Introduction: The following is number 3 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.
What is God’s Work?
1. It creates, it makes, it plants, it reproduces – it empowers the disempowered , engages the unengaged – it doesn’t subtract but adds
One of the things that we might recognize when we first read the creation account is that God does not create by and only for Himself. Firstly, He creates ‘in, for, through and by’ Sacred communing community. It is God/Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit/Breath that is the communing community. God’s design for work is not that it should be done alone, and for self. In fact God says, “it’s not good for man to be alone.”
There is a very cool image in the Prologue of John. The Apostle John starts his Gospel in the same pattern as opening verse of Genesis 1 – this is by design. “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” It would have brought an immediate reaction from the Jewish readers “Wait a minute, I thought ‘in the beginning God!” This of course is John’s whole point. The Greek word that is translated ‘with’ is actually far more profound and interesting than it first seems. The word in Greek is pros, which may better represented by the word ‘toward’. It could equally read “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God”. Picture this, at creation Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not only with God, but they are constantly and eternally facing toward each other in this indescribable, infinite Sacred Dance (Migloire 69). Out of that dance the work of creation unfolds - explodes – out of divine, pure and holy love. Out of eternal good hope the God-head extends His hand in invitation for us to join in that Sacred Dance of not just working with God, but the opportunity to be toward God, in the eternal Now (our past, present and future expressed in our experience this second). The intimacy of that invitation is profound. As we come toward God with our work, we join in the dance of creation, empowerment, light; of adding to and bringing meaning and order out formlessness and chaos. Our Work is bringing God’s presence into the Now. That Now could be with our spouse, family, on the freeway, on the street corner, or even at our job.
Consider the implications about what our work really is; what it means to do God’s Work; what it means to be in community together doing that work and the knowledge that our work really matters to God. It is highly important for us to both realize and join with God as He extends His hand inviting us to participate in His Work. But that invitation opens the opportunity for another invitation in the image of God, we extend our hands to each other and especially toward those who have exceptional needs. For God has created all to be equal and valued participants. If Pope John Paul is right about Work being an essential key to the social questions we need to wrestle with, the fact is that many of those who are labeled disabled are not permitted to participate in this life giving work. Therefore a significant part of our Work with our individual jobs here at Christian Horizons is to work to bring this about. This idea, along with the Ottawa employment event in October, has got me thinking about how we go beyond inclusion – to partners, to the embracing of full partnership. Is that possible, is it reasonable, is it just, and is it the intention of God’s heart?
The problem: We have separated God’s Work, and Human Work
What is God’s Work?
1. It creates, it makes, it plants, it reproduces – it empowers the disempowered , engages the unengaged – it doesn’t subtract but adds
One of the things that we might recognize when we first read the creation account is that God does not create by and only for Himself. Firstly, He creates ‘in, for, through and by’ Sacred communing community. It is God/Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit/Breath that is the communing community. God’s design for work is not that it should be done alone, and for self. In fact God says, “it’s not good for man to be alone.”
There is a very cool image in the Prologue of John. The Apostle John starts his Gospel in the same pattern as opening verse of Genesis 1 – this is by design. “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” It would have brought an immediate reaction from the Jewish readers “Wait a minute, I thought ‘in the beginning God!” This of course is John’s whole point. The Greek word that is translated ‘with’ is actually far more profound and interesting than it first seems. The word in Greek is pros, which may better represented by the word ‘toward’. It could equally read “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God”. Picture this, at creation Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not only with God, but they are constantly and eternally facing toward each other in this indescribable, infinite Sacred Dance (Migloire 69). Out of that dance the work of creation unfolds - explodes – out of divine, pure and holy love. Out of eternal good hope the God-head extends His hand in invitation for us to join in that Sacred Dance of not just working with God, but the opportunity to be toward God, in the eternal Now (our past, present and future expressed in our experience this second). The intimacy of that invitation is profound. As we come toward God with our work, we join in the dance of creation, empowerment, light; of adding to and bringing meaning and order out formlessness and chaos. Our Work is bringing God’s presence into the Now. That Now could be with our spouse, family, on the freeway, on the street corner, or even at our job.
Consider the implications about what our work really is; what it means to do God’s Work; what it means to be in community together doing that work and the knowledge that our work really matters to God. It is highly important for us to both realize and join with God as He extends His hand inviting us to participate in His Work. But that invitation opens the opportunity for another invitation in the image of God, we extend our hands to each other and especially toward those who have exceptional needs. For God has created all to be equal and valued participants. If Pope John Paul is right about Work being an essential key to the social questions we need to wrestle with, the fact is that many of those who are labeled disabled are not permitted to participate in this life giving work. Therefore a significant part of our Work with our individual jobs here at Christian Horizons is to work to bring this about. This idea, along with the Ottawa employment event in October, has got me thinking about how we go beyond inclusion – to partners, to the embracing of full partnership. Is that possible, is it reasonable, is it just, and is it the intention of God’s heart?
Neil Cudney
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