These are hard times for most of us.
Some saw the nest egg they had set aside for the retirement years severely decimated – if not wiped out altogether.
Some have lost their jobs – and/or access to health care.
Some have lost their homes.
Credit card bills pile up while doctors and hospitals threaten.
Banks failed and readjusted,
wall street firms and automobile manufacturers collapsed,
and people all over the world experienced the economic difficulties.
These are hard times for most of us.
It is in the midst of hard times that Jesus came and preached his gospel of God’s Kingdom rather than Rome’s Kingdom or Persia’s Kingdom, or any other Kingdom of man.
The Christian gospel – and the Jewish faith – was birthed in hard times.
The gospel of Jesus survives – and even thrives – during hard times.
Our faith survives and even thrives during hard times.
Our faith needs to be proclaimed during hard times.
Our faith speaks to us during hard times.
And so, I am preaching this series on Surviving Hard Times.
Our theme for this series of sermons comes from I John 5:4: It is our faith that enables us to get through hard times.
Pity those who have no faith.
Two weeks ago we looked at Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen,
Today we are looking Surviving Hard Times when the Economy Sours.
Perhaps we were spoiled. For decades the overall message of the world around us that nothing like what happened in 1929 could ever happen again.
And, we have experienced a time of unequaled prosperity in our land –
but recent events have been troubling, haven’t they?
Massive lay-offs.
Plunging stocks.
Loss of consumer confidence.
Thousands of our fellow citizens are in the midst of their own private economic downturn – the poor, of course, and those who have found themselves downsized out of a well-paying job in the middle years of their lives.
In the midst of our personal prosperity it is easy to ignore the fact that people have lost jobs and are unable to find new ones –
that personal bankruptcies are at an all-time high –
that state governments are scrounging around trying to find funds to keep schools open.
If you are among those in the throes of your own private economic slowdown, there is not much comfort in knowing that other people are doing pretty well.
Our Old Testament lesson today is about a lady who knew about hard times of economic hardship.
A stranger approached this woman out gathering sticks one day by the town gate and asked her for a drink of water.
Wanting to be hospitable , she went to fetch the water.
As she was leaving, the stranger called out, "And while you’re at it, bring me a piece of bread."
And the story is that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, this was more than she could handle.
"As surely as the Lord your God lives, she said,
"I don't have any bread!!!!
I have only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.
I am out here gathering a few sticks to take home that I may make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die."
She was in a desperate situation.
It is difficult to believe, but hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people in our world today are just as desperate.
They do not know for certain where their next meal is coming from.
This widow's situation appeared hopeless in her eyes, but not in the eyes of the stranger.
For the stranger was the prophet Elijah.
He knew that God is a bountiful, giving God.
Elijah said to this despondent woman, "Now, now, Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small piece of bread . . . and bring it to me . . .
Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: "The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.'"
The widow did as Elijah said.
And "there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.
For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, as the Lord had said" (NIV).
Clearly, this woman was caught in the midst of her own hard times of economic hardship.
On this Sunday in September, 2009, more than twenty-six million Americans are trying to live below the poverty level.
One sociologist recently estimated that one of every three young families in America today is only one paycheck away from bankruptcy.
It's tough!
As one wag said, "I used to live in the lap of luxury – then luxury stood up."
So, what do you do when the economy sours and hard times come to your house?
What do you do when your needs are great and your resources are meager?
Those needs may not be only financial, of course.
Some of the same principles that apply to our financial woes also apply to such things as marital heartaches and concerns about our family,
our health,
or our job.
What are these timeless principles?
For one thing, don't give up.
That's what the widow was ready to do, right?
Before Elijah got hold of her she was going to go home and make preparations for both herself and her son to die.
That is about as desperate as a person can become.
Some of you may have been nearly that desperate at some point in your life.
Life can look so bleak at times.
What do you do when you're that low?
One thing you don't do is give up.
The second thing we do is trust God.
As much as we talk about faith, trusting God is hard for us to do, isn’t it?
The great philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described a familiar boyhood experience.
He was being taught to swim by his father. Splashing wildly with both arms and kicking with one leg, he called to his father, "Look at me, look at me. I'm swimming!"
But, says Kierkegaard, all the time he was standing on the bottom of the swimming pool on his big toe.
Many of us are like that in our faith, aren't we?
"I have faith!" we declare, but it is an untested faith.
It is a tentative faith, wouldn’t you say?
One toe remains on the bottom!
It is an enormous step for some of us to abandon our fears and trust God.
Such faith may get harder for us the older we get.
Somewhere along the way we lose that child-like ability to trust – to rest our concerns on God.
The widow had quit trusting God.
Elijah came to her and gave her hope.
He told her to trust God.
I John is right. It is about faith.
Survival in hard times depends upon faith.
How irenic that we put on our money, In God We Trust.
And yet, we don’t really.
So often, in so many ways, we put our trust in the coin of the realm, don’t we?
And, when the economy sours, we are devastated.
Most of Jesus’ teaching challenges conventional wisdom, the sort of common sense everyone accepts, whose lessons we have learned so well –
which means that to be his follower requires a great deal of un-teaching and un-learning and re-programming.
Life as a companion and understudy of Jesus is most often upside-down, inside-out, and bottom-side-up from the way the world operates under current management.
Our first impulse is to domesticate the teaching and take away the edge.
Think how crazy it sounds to be invited to make deposits in an invisible bank:
“Do not make a habit of laying up for yourself treasures on earth, where moths eat holes in the fabrics and where mold rots the grain, and where thieves break in and steal your jewelry;
[no] lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where none of that happens because everything stays new and forever uncorrupted.
Make a more secure investment!
Adopt a kingdom of God investment policy!”
In the company of Jesus we learn the joy of kingdom generosity and the truth of his teaching.
Not that we don’t work or own or manage wisely, only that we don’t trust in stuff for security,
and everything we own is available should it be requisitioned.
We hold possessions loosely and refuse to let their presence or absence define who we are.
God is our source, and what God does not supply, we do not need.
After all, there are limits to what money can actually do.
You know this:
Money can buy you a house, but not a home.
It can buy you a bed, but not sleep.
It can buy you a clock, but not time.
It can buy you a book, but not knowledge.
It can buy you a position, but not respect.
It can buy you sex, but not love.
It can buy you medicine, but not health.
It can buy you blood, but not life.”
The secret to surviving hard times when the economy sours is faith.
In Vienna, Austria, people swim down the Danube River.
Now there are infamous whirlpools in the Danube River that can pull the strongest swimmer under. Wise swimmers learn that when caught in a whirlpool the secret is to just be still.
If they remain completely still the mighty force of the whirlpool will push you back to the surface and to safety.
Swimming the Danube offers a lesson for those of us who have been caught in our own private whirlpools – whatever that whirlpool may mean for you.
That’s what we’re about here at Christ Church.
We come here to exercise and to strengthen our faith.
May you find hope in what goes on here.
And, maybe tell somebody what is going on here –
and invite them to come next week for the next installment in messages for surviving hard times.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen
I doubt if there is anyone in this room who has not been affected by hard times recently.
These are hard times for most folks.
And the cry of the prophet is frequently our cry:
How long, LORD, must I cry for help before you listen?
Why do you make me see such trouble?
The collapse of so much of the economic system of this country has had overarching effect and has touched the lives of all of us – some of much more than others.
Jobs are lost,
savings have been decimated – if not lost altogether,
mortgages are being called.
The financial security we have been planning for no longer is.
Many of us are caring – or have been caring – for loved ones who are struggling with frailty of the body or demons of the mind.
And some of us are facing potentially devastating issues with our own health – cancers, pulmonary disease, arthritis, macular degeneration, and the list goes on.
These are hard times for most folks.
And the cry of the prophet is frequently our cry:
How long, LORD, must I cry for help before you listen?
Why do you make me see such trouble?
Why me, Lord?
How long?
It is not a new problem.
It is as old as the Book of Job and as new as the latest bulletin from the hospital's Intensive Care Unit.
It is quite a human reaction that when suffering and tragedy strike, we cry out, "Why?"
But, the story is that Job maintained his faith in God and in the integrity of his own morally upright character.
And, ultimately, it was his faith that got him through the hard times.
So, there are many aspects to our hard times – and the time each of us and many of our neighbors are facing.
It so happens that almost all of our scripture stories were written to and while folks were in hard times. And, it could be important to relate some of these stories to the times we are facing.
Somehow my thoughts turned to that television series that some you may have seen, Survivor?
So, in the weeks ahead I will be looking at what our scripture says about surviving hard times.
And today, it is Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen.
The overriding scripture reference for our series is
I John 5:4: It is our faith that overcomes all our troubles.
When tragedy strikes us and we cry to the heavens, "Why?"
It seems to me that when we cry “Why me?” or “How Long, Lord?” we really are not looking for an intellectual answer for our minds.
One might give a theological answer, but that would not stop the pain in our hearts.
What we need at such times is not an answer, but an assurance that behind everything that happens to us there is a loving God who will neither leave us nor forsake us.
In fact, time and time again, in our Gospels we see stories of Jesus specifically rejecting the notion that suffering is necessarily the result of human sin.
You know, I am reminded that is was Humpty Dumpty that told Alice in Wonderland,
"I can explain all the poems that ever were invented, and a good many that haven't been invented just yet."
Humpty-Dumpty was the great Explainer.
Many people believe that God is (or ought to be) the Great Explainer, and if He is not, then the preachers, priests, and rabbis, God's representatives on earth ought to be.
But, you know, the name "Jesus" does not mean "Explainer," – right –
but "Savior" or "Deliverer."
And that is what we really need – especially in hard times.
Rather than an answer to our question, we need
an assurance that behind everything there beats the heart of a God who loves us more than we can imagine, and who can bring some good out of whatever evil happens to us.
After all, we are talking about a God who could take a Good Friday and make an Easter Sunday out of it! And, as a character in William Goldman's play "The Lion in Winter" says, "In a world where crucified carpenters rise from the dead, anything can happen!"
One Presbyterian preacher [David C. Reed] writes, "I believe in the Christian Gospel not because it offers the best explanation of human suffering but because it gives us the strength we need to win through."
After all, that is what the cross at the center of our worship is all about.
Someone once said to the great German dramatist and philosopher Goethe, "If I were God, the suffering of the world would break my heart." Goethe replied, "It did."
Rabbi Harold Kushner writes, "Christianity introduced to the world the idea of a God who suffers, alongside the image of a God who creates and commands."
When people in the middle of their bad times ask what God is doing, it is a time to gently reach out to them in their devastation and remind them of the good news of God's presence which is revealed in Jesus.
In the midst of bad times the good news needs to be spoken and it needs to be spoken clearly.
God does not create our suffering.
This is what Rabbi Kushner and his wife discovered in coming to grips with the hard times in their life.
You see, the unique aspect of our Christian faith is not that God causes suffering, but that God shares our suffering.
God says, "When you hurt, I cry with you. I share your pain."
Now, this is not only great advice for what to tell others.
It is also precisely what we ourselves need to hear.
No doubt, some of you have devastation in your lives right now.
For some it may be relatively small.
For others, not small at all.
Some in this room are worried about money, others about health.
Some of you may be experiencing hurt in your relationships with family members or others whom you care about.
Some may have experienced the loss of someone or something that you loved a great deal.
Some of you may have something in your life that makes you afraid.
Whatever kind of devastation there may be in your life this day, the good news promises of our faith are for you.
God says, "I promise not to leave you alone."
God's words through the prophets and Jesus ring true through the centuries.
Whatever your need is this day, these words are true for you.
God promises, "I am in your midst ... know that I, the Lord, am your God."
In his sermon on the mount, Jesus could stand up and say:
"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.
With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
It is interesting to note that even after 30-something chapters, Job never did find the answer to his question, "Why does a righteous person suffer?"
But he did get a firsthand knowledge of God.
He did not win his argument, but he did win a new relationship with God.
And so it is with us.
This is what the Kushners found out.
Stuff happens.
Bad things happen to good people.
People get sick.
People die.
People loose their jobs – and their fortunes – and their families.
People get injured and killed.
Stuff happens.
The insurance company may define some event as an act of God, but know this: God does cause illness, or devastation, or hard times.
And when stuff happens, we do not always get our questions answered, but like the prophets and like Jesus said: we can always have God.
We do not always understand God's way with us, but we can always take his hand in ours and walk with him on the path that leads to eternal life
You know every once in a while there is something that pops in our culture that becomes a defining moment – when something catches on and people pick up on it and it begins to define reality.
Some time ago there was a movie – it was called Love Story – I don’t know if you got to see it or not – it starred Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal.
I thought it was a good story and I enjoyed it – even though it was a sad story.
It was a romantic story about a couple who fell in love and experienced some very hard times.
People cried because the movie heroine had cancer – and she died in the end.
And, the movie changed our culture.
In the movie, when the hero was trying to express his love to his dying heroine, she stops him and says “Love means never having to say I’m sorry.”
That phrase worked its way into the psyche of our culture.
And not only affect the way people expressed themselves by not saying “I’m sorry”,
but also by not saying good bye.
How many times have you said, “Don’t say Good Bye – I hate good byes.”
But we loose something when we do that.
A fundamental element of our faith is knowing that no matter what –
no matter where we go –
no matter what we are doing –
no matter what is being to us or by us,
God is with us.
God is with us – at all times:
in times of distress and in times of celebration,
in times of pain and in times of gain,
in end times and in beginning times,
in hard times and in good times .
You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.
You are blessed – especially in hard times.
This message is so valuable – and yet we hear it so little.
God is with us – at all times.
It is our faith that overcomes all our troubles.
Pity the people who have no faith –
who have no community of faith to be with –
when they encounter hard times.
It is so important to come together with others to celebrate the presence of Christ in our lives –
to become more aware of how and when and where Christ is present in our lives.
If you have observant, you may have noticed that at the close of worship services we do not say “Good Luck” or some such.
Rather, we are reminded of God's presence in our life.
In fact, "Goodbye" - is simply a shorthand for "God be with you," (check it out)
the French say adieu – in Spanish it is adios,
all three words, English, French, and Spanish, mean "God be with you."
Remember this if you remember noting else about this day: as you go out into the world, you do not go alone;
you go with each other,
and your God goes with you.
Vaya con Dios.
Habakkuk 1:4
Matthew 5:1-12 (3)
These are hard times for most folks.
And the cry of the prophet is frequently our cry:
How long, LORD, must I cry for help before you listen?
Why do you make me see such trouble?
The collapse of so much of the economic system of this country has had overarching effect and has touched the lives of all of us – some of much more than others.
Jobs are lost,
savings have been decimated – if not lost altogether,
mortgages are being called.
The financial security we have been planning for no longer is.
Many of us are caring – or have been caring – for loved ones who are struggling with frailty of the body or demons of the mind.
And some of us are facing potentially devastating issues with our own health – cancers, pulmonary disease, arthritis, macular degeneration, and the list goes on.
These are hard times for most folks.
And the cry of the prophet is frequently our cry:
How long, LORD, must I cry for help before you listen?
Why do you make me see such trouble?
Why me, Lord?
How long?
It is not a new problem.
It is as old as the Book of Job and as new as the latest bulletin from the hospital's Intensive Care Unit.
It is quite a human reaction that when suffering and tragedy strike, we cry out, "Why?"
But, the story is that Job maintained his faith in God and in the integrity of his own morally upright character.
And, ultimately, it was his faith that got him through the hard times.
So, there are many aspects to our hard times – and the time each of us and many of our neighbors are facing.
It so happens that almost all of our scripture stories were written to and while folks were in hard times. And, it could be important to relate some of these stories to the times we are facing.
Somehow my thoughts turned to that television series that some you may have seen, Survivor?
So, in the weeks ahead I will be looking at what our scripture says about surviving hard times.
And today, it is Surviving Hard Times When Bad Things Happen.
The overriding scripture reference for our series is
I John 5:4: It is our faith that overcomes all our troubles.
When tragedy strikes us and we cry to the heavens, "Why?"
It seems to me that when we cry “Why me?” or “How Long, Lord?” we really are not looking for an intellectual answer for our minds.
One might give a theological answer, but that would not stop the pain in our hearts.
What we need at such times is not an answer, but an assurance that behind everything that happens to us there is a loving God who will neither leave us nor forsake us.
In fact, time and time again, in our Gospels we see stories of Jesus specifically rejecting the notion that suffering is necessarily the result of human sin.
You know, I am reminded that is was Humpty Dumpty that told Alice in Wonderland,
"I can explain all the poems that ever were invented, and a good many that haven't been invented just yet."
Humpty-Dumpty was the great Explainer.
Many people believe that God is (or ought to be) the Great Explainer, and if He is not, then the preachers, priests, and rabbis, God's representatives on earth ought to be.
But, you know, the name "Jesus" does not mean "Explainer," – right –
but "Savior" or "Deliverer."
And that is what we really need – especially in hard times.
Rather than an answer to our question, we need
an assurance that behind everything there beats the heart of a God who loves us more than we can imagine, and who can bring some good out of whatever evil happens to us.
After all, we are talking about a God who could take a Good Friday and make an Easter Sunday out of it! And, as a character in William Goldman's play "The Lion in Winter" says, "In a world where crucified carpenters rise from the dead, anything can happen!"
One Presbyterian preacher [David C. Reed] writes, "I believe in the Christian Gospel not because it offers the best explanation of human suffering but because it gives us the strength we need to win through."
After all, that is what the cross at the center of our worship is all about.
Someone once said to the great German dramatist and philosopher Goethe, "If I were God, the suffering of the world would break my heart." Goethe replied, "It did."
Rabbi Harold Kushner writes, "Christianity introduced to the world the idea of a God who suffers, alongside the image of a God who creates and commands."
When people in the middle of their bad times ask what God is doing, it is a time to gently reach out to them in their devastation and remind them of the good news of God's presence which is revealed in Jesus.
In the midst of bad times the good news needs to be spoken and it needs to be spoken clearly.
God does not create our suffering.
This is what Rabbi Kushner and his wife discovered in coming to grips with the hard times in their life.
You see, the unique aspect of our Christian faith is not that God causes suffering, but that God shares our suffering.
God says, "When you hurt, I cry with you. I share your pain."
Now, this is not only great advice for what to tell others.
It is also precisely what we ourselves need to hear.
No doubt, some of you have devastation in your lives right now.
For some it may be relatively small.
For others, not small at all.
Some in this room are worried about money, others about health.
Some of you may be experiencing hurt in your relationships with family members or others whom you care about.
Some may have experienced the loss of someone or something that you loved a great deal.
Some of you may have something in your life that makes you afraid.
Whatever kind of devastation there may be in your life this day, the good news promises of our faith are for you.
God says, "I promise not to leave you alone."
God's words through the prophets and Jesus ring true through the centuries.
Whatever your need is this day, these words are true for you.
God promises, "I am in your midst ... know that I, the Lord, am your God."
In his sermon on the mount, Jesus could stand up and say:
"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.
With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
It is interesting to note that even after 30-something chapters, Job never did find the answer to his question, "Why does a righteous person suffer?"
But he did get a firsthand knowledge of God.
He did not win his argument, but he did win a new relationship with God.
And so it is with us.
This is what the Kushners found out.
Stuff happens.
Bad things happen to good people.
People get sick.
People die.
People loose their jobs – and their fortunes – and their families.
People get injured and killed.
Stuff happens.
The insurance company may define some event as an act of God, but know this: God does cause illness, or devastation, or hard times.
And when stuff happens, we do not always get our questions answered, but like the prophets and like Jesus said: we can always have God.
We do not always understand God's way with us, but we can always take his hand in ours and walk with him on the path that leads to eternal life
You know every once in a while there is something that pops in our culture that becomes a defining moment – when something catches on and people pick up on it and it begins to define reality.
Some time ago there was a movie – it was called Love Story – I don’t know if you got to see it or not – it starred Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal.
I thought it was a good story and I enjoyed it – even though it was a sad story.
It was a romantic story about a couple who fell in love and experienced some very hard times.
People cried because the movie heroine had cancer – and she died in the end.
And, the movie changed our culture.
In the movie, when the hero was trying to express his love to his dying heroine, she stops him and says “Love means never having to say I’m sorry.”
That phrase worked its way into the psyche of our culture.
And not only affect the way people expressed themselves by not saying “I’m sorry”,
but also by not saying good bye.
How many times have you said, “Don’t say Good Bye – I hate good byes.”
But we loose something when we do that.
A fundamental element of our faith is knowing that no matter what –
no matter where we go –
no matter what we are doing –
no matter what is being to us or by us,
God is with us.
God is with us – at all times:
in times of distress and in times of celebration,
in times of pain and in times of gain,
in end times and in beginning times,
in hard times and in good times .
You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.
You are blessed – especially in hard times.
This message is so valuable – and yet we hear it so little.
God is with us – at all times.
It is our faith that overcomes all our troubles.
Pity the people who have no faith –
who have no community of faith to be with –
when they encounter hard times.
It is so important to come together with others to celebrate the presence of Christ in our lives –
to become more aware of how and when and where Christ is present in our lives.
If you have observant, you may have noticed that at the close of worship services we do not say “Good Luck” or some such.
Rather, we are reminded of God's presence in our life.
In fact, "Goodbye" - is simply a shorthand for "God be with you," (check it out)
the French say adieu – in Spanish it is adios,
all three words, English, French, and Spanish, mean "God be with you."
Remember this if you remember noting else about this day: as you go out into the world, you do not go alone;
you go with each other,
and your God goes with you.
Vaya con Dios.
Habakkuk 1:4
Matthew 5:1-12 (3)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Work for Your Health
Studies confirm that the healthiest people around are those people who enjoy their work.
Today we are disturbed by the high unemployment rate.
Far too many people have lost their jobs.
Being out of work takes its toll on person –
particularly because we so often are identified by what we do instead of who we are –
and when are no longer doing anything, who are we?
After months of being out of work many people give up on being employed again.
And that has psychic consequences that takes a heavy toll on people.
Some of the unreported facts are telling:
Each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point, suicides rise by 4%,
Each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point the number of murders by 5.7%,
Each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point the imprisonment rate increases by 4%,
and each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point deaths from tension-related illnesses increase by 1.9%.
Work seems to be a part of God's plan not only
for our physical survival but also for our mental and emotional well-being.
God created us in His own image.
God is a creating, sustaining, working God.
You see, how we view what we do,
how we view our work,
is ultimately a religious question.
If we view life as meaningful, purposeful,
and having direction, then we will probably view what we do as having rhyme and reason as well.
If, however, life is simply a matter of passing time, getting by,
merely existing,
then it is doubtful that we will get excited by the roles we play in life.
Paul says to the Corinthians in verses 1-3 that he doesn't need a letter of recommendation to them or from them because they themselves are that letter.
Their recollection of Paul's previous ministry there is written on their hearts,
"not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts".
Then Paul says that the confidence he has in these "living Corinthian letters" is because God is doing the writing.
Paul doesn't claim that the message of recommendation is composed and written by him but that "our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant... "
We expect God to be present in worship and
we should expect God to be present at when we do what we do – at work or at play.
When God is at work with us,
our breadwinning and bringing home the bacon takes on a sacred dimension.
So it is a sacred thing to drive a truck,
to teach school,
to farm,
to care for the sick and elderly,
to stock shelves,
to make a house into a home,
to do Social Work,
to build houses,
to work in a factory,
and to sell stuff.
And that sacredness makes it different for us workers from the Kingdom of God.
Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. – that’s what Paul wrote.
Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.
Everyone you encounter reads the your letter – when they do, what are they going to read?
Paul goes on:
You are a letter of Christ, . . . written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
Today we are disturbed by the high unemployment rate.
Far too many people have lost their jobs.
Being out of work takes its toll on person –
particularly because we so often are identified by what we do instead of who we are –
and when are no longer doing anything, who are we?
After months of being out of work many people give up on being employed again.
And that has psychic consequences that takes a heavy toll on people.
Some of the unreported facts are telling:
Each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point, suicides rise by 4%,
Each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point the number of murders by 5.7%,
Each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point the imprisonment rate increases by 4%,
and each time the unemployment rate increases by a single percentage point deaths from tension-related illnesses increase by 1.9%.
Work seems to be a part of God's plan not only
for our physical survival but also for our mental and emotional well-being.
God created us in His own image.
God is a creating, sustaining, working God.
You see, how we view what we do,
how we view our work,
is ultimately a religious question.
If we view life as meaningful, purposeful,
and having direction, then we will probably view what we do as having rhyme and reason as well.
If, however, life is simply a matter of passing time, getting by,
merely existing,
then it is doubtful that we will get excited by the roles we play in life.
Paul says to the Corinthians in verses 1-3 that he doesn't need a letter of recommendation to them or from them because they themselves are that letter.
Their recollection of Paul's previous ministry there is written on their hearts,
"not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts".
Then Paul says that the confidence he has in these "living Corinthian letters" is because God is doing the writing.
Paul doesn't claim that the message of recommendation is composed and written by him but that "our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant... "
We expect God to be present in worship and
we should expect God to be present at when we do what we do – at work or at play.
When God is at work with us,
our breadwinning and bringing home the bacon takes on a sacred dimension.
So it is a sacred thing to drive a truck,
to teach school,
to farm,
to care for the sick and elderly,
to stock shelves,
to make a house into a home,
to do Social Work,
to build houses,
to work in a factory,
and to sell stuff.
And that sacredness makes it different for us workers from the Kingdom of God.
Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. – that’s what Paul wrote.
Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.
Everyone you encounter reads the your letter – when they do, what are they going to read?
Paul goes on:
You are a letter of Christ, . . . written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
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