Posts tagged ‘Vocation’
ABC Extra – Some Much Needed Rest
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we talked about the importance of working smarter rather than harder. The poster child for the opposite – working harder rather than smarter – was Moses, who, after he explained to his father-in-law Jethro how he was serving as the sole arbiter and judge for all of Israel’s disputes, was told by his father-in-law, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone” (Exodus 18:17-18). Blessedly, Moses humbly swallowed his pride and, in Exodus 18:24, we read, “Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.”
Moses may have had the good sense to listen to his father-in-law and delegate some of his duties to other trustworthy Israelites, but, even with some much needed help, Moses’ responsibilities did not suddenly became light and easy. Jethro admits as much when, after encouraging Moses to share his workload with others, he says, “If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain” (Exodus 18:23). Moses’ responsibilities, though fewer, will continue to be straining and stressful. There will still be plenty for Moses to do.
Perhaps you can relate to Moses. After all, you, like Moses, have probably been told of the importance of working smarter and not harder. Yet, no matter how many time management principles you implement and no matter how many tasks you delegate, you, like Moses, may still find yourself awash in a sea of obligations and unexpected troubles that can become overwhelming at times. What do you do when the principles of working smarter rather than harder fail you? Jesus shows the way.
Mark 6 proves to be one of the most tragic in the Gospel. Jesus’ dear friend and cousin, John the Baptist, is beheaded at the behest of Herod Antipas’ stepdaughter. Jesus is understandably distraught. But Jesus’ jam-packed calendar of ministry marches on. In the episode immediately succeeding John the Baptist’s untimely death, Mark notes, “So many people were coming and going that Jesus and His disciples did not even have a chance to eat” (Mark 6:31). Jesus may be mourning, but the crowds still want to see Him.
It is with the memory of Jesus’ cousin weighing in on Him and the throngs of curiosity seekers pressing down around Him that Jesus issues an invitation to His disciples, “Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31).
Jesus’ invitation is fascinating. Though Jesus Himself is certainly tired and emotionally spent, Jesus’ primary concern is not with Himself, but with His disciples. The verbs of His invitation – “come” and “get some rest” – are second person plural verbs. That is, Jesus is saying to His followers, “You come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and you get some rest.” Jesus, knowing that His disciples are exhausted even as He is exhausted, nevertheless has compassion on His disciples and invites them to get some rest by spending time with Him.
Jesus, it seems, is a man of boundless compassion. He has compassion on His disciples when He invites them to rest with Him. When Jesus’ plans for a peaceful getaway are foiled because large crowds follow Him to His destination, Mark notes, “He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things” (Mark 6:34). Jesus has compassion on the crowds when He cancels His vacation plans to preach them a sermon. Following His sermon, when He finds out the crowds He has been teaching are hungry, He has compassion on the multitudes by holding history’s first potluck. When everyone else forgets to bring a side dish, Jesus takes the meager offering of a little boy – five loaves and two fish – and multiplies it to feed five thousand.
As He does on the disciples when they are tired and as He does on the crowds when they are spiritually lost and physically hungry, Jesus has compassion on you too. When your life is straining and stressful, Jesus understands. After all, He has gone through straining and stressful times too – losing loved ones and being exhausted by the rigors of day-to-day ministry. But Jesus doesn’t just empathize, He can also help. For the same invitation He offers to His disciples, He extends to you: “Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31). Or, as He puts it another time: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
No time management principle – no matter how good it may be – can remove all stress and strain from life. For life is full of the unexpected. But no stress or strain – no matter how heavy – can destroy the peace and rest that Jesus gives. For the peace and rest that Jesus gives is not based on life’s circumstances, but on His promise. And His promise is stronger than life’s stresses.
So go away with Jesus and get some rest. You need it.
ABC Extra – Harder Than A Hard Day’s Night
Christianity promotes and celebrates the value and the glory of work. Indeed, the famed, even if sometimes maligned, “Protestant Work Ethic” has been instrumental in engendering much of the industriousness that has marked the history of this country. From the faith’s earliest years, Christians have esteemed work and eschewed laziness. The Didache, a manual of early Christian practice, doctrine, and discipline from the turn of the second century, lays down this rule for those who wish to join the Christian community:
Let every one that comes in the name of the Lord be received…If the comer is a traveller, assist him, so far as you are able; but he shall not stay with you more than two or three days, if it be necessary. But if he wishes to settle with you, being a craftsman, let him work for and eat his bread. But if he has no craft, according to your wisdom provide how he shall live as a Christian among you, but not in idleness. If he will not do this, he is trafficking upon Christ. Beware of such men. (Didache 12:1-5)
With these words, we hear a call to both charity and industry. On the one hand, Christians are to receive even strangers into their midst and assist them as much as possible. On the other hand, if Christians catch whiffs of idleness among a person who joins their ranks, he is to be disciplined. Laziness will not be tolerated.
Certainly such a strict and demanding work ethic has raised more than a little ire among many. Overbearing corporate policies and malfeasance among management types is the bane of many rank and file employees. These troubles, in turn, often lead to a spirit of idleness. After all, the reasoning goes, if a work environment is miserable and miserly, why would an employee want to give it their all? If the powers that be won’t treat them fairly, they simply won’t offer their best. They’ll just do what they need to do to keep their job until a better prospect comes along. The difficulty with this kind of thinking, however, is that it is patently unbiblical. The apostle Peter admonishes:
Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. (1 Peter 2:18-20)
A couple of words jump out at me from this passage. First, the word for “masters” is despotes, from which we get our English word “despot.” In our day and age, nobody likes a despot. Dictionary.com defines a “despot” as “any tyrant or oppressor.”[1] Peter says, despite the wickedness of some despotic superiors, we still ought to work hard. Their vileness should not result in our laziness. Second, the word for “harsh” in Greek is skolios, from which we get our medical term “scoliosis,” a condition which describes an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine, or, more popularly stated, a crooked back. Peter knows full well that many managers are crooked. Yet, he encourages us to be faithful in our work even when these managers are unfaithful in their leadership.
The sentiment put forth by Peter’s words is certainly not a popular one. But is a Christian one. Peter knows and admits that our work will not always be easy. And yet, when our work is hard and the road is long, we have this promise: God is working in us and through us amidst even the most adverse of circumstances. As Paul reminds us, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). Our work, then – even our arduous work – is a place and a space for God to work. God hides His glorious work in our sorrowful work.
Do you see your work this way? By faith, you can. I love the way Gene Veith puts it in his book on Christian vocation: “It is faith that transforms suffering into a cross.”[2] May we see the suffering we encounter in our vocations as a cross, gifted to us by Christ, redeeming our suffering for His glory.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
[1] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/despot
[2] Gene Edward Veith, Jr., God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2002) 153.
Sermon Extra – Glorious Work
Work is a blessing from God. Do you believe this? I have talked to far too many people who do not believe this – at least if the way they talk about their jobs is any indication of what they believe. Complaints about the incompetence of co-workers, the ineptitude of the boss, and the inequity of one’s paycheck are all commonplace. Granted, even Scripture admits that work involves frustration and difficulty. This is a result of the Fall into sin. God tells Adam after he has eaten from the fruit of the forbidden tree: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” (Genesis 3:17-19). The Hebrew word for “painful toil” is isabon, which refers to both physical and emotional pain. And certainly this can be true of our work. There are days at the office, in the shop, or on the site that are not only physically exhausting, they’re emotionally exhausting as well. But it must be remembered that the isabon of work is a result of sin and not part of God’s original design and desire for work. Work was originally created to be a privilege and joy. Indeed, work was part of creation even before the Fall. Immediately after God creates Adam, God takes “the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). God has weaved and woven work into the fabric of His creation.
Such a high view of work is unique to Christianity. Ancient pagan literature takes a much grimmer view of labor. The ancient eighteenth century BC Akkadian Epic of Atra-Hasis has its own account of the origin of human work. The epic opens: “Great indeed was the drudgery of the gods, the forced labor was heavy, the misery too much.” The gods, according to this epic, were tired of having to work. They considered it “drudgery.” How do the gods solve their drudgery dilemma? They declare, “Let us create, then, a human, a man. Let him bear the yoke! Let him bear the yoke! Let man assume the drudgery of the god.” In Atra-Hasis, humans are created to do the work the gods do not care to do themselves. Work, in and of itself, is, in this epic, an awkward annoyance, to be pawned off and passed off by any means possible. This, however, is not Christianity’s view of work.
According to Christianity, work was not originally created to be a burden, but a high and holy privilege. It was part of the authority God graciously allowed human beings to exercise over His creation. God says in the creation account, “Let man rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26). The work of ruling the earth was meant to be an awesome honor, not a cumbersome curse.
The German sociologist Max Weber coined the phrase “Protestant work ethic” to refer to the premium on which Protestants, and the Puritans especially, put on work. Unfortunately, Weber understood this ethic moralistically, glorifying the “self-made man” and trumpeting the tangible rewards of hard work, rather than understanding one who works hard as carrying out his divinely ordained vocation before God for his neighbor, regardless of the earthly rewards. The true “Protestant work ethic” is wrapped up in the doctrine of vocation, which sees every job, be it stately or homely, as a gift from God as long as it is not immoral in its nature (e.g., prostitution, drug dealing, etc.). Thus, work – all work – is a gift from God to glorify Him and to help one’s neighbor. Work – all work – is meant to impart dignity, not drudgery, to human beings. In the words of John Milton:
Man hath his daily work of body and mind
Appointed, which declares his dignity,
And the regard of Heaven on all his ways.
Heaven regards your work well. So praise and thank God for your work and stand honored at eternity’s acclaim.
Want to learn more? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
Pastor Zach's Blog 