St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, September 2, 2007

The Labour of Playful Worship – Rev. David Mundy

Exodus 20: 1-18 Matthew 6: 25-34

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This is my first Sunday back in the pulpit after several weeks of vacation and so I still have the pleasure of not working at the forefront of my mind. This also happens to be the Labour Day weekend which in North America has been the time to honour the value of work by taking an added day of rest.

While we were away in the beautiful province of Quebec we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast where the host spoke excellent English and had a sense of humour that was international in quality. While enjoying our fine morning meal we commented on her busyness, but she assured us that we didn’t have to worry about her.

She offered that Quebeckers were skilled at leaving work behind at the end of the day so that they could truly enjoy their leisure time. She commented on the difference between the cities of Montreal and Toronto, at least as she perceived them. Torontonians she insisted worked too long and hard and then shuffled home. Montrealers were ready to leave the office behind at five o’clock and find some place to savour life. That’s why the cafes and bistros were full in the summer.

She also mentioned a controversial article written years ago by Lucien Bouchard who was the leader of the Bloc Quebecois political party at the time. Bouchard created a stir by saying that Quebec would never separate from the rest of the country because Quebecois weren’t willing to work hard enough. They simply didn’t have the work ethic of English-speaking Canada and the United States.

Our host figured he was right, and there should be no apology – that it is the way it should be. In her view it is important to find a healthy balance between work and play and it wasn’t something the people of her province should be ashamed of.

We didn’t take this a step further to consider the proper balance between work and play and worship but we can do that this morning even though our numbers suggest that folk are leaning toward the “play” part of the equation today.

You know that Jesus likely did physical labour for a good part of his life. In fact Jesus was a labourer for far more years than he was a preacher and teacher and healer. Tradition says that he was a carpenter although the word in Greek is more generic than specific. There is a rather romantic painting by the artist George de la Tour which shows a young Jesus holding a candle for his earthly father as he crafts an object. Actually, it was far more common to build using stone than wood in ancient Israel so there is some speculation that Joseph and Jesus and the other young men in the family were stonemasons.

Whatever he did from day to day, Jesus’ hands would have been calloused and dirty from physical effort. So when he told parables about workers in the vineyard and elsewhere he wasn’t speaking from an ivory tower but his practical experience and he knew that his audience would know exactly what he was talking about.

At the same time, Jesus appreciated that there is the danger that work can become the consuming passion of life and that when it leads to a loss of perspective on what really matters in life and fills us with worry and anxiety work can be unhealthy. You heard this a moment ago in the teaching in the teaching we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus speaks about our tendency to fret about the future. As a result we end up calculating and striving in ways which do not allow us to appreciate and enjoy what it happening right now.

He encourages us to allow God to be the co-creator of a life, rather than constantly worrying about what we call making a living. He actually uses the examples of the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields which are industrious in their own way but live in the moment. Jesus was not naive and knew the importance of food and shelter he also understood that work can become a false god and distract us from real living. Although he was speaking as a first century peasant to an audience with the same background, this teaching is remarkably current. Every time I read this passage I end wondering why I don’t read it more often and take it to heart!

What is the balance between our work and our leisure and our worship? There is no end of articles in women’s magazines about creating that equilibrium, which is understandable in this day when mothers are wage-earners and career people as well as nurturers and homemakers. That so much is written indicates that there is no simple solution for women or men. Someone has summed up how easily our lives get “out of kilter” in three succinct phrases:

We worship our work

We work at our play

We play at our worship

Although it may not always be easy, we are invited to rearrange the unhealthy patterns of our lives and create others so that each day may be worthwhile and make room for the presence of God.

Work can be deeply meaningful and fulfilling even when it isn’t all that high profile. We have probably all heard the term “the Protestant work ethic” and know that it is usually used in a negative manner to speak of a rather grim and driven approach to work. There is a bumper sticker which says “I owe, I owe, It’s off to work I go” and it sums up that outlook.

In fact the work ethic envisioned by John Calvin and the other Protestant reformers was very different from this. They believed that work was a God-given gift which allows us to be creative and make a contribution to a better world. The purpose of work is not to accumulate more wealth but to work for the betterment of creation and for self-fulfillment. In some respects they felt that good work was a form of worship.

We heard the sad news this week that more than a thousand workers at General Motors will lose their jobs at the beginning of the new year. A lot was said about the effects on the local economy and the financial hardship for families with mortgages. This is all true but there is also a spiritual quality to work, even when it isn’t acknowledged as such. We have a sense of worth when we work which is more than can be measured in dollars and cents.

I have been sought out dozens of times through the years by parishioners who are not satisfied with their work or wonder what to do in retirement or are going through a crisis of purpose when work comes to an end. Why do they speak to their minister? Perhaps it is because of that spiritual aspect.

I should add here that when we say “work” it can refer to our paid employment or the other activities we engage in to make a contribution to society. I have also had many conversations with folk who feel that the most meaningful work they have ever done started after they retired and could take on tasks in organizations where the only reward was helping others.

What about play? The criticism of the Calvinist outlook is that there isn’t enough room for playfulness and joy. If we are working all the time, how can we savour the goodness of existence and the pleasures which exist all around us? If we never make time for leisure, or if our lives are so structured around what is supposed to be play for our children then life loses its zest. We are shaped by our play as well as our work.

While I was on vacation with my wife, Ruth, we were able to enjoy the natural beauty of the Saguenay region of Quebec, an area we had never visited before. We got out in our kayaks and hiked and whale-watched. It was a restorative time, even though we were physically active. Part way through our holiday we made a pact not to say “we’re getting too old for this” and simply enjoyed what we were doing!

Our vacation was also a sabbath time, to use a biblical term, an opportunity to be aware of the grace of God through stepping away from the routines of daily living. We looked at the stars and the cloud formations and we listened to the wind in the trees as reminders that we were part of a greater whole which was not dependent on the clock.

It is essential that we have times in our lives when we pause and remember that we are not God and that even if we were given the job we would fail miserably. We heard the Ten Commandments a few moments ago and you may have noticed when they were projected on the screen that the prohibition against idolatry is lengthy compared to most of the others. The commandment to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy is about as long as the one about idolatry and the two really go together. We were not created to become consumers, to be slaves to our desire for more and more.

So this is why we “cease and desist” on Sunday mornings and prayerfully respond to the God of creation and the God of love in Christ Jesus. Whether there are just a few of us as is the case on a holiday weekend or the sanctuary is full of worshippers we recognize that we are God’s children and here we will discover the wholesome balance for our lives.

Not only can we meet Jesus here, but we end up taking Jesus with us into our work and our play during the rest of the week. Sometimes we lament that so few people go to church these days. Actually, what we truly need are those who will go to church on Sunday so that Christ will inform their living from Monday to Friday.

One last thought this morning. It isn’t just Protestants who have a work ethic. The motto of St. Benedict who was the founder of some of the great monastic orders was Ora et Labora in Latin – prayer and work in English.

I went on retreat a couple of years at a Benedictine monastery in New Brunswick and the brother ran a big farm operation, including a cattle barn. Above one entrance was that motto “prayer and work.” One day I was walking past the barn when the bells began to ring calling the brothers to prayer. The last one out was on the run, shedding his coveralls like Clark Kent on his way into the phone booth to become Superman. When I saw him a few minutes later, he was in his monk’s robe, chanting the psalms in the choir of the chapel. Supermonk had arrived!

All of us make that transition between work and play and worship. When we do it well, and with God’s help, we do live lives of meaning. For this we can thank God. Amen.