What is the purpose/role of work in Creation?
Our last discussion brought up a lot of interesting issues and generated some ideas that we will continue to explore in the weeks to come. But last week definitely has not been resolved. Just because we talked about local economies and communities already doesn't mean that line of thought has no role or no voice in all conversations both now and the ones to come. My hope is that we will continue to look back to where we have come from to help us shape where we are going.
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What is the purpose or role of work in Creation? All of us must work, but how do we make decisions about what are we to do? if we can't answer why must we do what we are to do?
The idea of work is firmly rooted in the creation account from Genesis.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So what are we do to with these texts (and many others) in 2006? Reading the Bible Christologically (Christ-centered) how are we to discern what it means to work? What is good work? Is there bad work? Why did God create work in the first place? What might it mean for us that we are created in the image of God as we discern what work we are to do?
To make sure we remember our roots, I will again (get used to it!) quote from the lovable Wendell Berry:
"Good human work honors God's work. Good work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin. It uses neither tool nor material that it does not respect and that it does not love. It honors Nature as a great mystery and power, as an indispensable teacher, and as the inescapable judge of all work of human hands. It does not dissociate life and work, or pleasure and work, or love and work, or usefulness and beauty. To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonor God, nature, the thing that is made, and whomever it is made for. This is blasphemy: to make shoddy work of the work of God. And such blasphemy is not possible so long as the entire Creation is understood as holy, and so long as the works of God are understood as embodying and so revealing God's spirit."
"Christianity and the Survival of Creation," from Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community.
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What is the purpose or role of work in Creation? All of us must work, but how do we make decisions about what are we to do? if we can't answer why must we do what we are to do?
The idea of work is firmly rooted in the creation account from Genesis.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (Genesis 1:26-28)
From Genesis 2:15, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
Is there a connection between being made in the image of God and the fact that God put us in the garden to 'work it and take care of it'? Is the fact that we are put in the garden to work a part of being made in the image of God?
So what are we do to with these texts (and many others) in 2006? Reading the Bible Christologically (Christ-centered) how are we to discern what it means to work? What is good work? Is there bad work? Why did God create work in the first place? What might it mean for us that we are created in the image of God as we discern what work we are to do?
To make sure we remember our roots, I will again (get used to it!) quote from the lovable Wendell Berry:
"Good human work honors God's work. Good work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin. It uses neither tool nor material that it does not respect and that it does not love. It honors Nature as a great mystery and power, as an indispensable teacher, and as the inescapable judge of all work of human hands. It does not dissociate life and work, or pleasure and work, or love and work, or usefulness and beauty. To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonor God, nature, the thing that is made, and whomever it is made for. This is blasphemy: to make shoddy work of the work of God. And such blasphemy is not possible so long as the entire Creation is understood as holy, and so long as the works of God are understood as embodying and so revealing God's spirit."
"Christianity and the Survival of Creation," from Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community.
posted by The Dude at 1:53 AM
7 Comments:
Matthew, this is a great question. It's also one that you and I have batted around late at night, so I will try to summarize some of my thoughts here.
To be created in the image of God should shape all that we do. There is a truism about this relationship between God's character and human's nature: we were made to reflect God. That is one of the reasons that we were given dominion over all of the earth (Gen. 1:28): to act as God's representatives on the earth in such a way that we reflected His character by ruling over the earth.
Additionally, being made in the image of God shows that we are to also be creatively. At Scum, there are many artists and musicians. Oftentimes these people are counted as 'lesser' in the body of Christ, unless they are producing marketable works of Christian art. They are not encouraged in their ability to reflect the creative heart of God. Genesis 1 notes often that "God created." It's as in the Chronicles of Narnia when Asylan enters into the darkness and sings forth creation. We can reflect the image of God through our creativity.
Now, as to those who are laboring in the business world, and not 'above the clouds artsy types,' there is a direct correlation here: how might we creatively reflect the image of God in our work. I did a bible study based upon an Onion article (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44688) about a Christian juggler who mourned years spent as a secular juggler. As a group, we discussed what a proper theology of work might be based upon Genesis 1. It was amazing to watch as people became excited again for their work, and were encouraged in their work ethic, as it might be a possibility to reflect the image of God in work. They weren't obliged to try to share their faith with everyone they encountered, nor to leave tracks in the lunch room, but were given the permission to theocentrically worship God through work. This is something that has been a challenge and an encouragment to me as I have labored away in seminary and at the church. I am like God when I labor to reflect Him in work.
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Denverite,
I can't disagree with anything you said, but I would like to know not just how we can reflect God in how we work, but I want to know how we can reflect God in what we do.
Sure, work ethic is important and there is much to be said for working hard and caring about what we do. But what about someone working hard to come up with a marketing plan designed to convince people that they are not pretty, smart, or cool enough and need to buy the latest product to fill the void? Is that work that is worth working hard at? Is that work that reflects God?
What is good work? What is work that God says "Yes!" to?
What are the implications of being made in the image of God on what sort of work we do? Denverite rightly noted that because God is creative, we are to be creative. What does that mean for us in the business world? Not just artists are creative, we are all creative. That is in our nature.
What else do we know about God that might shed some light on what we do in the world? Is God life-affirming? I would say He is. What might that mean for us?
Well I don't know if this week's question is too tough or too easy. Maybe the conversation is light because everyone has already figured this out...or no one really cares to think about it. I don't really fit into either category so I'll just share some scripture that seems relevant. I was reading some John 6 tonight and it lead me to these verses:
Ephesians 2:10 -- "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." -- so like Denverite and The Dude have said, we are a reflection of God's creativity, commissioned to do good works...so what is good work?
John 6:27 -- "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."
John 6:28 -- "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
John 6:29 -- "Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.'" -- strange answer. Working isn't doing anything...it's believing Jesus.
Isaiah 55:2 -- "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."
Am I crazy or do most (Christian) men answer questions about work with, "I have to provide for my family." Certainly, we have this responsibility (1 Timothy 5:8) but both Old and New Testament seem to be saying what Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." God seems much more concerned with us working to feed our souls than our stomachs.
If we work for "all these things" ("food that spoils," "what does not satisfy") instead of seeking Jesus first, we are chasing after the wind, as Solomon would put it (by the way, if you want to be reminded how vain the things of this world are and how our only purpose is "beyond the sun" go to TheVillageChurch.net and check out the current sermons on Ecclesiastes).
So I'll end with a "real world" example. Deloitte's Chief People Officer recently held a meeting during which he asked us to go around the room and say why we joined Deloitte and why we came to work that day. Interesting questions. But the answers were almost all the same: "The people are great/fun/challenging" (of course they're going to say this to the Chief People Officer) and "The work is challenging." One word resonated in my mind with each answer: vanity.
Why are you in your specific job as a consultant or engineer or lawyer? Why are you striving for that job as a student? Why did you come to work today? Why not sit on your butt and play Madden all day if that's what you really want to do? Is it just because we need to pay the bills?
Richardig,
I hope you don't think I implied that you should simply quit a job because it may not reflect the image of God. If indeed that is what it sounded like, then I am sorry for the tone in which I asked the question. I wanted the emphasis to be more on the aspect of our creativity.
If we are 'stuck' in jobs that may not seem to reflect the image of God, what can we do? My short answer is: be creative. How can God redeem a fallen world, indeed, a fallen business world, if we don't begin to think of new ways to do things--even in the seemingly unredeemable jobs (which may or may not exist). The answers we come up with can reach both sides of the spectrum: sometimes it is to quit, sometimes it is to rise to the top of the industry to make changes. That is what we need to discern and think through.
Maybe a better follow-up question to idea of creativity is this: What are the old wineskins of the modern business model that need to be shattered and replaced with new wineskins? What might those new wineskins be?
Great points, Greg, but my fear is that many of us either 1) don't think about why we are working at all or, 2) think about it and decide to pursue meaningless things. Personally, I think the first is much more dangerous. I'm not sure any of us would intentionally choose #2, but plenty of us are guilty of #1. We take the business world that is presented to us and try to assimilate because "that's just the way it is." I'm not cool with that. I want to break out the good wine and bust those old wineskins.
I need to think more about what some of those old wineskins are but I think one of them is compartmentalizing our lives. I think if we hope to understand work in the context of creation, we have to understand it as a form of worship. It's not just being a good guy or starting an office Bible study, it's figuring out how to do our jobs without ever getting off of our knees. It's displaying a redeemed heart in every action, every decision.
We work so hard at assimilation and it's great to be able to relate to those around us but what happens when we start to worship other gods like the Israelites did time and time again?
Who were the men who God used? Men like Daniel and Elijah who weren't afraid to look different, men who knew no other option but to simply spoke the Truth, men who poured the Gospel directly into their societies' crusty old wineskins knowing they would burst...and knowing how beautiful that would be.
Rising to the top is certainly one option but if that's the path we pursue, I think we need to honestly examine whether our jobs require us to compromise the character of God. RichardIG and Greg are in health care and I think that can be a Godly industry but there is a huge difference, for example, in nonprofit and for-profit hospitals. Correct me if I'm wrong, guys, but for-profit hospitals seek efficiency and productivity first and patient care second. Nonprofits reverse that. My point is, based on the values of the organization, you may have to put aside the character God to rise to the top. Plus, on a completely different note, Paul talks about making himself a "slave to everyone, to win as many as possible (1 Corinthians 9:19), not exalting himself.
We can talk more about this another week, but these are some industries (among many others, I'm sure) I think we need to put under some serious scrutiny if we are to be men after God's own heart: financial services, energy, retail, consumer goods, advertising, and entertainment.
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