We’re looking this week at Psalm 127: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.
How do we know if we’re working for God or not? How do we know if we are building with him, rather than for ourselves?
We need to know what God is working on. His big story, and where we fit into it.
Bible tells a story with four parts:
1. God created and cared for a good world, where we’d be in close personal relationship with him. IN harmony with world around us, providing needs, us working to sustain it. Were only asked to work with him, and not to try and be him.
2. We found ourselves longing to know what God knew, and rebelled against God in favour of working for ourselves. We separated ourselves from God, and now everything, including our work, is dysfunctional. Even our attempts to get back to God are broken.
3. God hasn’t given up on us, and in fact, became one of us in Jesus Christ in order to close that separation between us, and resolve the dysfunction.
4. He’s inviting us to join with him in recreating that original way of life, us and God in close personal relationship in harmony with our world, in something called his kingdom, moving towards a day when that is the only reality.
Good work is about participating in God’s ongoing creativity and cultivation…working for him, instead of putting our own goals first.
I had a friend studying Environmental Science. He was learning this kind of worldview (simplified to save space, but this was the gist): We are animals, wildly out of control like a virus, destroying the rest of nature, and the solution is to drive a hybrid, recyle, use less energy, the list goes on.
One day, he was finally crushed by the responsibility laid upon him, and said he felt he needed to change degrees. I asked why, and he said it was because I was a better recycler than he was! He felt he needed to save the world, and couldn’t…in fact I seemed to be doing better at it, and it wasn’t even my job or area of study.
The difference between us was that my environmentalism came from knowing and believing that God created, loves this world, and I should too. In fact, he put humans here to care for it, not as a virus. Of course, the dysfunction brought into our world by our rebellion against God (sin) is obvious in our many environmental issues – global warming, pollution, deforestation, etc. I can’t save it myself, but I know the one who can and is – God. I have a job to do, but also know it’s not in vain or overwhelming and futile, because I’m working for and with God.
We’ll see tomorrow some examples of how this good news story impacts other areas of work.
Question: Think about the example of a contractor – how would a home builder build in a consistent way with God’s story?
Then, watch the attached video of Kimberly’s story.
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Yesterday Levi decided to follow Jesus, invited his colleagues for supper with Jesus. We saw all that meant for Levi, and today we see what it meant for his culture.
And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” - Luke 5:30-32 ESV
What Jesus says makes so much sense in theory. Of course Jesus came to heal broken people, including these kinds of extortioners who’ve sold out their nation.
But it’s so easy to forget that in practice.
The Pharisees don’t seem to think Jesus should be friends with those he intends to heal. They act like he should keep a safe distance, perhaps as an aloof example of how good he is and how bad they are. Perhaps if they change their ways, then they can be seen with him.
Christians can do the same. Sometimes we’d rather give to a distant charity than help a neighbour. We’d rather keep a safe distance from people’s issues, perhaps we worry about what people will think if they see us with certain kind person.
This is a problem since we see Jesus doing the opposite. He goes right to people who don’t know him, and don’t act like him. He goes right to the sick, and heals them. The problem is Pharisees don’t see themselves as sick.
This is part of why we don’t advertise this as a Christian resource. We’re not looking to be a resource just for those who already go to church, know Jesus, and like that kind of thing.
If that’s you, it’s okay, you can support and join our team in this work – get in touch with me. What we’ll work on together is building a community of people that includes those who’d never show up at church to learn about Jesus.
It’s such people as that we exist for. Now that’s a pretty familiar group. It gets much more interesting when you consider what it’s like to serve prostitutes, drug addicts, and so on. What does it look like for Jesus’ followers to sit down and have supper with them in a way that introduces them to Jesus? We’ve included one fascinating example for you to watch here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRBM_YY_YX0
Question: Why do you think the religious authorities, the Pharisees and scribes, react the way they do? Have you ever reacted similarly?
