“The True Religion of Work”
Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:16-20
Sermon Transcript for September 3, 2006
By Pastor Bob Coleman
The Scripture listed is not what I am going to be preaching on this morning because of the fact that it just came to me that this is Labor Day weekend, I guess. It’s been on the calendar for a long time and you could say, “Didn’t you know that was coming or not?” But the more I thought about it, I didn’t want to talk about labor like labor unions and such, valid as that might be. But I wanted to talk about labor in the church. But to get there, I had to recognize the labor union of this life. People want to work. Most really do. It’s important for us to work. There is a good side and a bad side to physical labor. And some of you who are now “retired” find out there is just another list of things to do that’s work that you were paid for before and now it’s work that just comes to you from almost like a waterfall or an avalanche depending upon how you look at it. And you can look at labor as the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, “Sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me because I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”
And some people feel that way, that work is such a drudgery and such a heartache. They’ve got to get up and get there in the morning. And people reflect this in their resumes. I came across some humorous responses in resumes this week. Listen to these; these are great. “I am extremely loyal to my present firm, so please don’t tell them that you know of my immediate availability.” “Note: Please don’t misconstrue my last fourteen jobs as job-hopping. I never quit a job.” There’s something between the lines on that one. Reasons for leaving the last job: “Responsibility makes me nervous.” Another one for leaving the last job is, “Insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 a.m. every morning and I just couldn’t work under those conditions.” My reason for leaving my last job: “I was met with a string of broken promises, lies, as well as cockroaches.” Now maybe for some, cockroach would be a reason. Another reason for leaving: “I was working for my mom until she decided to move.” “The company made me a scapegoat just like my three previous employers did.” A lot of people tell much more than they really want to. “I procrastinate especially when the task is unpleasant.” “Please call me after 5:30 p.m. for this job because I am self-employed and my employer does not know I am looking for another job.” Figure that one out! That sounds like a United Methodist pastor because we’re technically self-employed and employed at the same time. Maybe that was a pastor.
Well, we can laugh about it. And it is good to have a humorous side. But work is quite serious. It’s important because it helps us 1) to provide for ourselves, and also then to provide for others such as family members or maybe extended family or to whomever we would like to be able to give and help and share. One’s family, however we define that, is extremely important. And if we can help to help them by what we do in our work how much good that would be. In a Christian context, it’s a good thing to be gainfully employed for it gives us an opportunity to use our God-given gifts and talents. And like the old musical, Devil’s Workshop, its idle hands so consequently, music man was right, if you don’t work, you probably will get into trouble.
In the Christian faith work is meant to be focusing on others, providing some form of service, doing good for others, creating a sense of improvement in one’s own life, for the community, local and abroad, helping to help build up a community rather than tear it down. These are all Christian-based understanding of why we work and what can be the focus of it. And that’s, of course, in competition or in opposition with the comparison that work will bring harm to people. It’s ethically and morally incorrect that would be destructive to one’s own personal morals and ethics as well as to a community as well as just gaining for ourselves with no thought of the other person and usually at the loss of another person. But even that, earning money, providing things in good fashion, that’s not all there is to work. And that’s why I wanted to talk not about the true religion of work but about the work that is of our true religion. In other words, “What is the work of the church, the true work of the church? What are we called to do and how do we know that we are accomplishing it?”
Let’s first look at the Scripture for today that you see on the screen. It should be familiar to you if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time. It’s called the “Great Commission”. It’s from Matthew 28:16-20. Let’s focus particularly on versus 19 and 20 but hear the whole. “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the end of the age.’”
There is our job description. That’s the purpose of the work of church. The foundational work of the church is to offer Jesus Christ so that people can chose to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is a choice on their side. You can’t force or manipulate them. But it is our call, our responsibility, to offer Jesus Christ to all people, which is an order. What the Scripture really means is that we do it one person at a time. So the final evaluation of the work of the church is simply, “How have we answered the following question: Have we aided in accomplishing the Great Commission Jesus Christ gave the church before He left this world physically?” Or, we can say it this way, “How have we made, in any way, shape or form, an eternal difference in the life of people? Some examples, remember that phrase, “baptizing them in the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”? What did we just do? And last night with Scott and Madison. Which by the way, I’ve never seen two babies so serious. Madison last night and Zachary this morning. Now sometimes they cry and sometimes they laugh, you know, babies are babies, they just do what comes naturally. But I’ve never seen two almost seriously intent on looking at you. Why you could read adult information into that, maybe they just thought you were funny looking, I don/t know. Maybe they were trying to figure you out or something. But who knows how that will continue to grow and translate into us continuing to offer Jesus Christ to Zachary or to Madison and to Scott who stood here as an adult last night and professed his faith in Jesus Christ. What a joy that is for the twelve or so adults and youth that we have baptized in the last three months through confirmation and the other opportunity when, you remember, we put out our baptismal font outside and had immersion for those who chose that way.
The desire to welcome people, the love and the grace of Jesus Christ is central to telling people, “This is the place where you can call home, where you can have help and you can find hope.” It’s a place where Jesus Christ is worshiped and adored and followed and served. It’s a powerful message when what we say is also what we do. For what we do here, at Grace United Methodist Church, based upon that job description from Matthew 28, has eternal consequences one person at a time.
The work of the church in a foundational way includes also the study of the word of God. Now not the study of it to adore and worship the Bible as a physical thing, but to see it as a pathway, an open door to the words of God whereby a relationship can be developed and it will grow because that is the whole purpose of offering Jesus Christ. It is not just the one time confession, “Yes, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the Holy Spirit therefore I am okay.” No, what marriage would be good if it started out by saying, “I love you at the altar and then you separated for the rest of your life?” It wouldn’t be a marriage, would it? What other relationship would be strong in that way that you would start off and say, “Yes, we’re going to be your friends for life”, and never talk to each other for the rest of your lives together? The same is true for the relationship of Jesus Christ. And the word of God helps us to grow and develop in that relationship with a loving God. We must continually offer opportunities, that’s why you see them printed, because in James 1:22 and following it says, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like the person who looks at their face in the mirror and after looking at themselves goes away and immediately forgets what they look like.” How ironic such humor can be found in Scripture. Who would look in a mirror then in just two minutes forget what you look like? The purpose of reading the Word is that we get to know more and more of ourselves and we get to know more and more of who God is. For later in that same passage in James it says that “we, the religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” The work of looking after orphans and widows is an example of that work of the church that goes beyond ourselves, pushes us beyond our comfort zone, and gets us into one-on-one and small group relationships so that they can see Christ in us and they can know that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior in our lives that they might choose then, Christ, as their Savior and become a disciple. That’s the work of the church.
The true work of the church is to offer people the opportunity to give beyond themselves in ministry in the work to which God calls them. And in one way, people don’t understand that. The United Methodist Church, among others, has in the last two or three decades switched the words for you. Nancy and I are ordained pastors. We’ve both earned the title, Reverend. We’ve both chosen to be called “Pastor” which is a role definition. We don’t disclaim that title, “Reverend”. It’s fine if you want to call us that. We’re just more comfortable with “Pastor”. But the other side is, it doesn’t disconnect you from the ministry of the church. It used to be seen that whoever stood up here, whoever was the official pastor, they did the holy work of the church. But that’s not what Scripture tells us. It’s not what Jesus Christ did when he called people one at a time to come and be His disciples and follow Him and to serve. And to serve means you are all ministers, we are all ministers together based upon when you become a follower of Jesus Christ. You recognize in your life, and others help you recognize, gifts that God has given you so that you might be in ministry. Now you may continue to work in your own secular job. That’s wonderful, but it changes how you look at it. But it also means that you come to church not just to occupy space and warm a pew. But instead you come here with our help and assistance to gather cooperatively to help you be a minister through the basis of what God has said to you and given to you. We choose to be called “Pastor”, but the United Methodist Church says that you are all ministers. We all have work to do based upon the gifts given to us. The work of the church is the work of the people, not just the pastors. As the people recognize and accept their God-given gifts and engage in them, the church grows and multiplies, not statistically, but in spirit, the more important way.
The work of the people is to be a minister of Jesus Christ, that when people see us they see Jesus. The ministry of Jesus Christ is the ministry of the church and we are the ministers of the church. It all comes together that way.
This last week, last Sunday, the youth told us what their ministry is. And it will continue to grow in that way where they are encouraged, sometimes pushed a bit, sometimes sort of cajoled to get out beyond themselves to do ministry in this community every month in a scheduled way. Every opportunity is given to them to be in contact with people in the name of Jesus Christ. Our children in vacation bible school taught us how we are to share Jesus Christ, in joy and in music. The offerings that you see in the bulletin today and that have been in the newsletter of Bible studies, and Sunday School, metamorphosis, the ministries of mid-week evening experiences and other times during the week are all part of helping people to know the word of God because following Jesus Christ is further strengthened and opened as we study that Word. Other ministries such as the Women’s Retreat, ALPHA, marriage enrichment, Hands on Ministries, so much of these are great opportunities and there are many more that I could have listed. And all of their purpose is to proclaim Christ in word and action that others might come to know that love and grace that we know here in this congregation and in our lives. That Jesus Christ might be lifted up, that Jesus Christ is proclaimed, and Jesus Christ is honored and loved at Grace.
We need to help people to know more of God’s Word so that their minds might be guided. This is our ministry; it is our employment. It is our labor in the Lord. And all of you, everyone here today, that accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; you can not accept Christ without also becoming an employee of the church. Not for pay sake, but employee in the work of the ministry of the church of Jesus Christ. It does not matter your age, what you’ve done before. When you come to Christ, you become a laborer for Christ in the church. Maybe it is a small task at first as you learn and grow. And it continues later as you gain other experience. So I want you this Labor Day weekend just to be thankful for the work that enables you to provide for your family or that you now in retirement are able to receive from your retirement in that way, but you continue to be in ministry. Don’t let your work become your religion, but let your faith in Jesus Christ become your true work as the foundation of who we are so that we might offer Jesus Christ as loving Savior and that His grace is so evident in what we say and do that people will know something special is here. And it is not so much we that are special, but it is Christ in us that makes it special. All together then, we will grow in the Word of God.
Let’s join together for a word of prayer, “The church has never been buildings. The church has never been financial sheets. The church has never been its own plan for something to work. The church is Jesus Christ and that is our ministry—to follow Him, gracious God, to love Him, to serve Him, to let His Spirit be present in us. But even though physically you are not with us, but in Spirit you will be with us till the end of time so that we might offer the good news so that all may become disciples, baptized in the name of God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. The question for our day and for this day and for each of us: “What is our work that will serve you? Are we fulfilling the work that you have given us?” Help us, oh God, to be your words and may our faith be our true work. In the name of Christ, our Lord we pray. Amen.”
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