Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept/73

Contributor - Harri Zegerius

Title - My Father Worketh - and I work

Topic - Work

When this gets into your hands, Labour Day will be long gone and we will be facing towards Thanksgiving. And not so unreasonable that - for a good look at the work of our hands and the life blessings that result, ought to make us grateful for health and strength, and the opportunity to provide for our loved ones. That is Thanksgiving Day.

Not everyone feels that way about it though. Somewhere at the edge of a park in the shade of a tree you might hear a young voice say, "Work, man? No way. In twenty years they'll all be like us, nobody will work." And there may be more than we know who get by without working.

There are others who'd like to change the emphasis. They blame the church, especially the Calvinists, for what they call the Work ethic. Simply stated: "Be honest, work hard, and God will bless you." Or said in an other way, "Your talents are an entrustment from God. Use them for the good; your own and others. Use them for the glory of God." Perhaps the critics don't like the feeling of responsibility, or maybe they don't like the unpleasant side of work. Perhaps they blame the church for that too.

That there is an unpleasant side is readily admitted. Work that needs constant repetition can be painful drudgery. One needs but to visit the production line of an auto factory on a hot day to know that labour can be a burden. One needs but to watch the field workers, endlessly stooping, picking tomatoes or pickles under the burning sun, to know weariness. And there are other unpleasant tasks: animals need to be slaughtered, corpses need to be buried, garbage needs to be hauled, sewage must be treated. You name it

However, whatever our gift, or whatever our task, inner attitude and faith do make a difference. Remember the two men who were carrying mud and bricks up the scaffolding of a building. One said, "I'm hauling bricks." The other said with some pride "I'm helping to build a cathedral." If we see our work as part of the human process, part of meeting the human need, doing the work of God, it can be meaningful and honourable, no matter what it is.

Our Lord Jesus was a busy man. We presume in His youth He worked in Joseph's carpenter shop. When He became a man He became not a wandering troubadour but a consecrated teacher and healer,--a person deeply conscious of human needs, even to tears, who utterly expended himself for the meeting of that need. Day and night humanity crowded about Him, because He had love to share, and wisdom, and the purpose of God to fulfill.

When they asked Him why He was so urgent, why He couldn't even stop on the Sabbath to do His healing, He said, "My Father works even now, and I work." How deeply conscious He was of the Father's work. He saw God's hand in the shining lily, and in the trembling body of a little sparrow. He lived in the power of God, He walked in the footsteps of God. He laboured in the purposes of God.

Has this crossed your mind lately, that God is at work. He maintains and governs His universe. What we so easily call nature must be the handiwork of God. He brings to pass the mystery of birth. He makes glorious the tree with blossom and ripens the fruit. He guides and counsels and protects. As one poet said it, "God is at His anvil, beating out the sun." Jesus knew God as a Father at work.

And therefore His own work had dignity and meaning. It was doing the work of God. It was weariness to be sure, and drudgery and the oppressive needs of the crowd. But he expended Himself, even to the Cross, for the needs of men.

Could we say then that work is basically part of our human existence because God made it so? I have watched with interest such "natural" men as have not been touched greatly by our Western civilization. They too must work. The native of the cutback of Australia sits by the ant hill gathering these specks of protein. He goes on daily scrounging missions to dig grubs out of dying trees, to find roots and tubers that he can eat, to hunt the kangaroo. So do the Tasaday, stone age people found in the Philippine mountains, roam his forests for food, and sift the streams for minnows, crabs, and slugs to feed his hungry children. For the needs of men to be supplied there must be work done.

Perhaps part of our problem today is that our society arouses desire for high standards in our hearts. Lovely homes, fine cars, this luxury and that. The more we desire the more we must be engaged to produce and maintain. Sometimes this hard driving may seem like an unending enslavement. But this is certain, as long as we must maintain the dignity and safety of a community, so long we must work.

And many varying kinds of people must work because a great variety of work needs to be done. And we have need of one another's work. The one is not greater than another. What makes me think of that is the present strike of railroad workers and the consequences. Thousands of men laid off immediately because of lack of materials. But then who thinks about railroad men. Hardly anyone rides trains anymore and don't the trucks haul most of the stuff we need?

Apparently the work of the railroad men is of prime importance in the community of men.

And so are doctors, and nurses and their aides, and other hospital workers. So are housewives, and school teachers, and engineers and flower growers. Go on and on, they are all of importance.

God gives us all certain natural abilities and inclinations.

These need to be fitted into the pattern of human need. When the Welland Canal suffers an accident, it takes skilled men to see that ships can again pass through. And the repair is no doubt hard work. When our forests are aflame, it takes daring and resourceful men to fight such fires. I hate to think of Hamilton two months in hot summer without garbage collection. All tasks have their importance.

It makes me think of 1 Cor. 12 where Paul is speaking of spiritual gifts. Is there not a wide variety? Can anyone have them all? No, only such as God bestows. Are they not all important because they are all of one body? "For the body is not one member, but many . . . If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? . . . But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it pleased Him." We could well apply much of this chapter to our personal gifts, and our great mutual need for one another in society.

Over against those who say, "In 20 years, no more work". I would rather stress that there is much

yet to be done. It may be different from chopping down forests and building log cabins. It may be different from breaking the prairies with a horse and a single plow. It may be different from the first missionary setting tentative foot in steaming India, or the doctor rolling his horse and rig to some lonely f arm.

The troubles of our time tell us there is yet much to do. Broken homes and forsaken children, run away teenagers, tell us there is work in human relations. Polluted water and air challenge us to the task of ecology. Medicine, teaching, house building for increasing populations, these all remain undiminished. There is work to be done.

An editorial in Christianity Today (Aug. 31) says, "The environmental crisis is a major reminder that the pronouncement of death upon physical labor was premature. It turns out that many Of our technological achievements have been at the expense of our environment. We did not finish our work; we cut corners and didn't clean up after ourselves. Now the uncared for chores have begun to catch up with us . . . Many, many people will have to roll up their sleeves again." No we cannot say, "Let's quit work." Our Father works, and our Lord lived in a deep awareness of a task to be done. In our time too there is still much to do. Twenty four million people are at the edge of starvation in Africa right now. Sicknesses still need to be conquered, the health and welfare of our planet earth needs to be repaired and maintained. And there are still millions who have not heard of our Saviour. The work of the Lord still needs doing in a large way - Let's gird up our loins!

Our Father works.

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