Establish The Work of Our Hands
FOR MEDITATION
This Sunday is our annual “Faith and Work” Sunday, a tradition we keep every Labor Day weekend. As summer vacations end and we return to our normal schedules of work and school, it’s a great time to reflect on how our everyday work connects with our faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, this is not a very self-evident truth. Historically, the church has spent a lot of time equipping the saints for the private, spiritual dimensions of their lives (prayer, spirituality, etc.) but not much time equipping them for the public, vocational aspects of their lives. This often results in a deep split, what some have called a “sacred/secular divide,” between Sunday and the rest of the week, between our spiritual lives and what we spend most of our time doing every day.
So it’s vital we recover a biblical understanding of work and how central it is to our discipleship. This Sunday we’ll look at Genesis 2 and what it tells us about the nature and dignity of work, and the ways we can bear and reflect God’s image through our varied vocations. We’ll also tell the story of one of our covenant partners and what he does every day, exploring what we can learn from him about faith and work.
The good news for everyone is that God deeply cares about and is involved in the most mundane things you do every day. When your eyes are opened, you can see the extraordinary presence and purpose of God in the ordinary work of your daily life.
In preparation for worship this week, meditate on our Scripture passage for Sunday (and you can use the Bible reading resource linked on this page!) and consider the ways that you are partnering with God and bearing his image in your everyday work.
Our weekly worship guide can be found here.
GENESIS 2:4-7, 15
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when theLord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.