Intro
We’re continuing our series on “World Reframed this morning. Our big goal in these sermons has been to provide a Christian worldview on the fundamental issues and aspects of life in the world using Genesis 1-3 as our frame of reference. This morning, we’re talking about work- specifically, the holiness of work.
I think that a lot of people in our culture, whether in the church or out, are prone to an unhealthy relationship with work. I think that dysfunction runs in two directions. For some people, their work becomes the entirety of their identity. They’re always thinking about it, always working, always on call. Their sense of worth and value rises with their perception of their work. I feel that a bit as a pastor. If something goes really well- which in my self-critical disposition is fairly rare- I feel great about myself. As in, Wow, I’m God’s greatest gift to the earth, how lucky is everybody to be in my presence! Again, let me clarify that this feeling is exceedingly rare. More often, I feel that things are not what I would hope, attendance lags on a Sunday, or I regret something I said, and I’m in the dirt. My identity, my value, it get wrapped up in the status of my work, it’s as if The Bridge Church and I are one. It looks different for different people, but there are definitely those who have an unhealthy, all-consuming relationship with their work.
In the other direction, there are those who see work in a completely utilitarian way. It’s just a means to an end, a way to make some money to provide for myself and my family. Working for the weekend, you know? Punch the clock, do my thing, do the bare minimum I need to do, so I can live my real life outside of work. When I was in Grade 12, my parents said I needed to get a job. If I wanted to go to college, they were not going to pay for it. So I got a job at Dairy Queen. It was awful, by far the worst job I’ve ever had. I was living in Calgary at the time, when Alberta’s economy was just booming, yet here I was working a Dairy Queen for $5.90/hour. Some of you younger people are like, when you did you grow up, the 70s? For 9 months, they didn’t trust me to make any food in the kitchen- which actually, now that I think about it, is true of Carolyn after 9 years of marriage. So my whole job was just making blizzards for drunk people and sweeping and mopping the floor and cleaning bathrooms. I remember once, a group of teenage girls had decided that the Dairy Queen bathroom was the best place possible that night for them to have a party. I discovered this later when I cleaned the bathroom and found that it reeked of marijuana and a huge bottle of vodka had been jammed down the toilet bowl. I hated the job. It was purely a means to an end. And let’s be honest, when my paycheques came in at a hundred dollars, not a very satisfying end.
Work as a consuming identity and source of value, or work as a despised means to an end. There are probably other views alongside these ones, like work as something to be avoided altogether. However, let’s get to the good stuff. I believe what the Bible gives us is a better, more holistic view of work. Let’s take a look. I’ve got 7 propositions for you.
1. God is a worker
God is a worker. When you open your Bible, the very first thing you read is “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. It’s the very first thing you read. God is working. Open the Bible and He’s doing stuff. Genesis 1 is all about Him creating, forming the universe, filling it up. In Genesis 2:7, God forms man from the dust of the ground. God is being pictured as a potter, as an artist. In 2:8, He plants a garden. Now He’s a gardener, a horticulturalist. In 2:9, He puts trees in the garden. He’s an arborist. In other places in the Old Testament, He’s pictured as a composer of songs, as an iron-worker, a teacher, a shepherd, a builder, a father. We come to the New Testament, and now God has taken on flesh in the person of Jesus. And what does Jesus do? Well, traditionally, he’s the son of a carpenter. He probably spent those years of young adulthood as a carpenter. Doing work with His hands. And then of course, we meet Jesus as a healer and a teacher. He’s working. This is what Jesus says
“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
John 5:17
And you notice that a lot of this work is blue-collar, practical stuff. Some people have said the Bible is the only ancient document that exalts blue-collar work. Blue collar work is not just work that lower class people do, that servants do, it’s work that God Himself does. He’s a God who works.
He’s a God who works and enjoys it. He likes working. He’s passionate about it. Again and again in Genesis 1, God looks at what He’s made, and says that it’s good. He delights in what His hands have made, He finds great joy in it. In Genesis 2:9 we read this little note that the trees God put in the garden were pleasing to the eye and good for food. We talked about this in the green faith sermon– the word order indicates that the aesthetic appeal of the trees was as important, if not more, than the functionality. That’s difficult for me to comprehend, because I’m much more functionally-oriented. I don’t care about the bells and whistles. But when it comes to creation, God doesn’t spare any expense. He is passionate about making stuff that He delights in.
2. We’re made in His image
Here’s the second proposition: we’re made in God’s image. This is Genesis 1:27 again, a passage, we’ve spent a lot of time on:
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27
God has made humans, all of them, in His image. This is a status and an identity that is conferred on all humans, regardless of their age, or ability, or ethnicity or language, or body-type, or gender, or how they feel about themselves, or what sins they’re particularly prone to. Every human created in the image of God. But this status comes with a job description, a responsibility. Which is to reflect God’s image. That’s what an image bearer needs to do. It needs to reflect the image and character of the one in whose image it’s made. We are supposed to reflect God’s character, which means we’re supposed to represent Him and show the world what He’s like.
What does that mean when it comes to work? If God is a God who works, then we should be working too. And we should be working in the same way He does. I like how John Mark Comer, a pastor and author from Portland, puts it. He says
“God is hard working, so we should be hard working. God is joyful and eager and proactive, so we should be cheerful and show up ten minutes early for our shift and volunteer when something difficult needs to be done. God is honest and true, so we should be full of integrity- even when it means less money or no promotion. Because we’re made in the image of God”.
John Mark Comer (Garden City, 126-127)
God works and delights in it, so we reflect His image when we work and delight in it.
3. Work comes before the fall
Here’s the third proposition: work comes before the fall. The fall is the term we use to describe the entrance of sin in humanity, and the effects that it has on humans and all of creation. That happens in Genesis 3, we’ll talk about it next week. But God gives Adam and Eve work to do in Genesis 2. As in, before the fall. As in, when things were as they should be, when Adam and Eve lived in the paradise of Eden. They had work to do then. Work is not a result of sin.
And we could push this further. Not only is work part of life before the fall, it will continue to be part of life after the resurrection, in eternity. Don’t believe me? Listen to Isaiah 65, a passage that is hugely influential for New Testament teaching on eternity:
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind…they will build houses and dwell in the; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit…they will not labor in vain.”
Isaiah 65:17, 21, 23
Now, there are things in that passage that get adjusted and clarified in the New Testament, but the existence of work is not one of them. Here’s Revelation 22:
“No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him…and they will reign for ever and ever.”
Revelation 22:3, 5
They will serve and reign. That’s work! I used to think kings did nothing, that they just sat on their thrones and ordered people’s heads to be chopped off while they sipped wine. But then I watched The Crown on Netflix, and I have a different picture. Even a figurehead monarch like Elizabeth has real work to do. Meeting with people, making decisions, delivering speeches, it looks like it’s a lot of work.
Here’s the point: we were made for work, we are made for work, and we will continue to be made for work. The fact of work does not change pre-sin or post-sin. What changes is the nature and character of the work. The work we now do bears the mark of the curse of sin, there’s toil, it is at times in vain. However, the reality of work does not change. It’s simply how we are made. Sitting at an all-inclusive in Mexico and having all your needs waited on is great for a week or two. But if that was an entire year, or even a month, I think I’d get really, really restless. I’d want to do something. It’s how we’re wired.
4. Work can be holy
Proposition number 4: work not only exists pre-sin, but has the capacity to be sacred and holy. For this, I want to look again at Genesis 2:15. God puts Adam in the garden and tells him to work and take care of it. That word for “work”, which in Hebrew is “abad”, can actually be translated elsewhere as “worship”. For example, Exodus 3:12, “when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Worship there is “abad”. Work and worship are not two disconnected things. Now, that word can just mean regular, simple practical work. But when you combine it with the word for “take care” (as in Genesis 2:15), which is most often used of priests in the tabernacle or temple, most commentators agree that what is being pictured here is that Adam’s care of the garden is priestly, sacred work.
And consider what he’s doing. He’s not preaching to the trees. He’s not holding Bible studies with the birds. He’s not offering communion to the rabbits. He’s not doing the stuff we normally consider to be “holy work”. He’s tending to a garden. He’s pruning, harvesting, blue collar work. But it is described as priestly. Which leads me to my fifth proposition: there is a certain kind of work that is holy.
5. There is particular work that is holy
A significant feature in Genesis 2 is the Garden of Eden. Let’s park here for a bit, let’s talk about the Garden. It’s pretty famous, right? People in our post-Christian culture still make connections with the idea. t’s associated with paradise, with delight, and that’s what it is. That’s what the name Eden means, it means “delight”. It’s a part of a creation where things are as they should be, where God has created this ordered and structured sanctuary for His presence.
A couple of things to note. First, the garden is not what we think of when we think garden: it’s not rows of vegetables in a square dirt plot. The word here is more like Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, it’s a park-like setting with landscaping. It’s also important to note that the Garden and the world are not equivalent in Genesis. It’s not that the whole earth is Eden. This might surprise you, but pay attention to the text in Genesis 2. Eden has boundaries. It has a location. And Adam and Eve are expelled from it after they sin- expelled into the world as a whole. Which means that the world as a whole is more wild, less domesticated, less orderly, than the Garden of Eden.
Here’s the other piece of the puzzle. Remember that Adam and Eve are called to rule and to subdue. The word subdue is one that gets people up in a tizzy. It sounds like humans are given license to rape and pillage the earth for their own benefit. But the ruling and subduing command in verse 28 is given in the context of image bearing. It’s in the context of reflecting God’s image and ruling as His representatives. The next question is, how does God rule and subdue? In Genesis 1-2, the answer is that He does it as a gracious master, bringing order out of disorder, creating the conditions for His life and blessing to be experienced. Again, subduing in this context is about creating order out of disorder in a way that blesses and facilitates life.
Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden and called to rule and to subdue. Next question: if the Garden is already a structured, ordered place that is perfectly suitable to bless and give life, what are Adam and Eve supposed to subdue? There’s no subduing of the Garden. God’s already done that. So what are they supposed to do? They’re supposed to rule and subdue the earth. They’re supposed to extend the Garden of Eden and fill the rest of the earth. God is calling them to join with His work and push Eden out into the world, to make the whole world like Eden. God could have done that on His own, but He chooses to use humans to do it. He gives them the template and invites them to fill the earth and make it all like Eden.
What does that mean about our work? It means that our work is sacred and holy when it participates in Eden-making. It is sacred and holy when work creates order out of disorder and encourages the blessing and life of God. Here’s how Tim Keller defines work from a Genesis perspective:
“Work is rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish”.
Tim Keller, quoted in John Mark Comer, Garden City, 60
Most work has that capacity.
Think about doctors, therapists, counsellors. These are healing professions, whether with the mind or the body. There is disorder, there is dysfunction, and this kind of work seeks to bring order and life back to an individual. It is priestly work.
Think about civil servants, politicians, city workers. They are bringing order to a community, creating legislation that enables life to flourish and justice to take place. Holy work.
Think about anyone involved in home construction. You are taking these materials like wood and stone and steel and you are putting them together to create order and structure. This structure enables a family to enjoy life together. So if you’re an electrician, a plumber, if you sell lumber or help transport it, you are involved in something that imitates God, that extends the borders of Eden and brings paradise out to the world. Holy work.
Think about teachers. You are taking this mass of information and organizing it in a way that enables students to grow and understand God’s world. You are bringing order out of disorder. Holy work. On the other end, students are involved in organizing information in papers and assignments, leading to blessings. That, even though you have to pay for it, is holy work.
Think about parents! This passage in Genesis highlights the role of the family. God calls humans to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). Part of the call to rule involves creating families. The work of parents is giving shape and form to a young life to enable that child to experience life and blessing. It is, you guessed it, sacred, priestly work.
Think about artists. I feel like I’m writing a sesame street book right now. Graphic designers, photographers, painters, sculpters. You’re taking material and giving order and shape to it in a way that speaks a message and appeals to the eye. You’re imitating God! This is Eden stuff!
We could keep going. But here’s what needs to be clear: we sometimes think that “holy” work is what pastors do. We also might think that work is only “spiritual” when we share about Jesus with our co-workers. Or maybe we could make lots of money and give some of it to the church, where the real spiritual works happens. Now, I will say that pastors, and other leaders of God’s people, do have a significant calling. There is something unique (and uniquely challenging) about that responsibility! We should also say that it is really good to take opportunities to talk about Jesus with people you work with. Evangelism is holy work too, for sure. It’s crucial! It’s what followers of Jesus are called to! And it’s good to give money to the work of the church. The church is so central in God’s mission in the world, it is His people joining together to grow and reflect the love of God in Jesus. These things are so important. But the work you do, the work itself, can be spiritual as well. It can be an imitation of God’s work in the world, an outworking of ruling and subduing in His image, a source of blessing and order in the world. It can be an act of worship. It is not your identity, but neither is it a throwaway thing. It is a priestly act of worship if done in a certain way.
6. There is work that is not holy
Which leads to proposition number 6. There is work that is not sacred or holy, work that actually drives people further away from God and facilitates disorder in the world. There is work that is out of bounds for an image-bearer to do.
Even in the Garden of Eden, there was work that was ‘out of bounds’. In 2:9, we read about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and in 2:16-17, God is very clear that Adam and Eve are not to eat of this tree. We’ll go more next week into why. But for now, we’ll just notice this: the vast majority of work in the Garden is good, but there is also work- ie. eating of the tree- that is not good. Work that will only lead to death.
I think here about things like drug dealing or prostitution. People involved in those are still created in God’s image and are loved by God. But inherently, in my view, their “work” just can’t fit with Eden. It doesn’t promote life in a God-reflecting way, it only facilitates death in its various forms. That’s out of bounds for an image-bearer. But really, any of those kinds of work we talked about before can be done in a way that brings disorder and drives people from God. Work that could be holy can be done in such a way that it violates God’s intent for humanity.
A parent, instead of giving shape and structure to the life of a child, can discourage and sow seeds of doubt, despair and insecurity. A construction worker can cut all kinds of corners that cheapen the quality of a home in order to cut himself or herself a profit. A business person can make a deal based on misrepresentation and lies. An artist can create something that communicates a false message, a lie that drives people further away from God. A pastor can preach sermons that only exalts himself. There is plenty of work in our world that, whether inherently or because of how it’s done, is out of bounds in Eden.
7. God is present in the midst of our work
And so, here is my final proposition. Our experience of the presence of God is largely determined by the kind of work that we do and the mindset we do it with.
There are a couple of pieces I want to draw out of Genesis 2 in this regard. First, notice the name of God here. In Genesis 1, He is simply “God”- the Hebrew word “elohim”. This is the more generic name for deity in the ancient world. Now, He’s not generic, He’s the God, but it is a name that invokes His transcendance over all creation. Here in Genesis 2, a switch happens. For the first time, in verse 4, He is called “the Lord God”. Lord is the Hebrew “Yahweh”. He is not just God, He is the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. Yahweh is His covenant name. It’s His relationship name. It is the name He gives Himself when entering into a covenant of love with His people. It is a name that invokes His immanence, His near presence. And it is this name that becomes prominent as God plants the garden of Eden and puts Adam and Eve there with a commission to work and take care of it.
The other thing to note is that the Garden of Eden is portrayed as a kind of inner sanctuary in the temple that God has created, which is the world. There are actually a number of links between the words used about the Holy Place in the temple and the Garden of Eden. It is a place where His presence is especially near and weighty. And you get some of that in this interesting little verse in Genesis 3:8- “then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” What does it mean for God to walk in the garden? That’s a great question. Not gonna answer it right now. But it says that God is present here in the Garden, where again Adam and Eve do their worshipful work.
When our work is holy, when it is done as an act of priestly worship, when it is Eden-like work, we are welcoming the presence of God in our life. Brother Lawrence is someone who understood this. He was a French monk in the 17th Century who served in a monastery after suffering an injury in a war. He was the lowest on the food chain in terms of status: not a teacher, not a leader, but instead he spent his days cooking and cleaning. At the end of his life, he fixed shoes. Similar to how, after 10 months of working at Dairy Queen, they promoted me to burger flipper. But in the midst of this, Brother Lawrence learned how every bit of his work could be an expression of worship and love for God. One of the leaders of the monastery eventually figured out what a gem he had in Lawrence, and sat down with him and listened to how Lawrence saw the world. This abbot then collected these conversations and some letters Lawrence had written and edited them into a book. That book has become a Christian classic called “The Practice of the Presence of God”. Here’s an excerpt from Brother Lawrence:
(It is not) “needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God…[This is] the most excellent method I have found of going to God… doing common business without any view to pleasing [people], and as far as I am capable, doing it purely for the love of God.”
Brother Lawrence
Isn’t this what Paul meant when, in the New Testament, he tells us to do everything in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17)? Or when he tells slaves in the first century to do their work not to please their masters, but to please God (Colossians 3:22-25)? We sometimes think God’s presence can only be experienced in moments of quiet, after a long hike to the peak of a majestic mountain. And quiet is good, rest is good, we’ve talked about that. That brings us into God’s presence too. But we often disregard work as an area where we worship and walk with Him. That’s just not true. Ask Bro Lo.
However, the reverse of this is also true. This is maybe an eighth proposition, but seven is a biblical number, eight isn’t, so we’re sticking with seven. Here’s the reverse: work that transgresses the limits God has set expels us from His presence. Adam and Eve, after they sin, after they transgress that boundary God had placed, hid from God’s presence. And when God told them of the consequences of their sin, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, cast out of God’s near presence. He would still speak to them afterward. He still provided for them. But it was different. There was not that same intimacy anymore, and we read in Genesis 3:24 about a flaming sword that guarded the entrance to the Garden. They couldn’t go back. And this is true of all of us. One of the ways of looking at sin is to say that it is a transgression of the boundaries God has placed around work. It’s when we work in ways that do not reflect His presence and order, ways that sow death and disorder. All of us have done this. All of us are guilty, every single one. And as a result, we have essentially expelled ourselves from God’s presence. We have placed ourselves outside of Eden, and there’s no way back on our own strength.
But this is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. The climax of His work was to bear the weight of the sin of the world on His shoulders. The climax of His work was to identify Himself with us in His death. Jesus essentially went under that flaming sword of judgment, that sword that stood at the entrance of Eden, and for those who trust in Him, there is a way back into Eden. The way into the presence of God has been opened! We can enter in without shame, without guilt, because Jesus has paid the price for us. Praise Him for His work! Praise Him for what He’s done to forgive us our transgressions, to heal us and restore us as those made in His image!
*Biblical insights mainly gleaned from three commentaries: Bruce Waltke (Genesis, 2001), John Walton (NIV Application Commentary, 2001), and Victor Hamilton (New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1990), as well as Iain Provan (Seriously Dangerous Religion, 2014)
