Tag Archives: Work

Work Ethic

Jesus’ Ministry
February 23, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 6:27-38

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. –Luke 6:27-31, 35-36

Give to everyone who begs from you. Oklahoma has a strong work ethic. I was raised to work. While I describe myself as the laziest person in my immediate family, I was placed in charged of chickens when I was five years old which meant I fed and provided water for them and gathered their eggs every day. I added milking cows in grade school and got my first paying job when I was sixteen as a nurse’s aide in a nursing home. I could go on, but you get the idea.  My history is very much like most of the people in my farming community were hard work was a necessary way of life. It was not drudgery, if anything it was fun. The idea of giving to everyone who begs was foreign to me. I do not remember seeing anyone begging as a child. I will confess that I never give cash to panhandlers on the street and only rarely give cash to anyone begging.

That said, helping people become self-supporting and self-sufficient does require investment of our time and energy and perhaps our financial resources. It requires our loving our neighbors enough to walk together with them as they search for wholeness in what must seem to be a dry and weary land*. Treating people like they are inferior who were not raised with the same values we were, who had no role models working beside and with them every step of the way and did not have the same privileges that open doors for us that were shut for them does not help. Seeing the Christ in every beggar requires us to give deeper than tossing a few coins in a cup.

While working my way through college as a waitress, I waited on two young mean whose only tip was a pamphlet that said something about the greatest tip you will ever get and listed five steps to salvation.  While the audacity of the assumptions of the pamphlet left me angry, it did teach me a good lesson on how not to do evangelism. Seeing the Christ in every beggar requires us to humble ourselves as we work for justice and show mercy as we help them recognize the Christ within themselves.

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to see the potential of everyone we meet particularly those in search of enough. Amen.

*See Psalm 63

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Right Words

FarmerAdvent
December 22, 2014

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 61:10-62:3

 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
   and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
   to spring up before all the nations. — Isaiah 61:11

Saint Augustine advised Christians to Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. This phrase sounds to me more like something a farmer would said and not a man who spent his younger years in wealth and hedonism. In those years the closest he came to a garden was probably when he was caught stealing fruit for a snack*.  The phrase is good advice. By the time he said it, he had turned his life around.

The advice does go along with the life of a farmer who works very hard at his vocation but is totally dependent upon the nurture of the earth and nature in general for a crop to result. It is an interesting commingling of faith and works. In our scripture today, Isaiah is telling a people who no longer trust in themselves and are most likely strongly questioning whether God was truly with them that just as nature causes what is sown in the earth to grow at the proper time so too will God cause righteousness/justice to become a reality for all people that indeed will be a time for praise.

Isaiah had a tough job giving people hope in a time of hopelessness. We are also called to give hope to the world. We do that every time we share the story of Jesus particularly in the way we live our faith, but if need be, in our actual word. The writers of Matthew and Luke have given us a great script from which we can start the conversation.

Prayer: Lord, I hate it when people try to cram something down my throat and I don’t want to come off like that to others. I think it just turns them off. I do love you and you have made such a difference in my life, I want to tell others but I don’t know what to say or do. Give me the right words when words are right and right actions when leading by example speaks louder than words. Amen.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Why do We Work?

Cappadocia wall paintingLiving in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
September 20, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Matthew 20:1-16

Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?” — Matthew 20:10-13 

Why do we work? Most of us would probably answer that we “work” to provide the necessities of life for ourselves and our families. Paul did this as he continued his trade of making tents while he spread the good news of Jesus Christ. For those of us who have chosen to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have added a new dimension to our world of work. Our work has now become a vocation, a summons from God to undertake the obligations and perform the duties of some particular task or tasks as a member of the Body of Christ functioning in our world today. Our first and foremost task as members of the Body of Christ is to help others becomes Christ’s disciples also. Are not the new laborers described in our scripture today our usual “daily wage” in the vocation to which we have been called? Growing the Body of Christ is in and of itself reward for our efforts.

Growing the body of Christ does not merely entail increasing the number of people who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It also means pursuing our own development and maturation as Christ’s followers and contributing to the maturation of all other believers. I had the opportunity to tour Turkey this summer and visit the cities, most now ruins, of the beginning steps of our faith. The vast majority of the population at that time were illiterate. Books had not even been invented. Our forbearers in the faith drew pictures on the walls of caves and later structures to teach the stories of Jesus to a population hungry for the “Word”. We, too, are called to be innovative as we strive with our fellow seekers today to become fully actualized citizens of our world. We do have the advantage of books and digital science and all types of visual and audio aides to help us in our quest for learning. In training people to read we not only enable them to grow in faith but also to grow in their ability to provide for the basic needs of themselves and their families.

Oklahoma Fact: in 2013, 7% of teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 are not enrolled in high school and are not high school graduates.*

Prayer: Turn our work into vocation, O Lord, so that we might grow in wisdom and truth as we help others grow in the faith. Amen.

*http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/73-teens-ages-16-to-19-not-in-school-and-not-high-school-graduates?loc=38&loct=2#detailed/2/38/false/868,867,133,38,35/any/380,381
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.