Work and the church

"Work is not a necessary chore but a divine calling."

I came across that today in a WordLive reading.  For people like me who have jobs that aren't particularly satisfying, those words are enough to make me feel ashamed.  My job doesn't feel like a divine calling.  The part of my job that appears to be the most useful to God is the uses I put my interet access too when there is no work to do, and that's not exactly part of my job! It makes me feel that I have failed, that I have got something wrong.  Is that the job itself?  Well, I believe God was clearly involved in the circumstances that got me the job.  So is it my attitude that's wrong?  Probably.

The passage itself is one I've thought about a lot.  A few years ago, about the time when I was a few months out of university and utterly depressed because I couldn't even get a job in a shop, I heard a sermon on this passage (I think it was this one, or at least a very similar one) that really made me angry. 

The speaker was very insensitive in the way he approached the passage, and what he said (I can't remember exactly how it was phrased) blamed people who- for whatever reason- didn't have a job.  I thought this was quite insulting, and certainly not what Paul meant.  The problem, I suspect, was that this was a middle-class church with a middle-class vicar.  Unemployment was not something (in those days before the recession) was not something most of the congregation had to fear.  But even so, I felt that it was wrong to condemn everyone who didn't have a paid job.  

In my case- and that of many others- I wanted to work, but couldn't find a job.  Was that my fault, as I was made to feel?  It's hard enough that the benefits system makes you feel that you are a worthless person who is to blame for your own problems, without the church joining in- I would have thought that the church should be helping and supporting people in this situation, not making them feel worse.  And what about the other situations that prevent people from having a job? Is someone to blame if they can't work through illness?  What about parents who stay at home to care for their children?  Is that wrong?  Or people who have retired after many years of hard work? 


One of the areas that the WordLive reading looked at was that of how work is shared out within the church.  It's a well known saying that 10% of the people do 90% of the work.  It certainly feels like that's true.  Some people just seem to relax and let others do their share, while others just can't sit back and watch- if something needs to be done, they feel they have to do it.  I know I'm in the second group.  But as this video shows, neither is really right.  People like me shouldn't do everything, otherwise we 'burnout' and miss out.  But if not everyone is doing their fair share, it's inevitable that some people (often the clergy) will be doing too much.


Perhaps this is more what Paul is talking about.  Because there's a difference between having a job and not being idle.  In fact sometimes I think I'd be less idle if I didn't have a job (or at least this particular one...)  When I was unemployed I spent a lot of time volunteering for my church, and doing other voluntary work.   I may not have been contributing financially to the community, but I was giving a lot in other ways- time, effort, prayer.  Paul condemns in this passage people who don't contribute to the community but simply take from others and sit back.  Many people don't contribute to the church community as much as they could, either financially or with their time and gifts.  They need to be encouraged to do so.  Others do more than their fair share, and should perhaps be encouraged to rest.  But to class all those who don't have paid jobs as 'idle' and say they are sinning is, I believe to misinterpret the passage.  Cheerfully doing unpaid work and coping with the pressures of unemployment seems to me to be perhaps more honouring to God than having the security of a job- even a boring one- and continually grumbling about it.  And I know I do that.  So now I've had time to think about this, if I ever hear a sermon like that again I will challenge it.


If, of course, I have time, in between all the service rotas and mission planning...