Workers
James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

August 31, 2003

Every Sunday, every worship service in which we participate, is a performance of labour.

The “work of the people” or “liturgy” is what we are engaged in right now. Worship is work insofar as we attempt to raise our praise of God to an understanding of God’s actions and an experience of the living presence of God.

We Protestants do not use the work liturgy easily, associating liturgy with elaborate prayers and eucharistic actions, divine dramas. Such worship seems beyond our ability and inclination. We pray simply, sing a lot, read and hear and proclaim the written Word, and not much else. It’s not even liturgy in that High Church sense, just simple worship, praying, singing, and preaching. But it’s still work.

The two New Testament episodes read to us present complimentary views on work. Mark is heavier on the freedom of the Christian spirit that perceives the world as God’s playground where evil erupts only from within the corrupted human soul. James counters with the responsibility of the Gospel that makes sure our words do not die on the page. One must do the Word. Evil does originate outside the human being and must be defended against constantly.

Jesus and his disciples always seem to be accused of not living a properly religious life. They don’t know how to eat correctly. Basically, they work when they are supposed to be rest, and don’t do things when they are required to work.

James, however, has watched it all happen and has seen the charisma, the enthusiasm of the free spirit, fade away into the laxity of those whose empty words pretend to be faithful, but do less than the unfaithful to help the suffering of other human beings.

The ancient Hebrews perhaps were the first to think about work. No escaping work – it is the consequence of our rebellion against and separation from God. Paradise and Eden are always depicted as work-less. The world will be perfect when you no longer have to work to live.

The Hebrews also understood that rest – not working for an interval of time – is holy and Godly. In fact, we are created in the image of God and God rested on the seventh day of creation. It is our calling to imitate the actions and being of God. Keep the sabbath, the seventh day, holy and separate from other working days.

Being perfectly good human beings, the Hebrews proceeded to make resting a lot of work, and it was against this unnatural resting that Jesus and company came into conflict. The sabbath was not meant to suppress people, but in God’s grace to give people rest for their bodies and even more for their spirits. “Sabbath is made for humanity, not humanity for the sabbath” is one of Jesus’ most original ideas.

Work then is not meant to be physically and spiritually destroying. The movement against sweat shops and child labour in the early industrial revolution always had religious overtones about the worth of a human being and the value of his or her labour. Work enables us to be more human, more creative, in addition to earning our keep.

It is no news that the love of work has run amok in parts of our society. Work has become all consuming for the individual, one defines who he or she is by one’s line of work. Some people work so much that they ignore their family and personal relationships. Often they achieve great things and so are applauded by the people who do not have to live with or near them. There is always virtue in working hard, and our culture is not alone in making its hardest workers its heroes – even if it is appropriate to dub them ‘workaholics.’

James knows too that hard work kills, but others have said that adequately enough. He is disturbed and disappointed by the Christians who pretend to be religious, who think using religious language shows that you are Christian. James wants the balance tipped back towards hard work, doing the Word, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

The Peanuts cartoon put it well: Linus is walking around to everyone saying “Bless you” in a self-satisfied way. When he is asked whether he should actually be helping people with their problems, he says that is not necessary. James is blunt: unless you do what you say is Christian, your words are in fact anti-Christian.

There is no simple solution as usual. As Christians you and I are called to work hard and to rest hard, with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength on both accounts. It is a dilemma for the conscientious Christian: where are the boundary lines?

What kind of example am I as the minister supposed to model? I do believe in the old school idea that the minister is supposed to attempt to live the kind of life the Gospel aspires to. Yet, society and the church offer mixed messages.

Actually, for the most part the church is one with society in expecting and applauding lots of hard work on the part of its ministers and pastors. I’ve heard that some ministers in this town will declare that they work 80 hour weeks. Don’t believe them; they have been caught up in this ideology. I record every activity I do, with the time it took to do it. I have been keeping these records for 18 years and I can tell you quite honestly that I now work between 45-60 hours on an average week. If someone did actually think they worked 80 hours, most of it was wasted time and wasted energy – and a very poor example for his or her beleaguered parishioners.

I am not apologetic about the work that I do, and when I add the various school and extra-curricular activities of my family, plus other community events with which I am involved, I don’t have to worry about what to do next.

But the best way to think about our holy work is in response to the needs of others. I know I can sometimes get hassled and frazzled, but I maintain that the enemy of holy work is being busy. I never want to be so busy that I have no time for anyone who comes by to talk or ask for help, whether that be a member of the church, someone dropping in off the street, a friend, one of my family, and yes, for myself. I am never busy when it comes to others, and I always have all the time in the world.

When you work that way, the holiness of labour remains holy, for faith is no longer mere words on a page, but the actions of love you invest in another person in need. Work basically means being in the presence of God, and on days like today that means recreation and rest, and hardly working at all.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan