A Labor Day Chat With Bill

I dug through the barrel this weekend to see what my dad had to say about Labor Day. It turns out he had preached no less than six sermons on the subject of work. These sermons had a common theme -- that work done right is an act of worship. Dad put it this way: "Work done in the best possible way, with the best possible attitude, is a vital part of our worship of God." 

2014 Newtown UM Church Youth Mission Team
Hard At Work! 

To flesh this out further, here's my interview of Bill Newcomer on the subject of work. The questions are mine. The answers are his (from his sermons of course). 

Q. Bill, I mean Dad, when you say that work is a vital part of our worship, what does that mean? 

A. "[We must begin by examining our] definition of worship. ... Worship is, first and foremost, coming into the awesome presence of Almighty God and offering to Him all the praise and honor and glory we can muster. [We've] thought of worship as a theraputic counseling session where problems are solved ... [or] as a time of spiritual refueling for another week ahead ... [or as] a way to atone for sins[.] ... But none of these is the primary meaning of worship. Worship is not directed to ourselves for our own benefit. Rather, it is a spontaneous outpouring of praise and gratitude toward God. ... It is in this sense of the word 'worship' -- praise directed toward God -- that our daily work can become part of our worship."

Q. But isn't worship something we do on the Sabbath, when we rest from our work?

A. "Here's where the fallacy of this way of thinking lies. God is not the creator and sustainer of the religious realm only but also of the secular life; Indeed, [it is a fallacy] to speak of two different realms such as the religious and the secular. ... God created everything -- secular and sacred -- and He pronounced it good. God is as interested in the man swinging a hammer or adding a column of figures as God is in the man singing a hymn or repeating a prayer. What's more, the religious acts of praise we express in our church worship services are meaningless and hypocritical unless they are accompanied by our daily works of praise. ... [W]e must come to the place where we see that no vocation is really performed well unless it is performed in the knowledge that it is a service to God, that it is meant to glorify Him, that it is an act of worship."

Q. There are days, more than I care to admit, when my work feels less like an act of praise to God and more like a burden, or a series of frustrations, or even drudgery. Why is work like this?

A. "Even the most highly dedicated individual cannot get away at times from feeling like his or her vocation is a hardship or a drudgery. But you see, this is where sin enters the picture. Sin is the thing that infects and perverts our attitude towards work. ... When in his sin, man chose to ignore God and  be a god unto himself, his work took on a new, frantic tone. Before the Fall, work was man's way of thanking God; now, without God, it is his way of self-preservation, self-salvation, actually. Man had to build his own security, so he worked harder and harder, longer and longer. Work became a defiant act of independence, where before it had been a loving act of dependence. And this drained away the joy. Work became a curse."

Q. Well, that's depressing. What hope is there of re-capturing a sense of worship in my work when work has become our curse?

A. "Thank God, this [curse] is not the end of the story. For God did not leave us in our sin. He prepared a way of salvation in his son, Jesus. He is the Redeemer who sets us free from the clutches of sin. By his cross and his resurrection, he sets life right again. Both gradually and instantaneously, we begin to experience life as it was meant to be lived under his Lordship. Every area of our life can be changed. This means our work life can be changed too."

Q. How does our work life change? How does Jesus redeem our work life?

A. "[Our] gratitude to God for the undeserved gift of salvation constrains us to offer up our daily work as a holy and acceptable sacrifice and to direct it in accordance with God's will in the service of one another. Work then is no loner an idolatrous end-in-itself, and it no longer involves us in the vanity of seeking to gratify our own selfish ambitions because it is directed to the service of God and is an expression of gratitude to God. ... [Work is redeemed] simply by doing your task competently for the good of humanity as a fellow worker with God in the preservation and development of God's creation. ... [Then,] when we enter the church door on Sunday morning, and we bring with us the accomplishments and experiences that have been ours over the past week, it is as though they are all spread out before God along with our prayers and hymns and sermons and anthems. It is as if we are laying our lives on the table, saying, 'Here, Lord, is my 24-hour-a-day life. All of it. It is the greatest gift -- the greatest act of praise I can render to Thee. It is what I spend most of my time and talent and energy doing. It is my highest worship.'"   

-from "Worshipful Work" & "Work in God's Plan"
Scripture Lesson: Genesis 1:24-2:3