Sermon942005
Hillsborough Reformed Church
Ex. 20, Eph. 4
Labor Day Theme
Is work good or bad? It depends on whom you ask and when!
Ask the teen aged boy who has to mow the lawn and has put it off until now – and dad is ready to hit the roof while at the same time his friends want to play a pick-up game of football. How do you think he would answer the question of whether work is good or bad?
Or yourself – when you get back from vacation – it’s like you’ve been in another world with your family…you played hard and traveled hard and now you are back at work, and you are exhausted. If we asked you that day if work was good or bad, I know how you’d reply.
Or the mom who has changed diapers every day for almost ten years. One child got potty trained then another came along. Changing the ten thousandth diaper. Those moments of changing diapers are moments of lovely intimacy. Sometimes. At three in the morning when you have a cold and are worn out, and there is the baby crying. Ask her, is work good or bad?
Sometimes we might answer that work is a bad thing.
But it depends on whom you ask and when. For those displaced people down in New Orleans who have lost everything – their home sand their jobs – who will be looking for work to support their families. How do you they’ll answer? Or for the rescue worker dangling on a steel cable from a helicopter who lifts a frightened child from a rooftop, the only dry place around. Ask him if work is good. Or the Army Corps of Engineers who are getting little or no sleep, using their creativity and skills to repair the breeched levies, is their work good. I was in the maternity ward visiting Melissa and Darren Jones and our newest little member, Allie. As I walked out, I greeted the nurses at the nursing station. They all had these serene smiles. All was well in the nursery, you see. At that moment, no one was in labor and delivery, there were no crises all there was was the delightful routine….happy new parents and new grandparents and the quiet cries of new born babies – life is good!. Would those nurses say work is bad or good? All will answer a resounding yes, work is good.
The Bible answers “Yes,” also. Work is good according to the Bible.
Sometimes we miss something in the creation story. In reading the first chapters of the Bible, we see that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and were punished by God, God told Adam that now he’d have to toil: 7And to the man he 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;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 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.”
But that is after the disobedience. What about before? What did God intend? It says in the second chapter of Genesis, before the sin and punishment, 15The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
We were created with a job! Grounds keeper for garden earth. And the boss? God. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Thus there is a difference in the Bible between “work” and “toil.” We use the word “vocation,” for good work. Vocation is work to which one is “called.” (consider the Latin root of vocation – as in vocal).
And for every parent who is trying to get his child to work, there are commandments in the Bible to work. Though the passage from Ephesians specifically mentions thieves, it gives us the reason we work - 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
We are to work so we can give to others. One of the deacons in a previous church was a young man who had taken over his father’s business – a dairy products distribution network. His name was Bill Fuller, Jr., and Bill was an excellent businessman. His father had built a successful business, but when his son took it over, he drove it to incredible profitability. He gave the stewardship talk in church one Sunday, and I will never forget the words of that young man. “You all know me,” he said. “You know my business makes real good money.” Then he said, “The only reason I do that is so I can do this.” Then he went on to say he only worked so he and his family could come to church and support it and do good.
We work not to build fabulous wealth, but to be able to help others and serve. Nowhere is that more apparent than during a crisis like the one in Louisiana and Mississippi. Many people have said to me this week that they just wish they could go there and help – right now! They would likeot go there; to that gut-wrenching, smelly work. It appeals to something inside them – it is the work of mercy, the work of love.
In 2 Thessalonians (ch. 3) Paul chides those Christians who refuse to work, believing Jesus will return any day, who sit idle.
Did you know that in the Ten Commandments there is a commandment to work? The commandment to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy begins with a command to work! In verse 9 we read,; Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God
So is work good or bad?
Work is good. We were made to work – in the sense of vocation – or calling – or having something worthwhile to contribute to society.
You know the definition of good job. A good job is one you want to go to on Monday morning.
There is a great show on TV about “dirty” jobs – everything from cleaning cesspools to mopping up after pigs in their stalls to picking up road kill on highways. Some of these jobs would turn our stomachs. Some jobs, such as a dull repetitive job in a factory mass producing a product may be colossally boring. What of that work? Is it good?
A man or woman trapped in drudgery can still make something of the job, even in its tedium. How? By Christian love. By helping coworkers, by enriching the lives of others with whom they come into contact day by day. There is always room for Christian love and goodness knows a need for it. And for those in “dirty” jobs, there can still be the satisfaction of work well done that makes life better for someone else – maybe everyone else! It is necessary work.
And we should pray for those who are underpaid for their work and for the unemployed. I was shocked to learn that the unemployment rate in New Orleans, before the hurricane struck was thirty percent. Thirty percent! There are so many people looking for work who cannot find it. Our national unemployment rate is not bad right now (it just fell to 4.9%), but in our cities there is a desperate need for jobs.
And it is time to raise the minimum wage. It is unconscionable that over the past six years, our congress has raised its salary numerous times, citing need, while refusing to raise the minimum wage for the poorest paid workers in our country, saying it would hurt the economy. If you read your Bible, you will find that God does not like that and that God will hold accountable those nations who grow rich at the expense of the poor.
In every society, there are slackers. But most people are just like you and me – they want to work. Productive work that pays a living wage helps our lives have purpose and meaning. People need that and have a right to work.
So according to the Word of God, work is good. We depend on each other. Our church secretary, who loves her job, commented on this theme for this sermon that work is “therapeutic.” It is good for what ails her, because she comes here to serve and in serving finds meaning.
And for those retired from the work force – you retirees, how much the church depends on you for your hard work here, volunteering. That is good, and we could hardly do without your work and you!
Meaningful work is God’s gift to us.
Fred D. Mueller
Exodus 20
1Then God spoke all these words:
2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before£ me.
4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation£ of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
8Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For 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.
12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13You shall not murder.£
14You shall not commit adultery.
15You shall not steal.
16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Rules for the New Life Ephesians 4
25So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil. 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,£ as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.£ 5:1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 5:2and live in love, as Christ loved us£ and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
