"Our Work as an Offering to God"
(3rd message in an 8-part series, "An Ordinary Day With Jesus")
Sermon Transcript for February 17, 2002
By Rev. Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: I Thessalonians 4:1-12
Note: Due to a technical problem the tape that was transcribed for this text was cut short. There are a few paragraphs missing at the end.
"An Ordinary Day with Jesus", that’s our theme for these eight weeks. We looked the first week at the phrase, "Living in Jesus’ name", our text out of Colossians 3, "In whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus." And last week we talked about, being aware of the presence of Jesus with us in our "Everyday Relationships". The text came from Matthew 22, the greatest commandment, "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself." Today we want to look at our "work" and our text would come from the last two verses that Dan read. "Make it your vision to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependant on anyone."
I think that good preaching ought to bounce all over the table. Periodically it’s doctrinal. This series isn’t very doctrinal at all; it’s totally practical. At times the messages are invitational and other times they are calls to discipleship. So be aware. This series is right where you live and I hope it’s helpful to you. There was a quote in last week’s message that I want to repeat. Walker said, "God isn’t interested in some abstract thing called your spiritual life, God is interested in your life – all of it!" And isn’t it true that work is where we spend most of our hours. And I want to say at the beginning that all of your work, even if you are still in school and looking forward to a time of employment, or if you have to be in the period of life we call the retirement years, we all work. So what does it mean to go about our work in Jesus’ name or to use today’s sermon title, to see our work as an offering to God?
The truth is work is awful hard. Many of you would paraphrase the words from a song in the Disney movie, Snow White, "We owe, we owe, so off to work we go!" And when we think of work let’s remember that many persons work very hard without a paycheck. Early in my teaching career at a parent-teacher conference, I made a mistake that I’ve never made again. A young mother came in to the room and I asked her, "Do you work?" To which she gave me a piercing glance and said, "Yes, there are four children in my home that I am rearing." Because I had implied that question, "Where do you work outside the home?" And she let me know real quickly that she worked even though she might not bring home a paycheck.
Well, according to the scripture we work because we are made in the image of God. Did you ever ask yourself the question, "What’s God do all day?" He works! From the beginning of the Bible when God was at work in creation, to His work in salvation in history, and in His work through the Holy Spirit continuing today, God works. Jesus worked. We focus on his three years of ministry, but did you ever reflect upon the fact that Jesus was a carpenter in Nazareth about four times as long as He was an itinerant preacher? In fact, in John 5:17 Jesus said, "My father’s always at work to this very day, and I too am working."
As we think of our work, we need to see our work as a way of bringing blessing to others. The writer said, "Working in Jesus’ name means partnering with God to care for his creation and serve others." I like that. Because when we come to the end of our days on this earth, we want to be able to look back at what we’ve done and feel that we left this world a better place than when we entered. So we partner with God to care for creation and serve others.
Okay, let’s start at the beginning of our workday. How would you begin your workday in Jesus’ name? Let me share three quick things:
Show up on time: Number one, I think we’d show up on time. In fact I think we’d show up early. When we come to work, most of you work with others. If we begin our work as Jesus would when we enter our workplace I don’t think we’d be making a beeline, unless we had to, to our desk, close the door and lock ourselves out from the world.
Check in with our co-workers: But do we check in with our co-workers? Do we greet them as Jesus would greet them? Do we ask what’s going on in their life? If we know they have some caring concern, do we see how that person in their family is doing? I think Jesus would for He was very much in to relationships.
Take time to pray: And then we ought to begin our day by taking time to pray. Now not an hour prayer, that’s robbing your employer. But to pause for just a moment to say, "Lord I acknowledge your presence with me. Guide me; strengthen me. I’ve got a tough appointment at 3:00 p.m. Help me with that." But begin it with prayer.
Well, let’s move on now to what we can do throughout our workday to be more aware of Christ’s presence. I’d like to suggest five things:
Symbol of faith: Number one, I want you to think about the setting for your work. Have in your mind your workspace. Now for some of you it may be impossible for a variety of reasons. But for many of us, are there any symbols there that remind you of God’s presence--a picture or a little something on your desk? If you are a student at school a cross around your neck, a WWJD bracelet. Is there something in your workplace that is a symbol of your faith? If not, go to a Christian bookstore to find something to place in your work environment to remind you of God’s presence. But also, it becomes a witness to others around you of your faith.
Simple acts of service: The second thing we can do relates to last week’s sermon on relationships. Unless you have a very unique job your job involves other people. In our relationships with them we need to look for opportunities to do simple acts of service. Now Mary Dougherty is not a part of our church paid staff, although she’s here enough she ought to be. But our support staff meets every Wednesday for lunch. And Mary, this week, brought in lunch. She didn’t even eat with us! But she brought us in these to die for ham biscuits and scalloped potatoes. A simple act of service; but it made us feel valued, appreciated, loved.
Learn from difficult people: And in addition to serving people, thirdly, we need to learn from them. And this is especially true in terms of, hear me carefully you don’t want to hear it but it goes back to last week, it’s especially true in terms of the difficult people you have to work with. Believe it or not we need difficult people in our lives because it’s them that help us grow the most. Every difficult person represents a learning opportunity. And a phrase you might want to keep in mind when those persons cross your path, as you’re trying to love them tell yourself "school is in session". You may be dealing with a strong-willed child at home. We raised one of those. It may be at work with a very demanding, unappreciative boss or a gossipy co-worker. Or you may be struggling with customers’ complaints. Whatever the interaction, being aware of God’s presence, we’re reminding ourselves God’s school is now in session and this person, this difficult person, is the curriculum. What can I learn as I try to love them? What can I learn about myself? Now, in the event that you don’t know any difficult people, you see Reverend Dan or myself after the service because believe it or not we’ve got a few difficult members on the rolls and we will loan one of them to you as your opportunity to grow in love.
Learn to receive feedback in a positive way: Fourthly, we need to learn to receive feedback in a positive way. Paul said in Romans 12:3, "We need to think of ourselves with sober judgment". Feedback comes in a variety of ways. It may be an evaluation from your boss, words from a co-worker or a customer, or your kids telling you what they think of your parenting skills or lack thereof. And most of us find feedback difficult and we have a tendency to become defensive especially if we are working hard. But, friends, if we can overcome our defensiveness, feedback becomes a great opportunity for growth for we all have blind spots. We are doing our best but there are things in our life or in our personality that we don’t see, and instead of becoming defensive, we need to see it as a gift that can help me become a better person.
Now, I want to make a sidelight to here. That’s not the same thing as thinking you can please all the people all the time. I appreciate positive feedback. I know I’m a long way from being perfect and I’ve learned to become less defensive and see constructive criticism is a way to improve. But having said that, there are often times that somebody says a word to me that I let go in one ear and right out the other because it has no basis in reality at all and I can’t please all the people all the time. So it’s not that, but it is learning to receive feedback in a positive way.
Take mini-breaks: And then the fifth way to experience God’s presence during the workday is to take mini-breaks. God gave us a wonderful example in creation. Creation was described as taking place in stages. And at the end of each day God says that He took a look and saw that it was good. And then on the seventh day God rested. Friends, it’s not more spiritual to work yourself in to exhaustion. Like God we need to take periodic times for refreshment, to look back to see that our work is good, to focus on God for we don’t want to just work for God we want to work with God. And you won’t do that unless you take a break every now and then.
Let me give you a couple of examples. Now, I’m not always able to do it but if I’ve got an appointment say at 3:00 p.m. I try to stop about five minutes till 3:00 p.m., go out and sit in that chair, and rest my mind for a moment so that I can be fresh to talk about whatever that person needed to talk about. You can do that when you learn to leave a few minutes early for an appointment. This week I was able to get over to the Community on Monday early for my prayer group, and because of that as I was walking beside the dining room, there was Dora Wolfe. And I was able to sit down and look out at the beautiful sunshine for about five to ten minutes before we went on to prayer group. It was a pause that refreshed. And most of you know me well enough now to know that there are very few times that I don’t have a diet Coke in my hand. And Sandy can tell you I can walk down to Price Hall to get my diet Coke out of the machine, but those ladies down at Bigfoot, they need my ministry. And when I take that seven minutes or so to go get in my car, drive down the road, refill the drink, come back, it’s a pause that refreshes. In your work you need to take mini-breaks.
So once we know how to begin the workday and create the right setting, look for opportunities to serve others, learn from difficult people, take feedback well, take breaks, there’s one thing left to do. Do you know what it is? Go home! And when you go home, leave the work at the office. Now for you moms working at home taking care of the kids that’s tougher to do. But ending the workday in Jesus’ name, for you young moms, you probably don’t have an end to your workday. But ending it is just as important as beginning it. Are you one of those persons who bring their work home with you? Who focuses on what you didn’t get done instead of what you did? If so, learn at the end of the day to pause, to give thanks for what’s been done, to ask God to help you in the words of the prayer hymn today with the things that are undone, and then pray and ask God to let you leave your work behind and go home and truly be home. September 11th taught us something about that. My good wife often complains that she’s the last person in the church to know what’s going on. People come up to her and say, "Oh by the way do you know about such and such?" She says, "Mike didn’t say anything to me about that." But see, that’s intentional. When I walk out of this office and go home, I don’t want to talk about church stuff. I want to go home. I want to be home.
Let me share two real quick observations, additional ones, then we’re done.
Unpaid work, greatest contribution to the kingdom of God: First, realize that your unpaid work may be what brings the greatest contribution to the kingdom of God. We live in a society that values almost everything by paycheck – how big the paycheck is, how much you’re worth. But that’s often not true. Tony Capallo said that his wife, Peggy, when she was a full-time homemaker, and some woman asked her what do you do, she would respond, "I’m socializing," she said, "two Homosapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they may be instruments of transformation of the social order in to the kind of eschatological utopia that God willed from the beginning of creation". And then she would ask the other person, "And what is it that you do?" If you don’t receive a paycheck for your work, working in Jesus’ name may mean reminding yourself of how important your unpaid work is.
(End of tape)
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