Why Do You Have to Work?
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · January 12, 2025 · Redeeming Your Routine series
Jeremy MacDonald looks at Genesis 1 to show that God made people in His image to work, so even ordinary or unglamorous tasks matter. Our work cultivates creation and serves others in Jesus' name, from caregiving to retail to the trades.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The Redeeming Your Routine series
Topics: Identity, Purpose, Work
Transcript
[0:00] So how do you convince somebody to clean a toilet? It's not like an urgent question. Just to be clear, it's not that we have an issue right now, but it's an honest question. How do you convince somebody to clean a toilet? You know, you might be sitting next to somebody and you're like, yeah, I wish I knew. I hope you tell me. This is not a religious question either. Just to be clear, although you are still in church. But I think it's an interesting question 'cause it kind of gets to the heart of perhaps kind of the way that you think about work, especially when you think about work that you just don't want to do or that isn't seemingly important, or it's important, but it's not exciting. I don't know. You know, it's this interesting question because I think for any of us, we all have these moments where you have to convince somebody or you have to convince yourself that it's important.
[0:48] We gotta clean the toilet. For me, the moment was definitely in university. So I went to a Bible college in Saskatchewan and the Bible college was set up so that there was a guys' dorm and there was a few guys' dorms and there were some girls' dorms and you weren't allowed in the other person's dorm. I think they realized one of the problems with that is that nobody in the guys' dorms would clean the toilets. Legitimately, I shared a pod with three other guys, there's four of us. And so there's the shared bathroom in the middle. And so once a month they would let for just two hours from like 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM once a month, the girls could come over and come in and you could play like a board game or like just see how the guys lived. It was terrifying. And once a month everything got cleaned.
[1:35] It was the perfect way to convince a group of guys to clean the toilets. Yeah, it's smart. Yeah. Good play. But, you know, hey, if you're a business owner, you know, you've gotta get somebody, you have to figure out how do you convince somebody you gotta pay them. And I don't know, maybe it's a little bit like just kind of out there. It's too kind of fuzzy to even think about. But the point is I want us to wrestle with today, you know, what really is this whole work thing and why do you have to do it? 'cause sometimes you have to clean the toilet, sometimes you have to do something that just doesn't seem like it really has a big impact. And no matter where you're at in your journey, you know, work can play a different role, but you have a job to do of some kind. Like for some of you, you are getting a T4 shortly from your job, and that's true.
[2:20] But for some of you, like we said last week, you know, your job might be still incredibly important, but you don't get paid for it because you're raising kids. And the payoff is in their sweet smiles and the messy Cheerios and the dirty diapers. But the point is, like, your job looks different or, maybe your old, let me, sorry, hold on. Restart that one. Say that different in second service, maybe you're retired and your job is now different, but you still have work to do. You still have things that you're responsible for, you still have things that matter, and so what's the point of all of that? What's the purpose behind that? Why do you have to work? This is the question I want us to wrestle with today. Last week we talked a little bit about why work stinks sometimes, why it's difficult, because it's about toilets.
[3:08] But this week I wanna ask this question, what's the purpose of work? And the way that you answer that is, different depending on the person, maybe depending on your experience, depending on how you grew up, depending on the jobs and the responsibilities that you've had. When you think about the purpose of work and when you teach and train or tell somebody else the purpose of work, for some of you, the question becomes, it's about the justice in the world. You wanna choose something that makes a dramatic difference. I want to change the world for the better. This is what our work is about. And you can apply that to some jobs and in some ways it works, but in some ways it can be difficult to really think like you could anchor everything on the good of the world furthering justice. You know, for some people you think about work, and this is kind of a Christian answer.
[3:54] It's all about evangelizing coworkers. You know, I show up and yeah, I do the things that they ask me to do, but hopefully the whole point of me being here is that y'all become Christians and your coworkers are like, please no. Like, it, that's a difficult one to wrestle with. But at the same time, we believe in it deeply because we really do want the hope of Jesus to be known broadly. And so you think about your work through the lens of the relationships that you get to have. And for some people that works. For me, it's a little bit harder to evangelize. My coworkers, most of them I think follow Jesus. This is okay. Thirdly, do skillful, excellent work. For some of you, the way you think about the purpose of work is just for the love of the game to be able to do it well. And there's something good about that. And it can be difficult to wrestle with. And you might phrase it a little differently.
[4:39] You might say something like creating beauty and, you know, there's an artistry to it. And that's true too. There could be something there with it. And that's the point and the purpose. And you're trying to understand maybe why or where that comes from, why you enjoy so much creating. And it's like, oh, that's interesting. I wonder what that is and where that comes from. For some people you think about the purpose of work is to make money, and sometimes to give it away. This is kind of sometimes like that beloved, benevolent approach to it. The idea that, yeah, I'm gonna make money, but the reason I make the money, it's not about the job, it's about what I can do with the money after the fact. And it's like, well, yeah, that's true, but I wonder about the making of the money. Is there something there too? And for some people they think the only point is to work so that they can get out of work.
[5:25] And so like, I'm saving up so that I don't have to do this thing any more. And you know, lastly, and this is maybe, and this isn't an exhaustive list, but lastly, you know, people talk about following your passions. Think about what you're most passionate about so that you can spend time. And it doesn't even feel like a job. It's just something that you enjoy doing. You do it even if they didn't pay you for it. And the interesting thing about this one is that it's become kind of a current cultural conversation around your passion and following your passions. You know, I do a number of projects and works with young people, and trying to figure out how do you equip and launch, you know, students into life and into work in particular. And one quote stands out. It's not a Christian quote, it's just an interesting one. And so I'll give it to you. But it comes from Mike Rowe, who back in the day, I remember watching his show Dirty Jobs where he would follow people doing these jobs that were, would make cleaning toilets seem really pristine and really nice.
[6:20] Actually, their jobs were terrifying and terrible in lots of ways. But what he learned about work along the way kind of informed his understanding of this idea of following your passions perhaps isn't quite the most helpful. So I'll just leave this one with you and you can take it and do with it what you would like. He says, "Passion is too important to be without, but too fickle to be guided by." And so what Mike Rowe would say is, he says that when you think about your passion, don't follow it. Don't follow your passion, but always bring it with you. Which I think is a nice way of articulating that. But the point is that when you think about work and you think about your job and what you know you'll end up doing tomorrow or later today or this week, that your work has an immense impact on your life.
[7:06] And trying to understand why is it that we have to work and what is it about work that's a part of the human condition, I think is helpful, 'cause it might change your attitude towards it, it might change your experience of it, and it might even change how you then hand work off to the people around you. And being somebody that obviously is wanting to speak from a Christian perspective, I'm fascinated that the Christian scriptures at the very beginning speak really profoundly about work. We started the conversation last week and talking about work not being a curse, but it is cursed. Work isn't a curse to us, but it is cursed. But there's something even more core to who you are and who I am as a human being that relates deeply to the work that we do.
[7:59] And so the Christian story, the Christian narrative, begins with this creation account talking about the God of the universe, the one true God, and what He did to create you and to create me. And it actually exposes something deep about our own souls and about who we are at our core that I think is important around this conversation. So let me bring you all the way back to the creation story in Genesis chapter 1, where we're gonna discover about how God actually has created us with a specific idea in mind when it comes to work. This is what we read in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. It says, "Then God said, 'Let us make mankind.'" And I wanna pause there for just a second because it's interesting to note, it's not really core to what we're talking about today, but it's interesting to note that from the beginning, God does use this kind of plural, first person language.
[8:52] "Let us." And so I was reading that because there is an idea of that we believe as Christians. And if you are not quite there, if you're not a Christian, if you don't believe all the things, if you don't believe in Genesis, you can still be a part of this conversation. That's no problem. But there's an interesting thing that we would believe, that God in the very beginning also had with Him Jesus. We read about this in John, the idea that Jesus was around at the very beginning. And so you kind of wonder if this verse in particular is kind of referencing the Trinity right from the very start. Now, the commentators actually say probably not the case in this instance, although it is true that Jesus was a part of, like, the Trinity is a part of who God is from the very beginning. But this might be just that God was referencing maybe the host of angels around Him, using a royal "we" kind of thing, but explaining what was about to happen in His creation.
[9:41] And so He says, "Let us make mankind," and with really specific guidelines, "in our image," and then uses a different word and says, "in our likeness," trying to encapsulate this idea of what would be unique and different about human beings, about you and about me. That of all of God's creation, all of the things that in the account of Genesis explicitly talks about, talks about the animals, talks about the trees, talks about the vegetation. But there's something different and unique about human beings. And that's that God says, "Let us make them in our image, in our likeness." Now, what I find intriguing about the Christian scriptures is that of course it's written so that we might know something important, but it was also written in a particular time with a particular audience and worldview in mind.
[10:38] And what happens is that when you understand that, you can go to the ideas of the day and perhaps discover something interesting about what the writer of Genesis was trying to make sure in the language as the quotes were coming through, and the making sure that they picked the Hebrew words, that it was clear from what God had said, but also that it speaks that God might have been doing something to help that generation understand something very specific about what He had done in creation. So what we discover is that when you look at the grander story of that time, you know, thousands of years ago, is that the idea of an image of God was actually not a shocker, but it was usually applied to somebody very specific. You know, the BibleProject is this video series. In the summertime, we used a number of their videos as we were speaking on the Sermon on the Mount.
[11:28] We used their bumper trailer and a wonderful, if you ever get onto their YouTube channel, like, or their podcast, such incredible resources to help understand and explain the scriptures. Now the BibleProject in particular talks about this image of God and explains a little bit about what I'm trying to articulate here. They do a good job. And so I'm just gonna read what they say in their video. "So if you lived in ancient Bible times, odds are you lived under the authority of a king. And many of these kings in the ancient world claimed that they were gods. And they would even call themselves the quote unquote image of God, meaning they had authority. This is the nature of what it meant to have or be the image of God.
[12:14] They had authority to tell people what to do, order things to be made, and they got to define good and evil." Go on. And they explain it just a little bit more. "These kings would often make statues of themselves, which in Hebrew were called tselem, often translated as idol or image, and is the word that we have used in this particular passage of scripture. It's this idea that in those days people were used to rulers, human authorities bearing down on them and trying to give them exact instructions about what to do. But God was doing something very explicit at creation where He was redefining what it meant for justice and authority to exist in the world. That in His good creation it might look actually very different than a tyrant king coming down and saying that he's the only one that carries the image of God.
[13:09] Instead, God puts His image, the image of God, stamped His likeness on every single human being. It's this unique story that was, again, would be very odd and different for that thousands of years ago, for people to think about and even sometimes to this day, this realization that the person sitting next to you bears the image of God when you interact with that person that even causes you frustration or difficulty or that person at your work or that customer that you have, that each and every person that you interact with on a daily basis bear the image of God is profound and might change our understanding of even the people around us and how we might respond and act towards them.
[13:54] But we bear the image of God for a specific purpose. And so as we read on in the verse, we get an understanding of what that is. God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that there's a purpose in this, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground." There's this clear call to rule the world. In fact, you might just say it this way, that you are supposed to rule the world. You are supposed to rule the world. And it is fascinating 'cause in those days there was an assumption that no, no, no, the king's rule, but the Christian story is, no, that God has put His image on every single human being so that they might do His will in the world today.
[14:49] And He actually commands and gives the instructions on what that can look like. But if we go back to the verse, let me just make sure that this is clear, that He says so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, so that it's not like there's an individual, that you're not an individual king. In fact, we might rephrase that line instead of you're supposed to rule the world, we might say, y'all are supposed to rule the world. We don't really have a good one in English unless you're from the American South. That kind of plural like, hey, together, we as humanity are meant to rule the world. You all together through time and history are called and meant and tasked with this responsibility that God has placed on us because we are unique in all of His creation.
[15:35] Because you are unique in all of His creation. He's stamped His image on you. Now you have responsibility to do. Now the passage goes on and I want to highlight this particular part. 'Cause sometimes we miss this and perhaps over the course of history, sometimes we've messed and missed this one up. So not only are we called to rule the world, but God actually clarifies who gets to carry His image and He creates a little bit of a separation to maybe perhaps make a point. "God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them." And you know, for some parts of history and some parts of the world, there's a division and an understanding or expectation that maybe men and women have different levels of authority.
[16:27] And what's fascinating to me about this particular passage is that from the very beginning, God puts His image, His likeness, and stamps it on men and women distinctly different enough to clarify it in this passage and in this moment that these are two distinct categories, but that both bear the image of God. Which makes me wonder, you know, what is it about, what is it about men that God's image is kind of exemplified through? You know, if you look to perhaps godly men in your life and wonder about, hey, what is it that God's image is really impressed upon them and kind of shown through their characteristics. But then the, not the reverse, but the other is likewise really interesting.
[17:17] What is it about women? What is it about a godly woman that exemplifies and shows off the image and likeness of God? And this is a bit of an aside to this message, but when you look throughout the Scriptures, you actually discover all sorts of characteristics and expressions of how God works and lives out and interacts with humanity in ways that are traditionally and kind of expected to be expressed through the female character and likeness of God. I find that fascinating. But the point is that there is this sense that for both men and for women that we carry the likeness of God, but that we aren't God and that we don't embody all of God all at once. That there is a sense that we get a mirror image of it.
[18:02] That we're not quite there. We're not everything, but there's a likeness of God in the midst of us. The passage goes on, "God blessed them." And the blessing is interesting 'cause when we think a blessing, sometimes we have an expectation of what it means to receive a blessing. Sometimes we expect it to look a certain way. And I don't know about you, but for me, I want it to feel like I right from the start know that it's a blessing. But this blessing is a blessing 'cause God is giving it, but it's actually a responsibility. But that in the midst of our story, that's where the blessing comes from. He blesses them and says, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
[18:49] That the work that you do of subduing the earth, of ruling, is a blessing, that it exists before the curse. That this is who we are. This is an expression of the image of God stamped on us. That when you go to work and when you carry responsibility, you're living out this part of your humanity that is really at the core of God's creation in you. And it's also speaking to something that is very different in that day. And in that culture, if you go back thousands of years, people's expectations of the gods were that they were looking to slough off or give off their own responsibilities and that they were weighing down humanity with work for them, or put this way. One of the commentators writes specifically about this.
[19:36] He says, "God's provision of food, you think back to the garden where God gave us everything we needed for newly created man stands in sharp contrast to Mesopotamian views, which held that man was created to supply the gods with food. He goes on to say both Enuma Elish and the Atrahasis, I don't know, I Googled it. There's a Wikipedia page. There's just these ancient documents that are talking about, they're not Christian documents, They're just talking about the gods of those days and what their expectation on the gods were. And they speak of man being created to work to relieve the gods. But the biblical narrative gives no hint that the Creator is shuffling off His load onto man. Work is intrinsic to human life.
[20:23] Work is baked into who you are, that your best expression of your humanity is lived out. When you carry some level of responsibility, again, you may not get paid for it. It may not be a classical nine to five job. And that's okay. The point is that work responsibility is a part of who you are. And that even when you retire from your typical job or even when you're studying as a student in preparation for your work, those expressions of work are really important to who you are. And we see this throughout this Genesis narrative. When we come back to it, it goes on to explain by the seventh day God had finished the work, and here it is. God is working, He works.
[21:11] And our image of Him that we bear is a part of this expression of His own character. He works, He'd been doing so, on the seventh day He rested, which we also need to rest. In the last week of this series, we're gonna talk about what rest actually is meant to be. It's not distraction, it's rest. And that's different. He rested from all of His work, then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. And so here's the point. The point is simply this: God works, and because God works and you have the image of God on you, God made you to work. It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing.
[21:59] But what happens is that sometimes your work gets disconnected from the purposes of God and because of that can all of a sudden start to feel difficult or frustrating or challenging or you don't fully understand what's going on or why it's created in this kind of way. And it's why at this kind of juncture, I would say, if you're here and you're not a Christian, one of the great benefits and one of the reasons why you might consider turning your life over to Jesus and following after Him is that you might receive this kind of narrative and story over your own journey and over your own life. And it might transform the way that you view your work, whatever it might be. Because throughout the ages and throughout the centuries, it's the Christians that were able to, with their theology and understanding of work, find their place in the grand story of what God was doing in our world today and discover great meaning and purpose in a way that our world and perhaps for you so desperately needs in their work.
[23:03] You know, there's this project that happened a number of years ago around work and worship in particular. And it was a couple of authors that were really referencing the fact that when you look at some of the worship songs, but even some of the creeds and some of the expressions, excuse me, of the of this idea that it's the Christian story that has helped bring meaning and purpose and life into people's work experiences throughout time. And they write this specifically thinking about the way that worship, and again, broadly than just songs, the way that worship has actually reframed people's understanding of their work. They would say, from their book Work and Worship, "Through worship, these workers are reminded," and this is what perhaps for some of you that have had jobs and have anchored your faith in and amongst your own work that reminded that profit and joy and nourishment are a part of God's design for human work.
[23:54] That through worship of focusing on God and understanding that His creation and how He's wired us, that these workers are reminded that the purpose of work is to bless not simply themselves but all of humanity and God as well. That there's this bigger story going on with your work and through worship, these workers are reminded that God is intimately present with them in the fields and the markets and actively perfecting their work with His word laboring away at their presses, their looms and kilns. Workers are not alone, they're co-laborers with God. And so I want to give you just an idea of maybe a framework that you could view your work as that might remind you and harken you back to this passage in Genesis that might, as you think about your day and your life and what you're responsible for, and why do I have to do this work?
[24:45] Why am I responsible for this, that it might just change a little bit of how you view it. And again, if you're not a Christian, you can just take this, you can try this on and see how it feels. But for those of us that follow after Christ, this is what we've been called to, and there's kind of this dual sense, not dual sense, but there's these two things that kind of come from our work that I think are important for us to recognize. And it comes from this Genesis passage and it's kind of a quick like jump to it. So I apologize if I haven't made this super clear, but the kind of what we're called to do is this idea of cultivating creation and serving others in Jesus' name. You know, when we go back to that Genesis passage, we discover the call from work happens through the lens of a garden, of cultivating and shaping, that God would give the garden to Adam and Eve, but that there would still be work to do.
[25:34] The garden was good and yet, and yet they were still responsible for something. And so what we discover in our work is that there's a sense that God has called us to cultivate, to grow and to change and to build a world that reflects God's love for His people and His creativity and His interest in the world, not just staying this way. And then on top of that, there's this sense that now that we know about who Jesus is and what He's called us into, is that we serve and we love people in His name through all things and through perhaps even our work. I want to try this on in a few jobs. And if these are one of your jobs, this could be helpful. If they're not, you might have to find the creative way to draw these connections out to understand how your work itself has had profound implications to what God might be doing in our world today.
[26:27] And it's robust and it's, there's a lot to it. For example, if we look at cultivating creation and serving others in Jesus' name, and we think about caregivers or healthcare workers, I know there's lots of people in that category. My family's filled with nurses in particular. Some of you are caregivers you don't get paid for, you're looking after somebody. And so in that setting it's often easy to draw the connection of serving and loving others 'cause that's a part of the job you're legitimately showing up on behalf of somebody else. But I wanna make sure that you don't miss the sight of the cultivation of creation that you are a part of because we know clearly from the scriptures that God is not interested in death being the final story, that He wants heaven to break into this world even today, and for death and disease to be finally defeated.
[27:16] And so where you step in and you participate in even glimpses of that, you are expressing the character of God and bringing heaven to this earth in even small little ways when you fight back against disease on behalf of somebody else, when you care for them in such a way that you change the story of what's going on. And we know that there's still gonna be difficulty. We know that people are still gonna get sick. We know that death is still a part of current life today, and yet we know that the story of God is one to move us away from all of that. And you're cultivating this creation, turning it into more of what God has hoped for humanity. It's profound in what you do, and it's more than just the individual help that you give to people.
[28:04] And so when you show up to work and it's difficult, and you know, the role that you play might be simply, you know, and you think, well, I'm just cleaning the floors of the operating room, or I'm just preparing the instruments. And it's like, no, no, no, you're cultivating the environment and the creation so that the expressed will of God could be evident in people's lives. It's profound. Maybe for you, your role's a little different. Maybe for you, your job is in retail or cashiers. It's like, how do you do that one, Jeremy? It's like, well, I think in retail and when you're a cashier again, there's a connection where you get to love people. And if you have faith, the idea that you could bring the love and the joy and the peace of God even into a small interaction is absolutely profound.
[28:53] And so those interactions you get to have with people are absolutely critical. But you're also part of this grand story of changing and cultivating creation. And I don't know, maybe this is crazy and it's a little bit extensive, but if you went back a few hundred years even and you talked to people and said, Hey, did you know that today after church you could wander over to a store and you could get fresh produce and it would be available and it would be a simple exchange and it would be healthy and good for you and it's at this grocery store and you wouldn't believe the immense options that are available there. You would think, what a gift, creation's changed. And you play this role in it as a cashier at a grocery store where you are participating in this profound adjustment where now accessible food is available for people in a way and provision is provided and available for people in a profound kind of way.
[29:49] And I don't know, this could be a little over the top, but the point is that your work has much grander implications than maybe you could even recognize. Lastly, and this is the last one for today, but you find yourself in the story: trades and laborers. You know, you work in the trades, you're building something and yeah, you put in your time and yeah, I get that it's sometimes difficult and sometimes it's cold and sometimes the general contractor's difficult to deal with and sometimes the supervisors are really difficult and you don't get enough, whatever the things are. But in your creation, in your work, could you see that, that you're cultivating creation, that you're allowing yourself to be a part of a grander story, that you're building something that might stand the test of time and provide shelter for a family, or you're bringing order out of the chaos that's that family's electrical system.
[30:49] Or you're changing the story for this family because when you fix up their car, all of a sudden you're allowing them to do the things that God's called them to do. And maybe it's over the top, maybe this is a little bit too much, but I would wonder if maybe you could view your work as a little bit larger and realize that God's placed you on purpose, not just for the conversations with the people, but for the work itself, and that it's good and that this has been something from the very beginning. And it's harder because back in the day when it was the earth and we're cultivating and it's actual dirt and we're creating as farmers, like, yeah, that makes a little bit more sense directly connected to Genesis. And so sometimes we have to draw these connections out, but it's no less essential or important to the work that God wants us to do in our world today.
[31:39] So there's this author that kind of explains this and I wanna wrap up with this particular quote, John Mark Comer in his book Garden City, trying to call the Christian people to this bigger vision of what God might be doing through you and through your work and through the things that you do. He says this: we're image bearers. We know that from the Scriptures. We know that from Genesis we were created to rule, to partner with God in pushing and pulling the creation project forward, to work it, to draw out the earth's potential and unleash it for human flourishing, to cooperate with God in building a civilization where His people can thrive in His presence. And in this cosmic agenda, each of us, each of you has a vocation, a calling from God, a way that God wired us, somebody to be and something to do because the two merge in perfect symmetry.
[32:36] And if we're not careful, we can think that that's something to do is meant to be something dramatically, like, I've gotta receive this high calling from God and it's gonna cause me to do something that nobody else is doing and it's gonna change the world. And that might be true, but it might be the toilet that you have to clean. And there might actually be goodness in that because it's because of our faith in God that you can remember that His image is on you and the work you do for Him is not in vain. And the work you do to cultivate and change creation, even in the smallest way in a small pocket of the world, your heavenly Father sees and understands and rewards.
[33:29] So you have to work because you bear the image of God and the work you do truly in every setting can matter deeply. But let us submit to the Father above so that He can speak that to your heart. So lemme pray for you, Father, in this way. And in this time it can be challenging sometimes to realize that submitting that expense report or meeting with that client or having this conversation could matter so deeply. And yet, You've clearly stated from the Scriptures that You've made us on purpose for Your purposes. And so, God, we'll keep exploring these nuances. But for today I pray that for the person sitting here wondering if it's even worth it, would You speak to their hearts and remind them that the work they do is an expression of the image of You on them.
[34:31] And that in the best possible way, the work that we do is what You've called us to. And so would we find ourselves in Your story, not in our own stories, but would we find ourselves in Your story and understand what You're trying to do in our lives and through our work? And would that bring us life? Would that bring us hope? Would that bring us peace? God, would that bring us joy? Knowing that it matters deeply what happens here, but it's okay that we leave this place and we go to work because You are there and You are working through us there. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.