Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12: 9-14; 1 Corinthians 15: 58
Sermon: When it Comes to Work, Who Has the Last Word?
Topics: work, meaning, drudgery, sermons,
Preached: September 1, 2019
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble: The Teacher of Ecclesiastes began his writing and ended his writing with this phrase: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”
8Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.
Here is the epilogue that follows:
9 Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. 10The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.
11 The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd.
12Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
1 Corinthians 15:58
After a glorious chapter on the mystery of the resurrection, Paul ends with this epilogue:
58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
John Ames is the main character of Marilyn Robinson’s novel Gilead. He is in his 70’s, and has been a pastor all his life. The novel is basically a long letter he is writing to his son because he feels he does not have much longer to live.
At one point in this novel, Rev. Ames writes about his old sermons. He admits he has lots of them – boxes and boxes of them in the attic. He thinks he should burn them all, but is pretty sure this would upset his wife, and their son’s mother.
He does wonder whether there are at least a few sermons that are worth keeping and passing on to his son. But the problem is, there are so many of them — he figures he has written as much as St. Augustine. So now, he wonders, what is he supposed to do with them all?[1]
This summer, I have had a John Ames moment.[2]
I have been reviewing old sermons – and yes, I also have lots of them.
They are not in boxes in the attic collecting dust.
No, they are on my computer hard drive taking up some megabyte space.
I am not tempted to burn them.
But I am at times tempted to hit the DELETE button.
Reviewing these old sermons got me thinking about work, the nature of work, and its place in our lives.
My work life has had a certain rhythm.
Study and work all week to produce a sermon.
Deliver that sermon on Sunday.
On Monday start all over again.
The rhythm sort of reminds me of that old Greek myth, the Myth of Sisyphus.
You may remember that myth.
The work-life of Sisyphus is to push a large rock up to a mountaintop.
Once he gets that rock to the top, it rolls back down.
And Sisyphus starts all over again.
Can you see how writing a sermon
looks a bit like pushing that “rock” up the mountain each week?
Can you see how the rhythm of my work-life looks a little like that of Sisyphus?
I do not think I am alone in this.
ECCLESIASTES’ WORD ON WORK
The author of Ecclesiastes would be nodding his head in agreement.
“Yes, yes,” he intones,
“of making many books, and many sermons, there is no end;
and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”
But that is the nature of work, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes tells us.
The nature of work is essentially absurd.
Look at the Baby Boomers with their generally high view of working hard.
Where has it got them?
When they consider all that their hands have done,
and all the toil they spent doing it,
we have to conclude, it is all vanity —
all just a chasing after the wind (2:10-11)
Maybe you have a more Millennial view of work.
that work is transactional – you give something, you get something.
you work for the perks it gives you:
a nice house,
exotic vacations,
you name it.
Again, the Teacher in Ecclesiastes says,
“Sure, enjoy the fruit of your labor, so to speak,
But you know that in the end,
it will all come to nothing.
Our days are few.
They pass like shadows.
In no time at all, we will all return to dust. (12: 1-7)
Ecclesiastes is a brutally realistic book.
It seems to give the last word concerning work —
that work, like everything else in life, is vanity, is meaningless.
Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
Meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless.
PAUL’s WORD ON WORK
Seemingly in stark contrast to Ecclesiastes,
Paul speaks a different word on work.
Paul says,
“Listen, my beloved,
be steadfast, immoveable,
always excelling in the work of the Lord,
because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
You know that in the Lord your work is not meaningless.”
Why the contrast?
Why the stark difference from Ecclesiastes?
One of the reasons is because, for the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, there was nothing new under the sun.
For Ecclesiastes, we are all heading in the same direction —
Dust we are and to dust we shall return. Period.
That is his brutal truth.
But Paul has just spent a whole chapter hammering home that there is something new under the sun –
that is the resurrection of Jesus.
Paul has just spent a whole chapter telling us that our final destiny is NOT DUST.
Our final destiny is the grand mystery of the final resurrection
when the trumpet sounds,
and we are all changed.
In the context of the final resurrection,
in the context of the promise of the new heaven and new earth,
our work takes on a whole new meaning.
Our works changes in different ways.
Who we are working for changes.
We are now working for our Risen King.
And What we are working for changes.
We are now working for his coming Kingdom.
Our King and His Kingdom changes everything.
It changes what we pray for.
It changes what we work for.
King Jesus, Your will and your work be done.
King Jesus, Your Kingdom come.
Paul is basically saying to Ecclesiastes and to us,
it is not our work that gives us meaning and purpose.
No, it is our identity in Christ
that gives our work meaning and purpose.
It all starts with our identity in Christ.
DELIVERANCE FROM DRUDGERY
You may be thinking,
“This all sounds well and good,
but what difference will it actually make in my life?
How will this keep me from feeling like Sisyphus,
just pushing that rock up the mountain, week in and week out?”
Let me tell you about John White.
John White writes about when he was an anxious undergrad student.
He was obsessed with getting A’s.
He was obsessed with getting a 4.0 GPA.
School was nothing but a pressure cooker.
That pressure cooker led to a vicious cycle:
he would procrastinate, then cram,
procrastinate, then cram.
He would put so much time and energy into cramming,
that he had no interest and no energy to start the next assignment
until it was too late, and then he would cram again.
He calls this his life of Drudgery — not so far from Sisyphus.
It was no life.
It had no joy.
Could things be different?
Then he began to pray about it.
While praying, he wondered,
“What if I studied, not for A’s, but for the Lord?
What if I aimed not for what’s best for a career,
but for what is best for Christ’s kingdom?”
So John White began to
change his focus,
change his attitude,
change his thinking.
He writes that it transformed his life.
Suddenly, studying and learning became fun again.
Eventually John White became a psychiatrist and a professor of psychiatry.[3]
Making Jesus your Master,
and working for his Kingdom your purpose,
makes all the difference.
But I do not want to leave you with the impression that
if you do that,
you will suddenly be on the road to success.
It would be much closer to the truth to say that
if you make Jesus your Master, and his Kingdom your purpose,
you will be on the road to service.
IAN BEDLOE
In one of Anne Tyler’s earlier novels, she introduces us to Ian Bedloe.
Ian is a typical, happy, fun-loving young man.
He is in university and getting pretty good grades.
The girl he is seeing, he started dating in High School.
His path in life looks pretty clear.
Graduate from University.
Get a decent paying job.
Marry his sweetheart.
Raise a family.
Buy a house in the suburbs.
Drive a Subaru (okay, that isn’t in the book – I just added the Subaru)
But then something happens.
Ian’s older brother dies.
And so does his sister-in-law.
They leave 3 very young orphaned children.
Ian is suddenly not sure what to do with his life.
In trying to figure things out,
Ian stumbles into a church – the Church of the Second Chance.
He has a spiritual experience in that church.
He becomes a deeply committed believer.
He suddenly drops out of university.
He begins raising his orphaned nephew and nieces.
He gets a job as a carpenter.
His parents are totally confused.
They wonder what kind of weird church Ian has gotten involved in.
But Ian spends the next decade and a half devoting himself to raising those kids.
The novel is called Saint Maybe.[4]
It is called that for a reason.
I think it is because maybe this is what a saint looks like:
someone who makes Jesus their master,
someone who serves his kingdom as a priority,
even when, and perhaps especially when, that takes sacrifice.
Saints do not think they are living the Myth of Sisyphus.
Saints work gladly and joyfully
in building homes,
in raising families,
in tending to the sick,
in raising crops for the hungry,
in showing love for others,
and care for the creation
in hundreds of thousands of ways.
And each little way points
not to the futility of work,
but to the goal of our work – the Kingdom of the Lord.
So we work – with a smile on our face
and hope deeply planted in our hearts,
because we know that Kingdom is coming.
CONCLUSION — Who Has The LAST WORD
When it comes it work,
Ecclesiastes does not have the last word.
When it comes to work,
really, Paul does not have the last word either.
At the end of the day,
and at the end of all our labors,
our parents will be gone
all our profs will be gone
all our earthly bosses will be gone,
and anyone else we have wanted to impress somehow,
well, they will be gone too.
At the end of the day,
there will be only one Master who remains.
The Master who became a servant for us,
who lived for us, who worked for us,
who died for us, who rose for us.
At the end of the day,
this is the Master we will appear before.
The last word concerning our work
is whether we have lived for Him,
whether we have worked for Him.
For if we have worked for Him,
our labor will not have been in vain.
Amen
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