Worship-full Work

            In my lifetime I have had a number of different jobs. In High School I bagged groceries for Furr’s Supermarket. I made hamburgers and breakfast biscuits for McDonald’s. I helped take care of children at the YMCA’s summer day camp program. I also sold flavored popcorn and had a few gigs as a professional clown.

            In college I operated remote cameras for distance learning through KENW-TV. As an intern at KOB-TV I co-produced television morning news. I also worked as a janitor for the Wesley Foundation.

Since my college days I have sold cars for two different dealerships and radio advertising for KSEL. Later I became a disk jockey for the station (back in the days when local radio station still played vinyl records and had real DJ’s on site).

             I enlisted in the US Coast Guard and spent quite a bit of time as a boat crewman, groundskeeper and janitor, and eventually trained as a cook and finished my military career on board the USCGC Midgett.

            All of that was before I entered seminary and started working in Christian ministry. Aside from my pastoral job, I also raise money for CARC and have worked in hospice chaplaincy and taught college classes. And those are just the jobs that I have been paid to do.

            In my life I have volunteered to serve on boards, cook food, care for the elderly, provide law enforcement and hospital chaplaincy services, and worked with several different clubs, civic organizations, and charitable causes.

            As with any job—volunteer or paid—there are times that I really enjoy the work I am tasked to do. Likewise, there are times when I really do not like it much at all. Yet, regardless of how much I may or may not like a particular task at hand, there is one thought that stays in my mind.

      Colossians 3:17 reads, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This simple command from the apostle Paul comes at the end of a larger section of the letter that speaks to the way we conduct ourselves while living the Christian life.

      I raise the raise the issue of my diverse work history in the context of Colossians for one particularly important point. I have never had a bad job! Don’t get me wrong, I have had to do work that I don’t particularly enjoy at times. There have been times when I have not been happy with my job. But on the whole, I have never had a bad job.

      The key factor is one of attitude. I find that attitude through my Christian faith. Yet the attitude determines the outcome!

      Perhaps the most important factor, for me, is the realization that if I am doing something “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” it is a sacred act! I don’t care if I am preparing to preach a sermon or scrubbing greasy gunk out of a galley pan on the ship. It is sacred work if it is being done in God’s name. Then, suddenly, the value, purpose, direction, and meaning of the labor changes for the better!

      Truthfully, God needs all of the labors that make up our world. There is no job too mundane to be done in God’s name because the one performing the task is created in God’s image, called very good, and called to be a beacon of God’s light in the workplace.

      Think, for a moment, about how this makes profound differences in the workplace. The list is much longer than what I have here, but these are the top 10 reasons why working in God’s name makes a profound, positive, and meaningful difference in the workplace.

1.      God’s priority for equality, justice, fairness, and affirmation becomes a guiding principle of the workplace

2.      God is a part of what we are doing so we have access to God’s wisdom in the process.

3.      Since God truly deserves our very best, it is easier to give our best at all times.

4.      When the stupid stuff starts to get us down, we are less likely to lose sight of the higher purpose

5.      Our work is no longer a separate and secular endeavor that cuts us off from worshipping God. Rather, our work becomes yet another means to worship and glorify God.

So, today as we engage the daily chores of our life’s work—paid or unpaid—let us all honor God in the labors of our lives!

Who are We and What are we Supposed to do?

        Christians today need to be challenged with two questions.

1. Who are we?

2. What is God calling—or expecting—us to do?

They are not easy questions to ask or answer, but they are vital questions to consider.

        In writing about the ludicrous nature of some organizational statements of purpose, the late Peter Drucker said of hospitals that the very worst thing they could do is say that they are in the business of providing health care. The problem is, in Drucker’s analysis that hospitals should not be trying to take care of health. Instead, hospitals need to see themselves in the business of caring for people who are experiencing a crisis in health. It is people in crisis, not health care, that matters!

        When Jesus was challenged by those in authority that his disciples were not playing by the established rules and not doing things that were religiously appropriate, he countered their challenge by calling into question their assumptions of who they were and what their priorities truly were. The people had the outward appearance of dedicated religious individuals, but the thin façade of religiosity was inadequate to meet the challenges that come with living faithfully in the world.

        Drucker’s business analysis also looked at one of the most monumental failures in modern industrial and commercial history—the Ford Edsel. It was, perhaps the most thoroughly researched, engineered, and designed automobile of its day. On paper, it should have been the most successful product to ever roll off of a Ford assembly line. It’s failure, according to Drucker, centered in the fact that Edsel’s quality and cutting-edge technology existed only in the product, but not in the hearts and passions of Ford. A doom’s day mentality settled in at Ford and the greatest automobile ever designed, failed for lack of passion and devotion.

        So, as a person dedicated to the Christian faith, I must ask the questions: Who are we and what are we called to do?

        Who are we? First and foremost, we are children of our loving and living God as revealed in Jesus Christ. While that answer may seem trite to some and an oversimplification to others, it is perhaps the most profound statement we can make. We are part of God’s family. All we are and all we do reflects our understanding of what it means to be part of that family.

What are we called and empowered to do? We are a worshipping community of faith where all people grow in God’s grace, find acceptance and forgiveness in God’s love, are formed through Biblical witness, and are equipped for ministry in Jesus Christ.

It is important that we keep these points in the forefront of our actions for ministry. Rules, traditions, and customs have their place, but they are not the reason we exist as a congregation in Jesus Christ. Like the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ day, the danger we face is that of worshipping the tradition and upholding the letter of the law without regard to the ministry the tradition and law were developed to support. Together, let us be about the ministry of Jesus Christ that has been laid out for the family of God! 

After Tuscon ... Now What?

As with most of the nation, I am both outraged and dismayed over the violence in Arizona. Beautiful lives have been needlessly cut short, the future of a dynamic leader in Congress is in question. There’s plenty of blame being shouted for inciting this evil unleashed in a supermarket parking lot. The President has called for this nation to rise above the tragedy and various individuals or groups have used the catastrophic event to make particular points. So … now what?

Perhaps a little perspective is in order.

In the 36 years between 1865 and 1901, three presidents (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley) were all assassinated while in office. It has been nearly a half century since this nation’s last presidential assassination, that of John F. Kennedy 1963. There have been many other credible attempts on Presidents in these last 50 years, most notably the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981. Successful attempts on the life of the President are, thankfully, very rare.

Congressional members facing deadly violence are also strikingly rare. Democrat Leo Ryan of San Francisco was leading an investigation of the American Religious Cult led by Jim Jones in Guyana when his delegation was ambushed. The Congressman and four others were killed in the attack. Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 and Louisiana Senator Huey Long was assassinated in 1935.

According to the Congressional Archives, in the entire history of the United States, 60 members of Congress have died for reasons other than natural causes, but this includes suicides, automobile and airplane accidents, and duels as well as assassinations.

Deadly violence directed at the Nation’s elected leaders is nothing new to our history. Yet, thankfully, it remains relatively rare.

Yet, I can’t get past Sarah Palin and her now infamous “Crosshairs” map (which, let us not forget, explicitly named Gabrielle Giffords) and her violence-laden rhetoric to behavior such as calling to reload rather than retreat. Likewise, I remember with great disgust when so-called “Joe the Plumber” came to Carlsbad last spring and suggested the best solution to the immigration problem was to start shooting. In both cases, audience reaction to these politically charged expressions of deadly violence were met with thunderous applause, cheers, and shouts of presumptive victory.

I am also struck—although not surprised—by published intentions by Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church to picket the funerals of 9-year-old Christina Green and Judge John Roll. According to their website, the shooter was sent to carry out God’s will and impose divine judgment on America for her sins and they, as a congregation, are thankful to God for the violence and bloodshed. I think, quite seriously, if Sarah Palin’s remarks are not enough to provoke potentially violent outrage, certainly the actions and rhetoric of these people are!

So …. Now what?

As a Christian, my first recourse is Scripture. I am reminded that Jesus Christ says in a beautiful parable that before we try to remove the speck from another’s eye, we must first remove the log from our own (Matthew 7:1-5).

I do not like the violence. I personally abhor rhetoric that uses images of crosshairs, invokes the language of warfare, or champion’s the Name of God in ways that provoke angry, retaliatory, and emotionally charged (let alone violent) responses. Yet, as I name that which I do not like, I am reminded that it is also a challenge in my own spirit to not be lowered to the point of vehement anger in my own spirit. To put it bluntly, it is pretty hard for me to not feel unrelenting feelings of outright hate toward Sarah Palin or Fred Phelps. (You could add Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and even institutions like Fox News to that list … but out of concern for my blood pressure I’ll stop there.)

Ephesians 4:25-29 reads: “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.”

Ouch! Do I detect a log in my own eye?

In the coming days and weeks, there will be a lot of ink spilled, blogs published, sermons preached, and sound bites broadcast on what we are supposed to do now that this tragic moment in our history has reared its ugly head. There will be lots of finger-pointing and angry response. There will be calls for peace and calls for retribution … and everything in between.

The times call, more than anything else, for prayerful, careful, and faithful discernment. Not only do I believe in the power of prayer and the fact that God honors and answers prayer, but I believe in times like this, prayer is the only means we have to navigate the treacherous waters, contend with the logs in our own eyes, and then see clearly to seek “only what is useful for building up.”

Let this tragic event and all the emotionally-charged, politically-motivated, and media-driven chaos dominating the days, drive us all into heart-felt, and faithful prayer. I am inspired by the call of my Disciples of Christ General Minister and President, the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins who calls herself and all of us to pray:

• Prayers of praise to God who intends that life would be good and who walks closely with us when it is not;
• Prayers of confession of our own tendency to vilify our enemies and to fear those we do not understand;
• Prayers of petition for healing for those wounded in the attack, for the families and friends of those who have died, for the family of the man who shot them – and for him;
• Prayers for our leaders – spiritual and political – that they will have clear minds and pure hearts, leading the way in cleansing our national political dialogue of hatred, disrespect, and personal attack.

So ... now what? 

It is time to pray!


AMEN!