"Proverbs: On Work"

During November we are looking at themes from the book of Proverbs: Wisdom, Work, Wealth, and Words. When I found that, in our preaching rotation, I had drawn the theme of "Work," I was pleased, because I have a strong personal interest in helping the church think about the implications of our Christian vocation as it is lived out in daily life. That is, in part, where my strong interest in mission comes from.

So, when I found out I was to preach on "Work," I already knew what I wanted to say. This is dangerous. Especially after I read what Proverbs had to say about work and found that it had little to do with what I wanted to say about work, I knew I was in trouble. I confessed this to Kris one day in the office and she chastised me properly. We are all warned in seminary against deciding what we want to preach, then finding a scripture text to support it.

What I found in the book of Proverbs that comes closest to what I want to say about work is found in chapter 3, and I used it for the call to worship: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight; in all your ways acknowledge the Lord, and God will direct your paths." That is, there is a purpose in life; our lives have meaning. But we find that meaning only as we orient our lives - our work, our rest, our relationships, our time alone, our plans and decisions - to the wisdom and purpose of God.

The passage about the ant reveals the book of Proverbs' main attitude about work: don't be lazy; work hard; don't make excuses; get up and make something of yourself. We learn from Proverbs that as a door turns on its hinges, so the lazy person turns on their bed. The lazy person doesn't go out to work because there might be a lion in the street. The book of Proverbs, above all, is a collection of maxims which are practical instructions on daily living, coming out of the wisdom tradition of Israel. Much of the material is attributed to King Solomon, though it was collected over several centuries and shows the hand of many editors.

As you read through Proverbs you may be reminded of sayings from other traditions: A stitch in time saves nine; waste not, want not; a penny saved is a penny earned; early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Many of our U. S. proverbs have been attributed to Benjamin Franklin, and were published in his Poor Richard's Almanac. These sayings are at the core of what we call our "Protestant Work Ethic." You might also be reminded of other fables, such as that of the grasshopper and the ant, in which the industrious ant was prepared for winter and the grasshopper was not.

You might be reminded of sayings of your parents. And you probably hear the proverbs of your parents coming out of your own mouth when you speak to your children. When I was an adolescent, my father would correct me for something careless I had done and I would say, "But I didn't mean to!" I'm sure your children never say this, but it was my standard excuse! My father's response is burned into my mind: "Mean not to." In other words, think about what you're doing.

The verses I chose from 2 Thessalonians echo the theme from Proverbs, though they come from a very different context. Paul is writing to a Christian community which is waiting for the imminent return of Jesus and the end of the world. Some in the community use this expectation as an excuse to stop working and to mooch off the other members of the community, like the grasshopper mooched off the ant.

But is this where we are? Are these the words we need to hear about work? As you look around this room do you see a bunch of lazybones, mooching off their neighbors, turning on their beds like a door upon its hinges? I hardly think so.

The people in this room are representative of a world of working people who are multi-tasking, tele-commuting, pager- palm-pilot- and cell-phone-connected. We are putting in longer hours, producing more, working faster, juggling schedules, getting downsized at an ever-increasing rate. We are embarrassed to ask for help when we need it. We are often more afraid of taking time off than of lions in the street. Yet it seems that more and more people are struggling to find meaning in their work. Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip, "Dilbert," is a spokesperson for the existential struggles of the modern workplace.

A recent strip shows Dilbert at his work station. His thought balloon says, "This to-do list will make me more efficient."

In the next panel he has stopped typing and his thought balloon says, "I have three fake emergencies, two doomed projects, four unnecessary meetings..."

In the final panel he has just come home and says to Dogbert, "I figured out why you never ask me how my day went." "Off you go." says his cynical friend.

In recent years I have seen reference to polls which are said to indicate that 95 percent of U.S. workers hate their jobs. The highest incidence of heart attacks takes place on Monday mornings between 8 and 9 a.m. Worker frustration, alienation, overwork, declining income, downsizing, struggle for meaning - these are our challenges. Witness the recent news from Lexmark.

In March of 1996, the New York Times ran a series titled, "The Downsizing of America." It painted a picture of what Americans think of themselves as a result of what they think of their work.

The portrait of one family was typical. James Sharlow, at 51, had worked for Eastman Kodak all his life. In January, 1993, the plant he managed was shut down. He lost his $130,000 a year job. For three years he held out for a position equivalent to what he had before. While he dressed as if for work every day and drove around pursuing job leads, his wife supported the family. They dipped into their savings to keep up the appearance of prosperity. They both feared that if Jim accepted a lower-paying, stop-gap job, he would never get a better one. Two daughters were still at home, working and going to school. Jim's attitude was, "How could my family not think less of me now?"

Jim did go to work again, in the end, as a small appliance repairman, a temporary job. He is still vaguely disbelieving that this all happened to him, that the company to which he had been loyal for 26 years of his life let him go so suddenly, and so easily. He believes that his family's expectations and its perception of itself will never be the same.

The series in The Times offered stories like this as representative of many Americans today - persons who had assumed that their security lay in a job they had taken for granted and were now having to think about what that work represented to them, and how they thought about themselves now, in its absence.

Rather than people who need to be exhorted to live like ants, it seems that we are people who are wondering what difference our work makes, what meaning it has, who we are because of our work, and how our vocation as Christians can shape the way we go about our work. In general I believe that the church has not been helpful to this search for meaning. In fact, I think that the church has unintentionally reinforced the difficulty.

To the degree that the church has presented the message that "Christian work" is something that is done by church professionals, or by people who become ordained as church officers, work on a church committee, or take part in a church program, the church has failed to help people who struggle with issues of work and vocation. To the degree that the church has neglected to affirm and support your life in the world as a Christian, to focus energy on the ministry of the church scattered in the world - your ministry - we have failed, and we have kept the church locked in the chains of a professionalism or a clericalism which will in the end keep the church from being faithful to its calling.

We send out a negative message when we speak of active and inactive members, and either imply or state plainly that those who are more active are those who are involved in church programs. What of those members whose time and energy are consumed taking care of family, holding down a job and giving to their community? I'm not talking just of high-profile people on school boards and in Urban County government, but teachers and nurses, service workers and garbage-collectors, volunteers and neighbors.

Our theological tradition has taught that we have work and we have vocation.

Work can be almost anything: accountant, tool and die maker, software designer. God is not occupied in assigning rank to jobs on the basis of salary or prestige or title. Our ancestors in faith have been concerned that we do not define ourselves by what job it is we happen to hold at the moment.

Vocation, in contrast, is our calling. It is our calling to be a Christian person. That fact is of supreme value. In calling us to exercise our vocation, Christ imparts to us an identity of such value, that whatever our job is becomes nearly irrelevant. We remain a waitress or store manager or fund-raiser, but when judgment comes we can trust that God will not be interested in our salary but in how we lived out our vocation at work, at home, in school, in the neighborhood, at rest, at play, in who we are as a child of God, part of Christ's body.

Project 21, based in Des Moines, Iowa, is encouraging congregations to try a model which has as its goal enabling every church member to be active. Its guiding principle is, "If a church would see the life and work of each member as part of the mission of the church, then every member would be active." It poses a new question. Christians need to ask: "What am I as a believer in Jesus Christ, and as a member of this church, to do?" This questions shifts the emphasis away from the church as an institution to the church scattered in the world. I think this is part of a paradigm shift in the church away from the institution which peaked in the 50s and 60s to a new way of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

You may be called to serve as an ordained minister, or as a church officer, or volunteer in a church program. All of those things are necessary. There are some things we do as an institution, some things we do as a group, that we can do better that way than as individuals. But never forget that each of us has a vocation to serve the Lord in our daily life, at home, at work, at school, at rest, at play.

So take that stuff about ants with a grain of salt. We mustn't be like ants. They never stop working. We are called in our lives to mirror the life of God. God worked to created the heavens and the earth, and then stopped. God rested. God appreciated the goodness of what had been made. God enjoyed having created. God calls us to work, to worship, to play and to rest - to glorify and enjoy our creator forever.

I want to know what you think about this, how this resonates with you. How do you understand and live out your vocation in the world? How can you find strength and guidance as a church member to exercise your vocation? Elton Trueblood said, "The ministry is for all who are called to share in Christ's life, but the pastorate is ... to help other men and women to practice any ministry to which they have been called." Where can the church be more helpful to you in your struggles as a Christian in daily life?

I hope we can keep this conversation going, as we continue to build on foundations of faith, and seek to be faithful in new days and new times to the God who has called us all as fellow ministers and part of one body.

Let us pray:

Creator of all, help us find the way to praise you with our work. Make us signs of hope for those who cry for more than the daily grind but don't know for what it is they yearn. Strengthen our witness so that those we work with may know that you alone are the source of purpose and the spring that can satisfy the thirsting heart. Amen.