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Sermons
We
Don’t Just Work Here
Hebrews
11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke
The Downtown Presbyterian Church
Do you enjoy your work? Think about it a minute. Do you enjoy what you do for a living? (If you don’t work think back to the
last job you had.) Do you get up in the
morning and look forward to going to work?
Is your work a great feast you can’t wait to dig into? Do you have a passion for how you earn your
bread?
Or do you hate getting up? Is work a burden for you, a cross to
bear? Maybe you don’t hate it but
it has all the appeal of a cold fried egg, or a stale peanut-butter and jelly
sandwich. Is the best you can say is
you’re apathetic about your job?
You all know when I was in college I
spent a summer working 3rd shift at a Waffle House. A good job for an 18
year-old. My boss, the manager,
was named Joe. Joe was in his early
20s. Joe loved his job. He smiled at everybody,
he jumped in and helped all the time. He
would even come in at night when he was off and help if there was a big
crowd. Joe would go to Waffle House
conventions. He hung out with his
employees in his spare time. Joe was
passionate about managing a Waffle House.
I, on the other hand, was not very
passionate when I started there. I
didn’t like the work so I always did the bare minimum. I argued with the other cooks. I always arrived at the last minute so I was
never prepared. I certainly didn’t
hang out with the other employees who in my exalted opinion were a bunch of
rednecks with about as much couth as a spittoon. And I sure didn’t trust Joe who smiled
all the time but also chewed me out when it was necessary. And I have to give him credit I deserved some
chewing out in those days.
My attitude was not passion. My attitude was “I just work
here.” That was all. “Don’t blame me. I don’t have an emotional stake in
this. It’s just a job. I leave it here when I’m done. I just work here.”
If you hang around churches long enough
you begin noticing some people really enjoy their faith. They arrive early and stay late. They form bonds with other church
members. When the outreach committee
calls for an extra offering they’re ready because they’ve put a
little extra aside just for that. They
go the extra mile in helping put programming together and special events. They don’t leave their faith at church
during the week, they share God’s love with
others. Their hearts are oriented
towards God’s Kingdom. Perhaps the
best way to say it is they are passionate about their faith.
But then there are others. They arrive at the last minute and leave as
soon as they can. Their hearts are
always on themselves so when the outreach committee calls for a special offering
they get all bent out of shape – their time and money are already
accounted for. They haven’t put
any extra aside. They treat special
activities like a cold, fried egg or a stale peanut-butter and jelly
sandwich. They leave their faith at the
door after worship and never minister during the week. If their faith were a job their attitude
would be, “I’m not committed.
I leave everything at the church when I go. I just work here.”
Our Gospel Lesson has a warning about
that. Be careful because you don’t
know when God is coming. Jesus will
return like a thief in the night and will catch you sleeping when you ought to
be ministering. The note of caution is
definitely there and we ought to be glad God loves us enough to give us a
warning. Everyone needs correction once
in a while. But that’s not the
emphasis of our passage.
“Do not be afraid, little
flock. God wants to give you the
kingdom. Do well and God will be like
the employer who is so pleased he does his servants’ jobs for them and
serves them himself.”
God is not some angry auditor with a
chip on her shoulder looking for us to screw up. God is not a “secret shopper”
hoping to find us making a mistake.
God is not like that. God wants us to do well. God wants us to enjoy our ministry. God wants us to know the pleasure of the
But the only way we’re going to
do that is with the right attitude. The
only way we’re really going to know the pleasure of ministry is if we
don’t worry about ourselves but instead embrace ministering. If we have a Kingdom
orientation. If
we approach ministry with passion.
As long as our approach is “Hey,
I just work here,” our faith is not going to be very fulfilling. But if we turn ourselves around, if our lives
have a
I don’t know if ministry is a joy
or a burden for you. But if it’s a
burden, if it’s something you’d just like to shrug off your
shoulders, then take heart. We can change.
It took a while for me at the Waffle
House, but the more I got to know the boss, the more I worked at learning my
job, the more I came in early so I could get ready and the more I hung out with
my co-workers, the more I began to enjoy making waffles. It didn’t happen overnight. But by the end of the summer I was passionate
about my work. And it showed in my
productivity and my general disposition.
If ministry is a burden for you, if
worshipping God is something you’d just as soon skip, let me offer a
little help. Read your Bible. Go to Cokesbury and
buy a devotional and read it everyday.
You can even find them on the internet.
Take part in a ministry. Go to a Sunday School
class. Set something extra aside so when
the outreach committee takes a special offering you’ll have something to
give. Spend a few minutes just listening
to someone’s concerns every week.
What I’m saying is develop a
Kingdom orientation. Become passionate
about ministry.
Some people say they don’t have
opportunities to minister but that’s like saying there’s not enough
air to breathe. Of course there is. Ministry opportunities are all around
us. But we have to have the Kingdom
orientation to see them. “How come
Joe didn’t tell me when his marriage fell apart or when his kid landed in
jail. Joe knows I’m a Christian, I
would have helped.” Well Joe
isn’t likely to share with us if we spend all our time being mean to him
and making fun of him. “How come
nobody asked me to take on that project at church? I’d have been glad to take charge of it
and I would have done a good job, too.”
Sure, but nobody knew to approach us because we never take part in the
broader ministries of our church.
Opportunities to minister come on us
unexpectedly. They’re about as
predictable as a thief in the night – they’ll pop up whenever
we’re too busy or too self-oriented to even know they’re
there.
But if we put in the Bible study and
prayer and ministry, if we really become passionate about our faith, they
won’t surprise us. We’ll see
them coming. And the Christ appearing
before us in “the least of these” will minister to us. And we will know the
I hope we don’t just work
here. What a horrible waste of joy. Let’s be passionate about our faith,
and enjoy the great feast of the
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