant at some level but perhaps it is necessary for the health of some organization or community.
Last year as we found out rather dramatically through the city of Vancouver strike, garbage collectors are indispensable part of our economy.
Garbage collectors are in a working partnership with God.

Now if you are working as a drug dealer, or you are working in the sex trade (I realize you may be doing this against your will, you may feel trapped), or you are in the gambling industry, as you trace your work forward, while you may say that it seems like my work creates pleasure for people or some entertainment, in the balance if your work seems to crush people rather than build them up, if it seems to thwart God’s purposes more than advance them, it may that you need to consider the possibility of changing your line of work if you can (I realize that many people in the sex trade feel trapped there).
In some jobs it is not really black and white as to whether work is ultimately good or evil, but, in the balance, if your work seems to be more at odds with God’s purposes in concerts advancing him, then you might consider changing your work.
But if it is legitimate work, then we can know that in your work that you are co- creating with God.
So whether you are working in architecture, engineering, or construction, in the trades, the arts, entertainment, hospitality, working in the home, education, medicine, law, business, journalism, government, social services—we could go on and on—you are co-creating with God in serving the needs of human beings, helping them fulfill their purpose.
Do you see yourself as co-creating with God?
It is possible for two people to be in exactly the same kind of job, but have a very different perspective on it. The story is told of a man who was walking down a country lane. He came across a stone quarry in which a number of men were working. He asked several of the men about what they were doing, and the first replied irritably, “Can’t you see I am breaking stone?” The second answered without looking up, “I am working for 20 bucks an hour.” When asking the same question of a third person, he stopped, put his pick down, stood up, stuck out his chest and said, “You want to know what I am doing? I am building a cathedral.”
It is a matter of how far we can see. The first person could not see beyond his pick, the second person beyond Friday, his pay day. The third person looked beyond his tools and his wages to the ultimate end he was serving. He was cooperating with the architect.
If you’re a student, do you only see as far the next quiz or exam? Or do see how your education is shaping you right now and will enable you to fulfill your life calling? Mark Twain said when he was leaving home at seventeen years of age he was appalled how ignorant his parents were. When he returned, at twenty-one he was very happy to see how much his parents had learned during his four-year absence! Students, as you study you are growing and being prepared with broader and deeper perspectives that prepare for your life in this world and the world to come.
Finally, if we are people with faith in God… believe in Scriptures… not only will we see our work as significant in this life, but we can see our work having eternal significance.
In some cases it’s obvious.
In the 16 century Gutenberg thought about how to apply the force of a wine press and combining that with a coin press--and invented the printing press.
All of us here are who we are in part because of what we’ve learned in books—and what we have become will carry over into the next world…. So Gutenberg’s invention was obviously not just an income generating invention, but had eternal significance.
In the film version of the Mitch Albom’s book, The Five People We Meet in Heaven, Eddie (John Voight) works as an amusement park maintenance man for most of his life. After he dies, he meets five people who help him bring meaning and understanding to his life.
The scene begins with Eddie, already having died, walking out of the ocean. 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.
The narrator says: "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."
One day God will reveal to us the impact of all we did for him and for people, no matter how big or small.
Every day, I am grateful for the home we live in. It’s a modest home, but so many special things have happened here in the 6 years we’ve lived here. Some of the most significant things in life happen in the ordinary routines of conversations and meals with people there….
I have never met the architect or the carpenters who made, but I am grateful for them.
I am grateful for the work of our real estate agent who, of course, I have met.
I am grateful for this Ergo Carrier (show it). It has helped create a bond with me and our newborn son—as everyday for the first 6 weeks of his life, I used to take him to the top of Queen Elizabeth Park and back. So, though the carrier itself will not the last, the bond will and I’d like to meet the person who created this. What we make itself may not last (like the carrier), but the blessing it imparts may last forever.
So many people hop from job to job looking for more fulfilling work. If we feel like we are in a job that fundamentally crushes our spirit, or is not serving the common good, or is not using our potential, then it is legitimate to change our work—that’s out privilege Then it may be the best thing to do.
Later in this series David Bentall and I are going to talk about calling, finding our unique calling, using our gifts.
But it may that in order for us to find fulfillment in our work, for some of us it may not be about changing jobs, but about finding God in our jobs…
Work doesn’t not have to be seen as necessary evil or a four letter word, because we can find fulfillment in providing for ourselves through work, providing for others through our work, providing for causes we believe through our work, but for those of us who know the living God, we can find joy in our working, knowing that through our work we are co-creating the things that God intended to create.