As renewed people, we have been given the
motivation and power to re-create the Garden.
- Joy at Work Bible Study
Sayers 2nd Proposition: It is the business of the Church to recognize that the secular vocation, as such is sacred. Christian people, and particularly perhaps the Christian clergy, must get it firmly into their heads that when a man or woman is called to a particular job of secular work, that is as true a vocation as though he or she were called to specifically religious work....
.......In nothing has the Church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments to find that, as result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends..
.......How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?
"How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?"
"How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?"
Over the past 20 years I've read a few thousand pages about what-God-has-to-say-about-work, and Sayers is quoted in at least 1/2 of the books. Of the 4 Propositions she lays out in "Why Work?" I find this one the most telling.
And heart breaking.
Many many many people, especially men, never become or don't remain interested, much less engaged, in Church because of......Relevance.
They ask, "where's the relevance?" They might not know they're asking it, but they know there's something they aren't getting and they never connect, or they connect and move on. I go back to what Sayers says... The Church has allowed work and religion to become separate departments to find that, as result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends.
And we come to Church wanting to fill something we know is missing. And though the filling seems good, it sounds good, it doesn't stay connected with the rest of the week. Or when we (I'm talking majority, large majority) try to connect it, those leading us don't know how to keep it connected. They haven't been trained to connect it.
And yet, the Scripture is covered with the relevance. It's there, on almost every page -
Work. God has so much to say about our 9/10s.
But not talking about it, covers it up.
I was encouraged years ago to read through the Bible with a "work" mindset, to notice how much God writes about work. Sometimes the "Church" doesn't totally fill the need we have, and arguably is not supposed to.
That's when we must engage in our own studies and dig deeper, find the relevance, and not run.
That's when we must engage in our own studies and dig deeper, find the relevance, and not run.
Comments and dialog welcome...click comments below.
