Time for reflection
The seminar on a Sunday evening at church was about work and the pressures of long hours and high expectations. As we talked about the value of what we did, one person questioned whether his work, which involved helping rich people pay as little tax as possible, was right for a Christian.
Created in God's image, set to work in this world as his apprentices and co-workers, the Sabbath command requires us to stop and rest as he did, to look at the work we have done and assess its worth.
The first command to work is Genesis 1:28, where God blessed them and told them to be fruitful, to subdue and have dominion. When these words were first recorded, how could they have carried the burden of destruction, exploitation, conquest and waste that they carry so ominously now? The vastness and splendour of this world's resources totally dwarfed our early ancestors. Only now can we begin to see how irresponsible and profligate humans have been as stewards, fouling our own nest in our greed.
So as redeemed and restored stewards, we are required regularly to reflect on our stewardship. Have we done the job well? What contribution to human flourishing have we made? Is our work, whether parenting, auditing, advertising, building or engineering, a demonstration of his kingdom life? Does our work contribute to the degrading of the environment? Does it encourage mutual responsibility? Could we change how we work in any way? These are the questions we, and the man in the seminar, need to ask as part of our Sabbath rest.
'We possess the things which God has committed to our hands on condition that, being content with the frugal and moderate use of them, we should take care of what shall remain. Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence, but endeavour to hand it down to posterity as he received it, or even better cultivated.'
Calvin wrote this in his 16th century commentary on Genesis. Maybe we should listen to him as we look at what we do.
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.
