Faith at Work: Christian Meanings of Work
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Gen. 1:27-28; Gen. 3:17-19; I Corinthians 12:4-7
January 10, 2010

          William Diehl is a sales manager for a major steel company.  He is also a devout Christian who has concerns about the relationship between his faith and work.  He writes, “In almost thirty years of my professional career, my church has never once asked for any accounting of my ministry on the job.  My church has never once offered to improve the skills that would make me a better (witness), nor has it ever asked if I needed any kind of support.  There has never been an inquiry into the types of ethical decisions I must face, or whether I seek to communicate the faith to my co-workers... In short, I must conclude that my church really doesn’t have the least interest in whether or how I minister in my daily work.”  That’s a pretty strong accusation, isn’t it?  “...my church really doesn’t have the least interest in whether or how I minister in my daily work.”  Is that true? 
          What is the relationship between our faith and our work?  Does the church have a legitimate interest in what goes on in your workplace?  I think so!  Since I’ve been interested in this topic for quite some time, several years ago I attended a lecture by Gil Meilaender, a professor at Valparaiso University.  Dr. Meilaender lectured on his book, Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits.  That lecture and book helped me to put together some thoughts that led to this four-week preaching series.
          Now some of you are thinking, “This series isn’t for me.  I don’t work!  I think I’ll just sleep through this one!”  Good try!  But, I am defining work very broadly here.  It includes what we traditionally think of as work, but also part-time work, the work of being a student, and the work of being a homemaker.  Even retired folks have work to do- church work, maintaining a home, relationships with others, family responsibilities, and community work.  Those who are unemployed have the job of looking for work.  So I am hoping that there will be something here for everyone.
          OK.  Let’s get to the meat of today’s message.  How should Christians think about work?  Is work something divinely ordained which should therefore be fulfilling and joyful for us?  Or is it something we do simply because we have to in order to support ourselves… something mostly unrelated to matters of faith?  In his book Meilaender outlines four views Christians have held about work over the years.  All of them have biblical support and I’m going to outline the three most common ones this morning.
          The first way Christians have looked at work is to see work as co-creation.  Listen to Genesis 1:27-28.  So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
          God assigned certain tasks to us within the creation.  We are given dominion or authority over it and over everything in it.  God entrusts the ongoing care and maintenance and development of this world to us.  That is our work.  And in doing our work, we become co-creators of this world with the Lord.
          Many of us have actually experienced something of this in the deep sense of satisfaction we feel when we make something well or repair something which is broken.  I know I have felt this way.  There is a sense of fulfillment in creating something that just naturally comes to us, because as beings made in the image of a Creating God, we are designed to create.
          This view of work as co-creation has been very popular among Roman Catholic theologians.  Pope John Paul II clearly stated that this is the way we Christians ought to see our relationship to our work.  On the plus side, this approach gives us a cohesive view of work and faith, and provides a way for us to find meaning and fulfillment in our work: In our work, we are doing God’s work.  On the negative side, it sees human beings as primarily workers rather than beings who love and serve and worship, for example.  We are created and placed here to work.  But, what does that say to those who are very young or very old or are disabled and therefore unable to work?  Does that make them less human than the rest of us?  And what about the effects of sin on this original design of creation?  After all, these instructions in Genesis 1 were given to humans before the entry of sin into the world.  This view doesn’t seem to take into account the ways sin might affect work.  So while the view of work as co-creation has some strengths, it doesn’t seem to give us the whole picture of what work is.
          A second view is one that Meilaender states like this: “Work is necessary, but irksome.”  I really like that phrase!  Necessary, but irksome.  I am reminded of the Mark Twain story of Tom Sawyer and the fence which needed to be whitewashed.  When Tom first saw the work, this is what he said, “He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit.  Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high.  Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.”  Sometimes work is like that- overwhelming drudgery.
          We could also think about the work portrayed by Mike Rowe on the popular Discovery Channel show, “Dirty Jobs.”  Mike shows how irksome work can be by doing jobs like:  animal renderer, bat guano miner, goose down feather plucker, spider venom extractor, chicken sexer, sewer inspector, salt miner, and road kill collector, to name a few.) 
          I also think of my father-in-law who spent 35 years in the coal mines of Southwest Pennsylvania.  He began when he was fourteen years old, because a mining injury made it impossible for his own father to continue working and someone needed to support the family.  He would spend 10-12 hours each day deep in the earth.  In his early years, the mine shafts and work areas were not even tall enough for a person to stand upright.  Miners spent hour after hour stooped over doing hard, back-breaking labor.  It was dirty and wet and dangerous.  He eventually died from complications of black lung disease.
          Some work certainly doesn’t feel like co-creation.  It’s filled with boredom and drudgery.  It needs to be done, but it is indeed irksome.  This view may reflect what God says about work in Genesis 3:17-19 after Adam and Eve decided to disobey God.  And to the man, God said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  According to this passage, sin has affected what God intended work to be.  It is no longer a joyful co-creation with God, but often a hard, distasteful chore. 
          In this view of work, we should not expect to find a great sense of meaning or fulfillment in our work.  We may be able to find dignity in most jobs, but it is not necessary for us to do so.  We work because we need to support ourselves and our families, and because certain work must be done.  We work faithfully at what we do and that is all that God expects.  Work is necessary, but irksome.
          The final viewpoint to consider is the view of work as a calling or vocation.  This was the view favored by the Protestant reformers- people like Martin Luther and John Calvin who protested the theology and practices of medieval Catholicism.  At that time, the Catholic church believed that only those in churchly work were called to their work (priests, monks, and nuns)- everyone else just labored.  The reformers said “No.  This is not the way it is.  All of us are called to our work.”  Listen to this statement by Martin Luther, “How is it possible that you are not called?  You have always been in some state or station; you have always been a husband or wife, a boy or a girl, a servant.  Are you a son or daughter, and don’t you think you have not enough work with yourself, to continue chaste, pure, and temperate during your youth, to obey your parents, and offend no one by word or deed?  Are you a prince or lord?  Who has more to do than you, in order that your subjects may do right, preserve peace, and wrong is done by no one?  As it now is, no one is without some commission or calling, no one is without some kind or work, if he desires to do what is right.  Everyone, therefore is to take heed to continue in his calling...”  Luther went on to say that the maid sweeping the steps does a work as pleasing to God as the monk at his prayers.
          We still speak of certain kinds of work as being a calling- medical professions and teaching come to mind- as well as church professions.  But the Protestant reformers believed that all work is a calling from God.  They pointed to biblical passages like I Cor. 12 which affirms that it is God who gives us all the gifts and talents we possess.  We could also point to Ex. 35.  During the construction of the tabernacle, we are told that it was God who gave skills to certain workers in metals, textiles, and the arts.  These “secular” skills were given by the Lord, inspired by the Spirit of God himself.  Their work was seen as a divine calling.
          The Reformers believed that we are called to do our work on behalf of the rest of society, for the common good.  Work is a labor of love for others when seen in this way.  And our sense of fulfillment in work comes from doing the task God has called us to as well as we possibly can in service to God and others.
          The story is told of two stone masons who were chiseling large boulders.  The first man was asked what he was doing.  Seemingly frustrated with the task at hand, he replied that he was working hard to dress this boulder as a square building block, a task which required great skill, but just about wore him out.  He made it clear that he did not enjoy his work.
          The second man, doing the exact same job, seemed to be enjoying the task.  “What are you doing?” he was asked.  The man smiled and replied, “I am building a cathedral,” he said.
          Often, the way we view our work makes all the difference in our attitude toward that work.  How do you see your work?  As co-creation with God?  As necessary, but irksome?  Or, as a calling from God himself?  There is certainly some truth in each of these views, but which do you think captures the truth best?  When we get to our closing hymn, which one is reflected in it?
          Work in a created, but fallen world is a complex concept.  But, since we Presbyterians are descended from the Protestant reformers and since I think their view of work as a calling best captures the truth of the matter, next week we’ll be looking at the issue of “How do you figure out the kind of work you are called to do?”  How do you decide on a career or a particular job as a Christian?  How do you decide what you’re called to do in retirement?  Then in the following weeks, we’ll look at the balance between work and the rest of life, ethical decisions on the job, and sharing our faith at work.

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