The Value of Work

August 31, 2010

Dear St. Paul’s Laborers,

This weekend, millions of Americans will spend Labor Day relaxing with family and friends. They will fire up grills, take boats out for a spin, put a line in the water, and enjoy moments of rest and recreation. When the government established the first Monday in September as a celebration of the American worker over one hundred years ago, it declared a “yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” [1]

I invite you to include in your observance a moment of gratitude for your ability to work. Consider more than just your employment; include all the ways that you design, create, and construct a better world for you and those around you. If you have a job, give thanks for the means you have to provide for yourself and your loved ones. You might also say a prayer for the millions of people in this country who are unemployed, and are spending this weekend struggling to make ends meet.

Let us also remember the commandment God gave to Moses, establishing the biblical principles for work and rest in Exodus 34:21: Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest.

On first glance, this is a fairly straightforward command. Work for six days and rest on the seventh. Recharge your batteries, connect with God, and worship. We commonly interpret the passage in this way: worship is reserved for one day, the rest of the week for work. Sundays become compartmentalized for our spiritual needs, but Monday through Saturday is set aside for our secular selves: to labor, toil, and make a living.

However, a quick analysis of the Hebrew language shifts this passage’s meaning. The word used to describe the kind of work that we are to do throughout the week is the word avodah. “Six days you shall avodah, but on the seventh day you shall rest.” But as is often the case in Hebrew, a single word can have multiple meanings.

Avodah not only means work. It also means worship.

According to this commandment, the work we do throughout the week is, in fact, an act of worship to God. Our work is our worship. So, re-imagine the passage: “On the seventh day, worship God with your heart. And the rest of the week, worship God with the work of your hands, in service to God.”

This is frame-bending stuff! There should be no distinction between our spiritual lives and our vocational lives. The real question for each of us is not, “How can I enjoy my job more?” or “How can I feel satisfied with my work?” The ultimate question is “How can I see my work as worship? How can I stop perceiving my work as merely making a living and start seeing it as my best and fullest act of worship to God?” Here are three recommendations:

DO YOUR JOB WITH EXCELLENCE

I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Colossians 3:22-24:

Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work.

That’s a rich final phrase: Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work. No matter what your occupation is, and no matter what menial or major tasks fill your day, do your job well. Making your work an act of worship means doing it with excellence. I’m reminded of Martin Luther’s statement about vocation and spirituality:

The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.

God loves clean floors and good craftsmanship! So we should, too.

DO YOUR JOB WITH INTEGRITY

Maintaining integrity at work is an act of worship, too, so do your job with the highest moral, ethical, and biblical standards. Remember that the words integrity and integrate are from the same Latin root word, integritas, which means wholeness and completeness. Christian integrity means that we allow Christian ethical principles to shape every aspect of our lives, each and every day.

There should not be one kind of standard that we keep while we are at church and another kind that we keep throughout the week. We should not maintain a certain standard in our public world and a different one behind closed doors. Living with integrity means devoting the whole of our lives to the same values.

DO YOUR JOB AS A WITNESS FOR GOD

Your job gives you the opportunity to reach out in love to a particular group of people with whom you come into contact. God may have placed you there for a unique mission, just as God has always put ordinary people in ordinary positions to do extraordinary things. God called carpenters and shepherds, lawyers and choir directors, doctors and tent makers, military people and tax collectors, prostitutes and fishermen, right in the midst of their vocation. God still calls run of the mill, salt of the earth folks, because those are the ones that can best reach the widest number of people in the world.

It might be that your word of encouragement, your act of kindness, your listening ear, your loving word of truth, and the relationship you build with others in trust and confidence, might be precisely the reason you are in your job right now. When God looks out over this vast world and sees the countless numbers of people who are yet untouched by the power and love of Christ, God calls people just like you and me to reach out to them, through acts of kindness and words of love:

Calling lawyers to be advocates for the kingdom.
Calling mechanics to repair broken souls.
Calling insurance agents to bring people eternal security.
Calling chefs to offer the bread of life.
Calling mothers and fathers to care for all children of God.

Good work!

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org

[1] U.S Department of Labor www.dol.gov/laborday/history.htm.



WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY
We continue our “Hebrews Hall of Fame” worship series with with the conclusion of Hebrews 11. Hear the powerful stories of faith by Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel.


BUILDING COMMITTEE UPDATE
For those not in attendance during last Sunday’s presentation by the Building Committee, handouts are available in the church office, and you can speak with a member of the Committee. They presented an updated proposal for the renovation, focusing on energy efficiency in the Education Wing and delaying projects in the kitchen, fellowship hall, lounge, library, and chapel. The cost estimate has been cut roughly in half, to $870,000 to $1,040,000.