Thinking about Working

My first job was at a local grocery store. My job, along with about 4 others, was to unload the daily supply truck. There were boxes filled with beans, shampoo, paper towels and such that needed to be taken off the truck and placed onto stocking carts. The carts would be taken out into the store to restock the shelves. This first job was my entry into the “working world”. I was given lots of advice from various managers at the store, family and friends on how best to handle the job. Most of the advice boiled down to one main motto “work smarter not harder”. I suppose at the heart of this motto is the understanding that if one works smarter than work will not become difficult. Yet, for most of my co-workers at the grocery store work was something that did not involve brains or smarts. They would rather be like “the Dude” from the 1998 movie the Big Lebowski then do anything resembling the definition of work. Thus work was something that became associated with words like hard, tedious, long, dumb as well as a host of other colorful metaphors.

Not only does work seem to be something to be avoid as a Christian there also seems to be different types of work. Seems that within Christianity there is “worldly” work and “spiritual” work.  Thus you hear Christians speak of having a job in the "secular world" which operates in certain ways and "spiritual work/matters" that operate in other ways. Much of this “worldly” and “spiritual” separation of work can be traced back to Luther during the Reformation. Luther taught that God’s providential will was accomplished through human and natural means. This can be viewed most clearly in Luther’s understanding of Romans chapters 12 and 13. Using Romans 12-13 it was Luther’s contention that all authority is from God. Thus governmental authorities are God’s agents or instruments to carry out justice. Luther reconciled Romans 12-13 mention of reconciliation and forgiveness by suggesting that there are different types of vocations. Luther contended that is was completely appropriate for governmental agents to punish criminals but not appropriate for Christians to do the same. Different vocations have different roles. However some problems begin to arise when say a Christian becomes an agent of the government. Should a Christian in the role of an agent of the government place their allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount on hold so that they might carry out justice in the form of God’s wrath? Should one act on the basis of civic duty in one venue and then act differently when at home or off duty? The theology of Kingdoms and spheres leads to a kind of schizophrenic Christian life. The Gospels do not suggest that following the teachings of Jesus as found in the Sermon on Mount are limited to a private sphere or when “off duty” from civic obligations. Ultimatly Luther’s argument relies upon Augustine’s view that God has predestined all things to happen either by causing things to happen or passively allowing things to happen. A major issue of this approach is that ultimately God becomes the author of sin and evil.

Separating sacred and secular is a receipt for disaster when it comes to faith and work. Work is typically assumed to be in the secular category. One’s faith in connection to one’s work is often left hanging or worse it is assumed that there is no connection. This can be witnessed by those who hold to the position of “once saved always saved”. The assumption is that once a person is saved their behavior and work has little or no connection to salvation. Most assuredly God can redeem his world without human assistance. It would seem that God desires to use humans as instruments to do his work. Paul suggests in Romans 14:20 that the work of God can be hindered or helped by what humans do when he says “Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.” The issue is stated most clearly in I Corinthians 3:9 when Paul states “for we are God’s co-workers” or hear from Ephesians 2:10 “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” From the biblical view working with another person involves koinonia a common participation. Koinonia is not the co-opting of one party by another nor is it one party being used to achieve only the goals of another. Miroslav Volf points that there is much agreement between most Protestants and Catholics that the Bible views human work as co-operation with God. Genesis 2 suggests that the lack of vegetation on the new world have both a human and divine cause: God has not yet sent rain, and no human has tilled the ground.

Perhaps this brief reflection on work suggests that too few Christians have discovered that our work is not merely a means of support but also a means of making a difference in the world. Perhaps our obsession with work and working is often more a preoccupation with self-realization and authentication than the result of some long forgotten Protestant work ethic.  Sadly much of our focus on work ends up as worship of the self then anything about God. Our work does not grant us our humanity. Yet, our work can be a method of expressing our likeness to God as creators, sustainers and redeemers. What we do is part of who we are. The question that is waiting to be answered is: Will we fashion our work into something that reflects God and the primary tasks he has given us to do?