A REFLECTION ON “WORK”
Ephesians 2:8-9
“… by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
A Bible study on Ephesians has just begun at Faith Lutheran on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. There is still time for you to participate. As I think upon this letter, I think of the above verses where St. Paul writes that God “graces” us so all that we do is in response to God’s gift of grace.
In the story of Creation found in Genesis 1, we hear the rhythm of God at work. “God said, ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” And so it went: day two, day three, day four, day five, and then day six when God created first the living creatures and wild animals. “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’” And God blessed them and gave all that God had made for the use of humankind. “And it was so. God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good.”
Then God did something spectacular! After all God’s creative work was completed, “God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 1:26-31)
Recently I read Practice Resurrection by Eugene H. Peterson who writes, “It is essential that we assimilate God’s Genesis week of work if we are to live what ‘God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.’” Further, he writes:
“Good work and good works are to grace what a pail is to water: a container to get it from the well to the supper table. God’s grace is the content. Our work…is the container” (pp 101-102).
Reflecting upon this concept, I understand that the everyday work we do—serving customers in a fast food restaurant, teaching children how to spell and write, researching the best way to deal with climate changes, finding a cure for a rare skin disease, building a home, or preparing a meal for the family—becomes the container into which God pours his grace. This grace blesses us but it also moves out through us to touch those whom we serve through our everyday occupations.
That means that those who dedicate their lives to “church work” are not blessed more by God than the one who sweeps the floors in a warehouse or operates big equipment in the creation of roads or the one who runs a small family farm. When we are grace-filled by the God who knows and participates in day to day work as reflected in the Genesis narrative, then we are bringing God glory in all that we do. Our work becomes part of God’s plan for us, his creation. God delights when we do our best in everything we do!
Prayer: Make me an instrument of yours in all that I do or am. Amen
Song: “Take My Life, That I May Be” by Frances Havergal