A Theology of Work

A Christian theology of work includes everyone’s daily life. Our view of work is notlimited to people who have jobs? The word “job” has an English origin and was onlyintroduced around the 17

century. For most of history people did not have “jobs”strictly speaking. However, I think it is safe to say that people have always worked and people today continue to work whether or not they have a paid job. To work is to work atthe task of living.Is that what you imagine when you hear the word work. Or when you the word areactually thinking about your concept of

hard

work or “real” work? What does it tell usthat we use about work that we have expressions like “I enjoy what I do so much Iwouldn’t even call it work.” Or conversely that we talk about the “daily grind.” Whatare our values when a stay at home parent feels like he or she does not . . . “work?” Whydo we feel awkward talking about “certain” jobs that we may work at? Do we feel likewe can still offer meaningful work when we have been unemployed for a long period of time or when we are retired?Our experience of “work” can define our social and economic status and can often defineour identity. There is something about work that comes close to the heart of what it is to be alive and to be human. And so like any intimate relationship our relationship withwork is complex. We can’t live with it and we can’t live out it. There are always timeswhen we would rather be doing something

other

than what we have to. However, weknow that we need to continue to “work at things.” Mortgages and bills tend not to lenda sympathetic ear to our feelings of dissatisfaction. Babies tend not to take care of themselves when we want to slip away for a few days. Gardens will not fight the weedsfor you when you want to rest in the shade. And our own personal issues will not get

2resolved when we just shove them deep down inside of us. We are bound to work at anynumber of levels or suffer the consequences.Perhaps your immediate dynamics of work are actually pretty satisfying then think alsoof the increasing social and environmental implications of our work. Think of the businesses we work for that outsource contracts in countries with questionable labour laws leaving fewer jobs available here. Think of the continued discrimination that still plagues the workforce whether it is sexual, racial or social. I think most of us haveexperienced that our notion of the polite, politically correct Canadians has not found itsway into many work settings. Think of the increasingly dehumanizing types of labour that exist in factories and assembly lines. Think of ecological impact that variouscorporations have on our soil, water and air qualities.You think you are happy with your work? I am glad you came here this Sunday so that Icould save you from the error of your ways.This

a reality of work and it runs deep. Our theology of work cannot side step it. Wehave to work at surviving and improving our life and yet it seems that the work we do canoften makes things worse.God says,

"Cursed is the ground because of you;through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you,and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you areand to dust you will return."

3We hear this refrain echoing throughout history in the songs we sing,

You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

When I was in high school Beck wrote a song about working in fast food restaurant andrefrain was,

I ain’t gonna work for no soul suckin’ jerk.

However, good our work may be we have understood implicitly that there remainssomething broken, some curse that continues to roam beneath the surface cropping upwhen we least expect it.How have we approached or acknowledged this curse? We should be clear that work didnot begin with Adam and Eve being kicked out of the Garden. Both God and Adam andEve were at work before they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whathappened was that our relationships were redefined. We became afraid to be vulnerableor naked before God and each other. The parent-child relationship was marked with painand our relationship to the ground which represented our ability to make a living becamethe setting for struggle and great effort. God made the entire world and called it good butit was in the Garden that all these relationships were in order. Being outside the gardendid not negate the goodness of God but it did signify the brokenness of creation.And so for thousands of years society has raged against our cursed ground hoping thatone day we would gain the upper hand over it. But the ground still offers no guarantees,it has not been worked into submission. As the farmer has no assurance of the crop’sreturn so we also have no promise of permanent job security or that our children willgrow up strong and healthy or that our loved ones will not hurt us. The world around usstill bears the scars of the curse, of broken relationships and leaving us at times in themidst of deep waters.