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The Ten Commandments: "Thou Shall Work" Today we continue our series on the Ten Commandments. Today we will be discussing the Fourth Commandment that we heard in the first reading from Exodus or at least the part of the Fourth Commandment that has do with work. The second reading today is from the words of Paul that touch on the subject of work - first from the book of Acts and then from the first letter to the church at Corinth. The first reading is Paul’s farewell on the occasion of his last personal visit with the elders of the church at Ephesus. (Reading: Acts 20:32-35) The next reading is Paul’s words to the church at Corinth – a church that was blessed with diversity, but a church that needed a reminder that all gifts were of equal value in doing God’s work. (Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7) This morning, as I said, we continue our sermon series on the Ten Commandments – the game plan as David first suggested earlier in the series, the game plan, the guidelines, the parameters, for living life as we are created to live it – a life in true and wonderful relationship with God and through God in relationship with each other. The commandments – the plan, the parameter for living as God made us to live.
Before we talk about today’s commandment, the Fourth Commandment, let’s do a little review of the first three commandments. The first commandment - to have no other Gods. The second - not to make idols. The third - not to wrongfully use God’s name. As David has unfolded these three commandments in his sermons so far, we have heard – first, that God must be the priority above all else in our lives - second, that we must not reduce God to our own image through our own needs and wants - and, third, that we must not misuse God’s name by reducing our faith more to sentiment than substance, more to ritual than reality, more to the outer rim or circumference than to the center of our lives. The commandments - a game plan to live as we were created to live in relationship with God and in relationships with others. And, today we build on that game plan – we take the game plan even further into the everyday of our lives. Today we are going to talk about work – a very present fact of life for us all. Whether we are paid or not, whether we do housework or yardwork, schoolwork or volunteer work, manual work or thought work, almost everyone works. And, what is our attitude about work? I have two questions that I want you to ask yourselves. First, ask yourself this. Would heaven for you would be perpetual leisure, a never ending holiday or would the absence of work, or a task, for you really be more like a hell than heaven? Next, ask yourself also, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word work? Is it necessary evil, drudgery, satisfaction, fulfillment. Is what comes to your mind stress, is it money, maybe success. Maybe you even think of your whole self-image when you think of the word work. There may be a number of reactions to the word, to the idea of work, and we all may go back and forth as to how we look at work on any particular day or at any particular moment. This morning I suggest that we look at work, not in terms of self-image, money, stress or any of these. This morning we will look at work as a part of whom God truly intends us to be. And, to do this, to look at work as part of who we are meant to be, we will look at work in three biblical contexts. First, in the context that we are created to work. Second, and logically it follows that if we are created to work, that we are commanded to work. And, finally, in the context that we are called to work. Created to work, commanded to work, called to work. First, then – created to work. Unlike many of the gods of antiquity, who are depicted as gods of leisure, our God is a working God. According to many scriptural images – including the image of God making creation that we were reminded of in the first reading from Exodus – according to the images of scripture, the God we worship, the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – is a God who works. We may not envision God with hands and tools working as humans do. Or then again do we? I guess we only have to picture, through our mind’s eye, our Lord and Savior up to his knees in wood and stone shavings or to picture his feet dusty from miles traveled teaching and preaching. We have only to look, through our mind’s eye, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, to see that the one triune God is a god of work. Work is a major aspect of the God’s image. And, therefore, work is a major aspect of the image of God in us. Genesis 2 tells us that humans were created in God’s image and then placed in God’s garden to tend it (2:15). Placed in the garden, before the fall, before we left the ideal of our created state, we were placed in the garden to work, placed there to care for God’s garden. The creation story is poetry, yes – may even be myth. The creation story, however, be it literal or poetry is truth, oh yes, yes, it’s also truth. It’s truth, with a capital "T," truth about the nature of human beings and their relationship with God and the world around them, truth about who we are and whose we are.
We are created to work, we are commanded to work. You might be saying, "A commandment about work, there’s no commandment about work." Let’s hear again some of the text of the Fourth Commandment in the book of Exodus from our first reading. "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; . . . For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it" (Ex. 20:8-11, selected verses). There it is "Six days you shall labor and do all your work." We are commanded to work. We are commanded to work, but not just to work for work’s sake. Working for work’s sake leads to work itself becoming a god to us. Or working for work’s sake alone leads to a heartless exploitation of the earth and others. We are created to work, commanded to work, but to work for a reason. In Paul’s farewell to the church at Ephesus that we read earlier, Paul instructs the faithful, by his example, to work, not to gain "silver or gold or clothing" (Acts 20:33), but to work in order to support themselves and their companions and to "support the weak" (Acts 20:34-35). Paul tells us that the reason for our work, whether paid or not, is to take care of ourselves and to take care of others. We are commanded to work for a purpose apart from our own pleasure, our own gain, our own self-satisfaction. We are instructed to work to take care not only of our basic needs, but also to take care of the basic needs of the weak – a theme of compassion and justice that echoes throughout scripture. We are commanded to work for a reason – to do what is just, what is right in God’s world. We are created to work in God’s image; we are commanded to work to do what is right. Created and commanded to work. And, finally, we are also called to work. We are called to work. What does this mean that we are called to work. Calling means a purpose for our lives – God’s purpose for us and God’s purpose through us in the time we are given on this earth. A calling to use our gifts and talents to serve God and to do God’s work in whatever we do. We are each called, called in the everyday work of our lives - truck driver, housekeeper, doctor, caregiver, painter, writer, thinker, clerk, farmer, lawyer, pastor – whatever, the list of honest, moral work is infinite. No matter what our work, paid or unpaid, manual or skilled, no matter what our daily labor, we all need to understand that we are called to use the gifts God has given us to be doing something in God’s service, to be doing something for the common good, as Paul says in our second reading from First Corinthians. Remember with me the passage, "there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Cor. 12:4-7). The Yale University Divinity School professor, Miroslav Volf, put it this way, "When human beings work, they work only because God’s spirit has given them power and talents to work . . . . All Christians have several gifts of the Spirit. Since [many] of these gifts can be exercised only through work, work must become a central aspect of Christian living."1 Work is central to our Christian lives. Work isn’t just something that keeps us busy in between Sundays or sometimes even on Sunday. Our work, paid or not, is of God, is for God. Our work is of the sacred – no matter what we are doing. Paul says it specifically in Colossians, "Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not your masters" (Col. 3:23); and in First Corinthians he reminds us that "whether [we] eat or drink or whatever [we] do, do everything for the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). Whatever our individual labor or work or tasks in the world are, we are called to serve God and to serve others through them. Martin Luther during the Reformation of the church in the 16th century talked about our service of God and others through our labors in this way, "look at your tools, your needle, your thimble, your beer barrel, your articles of trade, your scales, your measures, and you will find this saying written on them. . . . ‘My dear, use me toward your neighbor as you would want him to act toward you with that which is his.’"2 We are called to work – to use our gifts for the common good, to work in all we do for the glory of God. We are called to find the sacred in the ordinary of the everyday, the sacred in the ordinary tools of our everyday, in the thimbles, the needles, the scales and the measures. Does all this simply over-idealize the everyday necessity of our own labor, our everyday work? I don’t think so, but more importantly scripture tells that it is not idealization, but truth. It is a truth, however, that we can either accept or reject. We can accept the truth and open ourselves to finding out how we are to serve God in all we do with the gifts we each have been given. And don’t be mistaken, God has given each of us gifts, no matter who we are or what our circumstance. We can accept the truth and live a life in which there is no ordinary in what we do, a life where there is no division between sacred and secular, work and worship. The truth is that all we do is to the glory of God. We can accept or reject this truth. Accepting or rejecting this truth is illustrated in a story from an old book, a book I gave my parents many years ago. The book, Leaves of Gold, was first printed in 1938. The story is entitled simply, "Building Cathedrals.
We are created to build cathedrals, we are commanded to build cathedrals, we are called to build cathedrals. Let’s ask God each day to give us the vision, to give us the attitude, to give us the willingness to see that we can be building cathedrals not just working for the dollar, not just cutting stone. Let’s pray for the vision to see that, with God’s help, we can be building cathedrals in all we do. Now to God, Creator and Redeemer and Sustainer, all honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. ____________ |
Darla
J. Blatnik
We are created in the image of a working God and put in God’s garden to
tend it. We are created to work – not to run ourselves into the ground
working, not without balance in our lives, but created generally we to be
productive in some way and not idle. And, as I said earlier, the
commandments direct us to live as we were created to live.