1
Corinthians 11:23-26 For I received from
the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was
betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
"This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the
new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of
me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he comes.
Is Work
Beautiful?
Pastor Joe Fuiten, Labor Day Weekend, September 2, 2001
Scripture
Reading: Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 Page 473
1 There is a time for
everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to
uproot,3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to
build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to
dance,5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace
and a time to refrain, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep
and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be
silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war
and a time for peace. 9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden
God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He
has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what
God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for
men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and
drink, and find satisfaction in all his
toil-- this is the gift of God. (NIV)
In this passage, Solomon compares 28
activities which, taken as a whole, represent virtually all of life. He means to cover the full range of human
activity and to say that there is a time for everything. He has said it so poetically that he has
inspired song-writers to take up his refrain.
“Everything is beautiful, in its
own way…”
Unfortunately, I’m not sure the song-writers
actually understood what Solomon was saying.
I think it is really an expression of frustration. If everything is beautiful in its time, then
destroying is as beautiful as building. Hate is as beautiful as love.
Silence is as beautiful as speech.
Dying is as beautiful as birth and weeping as beautiful as laughing. For Solomon, all this “beauty” is not all
that beautiful. In fact, in verse 10 he
calls it a burden.
If all this is so beautiful then
what is the point of work? You spend
your life building something up and somebody else comes along and destroys
it. What is that all about?
Last Summer, Linda, Ben and I
traveled to Romania to dedicate a beautiful school building in Romania. It was quite a building, gleaming white on a
hilltop overlooking the city.
Afterwards we went to Rome for a few days. It is quite stunning to walk through the old Roman Forum, for
centuries the center of the world. The
Arch of Titus, the Roman General who conquered Jerusalem is still standing and
is quite magnificent. The old Senate
building with his giant doors where the Caesars walked. A few standing columns here, a broken statue
there; the glory of the place is still evident. However, the great leaders are gone as are their subjects. I can handle that.
What troubles me a lot more is
Turkey. To walk through Hagia Sophia in
Istanbul is to feel the glory of Rome and the Church. For more than a thousand years, that Church saw every Roman Emperor
bow their knee to Jesus. Great
preachers stirred thousands in that place.
It had everything—beauty, power, majesty—and it was truly amazing. Then, just over five hundred years ago, they
lost the war and Moslems turned it into a mosque. You can still see the shadow where the torn the arms off the
cross to leave only the upward spike.
We wonder, is this beautiful?
Most of us have had those kinds of
experiences. We give everything to
something and for a while it is great.
But circumstances change and all the effort disappears without a visible
trace.
“Everything
is beautiful in its time.” When it is
time for something, it is great. But
that time passes and it is no longer great.
When something is built we feel proud.
But when it goes away, we ask Solomon’s question, “What does the worker
gain from his toil?” It is the ancient equivalent of “Life is hard and then you
die.”
In
contrast to the burden of that thought Solomon says of God, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men” He offers that as the antidote for the
“everything is beautiful” notion.
On this
labor day weekend, which idea dominates your heart?
“Close to six in 10 American adults work, including
49% who work full-time and 9% who work part-time. A recent Gallup poll offers
these snapshots of the American workforce: Two-thirds of all workers are
employees of a private company or business (69%), 17% work for the government.
and another 12% are self-employed. The average full-time worker puts in 46
hours per week. The average part-time worker logs 30 hours. Most workers tell
Gallup that they either "love" (32%) or "like" (59%) their
job; only a handful "dislike" (6%) or "hate" (2%) it.”[1]
Whether we love our job or hate it, is not really
the relevant question. The bigger
question is “What is the point of my job?”
Am I working to accumulate, so I can pass it on to my kids and they can
buy a boat and sit on the lake?
God’s answer is that he has also set eternity in the
hearts of people. That is, we long for
something that cannot be destroyed. We
don’t want to build Rome to give the barbarians something to tear down.
To be meaningful, and to fit into God’s definition of
satisfaction, all labor requires three things.
First, it
should be done for the glory of God, in and of itself. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing
well. That is the message of Paul in
Corinthians, “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”[2] It is worth doing a good job because God
likes good work. From physical, to
mental, to artistic efforts, God sees it all and it should glorify him.
Second,
it should be done for the legitimate benefit of ones family and
responsibilities. It is good to work to
make a living to support and bless your family. For that matter, it is good to work to bless yourself. Our son Ben is trying to figure out how he
can buy a condo. We are encouraging him
in this. You put all your money in a
car and when you are done you will have less.
Put it in a house, and you will have more. If you are going to go to all the trouble anyway, why not come
out ahead instead of behind? All these
things are good with God. Why? It is
because God organized the family. It was
his idea.
Third,
everything should be done with an eye toward the eternal. What does that mean? It means that this life comes and goes. Even good things we do here will be gone one
day. If Rome disappears, so will what
we do.
The
eternal suggests several things to us.
At a minimum, we should be tithers. That is, a tenth of our income ought to go to build the work of
God. It lasts because it is
spiritual. I remember reading a book
some years ago called “The Richest Man in Babylon.” The author’s idea was that 10% of all you earn is yours to
keep. He had in mind that you would
save that much. It’s a good idea. God’s idea is that 10% of all you earn is
not yours to keep.
Beyond
that, our labor should have one of its goals to strengthen God’s work in
some way. Maybe one goal would be
to devote a couple of retirement years to church work. Jim Woodford spends a lot of time since he
retired working at the church. He helps
with accounting, social director for West of 50, and funerals. Anita Madden gave several to tutoring first
graders in our school. Active adults
can help too. Triang gave three weeks last month as a volunteer in our
mechanics ministry. A man from Canyon
Hills Christian Church gave a week to work with Jim Vanden Bos to build garbage
containers that you see around the property.
Another man from Eastside Foursquare has been volunteering here to help
with air conditioning equipment. Some
of you Microsoft types have purchased and then donated large amounts of
software to us.
It is
very exciting to see all the talents of people flowing into this place. I love to see the initiative of people who
come in here saying “I can help you with that.”
There is
something satisfying in being part of God’s work. You still do it to the best of your ability. That’s intrinsic joy. Remember what Philippe Vallerand said? “I can feel God’s pleasure when I do this.”
We
also find satisfaction in our labor because we know we are making a
difference. Solomon’s great line: “That
everyone may eat and drink, and find
satisfaction in all his toil-- this is the gift of God.”