Introduction: The following is number 2 of 6 blog postings entitled Our faith @ work that are part of the keynote address given at the CH Leaders conference in Nov 2009 in Orillia.
Gen 2:1-3
Did you get the point, God worked!
Creation of Humanity:
Gen 1:26-28
The next amazing discovery after, there is God and He works, is this, He personally and uniquely made us. God creates the animals and calls them all to multiply after their own kind. – However, He does something different in His creation of Humanity that both connects humanity with the earthly created order, and the image of the infinite God. We are not just called to be fruitful and multiply after our own kind, but also to be bearers of God’s image, and to reflect that image to others (Heb 1:3). Humanity is also uniquely called to ‘work’ with God which is distinct from the mandate He give the rest of Creation.
Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Gen 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate (work/serve) it and keep it.
Of additional note is that the Hebrew word for cultivate also is rooted in two words work and serve. This linkage between ‘to work’ and ‘to serve’ here is intentional. Godly work serves, therefore work that reflects God’s image, must also serve. There is no other creature on earth that God has called to work or is able to rest and take joy in their work, by looking at it saying “It is good”. There is another thing to notice here, there is another word shift, from the original call to cultivate (work/serve) the ground, to ‘you will ‘sweat’ to gain fruit.’ The implication is that conflict of interest, selfish ambition has entered into the equation – So rather than work ‘working for us’, it can work against us, and you will strive against it and force it to produce. I want to suggest to us that our work can be redeemed.
Pope John Paul II wrote a small but important book called "Laborem Exercens: On Human Work". In that book he encourages the reader to rethink what it means to work. In it he says this, “In fact human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question…” (On Human Work p. 10). The social question is how does a just society engage with its citizens in the work of God, spiritually, economically, politically and socially? How do we ensure that work does not destroy people and the environment, but empowers and heals and reflects the nature and purposes of God for all people? What would that society look like from a Kingdom of God perspective? The point of all this is that God has created work for us – He has not created us for work. But not all work that we do is the work that God created for us. All we need to do is look around the world and we know that. Quite frankly most of work is really messed up. Much of work is sweating against God – but the results of this working against God is stress, depression, greed, pride, selfishness, domination, control, poverty, war, destruction of people and earth, injustice and death emotionally, psychologically, socially and physically. God’s purpose is that we would work with Him in Creation and not against Him. The Work of Creation is ongoing, bringing light into darkness, bringing order to chaos, bringing the Good News that He has created us in His image to be in a knowing, loving co-loving relationships with Him.
The idea of doing ‘God’s Work’ has been confused. “I do God’s Work” tends to mean, I’m a Pastor, Missionary, religious fanatic. So, many feel they can’t do it, or do not want to it because they’re not qualified, or don’t want to because it is not relevant to real life. If we took that line of reasoning, we’d have to say that farmers really do God’s Work, because the first job was not preaching, but tending to the land and animals. Our task or our eight hour ‘job’ is actually secondary, at best, to our Work. What then is work? Rather than going to work, we take our work to our job. God tells us very directly what He wants from us. In Micah 6 we read:
"He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?"
Our work is far bigger than what it is we answer when someone asks, “What do you do for a living?” The next time someone asks you what you do for work, tell them “I’m a co-creator in the universe; I advance justice, deliver kindness and walk with God.” I bet that will open up some interesting discussion for you.
The problem is our understanding of our work – Work is not a ‘necessary evil’, it is not a result of the fall but the result of the curse given to Adam “by the sweat of your face You shall eat bread.” But obviousily the curse does impact the results of our labour. If we look at the idea of work through Scripture, we discover that work existed before the creation of humanity, and maybe this is bad news for some. It seems that work is an essential component in the New Heavens and Earth – and it is God’s purpose that we will be participants in that new infinite, universal work program; so much for the harp playing, cloud sitting retirement program.
In the first line of Genesis, after the initial shocking discovery of “In the beginning God…” is the revelation that God works: He creates, moves, speaks, makes, calls into place and He breathes. He took great pleasure and delights in the results of His work, causing Him to regularly step back and pronounces “It is good”. In fact in Genesis 1 God says “It is good” 7 times. ‘It is Good’ isn’t a phrase that is repeated over and over again because in order to pass the course Moses had to submit an Old Testament Theology paper with a certain number count. It’s a strategy that works; any of you that have kids know that repeating things over and over work, “dad, Dad, DAD, DAD!”, finally results in a ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?” It is something that is supposed to draw our attention, it stands out and we are to take notice of something vitally important to God, it raises the question “okay, okay what is good”? The good news is that the result of work can be good. Work is not supposed to be the death of us, but life giving and a passion of our existence. And it can be a passionate life giving force when we are orienting the goals of our work toward purposes for which God created us. The closing line of that chapter first chapter says, "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. "
Gen 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Did you get the point, God worked!
Creation of Humanity:
Gen 2:5
Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate (work) the ground
Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate (work) the ground
Gen 1:26-28
26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
The next amazing discovery after, there is God and He works, is this, He personally and uniquely made us. God creates the animals and calls them all to multiply after their own kind. – However, He does something different in His creation of Humanity that both connects humanity with the earthly created order, and the image of the infinite God. We are not just called to be fruitful and multiply after our own kind, but also to be bearers of God’s image, and to reflect that image to others (Heb 1:3). Humanity is also uniquely called to ‘work’ with God which is distinct from the mandate He give the rest of Creation.
Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Gen 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate (work/serve) it and keep it.
Of additional note is that the Hebrew word for cultivate also is rooted in two words work and serve. This linkage between ‘to work’ and ‘to serve’ here is intentional. Godly work serves, therefore work that reflects God’s image, must also serve. There is no other creature on earth that God has called to work or is able to rest and take joy in their work, by looking at it saying “It is good”. There is another thing to notice here, there is another word shift, from the original call to cultivate (work/serve) the ground, to ‘you will ‘sweat’ to gain fruit.’ The implication is that conflict of interest, selfish ambition has entered into the equation – So rather than work ‘working for us’, it can work against us, and you will strive against it and force it to produce. I want to suggest to us that our work can be redeemed.
Pope John Paul II wrote a small but important book called "Laborem Exercens: On Human Work". In that book he encourages the reader to rethink what it means to work. In it he says this, “In fact human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question…” (On Human Work p. 10). The social question is how does a just society engage with its citizens in the work of God, spiritually, economically, politically and socially? How do we ensure that work does not destroy people and the environment, but empowers and heals and reflects the nature and purposes of God for all people? What would that society look like from a Kingdom of God perspective? The point of all this is that God has created work for us – He has not created us for work. But not all work that we do is the work that God created for us. All we need to do is look around the world and we know that. Quite frankly most of work is really messed up. Much of work is sweating against God – but the results of this working against God is stress, depression, greed, pride, selfishness, domination, control, poverty, war, destruction of people and earth, injustice and death emotionally, psychologically, socially and physically. God’s purpose is that we would work with Him in Creation and not against Him. The Work of Creation is ongoing, bringing light into darkness, bringing order to chaos, bringing the Good News that He has created us in His image to be in a knowing, loving co-loving relationships with Him.
The idea of doing ‘God’s Work’ has been confused. “I do God’s Work” tends to mean, I’m a Pastor, Missionary, religious fanatic. So, many feel they can’t do it, or do not want to it because they’re not qualified, or don’t want to because it is not relevant to real life. If we took that line of reasoning, we’d have to say that farmers really do God’s Work, because the first job was not preaching, but tending to the land and animals. Our task or our eight hour ‘job’ is actually secondary, at best, to our Work. What then is work? Rather than going to work, we take our work to our job. God tells us very directly what He wants from us. In Micah 6 we read:
"He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?"
Our work is far bigger than what it is we answer when someone asks, “What do you do for a living?” The next time someone asks you what you do for work, tell them “I’m a co-creator in the universe; I advance justice, deliver kindness and walk with God.” I bet that will open up some interesting discussion for you.
Neil Cudney
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