Readings in Theology of Work

Readings in Theology of Work Contents: Reading the Bible in the Global Marketplace (Stevens) 2 Organizational Culture and Change (Stevens) 17 A View from the Ground: The Great Commandment Company in the Philippines (Jon Escoto) 23 On Being Kingdom People: Regents of Our God and King (Stevens) 27 Work (Gordon Preece) 35 Executive Brief on a Biblical Theology of Work (Stevens) 42 Faith: Recovering the Soul of Work (Stevens) 45 Hope: Making Our Mark on Heaven (Stevens) 52 Love: Recovering the Amateur Status of the Christian (Stevens) 57 Providential Work: Esther (Stevens) 64 The Promise of Technology versus God`s Promise in Job (David Strong) 68 Gendered Work (Stevens) 81 Towards a More Biblical View of Matter (LT Jeyachandran) 85 Business as a Calling and Profession: Towards a Protestant Entrepreneurial Ethic (Gordon Preece) 89 Is Business a Calling? (RPS) 97 1 READING THE BIBLE IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE R. Paul Stevens Professor Emeritus, Marketplace Theology, Regent College “What do you teach at Regent College?” This seemingly innocent question was broached by the guest master of an Orthodox monastery. I had undertaken a four‐day pilgrimage on Mount Athos, the monastic peninsula of the Eastern church. In the course of praying my way from monastery to monastery I struck up a soul friendship with one of the guestmasters. “Marketplace theology is what I teach.” “What’s that?” ‐ his inquisitiveness now aroused by something foreign, he thought, to the spiritual life. “It is the integration of Christian faith with work in the world.” “It’s not possible,” he retorted. “That’s why I am a monk.” I can understand how he came to that erroneous view. It has to do with how we read the Bible, how we regard the spiritual life and whether the God‐coming of Jesus was really into the work‐a‐day world that we inhabit. It is a joy to write a chapter in honour of Carl Amerding, not only because he has been a dear friend, supporter and guide in the multiple contexts where we have served together – church, college and global mission ‐ but more particularly because as a Bible teacher and professor he has a lifetime of bringing the Word of God “home” to people where they are. Again it has to do with how we read the Bible. But not just how: what we read. THE MARKETPLACE IN THE BIBLE What we read in the Bible should be enough to convince us that God is at work in our worldly enterprise. The Incarnation is a wonderful scandal – God going through a complete human experience from conception to resurrection. Jesus, God’s Son, works in a carpenter’s shop for twenty years when so many souls around him were lost. The Father speaks approval of him at his baptism even though he has never preached a sermon or worked a miracle. The Bible itself, in both testaments, is itself a scandalously common book. God speaks through the language of the street: Aramaic and Hebrew in the Old Testament and common street‐Greek in the New. The great English Greek Scholar James Hope Moulton, following up evidence gained through 2 the discovery of the Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragments in Egypt, said, “The Holy Ghost spoke absolutely in the language of the people, as we might have expected He would.” 1 \ In his formidable series on biblical spirituality Eugene Peterson notes that even the word “daily bread” placed in the strategic centre of the Lord’s Prayer – often interpreted by church people as spiritual bread, Eucharistic bread or heavenly bread ‐ is, as we now know from the Oxyrhynchus fragments, to be the ordinary bread from the market, purchased along with chickpeas and straw. 2 Without having access to these recent discoveries Adolf Diessmann had speculated that epiousion 3 (daily) “had the appearance of a word that originated in the trade and traffic of the everyday life of the people.” Add to that the fact that of Jesus’ 132 public appearances in the New Testament, 122 were in the marketplace. Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Of 40 divine interventions recorded in Acts, 39 were in the marketplace or the public square. Jesus called 12 normal working individuals, not clergy, to build his church and some of them had questionable professions. 4 THE MARKETPLACE AS A COMMON OCCUPATION OF BIBLE CHARACTERS. Walter Duckat in his book, Beggar to King: All the Occupations of Biblical Times lists over two hundred different occupations found in biblical times, giving archeological and literary evidence for the history of that occupation. Many of these are found in Scripture. Some of the occupations are exotic, such as the snake charmer, the magician, the mirror‐maker, pawn‐
broker, gambler, dream‐interpreter, the prostitute, counterfeiter, and candy maker. But what is remarkable is the number of occupations that we find in the work world of the 21st century: accountant, actor, architect, banker, spy, barber, census taker, clothier, druggist, furniture designer, hair‐dresser, housewife, jeweler, lawyer, merchant, money‐changer, nurse, physician, realtor, ship‐builder, soldier, spice‐dealer, teacher, theatre‐worker, treasurer, vintner, weights and measures inspector. On each of these Duckat states what they did, and where they are mentioned in the Bible, in Jewish literature (such as the Talmud), or in the evidence of ancient manuscripts. He has a section on commerce and trade: transportation for trade purposes, methods of transportation, products, markets, fairs, exports, imports, royal merchants, 1
James Hope Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol 1, third edi. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark,1908), 5,
quoted in Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2006), 146.
2
Peterson, Eat This Book, 149.
3
Adolf Diessmann, Light from the Ancient East, trans. LionelStrachan, fourth ed. (New York: George H. Doran,
1927), 78, quoted in Peterson, Eat This Book, 149.
4
I owe this summary to Al Bussard, Director of Integra, Bratislava, Slovakia.
3 business regulations, money, income, wealth, attitudes to workers, female workers, guilds and strikes. 5 We can profitably look at a few. In Genesis 24:52 Abraham’s servant buys a wife for Isaac. Isaac becomes very wealthy through the blessing of God (26:12), so the Philistines envied his monopoly and stopped up his wells (26:14‐15) – a hostile takeover. Jacob negotiates with Laban for a salaried position that would allow him to get what he needs for his family while giving Laban “nothing” (30:31) since Jacob knows that Laban does not really want to give him anything. 6 Dinah’s brothers make an unscrupulous arrangement for the bride‐price for Dinah with Shechem, never intending to fulfill the bargain. The result of this deceitful transaction is that they have to run (34:13‐17). Joseph is the first “futures” trader in the Bible – saving food during the seven years of plenty for the coming seven years of famine and, in the process, enslaving the whole nation to Pharaoh (Gen 37). Jethro visits Moses and counsels this almost burned out CEO how to delegate his work to “capable men from all the people” (Exod 18:21). Solomon makes a deal with Hiram to provide the materials for the temple in exchange for wheat and oil (1 Kgs 5). Job gives an elaborate description of the technology of mining in the context of affirming that wisdom cannot so easily be found and is gained through the fear of the Lord (Job 28). The wisdom of proverbs is especially fascinating, counseling the gradual creation of wealth rather than embracing a “get rich quick” scheme: “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow” (13:11). “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk only leads to poverty” (14:23). “Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom” (17:16). Proverbs 31 describes the entrepreneurial wife – she buys fields and sees that her trading is profitable: “Give her the reward she has earned and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.” In Ecclesiastes the Professor reflects on the futility of great enterprises “under the sun.” “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless” (5:10). “The abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep” (5:12). And yet good work and wealth are a gift of God. “When God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God” (5:19, see the opposite in 6:2). In Ezekiel 27 the prophet laments for Tyre, a powerful hint that we should lament an unjust economic system. Tyre is under the judgment of God. Her extensive international trading 5
Walter Duckat, Beggar to King: All the Occupations of Biblical Times (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1968). 6
See my Down-to-Earth Spirituality: Encountering God in the Ordinary, Boring Stuff of Life (Downers
Grove:InterVarsity Press, 2003), 92-102.
4 described in 27:9‐24 includes silver, iron, tin, lead, slaves, articles of bronze, work horses, war horses, mules, ivory tusks and ebony, turquoise, purple fabric, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, rubies, wheat, confections, honey, oil, balm, wine, wool, cassia, calamus, saddle blankets, lambs, rams, goats, spices, precious stones, beautiful garments, blue fabric, and multicolored rugs. In the New Testament Jesus, in the so‐called “silent years,” worked as a carpenter, or possibly an entrepreneur (since the word usually translated “carpenter” can also means one who designs and implements the building of a house or a boat). Paul worked with Aquila and Priscilla as a tentmaker and sold his products in the marketplace (Acts 18:1‐4). He also exploited the marketplace location and the rhythm of economic life to provide an apologetic and evangelistic ministry in the workplace in the rented Hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9). More than describing people working in the marketplace, the Bible tells us how the marketplace relates to the purpose of God. A cartoon shows two men talking. One says to the other, “I have just discovered the meaning of life. Unfortunately it has no business application.” Nothing could be more wrong. THE MARKETPLACE IN THE PURPOSE OF GOD From the beginning of Genesis we learn that God created humankind to enjoy communion with God, to build community and to be co‐creators with God (having dominion, expressing stewardship and taking care of the earth ‐ Gen 1:28; 2:15). This involves everything from agriculture to agribusiness, from animal husbandry to domestic husbandry, from tool‐making to city‐making. Speaking to the purpose of God, Kenneth Kantzer says that business was apparently in God’s mind from the very beginning: By creation, human beings are social beings, never intended to live alone. Because of our social nature, we are specialized (each person is in one sense unique), interdependent and, therefore, necessarily dependent on exchange. Exchange is built into our very nature. And this is business. 7 One of the earliest references to the world beyond Eden denotes the land of Havilah where “the gold is good” (Gen 2:12). It is implicit in the Genesis account that God intended Adam and Eve (and their descendents) to “fill the earth.” This involved extending the glorification of God in all of life through expanding the sanctuary garden into the world. The Garden (sanctuary), Eden (home) and the lands (the world) are like three concentric circles, expanding the mission globally. Ironically, their expulsion from the Garden was both judgment (for their sin) and 7
Kenneth S. Kantzer, “God Intends His Precepts to Transform Society,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed., Biblical
Principles & Business: The Foundations, (Colorado Springs: Navpress,1989), vol 1, 24.
5 fulfillment (for it forced them to fill the world). We see a sign in this direction in the descendents of Cain who engaged in commerce – living in tents and raising livestock, making and playing musical instruments and forging tools (Genesis 4:20‐22). We are not to assume that because they were descendents of the murderer Cain that their activity was evil. This was the beginning of commerce, culture and crafts. Of necessity people were forced to engage in exchange and this is business. The tower of Babel represents autonomous enterprise that was idolatrous: the city and the tower (Gen 11). Their expulsion and the diversification of languages was, like that of Adam and Eve, both judgment and fulfillment. They were judged for their self‐promoting arrogance and yet forced to go about “filling the earth” (read “global wholisitic mission” that includes enterprise). But enterprise and exchange is to be undertaken in dependence on God. Deuteronomy 8:3 speaks to this. God says through Moses, “He humbled you…and then [fed] you with manna…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The word from the mouth of God is not mere speech but the dynamic self‐revelation that causes things to happen, in this case food. God reveals himself in provision. We see this also in the Garden in Eden where God’s first gift was food to be eaten with gratitude and in communion with God. Therein always lies the danger: “When you have eaten and are satisfied…be careful that you do not forget the Lord” (8:10‐18); it is the Lord that “gives you the ability to produce wealth” (8:18). In the last book of the Bible, Revelation 18:1‐
24, God will judge the corrupt marketplace. The merchants weep because Babylon has fallen. “All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.” And yet, this final vision of the Lord’s full reign, the full coming of the Kingdom and the new heaven and new earth, suggests that there will be economic and enterprising work in what is commonly called “heaven” but is in fact a totally renewed creation: “My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain…” (Isa 65:22‐3). “The kings of the earth will bring their splendor into (the holy city)….The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it” (Rev 21:24‐26). 8 9 This has led two professor of marketing to argue that there will be marketing in heaven! 10 Even if scarcity does not exist there will be choices to make about the sequential ordering of activities that we choose to engage in. We will also need to process information and make decisions. Even though we will know more, we will not be omniscient. They argue: 8
See Richard J. Mouw, When the Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah and the New Jerusalem (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), and Paul Marshall, Heaven Is Not My Home: Living in the Now of God’s Creation (Nashville: Word, 1998). 9
Additional Scriptures: Gen 13; Psalm 8:6; Deut 28:1‐68); Job 8:7, 22:21 (but also see 31:24‐28). 10
Todd Steen and Steve VanderVeen, “Will There Be Marketing in Heaven?” Perspectives (November 2003), 6-11.
6 The ability to provide information and to innovate will be a spiritual gift that will in many ways benefit the body of Christ….Marketing will be a process for loving one’s neighbour as well as a process for loving God since, as Martin Luther proposed, we show our love for God by loving our neighbour and we show our love for our neighbour in our daily work. 11 But, back to life in the here and now. THE REVELATION OF GOD IN THE MARKETPLACE Abraham had apparently the same attitude as many pastors and Christians toward the marketplace: it is a place bereft of God. In Genesis 20:1‐18 Abraham passes off Sarah as his sister because he thinks, there is no “fear of God” in the secular marketplace of Abimelech’s kingdom and some will kill him to gain his beautiful wife. But God speaks to Abimelech in a dream, confronts the believer with his duplicity, gives gifts to Abraham, and offers him to live wherever he wishes. God reveals himself to Jacob in the context of his work. Jacob is given a dream about his breeding project on Laban’s farm (Gen 31:10‐13). The Lord grants favour with Joseph as a slave, a prisoner and as vice‐regent of Egypt. Moses encounters God in a burning bush while engaging in his shepherding work. Bezalel, a craftsman, is the only person in the Old Testament about whom it is said that he was “filled with the Spirit of God” for the purpose of his work (Exod 31:3). God selects Saul while he working, looking for his lost donkeys. God provides a husband for Ruth in the marketplace as she gleans for her provision (Ruth 2); In the New Testament the call to discipleship came to the fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James and John (Matt 3:18‐22; Luke 5:1‐11) while they were working in their aqua business. Peter is reinstated in his discipleship while he is again at work (John 21:15‐23). The call comes to Matthew while collecting taxes for the federal government (Matt 9:9‐12). Then there is the sermon of Stephen. After showing that the revelation of God has taken place mainly in places others than the sanctuary he says, “The Most High does not live in houses made by men” (Acts 7:48); he got executed for preaching this message! Most of the revelations of God did not take place in tabernacle, temple or church but right where people were working and living. It would be like God to do that! 12 God originates and is involved in global blessing. THE MARKETPLACE IN THE GLOBAL MISSION OF GOD 11
Steen and Vanderveen, 10.
12
Additional Scriptures: Gen 23:5‐20; 24:52; 39:3; 39:21; 40; 45:5; 50:20; Exod 1:11‐14; 2:23‐5; 3; Deut 8:3, 10‐18; Judg 6:16; 1 Sam 9.1‐10:27; 2 Chron 32:24‐33; Neh; Job 24; Jer 18:6. 7 As mentioned above, in the Bible we even have an example of international trade in Solomon’s exchange with Hiram king of Tyre, Hiram selling Solomon logs for the temple and Solomon selling Hiram wheat and oil. We are, of course, in a vastly more complex situation that obtained at the time of writing of Scripture. I replaced my stolen film camera with a “Japanese” digital, only to discover that the body is made in Thailand and the lens in China. Sitting on the rapid transit in Manilla a young woman beside me struck up a conversation. “Are you a visitor?” ”Yes.” I ask why she is coming home from work so early (it was 2.30 p.m.). She explained that she has the night and morning shift for a call centre, answering inquiries for a telephone company is the eastern USA. “That must be a tough job,” I offered. “I love it,” she replied. “People usually start off rudely or even angrily, and I get to talk them down. By the end they are apologizing.” CNN carries the news of the China – Africa conference in Beijing that will result in China having greater access to the raw materials, especially oil in Africa and African nations receiving both aid and increased trade. Unquestionably international trade plays a role in world peace for as someone has said Japan would be crazy to drop bombs (now) on its most important trading partner. The Bible reveals the settled determination of God to bless all the nations. It starts with God: missio Dei. God is sender, sent and sending. God calls Adam and Eve to “fill the earth.” Then Abraham is chosen and empowered with a promise that includes family, the land and the “blessing the nations.” Israel (Abraham’s successors) is called to be a light to the nations which involves being a “demonstration plot” for how life is to be lived, how economic justice is to be effected and how the land is to be developed. This has led Michael Novak to propose that: From its very beginnings the modern business economy was designed to become an international system, concerned with raising the “wealth of nations,” all nations, in a systematic, social way. It was by no means focused solely on the wealth of particular individuals. 13 Whether cedar from Lebanon, olive oil from Israel, pencils or automobiles, coffee or telephones, most goods cannot be created through the work of an isolated individual and require cooperation of several, often many, towards a common goal. Undoubtedly Israel failed to live up to this high calling, and the prophets railed against the injustices in the marketplace – selling the poor for the price of a pair of sandals, holding back wages (a matter raised in the New Testament book of James). But the intent of God was that God’s mission would bring shalom, well‐being and fruitful enterprise throughout all the nations. The coming of Christ did not change this mission, but rather “fleshed it out” in the life and God’s Son. Jesus calls his followers to a fully incarnational mission: “As the father has sent me, so I am sending you” (Jn 20:21). The Gospel of the Kingdom is not merely soul‐salvation but comprehensive renewal and transformation. Therefore we are doing Kingdom work when we 13
Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1996), 125.
8 creates new wealth, alleviate poverty, bring well‐being to people, embellish and improve human life, and as we engage powers resistant to God’s coming shalom. James Luther Adams argues that since early Christianity ‘rejected civil religion, allowed voluntary membership and transcended ethnic divisions’ Christianity was in fact the first global corporation.” 14 The first multinational, it is argued, is the Knights Templers, whose international business enterprises supported their action in the Crusades. And even William Carey, often cited as the founder of the modern mission movement (though he had many predecessors), believed that the kingdom of God would spread through international trade. Business is one way in which we are called, with Abraham and his seed, to bless the nations and to build unity interculturally and internationally, not as a tower of Babel, not homogenizing but with interdependence, albeit mixed with sin and deconstruction. At the same time, there is conflict between the ages, between the worlds, a conflict which every kingdom person in the marketplace will experience. Mortimer Arias in this masterful study of the kingdom says: The coming of the kingdom means a permanent confrontation of worlds. The kingdom is a question mark in the midst of established ideas and answers developed by peoples and societies. The kingdom is an irreverent exposure of human motivations and of the most sacred rules of human mores. The kingdom is an iconoclastic disturber of religious sacred places and customs and the most radical threat to temple altars, priestly castes, and the most protected ‘holy of holies.’ The kingdom is the appointed challenger of all sacralizing myths and systems and the relentless unmasker of all human disguises, self‐righteous ideologies, or self‐perpetuating powers. 15 In the twenty‐first century we are undoubtedly dealing with a global marketplace, more extensive that could ever have been envisaged by Jonah as he made his way to hinterlands of Spain instead of witnessing to Iraq (ancient Ninevah). In Doing God’s Business I cite Paul Williams, an economist, who says “Globalization is…gradually undermining the nature of ‘national places’ and creating a borderless world in which everyone belongs equally everywhere but nobody is at home in community.” 16 In that same chapter I comment on the complexity of the problem. 17 There have been some benefits: the transfer of information technology; the provision of non‐agricultural employment 14
Gordon Preece, “Business as a Calling and Profession: Towards a Protestant Entrepreneurial Ethic” (unpublished manuscript delivered at the International Marketplace Theology Consultation, Sydney, June 2001), 36. 15
Mortimer Arias, Announcing the Reign of God: Evangelization and the Subversive Memory of Jesus (Lima, Ohio:
Academic Renewal Press, 1984), 46-47.
16
Paul S. Williams, “Hermeneutics for Economists: The Relevance of the Bible to Economics,” (MCS Thesis,
Regent College, Vancouver, 1995), 154.
17
The following two paragraphs are taken from R. Paul Stevens, Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation
for the Marketplace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 106-107.
9 in countries formerly dominated by subsistence farming, and the creation of new industries and services in countries with stagnant economies. In the last ten years, by the 2003 reckoning of the World Bank, the percentage of people in the world living in poverty has dropped from 29.6 to 23.2 per cent. This means, it is estimated, that four hundred million people, while still desperately poor, are no longer facing starvation daily. Consumer purchasing power worldwide has nearly tripled. Infant mortality is down 42 per cent since 1970 and there has been a five‐
fold increase of access to safe water by rural families world‐wide. 18 But there is another side to the picture. There is loss of employment in both industrialized countries (through outsourcing) and in less industrialized countries. The damage to the biosphere is potentially catastrophic. It is well known that if the whole populated world were to adopt the high‐consumption lifestyle of the West and North, it would take at least three planets of resources. Faced with globalizing cultures, people groups struggle to maintain their identity and perhaps some of the Balkanization of various nations around the planet can be attributed to this struggle for identity in an increasingly merged world order. One cannot belong to the whole human race. Economically the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer, even though there has been, overall, some lift in wealth world‐wide. Jeremy Rifkin in The End of Work forecasts world‐wide unemployment through technology, even in the so‐called service sectors. “Just outside the new high‐tech global village lie a growing number of destitute and desperate human beings, many of whom are turning to a life of crime and creating a vast new criminal subculture.” 19 On top of this Third World debt is at a punishing level. 20 The New York Times noted that the three richest people in the world have more than the GNP of the 48 poorest countries, that the richest 20% of the world’s people consume 86% of all goods and services, that the poorest 20% consume 1.3 % of all goods and services; that Americans and Europeans spend 17 billion dollars a year on pet food, this being 4 billion more than what is needed to provide basic health care and nutrition for everyone in the world; and that Americans spend 8 billion a year on cosmetics, 2 billion more than needed to provide basic education for everyone in the world. 21 To this the Bible speaks especially on how to behave in the marketplace . 18
World Bank, Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries (Washington, DC: The World Bank,
2003), 30, quoted in Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen, Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business
in Missions (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 47.
19
Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Work-Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era
(London: Penguin, 2000), xvii-xviii.
20
See James H. Ottley, “The Debt Crisis in Theological Perspective,” in Max Stackhouse, Tim Dearborn and Scott
Paeth, eds., The Local Church in a Global Era: Reflections for a New Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 3947.
21
New York Times (September 27, 1998), 16.
10 DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO LIVE IN THE MARKETPLACE Sometimes this is done by an example without moral evaluation leaving us to assess the ethics of the action through its consequences. For example Abraham lets Lot select the better resources – a description without moral comment except that God promises him everything afterwards (Gen 13). And later (Gen 14:23) Abraham says to the king of Sodom “I will accept nothing belonging to you…so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abraham rich.’” – a refusal to exploit gratitude. Negatively we see how the deceitful deal made by Jacob’s sons in negotiating a bride price with Shechem for their sister Dinah resulted in their becoming a stench to the people and having to move on (Gen 34). Significantly, with regard to Jacob’s somewhat deceitful negotiation with Laban to get the best of the flocks for himself and his family, Christian commentators tend to see this as evil, even though the text says that both Laban and Jacob saw the hand of God in this. Jewish commentators pass over the morality of this (and sometimes praise this holy shrewdness) and see only one fatal mistake made by Jacob, his delay in returning to Bethel as he had vowed, with the result that his daughter Dinah was raped. Besides passages where people are described, usually without moralistic comment, there are many direct instructions about how we are to conduct ourselves in the marketplace. The Ten Commandments (Exod 20:1‐17) deal with idolatry, the limits of work (Sabbath), sexual misconduct (adultery), stealing, truth‐telling and covetousness. Slaves are to go free after six years (Exod 21:1‐6); interest is not to be charged “to one of my people” but you may take a pledge (a coat, but it must be returned by sunset); bribes are not to be accepted for they blind the eyes of those who see and twist the words of the righteous (Exod 23:8); the edges of fields are not to be harvested but to be left for the poor and the alien (Lev 19:9) – Is this a word about monopolies? Isaiah and other prophets cry for economic justice in the marketplace: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke? To set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter…” (Isa 58:6). Accurate and uniform weights and measures are to be used. This is really not a reference to fair pricing (as suggested by Larry Burkett in Business by the Book) 22 but is about reliable currency, the medium of exchange. 23 “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin” (Lev 19:35). Wages are to be paid promptly. “Do not hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight” (Lev 19:13, see also Jas 5:4). In the workplace and in the courts people are not to be treated 22
Larry Burkett, Business by the Book: The Complete Guide of Biblical Principles for Business Men and Women
(Nashville: Nelson, 1990).
23
Peter McCarroll, “Accurate Weights and Measures,” an unpublished academic paper for the Marketplace
Ministry course, Regent College, 2003.
11 with favouritism: “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great” (Lev 19:15, see also Jas 2:1‐13). A remarkable passage in Deuteronomy 17:14‐20 describes the way a king is to behave. The king “must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold” (17:17), a passage of particular import to CEO’s who sometimes earn salaries two and three hundred times that of their entry level employees. Further, the king is “not consider himself better than his brothers” (17:20). Deuteronomy also has what could be the earliest recording building code: build a parapet around your roof to keep people from falling off (22:8). In the New Testament Paul writes to the Romans “Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor” (13:7). Slaves are to obey their masters, serving wholeheartedly as they are serving the Lord; masters are to treat their slaves the same way because they are serving the master. The slave is free and the master is a servant (Eph 6:5‐9; Col 3:22‐4:1; 1 Peter 2:18‐21). Dealing with the moral sloth of some workers in Thessalonica Paul warns against idleness (and not following Paul’s example, 2 Thess 3:6‐13). He exemplifies that it is more blessed to give (his ministry free of charge) than to receive (Acts 20:35) and thus his example of hard work he helps the weak. The love of money, and not money, is the root of many and all kinds of evil (1 Tim 6:3‐10). And so Paul warns the rich who have special temptations: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth…to be rich in good deeds… In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they can take hold of life that is truly life” (1 Tim 6:17‐19). This all has to do with security, or what Jesus called “Mammon” (a word that derives from the Aramaic, “Amen” – let it be definite, Luke 16:13). Thus we are not to boast about tomorrow: “’We will go to this or that city, spend a year, carry on business and make money.’ Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow” (Jas 4:13‐17). 24 Undoubtedly there are terrible inequalities in the world, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. How do we show love in the global marketplace and in the context of global poverty? One certain and creative way is through micro‐economic enterprise, enabling the poor and marginalized to become creators of new wealth. This is entirely in line with God’s original calling to Adam and Eve and their descendents, and with the goodness of work in the marketplace. The Medieval Jew, Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon, 1135‐1204) defined charity’s eight degrees by ranking them. At the bottom he notes that a person gives, but only when asked by the poor. But the highest is this: Money is given to prevent another from 24
Additional Scriptures: Exod 23:10‐12; 20; 31:12‐17; Lev 19:3; 19:30; 23:3; Deut 5:12‐15; Lev 19:9; 23:9‐10; 25:1‐
55; 26; 27:30; Deut 5:7‐21; 6:3; 15:1‐8; 23:19; 24:10, 14‐15, 19‐21; 25:13‐16; 26:1‐15; 28:1‐14, 15‐68; Psa 15:5; 25:13; Prov 3:9‐10;16:11; 20:10;22:9;23:4; Eccl 11:14; Isa 58:13‐14; Jer 17:19‐27; Joel 3:3; Amos 2; 6:4‐6, 11; Micah 6:11; Matt 12:1‐14; Luke 6:1‐11; Jas 5:1‐6. 12 becoming poor, such as providing him with a job or by teaching him a trade or by setting him up in business and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding out his hand for charity. This is the highest step and the summit of charity’s golden ladder. 25 So the global marketplace is a location for service to God and neighbours, near and far. THE MARKETPLACE AS A PLACE OF MINISTRY As previously mentioned ministry (in the sense of serving God and God’s purposes) took place in the marketplace with Joseph (in Egypt), with Esther (in the king’s palace), with Nehemiah (in a foreign palace and then in a building project), with Daniel who witnessed and prayed for the king and kingdom in a pagan environment, conducting himself with integrity, with Jonah, so that the sailor’s workplace was the place of a great religious revival (Jonah 1:16), and with Paul in Ephesus in the hall of Tyrannus for two years (Acts 19:9‐10). Paul ministered in the context of his tent‐making business. Tentmaking was not merely a way of “getting bread” or “gaining access” to a restricted situation but was taken up into his apostolic ministry. 26 Paul’s ministry in the marketplace of Ephesus in the rented hall of Tyrannus, over a two year period in the siesta time of day resulted in “all Asia hearing the Word of God.” The spreading Christian faith in Ephesus threatened the image‐making business of Diana‐worshippers and caused a riot (19:9). Finally, in the little letter of Paul to Philemon Paul persuades Philemon to take back his runaway employee who has now become a brother to his patron. So much for the direct references to work in the marketplace. But when Jesus wants to find a way to express truth about life in the kingdom of God he turns to images from the marketplace. MARKETPLACE AS A METAPHOR OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD A metaphor carries meaning from one reality to another and so deepens our engagement with truth. Significantly many words about life in the kingdom of God are commercial terms: “inheritance” (Psa 16:6: Eph 1:18); “profit”; “exchange”; “sell”; “buy”; “gain”; “redemption” (Psa 49:7‐8); “refine” (Psa 66:10); “wages” (of sin). Here are some other examples of marketplace metaphors: “The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times” (Psa 12:6). “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psa 118:22). “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psa 127). In Ecclesiastes 11:1‐4 the Professor says, “Cast your bread upon the waters” (a reference to the grain trade in the Mediterranean) “for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know 25
Quoted in William E. and Judith Ruhe Diehl, It Ai’nt Over Till It’s Over: A User’s Guide to the Second Half of Life (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 2003), 129‐130. 26
See R.F. Hock, “Paul’s Tentmaking and the Problem of his Social Class,” Journal of Biblical Literature 97
(1978): 555-64. See also R. Paul Stevens, “Tentmaking” in Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens, eds, The Complete
Book of Everyday Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 1028-34.
13 what disaster may come upon the land….Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap….” This is potent metaphor for risk‐taking but, at the same time, encouragement to divide the risk so that “not all the eggs are in one basket” (another common metaphor today). In Isaiah 5 the Song of the Vineyard compares the nation of Israel to a business that was well nurtured but yielded bad fruit. Also in Isaiah there is a prophecy about the future expansion of God’s kingdom that William Carey found as a text for world evangelization carried on through international trade (read “multinationals”): “Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your sons from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the Lord your God….Your gates will always stand open…so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations – their kings led in triumphal procession” (Isa 60:9‐11). In similar manner Jeremiah is instructed to buy a field while Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem as a prophetic sign of hope of the restoration: “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this place” (32:15). The ministry of Jesus is rich in marketplace metaphors: the wise and foolish builders is a metaphor for two ways of responding to the message of the kingdom. Hearing Jesus’ words and doing them is like building one’s house on a rock (Matt 7:24‐27; Luke 6:46‐49). The kingdom is like a pearl merchant who, finding one of great value, sells everything to obtain it (Matt 13:45‐
6). The parables often throw down marketplace images to evoke faith in God’s coming and present rule: In the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, an employee would not forgive a small debt after he had been forgiven a huge debt – so we, the forgiven, are to forgive our brothers and sisters (Matt 18:21‐35). The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is not about fair wages. Day‐
labourers employed at various times of the day all got the same pay, as does the grace of the kingdom come equally to those who come into the kingdom early or late (Matt 20:1‐6). In the same way the Parable of the Tenants is not about inheritance or fair pay. The tenants seized the son and killed him to get his inheritance ‐ a parable Jesus used to expose the death‐threat against him (Matt 21:33‐46; Mark 12:1‐12; Luke 20:9‐19). The Parable of the Talents shows that we must and may risk in the kingdom, just as a person must risk to make money, and we do this because we have a God who is not hard and unforgiving (Matt 25:14‐30). The Parable of the Rich Fool uses the picture of a greedy business person to show how a fool stores up things for himself and is not rich towards God (Lk 12:13‐21). The Parable of Not Counting the Cost of building a tower shows how important it is to count the cost of being a disciple (Lk 14:28‐30). The Parable of the Shrewd Manager contains the outrageous advice that we are to make friends for ourselves by means of unrighteous mammon (Lk 16:1‐15) just as the shrewd 14 manager saw to his own needs. Shrewd faith is encouraged. The Parable of the Ten Minas is a parable about investments, risking for the kingdom (Lk 19:11‐27). Most of these images originated in the Middle Eastern agrarian society of Jesus with village marketplaces and small businesses. But how can we relate these to our contemporary situation –a global marketplace with multinational corporations? How can we read the Bible in this context? HOW THEN SHALL WE READ? Mostly the Bible is “read” ecclesiastically – in the church and for it. Therefore we “see” and interpret the book as essentially dealing with ministry defined by those we call “ministers” and spiritual life understood as private piety or corporate worship. Life in the Spirit, when so read, has to do with religious services, relationships within the people of God and declaring the good news of the kingdom. Admittedly, the New Testament is mainly concerned with life in the church, especially in the letters of Paul, Peter and John. By and large preachers skip over the numerous passages in both testaments that deal with work, economic life, enterprise and creativity in the world, and concentrate on personal devotion. I often ask my classes how many have heard a sermon on work in the last year. In a class of fifty there might be one or two. How is it possible to miss so much of the Bible? As I have indicated above, we see something quite different when we read the Bible in or for the marketplace. But it is not merely enough to discover marketplace data in the Bible. Eugene Peterson warns against using the Bible for our own purposes, for validating our work in business or catering to what Peterson calls “my Holy Trinity” – my holy wants, my holy needs and my holy feelings. 27 It is entirely possible to come to the Bible in total sincerity, responding to the intellectual challenge it gives, or for the moral guidance it offers, or for the spiritual uplift it provides, and not in any way have to deal with a personally revealing God who has personal designs on you. 28 Reading the book spiritually, “eating it” to use the metaphor of Revelation 10:9, means coming into submission to the God revealed in the marketplace. It demands a reversal: seeing how our stories taken up into God’s great story rather than the other way round – trying to fit God’s story into ours. If we read the Scripture contemplatively, along the lines of lectio divina, absorbing it, chewing it, brooding on it and praying it back to God, we must conform our life to it. In so doing we cannot prevent becoming nonconformists to the world even while being involved in that same world in a transformative work. We discover our daily work to be a 27
28
Peterson, Eat This Book, 31.
Peterson, Eat This Book, 30.
15 ministry to God and our neighbour, albeit shot through with sin and struggles with the principalities and powers. This, however, is not quite the same thing as “using” our faith in God to find meaning in work, the current work heresy that is promoted by the spate of books today on how to love Monday and develop a nine‐to‐five spirituality that results in more productivity. Spiritual reading of the text with its marketplace orientation means something truly revolutionary: we will find our meaning in God, not in the work we do, but we will discover our meaning in God in the context of our work. That seems to be one of the conclusions of the inductive research undertaken by the Professor in the book of Ecclesiastes. This business and social leader engages in first‐hand examination of life “under the sun” without reference to a transcendent personal God and draws a jolting conclusion in chapter two. Considered by itself, outside of the “fear of God” (Eccl 11:13), work is meaningless – it is pain and grief, overly demanding, and we will be followed by a fool. Work itself then turns out to be an evangelist to take us to God, in whom and through whom alone we find satisfaction. But that is exactly where Scripture proposes to take us. But it will not lead us to this conclusion unless we are contemplative, even while being active. Urs von Balthasar, a Roman Catholic who devoted his life to contemplation, refuses to disconnect contemplation from worldly action: “The life of contemplation is perforce an everyday life, of small fidelities and services performed in the spirit of love, which lightens our tasks and gives to them its warmth.” 29 It is through the contemplative reading of the Bible that we can put the marketplace and our own participation in it into proper perspective. This will inevitably involve discernment of injustice (along with the prophets) and even repentance of our own sins (daily). Further, this calls us to work globally for the “filling of the earth” so that all human beings are given their daily bread. For this we pray – as we might as a result of reading the Bible spiritually in the global marketplace, that God’s kingdom will come and God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. As we pray and live this word we will be rich toward God, unlike the rich fool in Jesus’ parable (Luke 12:13‐21). 29
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Prayer, trans. A. V. Littledale (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1963),111, quoted in
Peterson, Eat This Book, 110.
16 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE Contents: Understanding Organizational Culture Forming the Organizational Culture Reflecting Theologically on Culture Making Organizational Change References and Resources Culture is a dimension not only in the life of countries and ethnic groups but also in organizations. Every organization has a corporate “feeling” or environment that communicates to new and old members what is important and what is permitted. This is true of businesses, small groups, clubs, churches, nonprofit and parachurch organizations. The minute a person walks into the meeting room, the store, the office or the sanctuary, he or she picks up a nonverbal message that is more powerful than such mottoes as “The customer is number one”; “We exist to give extraordinary service”; “This is a friendly, family church.” Culture turns out to be profoundly influential in determining behavior, expressing values and enabling or preventing change. Understanding Organizational Culture People are sometimes frustrated, without understanding why, in trying to bring about change in an organization. Try to introduce women into an all‐male kayaking club, and one encounters almost irresistible forces, none of which is rationally expressed or constitutionally codified. Further, some successful changes get reversed in a few months because they were not congruent with the culture of the organization; other changes are made easily for reasons that are not apparent unless one understands the invisible but all‐pervasive impact of organizational environment. To change the culture itself is possibly the most substantial change that can be made. It has a multiple impact on everything else. A man in a museum looking at the colossal skeleton of a dinosaur that once triumphantly roamed the earth turned to the woman beside him and asked, “What happened? Why did they die out?” She said, “The climate changed.” Motivation is primarily related to the culture. We draw motivation out of people in a healthy, life‐giving organization. It is inspired, not compelled. Motivation is a result of a process in a group or system and is not just generated exclusively from within the individual. So motivation is only marginally increased by trying to get people motivated through incentives or threats. It needs to be considered culturally and systemically (see System). The classic study on organizational culture is Edgar H. Schein’s Organizational Culture and Leadership. His central thesis is that much of what is mysterious about leadership becomes clearer “if we . . . link leadership specifically to creating and changing culture” (Schein, p. xi). According to Schein, culture includes each of the following but is deeper than any one of them: (1) the observed behavioral regularities in a group (for example, really good employees show up for work fifteen minutes early); (2) the dominant values of the group (for example, church attendance is the ultimate expression of spirituality in a local church); (3) the rules or “ropes” of the group (for example, the usual way to climb the hierarchy is to engage in leisure‐time diversions with your superior); and (4) the feeling or climate that is conveyed (for example, while not prohibited, it is also not acceptable to bring forward negative comments in staff 17 meetings). Schein says that culture concerns the underlying assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of the organization and often operate unconsciously (p. 6). The factors at work in an organizational culture can be pictured as three concentric circles. On the outside are the symbols, artifacts and visible signs of the culture, which are often incarnated in logos, mottoes, the appearance of a building, the way people dress and the titles by which people are addressed. The middle circle represents the values that underlie the more visible processes (see comments on faith, hope and love in Organizational Values). Values are simply what is cherished by the organization. Often these are unexpressed and unconscious. Sometimes the stated values are incongruent with the real values that inform the culture. For example, a business may claim that it cherishes strong family life for its employees but actually requires the sacrifice of family for the corporation. The smallest circle (and the least visible) represents the beliefs that inform the values. For example, a church may believe that women should be under men in a hierarchical arrangement. That belief will fundamentally affect the values and visible “artifacts” of the congregation. Beliefs are expressed in values, and values are expressed in symbols, cues and visible patterns of behavior. Forming the Organizational Culture In most organizations, culture is not formed overnight but through a long process. In the church, culture often originates with the founding pastor, who projects his or her own vision of what is right and valued and how people are to be treated. In a business it is often the founding president. In a college it is the founding principal. One element of the mysterious quality of leadership called charisma is how it enables a leader to embed his or her fundamental assumptions into the organization or group. This is done by whom the leader pays attention to, how the leader reacts to critical situations, whether the leader intentionally coaches other leaders, what criteria the leader uses for praising and rewarding others and on what basis the leader recruits or rejects other leaders. Years before I understood anything about culture, I observed that each organization has something like a genetic code embedded at the time of conception that determines most of what it will become. The future of a person is in large measure the unraveling of his or her genetic code. In organizations the founding moment, person and principles are likewise exceedingly important. An organization that starts with certain assumptions about the nature of the community, its style of leadership and mission in society will find it very difficult, though not impossible, to change its culture later. As the group evolves, members take on the founder’s assumptions, usually unconsciously. Some groups never allow their founder to die or leave, no matter how many successors have come and gone. Cultures tend to incarnate not only the strengths of founders but also their weaknesses. An organization would be helped if it could have a once‐and‐for‐all funeral service for its founder! But whoever suggests this will often be resisted by the culture. In fact, the opposite approach is usually more fruitful: finding out everything we can about the contribution our predecessors have made and appreciating their gifts to the organization. One thing is certain: founders are influential. Schein’s work is extremely helpful in elaborating what happens at various stages in a group’s history (p. 191) and the importance of stories (about the “good old days”) in transmitting the culture of a group (p. 241). 18 Reflecting Theologically on Culture Whether in a church or a business, the leader of an organization is in some sense the “minister of culture.” Another way of expressing this is to think of being an environmental engineer—a person who cultivates an organization’s culture so that the people in the organization will thrive. This task is implicit in the broad vocation of being human beings through which we are called to be culture and world makers (Genesis 1:26‐28). God created the first culture in fashioning the sanctuary‐garden for Adam and Eve, a garden with boundaries, structures, limits, challenges, work to do and pleasures to enjoy. The first human culture was a sabbath culture. There was a threefold harmony of God, humankind and creation. But once human beings sinned, they created cultures that would not bring rest to people or the earth. The men and women of Babel (Genesis 11:1‐11) wanted to create a monolithic, homogenous culture, and God judged that. Imagine what would have happened if that arrogant, self‐serving and total‐uniformity culture had dominated the human enterprise for thousands of years! In place of Babel God crafted a colorful, pluralistic culture at Pentecost through which those from many languages and peoples heard the wonderful works of God in their own languages (Acts 2:8). What God wants on earth is a rich social unity that thrives on diversity. In passing, we may note that the Old Testament gives us a few hints of God’s grace in secular or pagan organizations. The culture of the Egyptian prison equipped Joseph to emerge as its leader (Genesis 39:20‐23). As cupbearer to the pagan king Artaxerxes, Nehemiah was able to express his concern over the state of Jerusalem and be empowered to return to rebuild the walls (Neh. 2). God was at work in both. Daniel was skilled in the culture of the Persians and in that context was able to play a seminal role in the destiny of his people (Daniel 1‐6). In the New Testament Paul was continually engineering culture. His great lifelong vision was to create under God a church culture that embraced Jews and Gentiles as equal heirs, members and partners in Christ. His grasp of the gospel meant that Jews did not become Gentiles in Christ, nor did Gentiles become Jews. Rather both were incorporated into a “new humanity” (Ephes. 2:15 NRSV) that transcended these profound distinctions without obliterating the differences. The same was true of men and women, slave and free. Central to Paul’s ministry was a passion inspired by the gospel: God’s community on earth must be richly diverse but, at the same time, must treat all members as equal (2 Cor. 8:14). We can only speculate to what extent this carried over into his tentmaking business in which he was essentially self‐employed, though often working side by side with that marvelous tentmaking couple Aquila and Priscilla. The final cultural image in the Bible is the most empowering. In the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21‐22) every person’s contribution is evoked in the fulfillment of the priesthood of all believers (Rev. 1:6). Every nation, tongue and tribe is preserved rather than merged into one homogenous uniformity. Our future in Christ is to become not angels but full human beings in our resurrection bodies as we work and play in this fulfilled sabbath—the threefold harmony of God, humankind and creation. Even the kings of the earth bring their wealth and gifts into the holy city (Rev. 21:24). All human creativity finds perfect fulfillment, and every tear of frustration is wiped away (Rev. 7:17). What a response this should evoke! Keeping heaven in view turns out to be the most practical thing on earth. 19 Making Organizational Change We are not in heaven yet. Indeed, all human organizations are approximations. Human organizations have fallen and have been captivated by the principalities and powers. These powers have been unmasked and disarmed by Christ (Col. 2:15), but the best we can hope for in this life is substantial, not complete, redemption. Gaining that—and it is as part of our public discipleship—involves organizational change. Organizational change involves culture. And changing the culture is difficult. How difficult change is! A cultural approach to change. Changing the artifacts—to use Schein’s phrase—might involve moving the Sunday service to the church hall, where the chairs can be arranged in circles to increase participation, or having a staff meeting every Monday to improve communication. But unless the fundamental assumptions of the organization are understood, cultivated and gradually changed, such equipping initiatives may be as effective as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic when the ship is going down. When the leader and the culture collide, the culture will probably win! Schein’s research shows, however, that culture‐change mechanisms are at work in every stage of a group’s history—birth, midlife and maturity (which he calls maturity and/or stagnation, decline and/or rebirth; p. 270). He also shows that change becomes increasingly more difficult as a group becomes more established. While all change is motivated and does not happen randomly, “many changes do not go in the direction that the motivated persons wanted them to go” (Schein, pp. 300‐301) because they were unaware of other forces in the culture that were simultaneously acting. So being the leader of this process is complex indeed. Several strategies are useful here. First, understand the culture before you try to change anything. Give the culture its due. It influences everything. Second, recognize that the culture cannot be manipulated. While you can manage and control many parts of the environment of an organization (the president keeps her office door open all the time), the culture itself with its taken‐for‐granted underlying assumptions cannot be manipulated. Third, good leadership articulates and reinforces the culture, especially those parts consistent with the vision of the organization. If this is not done, people are unlikely to accept any serious change. During a time of changing culture, leaders have to bear some of the pain and anxiety felt in the group at the same time that they seek to make the members feel secure. Fourth, sometimes direct change in a culture can be promoted by introducing new people in leadership, by promoting maverick individuals from within and, more especially, people from outside who hold slightly different assumptions. The appointment of a new pastor, a new assistant, a new board chairperson, a new president is an opportunity for cultural change. Finally, change takes time (Schein, pp. 297‐
327). A systemic approach to change. A systems approach treats an organization as a whole that is more than the sum of the parts, in which each member and each subsystem is influenced by and influences the others. It can be easily pictured as a mobile: movement in one element requires adjustment in all the others. Edwin Friedman, a family systems therapist, has some additional insights on how a leader can bring change to a system. He uses the concept of homeostasis, that marvelous capacity of human bodies and social systems to regain their balance after a trauma. Every system has a natural tendency to maintain the status quo 20 (homeostasis), just as a keel keeps the sailboat upright. The system does this when new response patterns are required through a threat, tragedy or positive change. Thus the system returns to the tried and tested rather than shifts to operate on a revised and improved basis (morphogenesis). A negative biblical example of homeostasis is the return of converted Jews in the first few years to a less‐than‐full expression of Christian unity with Gentile believers, a hypocrisy that Paul fervently challenged (Galatians 2:11‐21). A positive example of morphogenesis is the extraordinary resolution of the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1‐29) in which the church changed the terms upon which Jews and Gentiles could have fellowship together. To bring about systemic change, leaders must first join the system, becoming an integral part of the whole and negotiating their place within it. The director, pastor or president must lead the way in this. In fact this involves many stages of negotiation as the leader finds his or her place in the organization (Pattison). Then the leader might take an initiative that has a ripple effect throughout the system. Usually a problem will surface without provocation. But if a problem does not surface, something as inconsequential as changing the location of the water cooler or removing it altogether will do. How he or she responds to the ripple is crucial because the response of the system will be a reflection of all the systemic factors that make it stable, including the multigenerational influences. The provoked or unprovoked crisis is an opportunity to explain what is going on and to appeal, as Barnabas, Paul and Peter did in the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:1‐35), to systemic values that can be expressed in a more constructive way. The Chinese word for crisis is composed of two characters, one of which means “danger” and the other “opportunity.” The systemic leader welcomes the opportunity of every crisis and sometimes will provoke one. Using family systems theory, Friedman says we bring greatest change in a system by concentrating not on the dissenting or sick member but on the person or persons in the group who have the greatest capacity to bring change (p. 22). The equipping leader must always remember that the only person open to definite and immediate change is herself or himself! A systems view encourages us to see that changing ourselves can make a difference to the those with whom we are interdependent. In the context of counseling families, Virginia Satir makes a remarkable statement about systems leadership that applies to all kinds of organizations. She says, “I consider myself the leader of the process in the interview but not the leader of the people.” This, she continues, “is based on the fact that I am the one who knows what the process I am trying to produce is all about. I want to help people to become their own designers of their own choice‐making” (Satir, pp. 251‐52). So organizational leadership is not simply leading individual people in an organization. Leaders must work with the whole—culture and systems included. Process leadership asks questions, clarifies goals, orients people to their mission, maintains and explains the culture and helps people and subsystems take responsibility for their own systemic life. In the end leaders are charged with the awesome task of creating an environment in which people change themselves. » See also: EQUIPPING » See also: LEADERSHIP » See also: MANAGEMENT 21 » See also: POWER » See also: ORGANIZATION » See also: ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES » See also: STRUCTURE References and Resources P. Collins and R. P. Stevens, The Equipping Pastor: A Systems Approach to Empowering the People of God (Washington, D.C.: Alban Institute, 1993; portions quoted with permission); M. DePree, Leadership Is an Art (New York: Doubleday, 1992); E. H. Friedman, Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue (New York: Guilford, 1985); R. K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (New York: Paulist, 1977); M. E. Pattison, Pastor and People—A Systems Approach (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977); J. Renesch, ed., New Traditions in Business (San Francisco: Berrett‐Koehler, 1992); V. Satir, Conjoint Family Therapy, rev. ed. (Palo Alto, Calif.: Science and Behavior, 1983); E. H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View (San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1991). —R. Paul Stevens —Complete Book of Everyday Christianity, The 22 A VIEW FROM THE GROUND: The Great Commandment Company Journey in the Philippines [An Advent Season Reflection on the Philippine Market Place Jon Escoto I don’t have exact figures. This is not an extensive research on the “state of work” in the Philippines. Points below, however, are not at all an ignorant man’s unfounded conclusions based on uncritical and gullible perceptions. I used to be the Market Development Manager of an American multinational company SC Johnson and Sons, then the Regional Business Director of the British multinational company Danka, then the National Sales and Marketing Manager of the Australian office CDT Asia, before finally becoming my own janitor, utility man, messenger, maintenance engineer, marketing and sales, customer relations person, and president, all at the same time, of my own company. Below are my observations on how work goes in my country, as validated by people I interface and breathe the same business air with. These are some of the disturbing trends and occurrences taking place on many fronts: 1. Laborers’ rights to minimum wages are thwarted excessively and continuously through the use of employment agencies or the justification that workers get free board and/or lodging. 2. Hopes of laborers for change in unjust working conditions are dampened by the formation of unions that are over sympathetic to management. 3. Laborers’ full productivity and owners’ rights to same are disregarded by professional managers’ mental sloth and lack of passion. 4. Laborers’ and professional managers’ rights to progressive and morally upright lives are blocked by owners’ and policy makers’ failure to follow the institution’s vision and to be role models. 5. Laborers lose out in the end because of abusive labor leaders. 6. Employers’ legitimate point of view are not listened to and labeled summarily a s unjust. 7. Owners’ rights to full disclosure and a fair return on their investments are consistently de‐
prioritized. 8. The environment is abused by starving marginalized groups or by never‐satisfied capitalists. 9. Host communities are bled by institutions, yet abandoned for better locales, at early signs of decreasing profitability or inadequate budgets. 10. Host communities find themselves empty‐handed when guest institutions leave, having failed to put up self‐sustaining small industries. 11. Big suppliers are paid on time, while small suppliers are de‐prioritized. 23 12. Products that are unsafe or not necessary are falsely advertised, “glamorized, ” and allowed to proliferate in the market. 13. Competition is so keen that competitors resort to below‐the‐belt tactics and unethical practices. 14. People in authority, both public and private, take advantage of their power to push whomever they can victimize to the limits. 15. Institutional problems are blown out of proportion because of politics and the sensationalistic media. 16. Professional managers and board members fight tooth and nail to usurp power and then preserve it, making decisions that damage the reputation and the lives of the institution, of families, friends, and even the general public. 17. Partnership agreements between and amongst local and foreign institutions that are one‐
sided abound. 18. Government regulations that are not well thought out or holistic encourage unethical practices. 19. Aids or grants that are not contextualized and holistic do not result in interventions that create sustainable or meaningful changes. 20. Graduates lack preparedness to take on even the firs tier of work employment. 21. The poor gets poorer, the middle class disappear, and the rich gets richer. The slides on “What Makes a Business Christian” have been very helpful. Since my above points are taken as a view from the ground, I wish to bring down to the ground the thoughts I derived from Dr. Steven’s abovementioned slides. Below is what I feel as practically workable areas that a Great Commandment company leader needs to do a serious hard work on. These are the company’s: 1. Relationship with Employees • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: wage and compensation policy, hiring/recruitment policy. Retention and separation policies, (incl. fringe benefits), work environment, human and relationship development, participatory decision making. 2. Relationship with Customers • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: product/service patronage, product/service quality, product/service safety, product/service innovations, ethics in sales/market/business development, after sales service, advertising and promotions, and respect for culture. 3. Relationship with Suppliers • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: ethics in contracts, ethics in implementing contracts, and morality in long‐
term contracts. 4. Relationship with Competitors 24 •
Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: espousal of fair competition. Antitrust, policies, programs, and practices. Avoiding the practice of economic conspiracy (i.e. cartels) 5. Relationship with Owners • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: fair return on investment, security of investment, responsible use of financial and other resources. Transparency. Respect for specific legitimate objectives of owners. Protocol for owners. 6. Relationship with Board of Directors • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: Support for fulfillment of duties of the board. Nurture/Inculturation of ethics and governance. Institutionalizing collegiality and respect for independence. Securing long‐term sustainability, development, progress. Preserving balance of power. Support for effectiveness of board committees. Respect for board protocol 7. Relationship with Managers • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: sense of mission of managers, ethics of managers, support for managers. 8. Relationship with Government • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: Compliance to state laws, policies and regulations. Active participation in government advocacy. Sense of patriotism 9. Relationship with Environment • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: Environmental protection/conservation through “clean” production and sustainable consumption. Shared vision‐mission on environmental protection/conservation. 10. Relationship with Community, Society, and Country • Defining in practically measurable terms and “leading for” the Great Commandment in the area of: social necessities as sacred obligations. Congruence of institutions operations with community needs/aspirations. Regard for social consequences of company’s/institution’s activities. Programs for indigenous technology and social development. Considerations for human and social costs of mechanization and technology. Employees’ involvement in community service. When the work is done (God knows when!), the New Jerusalem of the business world may look something like this: •
•
•
•
Presence of a highly motivated, effective workforce; Benefiting from repeat business from satisfied customers and faithful suppliers; Enjoying the respect of competitors and active involvement in mutually beneficial joint projects; Relishing affirmations from and the active support of happy owners and investors; 25 •
•
•
•
•
Proud of its ethical board and managers who serve as true role models; Building reciprocal and synergistic relationship with the host community; Initiating and engaging in projects which protect and nurture the environment; Engaging in proactive, patriotic action plans; Ultimately, witness to a God‐centered workplace! Then the whole business world prays “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus” without even knowing these words. 26 REGENTS OF OUR GOD AND KING "Today we cannot claim to know the end and goal of history. Therefore the question of meaning in history has become meaningless." Rudolf Bultmann i "Now the situation of the Christian in the world is a revolutionary situation. His share in the preservation of the world is to be an inexhaustible revolutionary force in the midst of the world." Jacques Ellul ii Now we must turn to the intriguing and usually neglected first‐half of the phrase "royal priesthood." The kingdom of God is the master thought of Jesus (used over one hundred times in the Gospels in comparison with only three references to the church). The kingdom ministry of all believers expresses the exteriority of every member ministry‐‐how the people of God express the redeeming and life‐giving will and influence of God not just in the church but in the whole of creation. In his commentary on First Peter, Alan Stibbs notes that (1) this phrase is a direct quote of Exodus 19:6; (2) both the Hebrew and he Greek communicate the idea of a kingdom and not merely a priesthood; (3) the only other New Testament occurrence of basileion is not simply an adjective meaning "royal" but a noun meaning "a palace" or "king's court"; (4) while it is possible that the phrase might mean that the Christian community is a royal house it is more likely that Christians are called to reign with Christ and share his sovereignty and kingship, especially in the light of Zechariah 6:13‐‐where the Branch "will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne"‐‐and Revelation 5:10‐‐"you have made them (the believers from every tribe, people and nation) to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God." iii The idea that believers are royalty opens up one of the most neglected areas of New Testament discipleship. 1. UNDERSTANDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD It is not an overstatement to say that the kingdom was the master thought of Jesus. It is used over one hundred times in the Gospels in comparison with only three references to the church. The kingdom was the subject of his first sermon: "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news" (Mark 1:15). It was also the subject of his last sermon on earth when the disciples asked, "Lord are you going at this time to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). 1.1 What the Kingdom Is It is not a realm, a territory, but the rule of God as King (Luke 19:12,15; Rev 11:15; 1 Cor 15:24). More accurately the kingdom is the rule of the sovereign (God's expressing his will and powerful presence) plus the response of the subjects (as they yield the sway of the sovereign. Rule without response is less than the kingdom. In this matter the Queen of England provides a 27 graphic negative model of how many Christians inadvertedly regard the King. Queen Elizabeth reigns but she does not rule. And many so‐called Christians defer to the position of God as supreme ruler, but in actuality do not respond as subjects. The kingdom involves both rule and response. But the emphasis in gospels and letters is not on "the kingdom" but "the kingdom of God" (or in the more Jewish gospel of Matthew, "the kingdom of heaven"). Richard T. France carefully shows that both the Hebrew/Aramaic malkut(a) and the Greek basileia refer to the act of being a king rather than to a concrete place, such as a realm. Various alternative phrases have been crafted to communicate this: "God in strength," "God's actual exertion of royal force" (B.D. Chilton), "the saving sovereignty" (Beasley‐Murray), and "the divine government" (R.T. France).iv France concludes, As God the king exercises his authority in his world, and people respond to it, there the 'kingdom of God' will be experienced in many ways. There can be no one place, time, event or community which is 'the kingdom of God', any more than 'the will of God' can be tied down to any specific situation or event. 'The kingdom of God' is God in saving action, God taking control in his world, or to use our title, 'divine government'.v With penetrating insight Christians through the centuries have considered Jesus to be the autobasileia‐‐the kingdom in his own person. Jesus did more than teach about the kingdom. He embodies both the rule of God in bringing liberation, peace and hope, and the response of the people which, throughout the history of Israel was fitful and half‐hearted but in Jesus is total. So we can gratefully affirm that with Jesus the kingdom has come. "But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you" (Luke 11:20). This kingdom is moral, not nationalistic (John 18:36), spiritual, not material (Rom 14:17). It is God's work not man's. 1.2 Where the Kingdom is The kingdom is in the hearts of humankind as a new creation (Mark 10:15; Luke 17:21; Matt 12:28). Indeed to become a Christian is quite simple equivalent to entering the kingdom of God (John 3:3). There are not first and second class Christians: first, for those who observe the kingdom teaching of Jesus and enter by the narrow way, and second, for those who are merely members of the church. So the church is a pole of response to the regal claims of God in Jesus, like the iron filings that line up with the pull of a magnet. The church represents an "outcropping" of the kingdom in the same way that outcroppings of strata in a highway cut through a hill reveals outcropped strata that extends in a hidden way beneath the soil. In the same way the church is not exactly the same as the kingdom. The rule of God and the response of his creation (both animate and inanimate, both nonhuman and human) is more extensive than is visible in the church. But the church exists as an agent of the kingdom, as a people dedicated to serving the King and witnessing by word and deed to the rule of God in Jesus (Matt 5:13‐16). But the kingdom is ambiguous: it is here and not yet here! 1.3 When the Kingdom Comes 28 The New Testament declares that the kingdom is now, not a future ideal (Luke 4:17ff; 10:23ff; Matt 12:28; 21:31; 23:13). The exorcisms accomplished by Jesus (Mark 1:23‐27, 32‐34, 39; 3:11, 15, 22) are signs of the irruption of the kingdom of God into the spurious rule of Satan. vi At the same time the kingdom is not yet, awaiting a final consummation (Matt 25:31ff; Mark 14:25; Matt 8:11; Matt 24; Mark 13). Jesus has been enthroned as the heavenly king but he has not yet returned to bring his kingdom to complete consummation. vii Living with the tension of this "here and now" and "not yet fully here and coming" is indispensable to the royal priesthood. We must never serve as though the kingdom were a dream of utopia in some distant day. But neither must we serve as though all there is to the kingdom can be realized in our present experience of the Christian life. We live in the overlap of the ages‐‐the old and the new. Until Christ comes again we will experience the reality of both ages, but we must choose to live in the light of new age, the wedge of God's rule driven into this age as we wait for, and "speed" the consummation of the kingdom when Christ will introduce a new heaven and a new earth. Oscar Cullmann used the two days from the Second World Way, D Day (the day when the battle turned in favour of the Allies) and V Day (the day of final victory. With Christ's coming, his death and resurrection, D Day has happened. The kingdom has come. With Christ's second coming V Day will happen. In the meantime, between D Day and V Day, we are called to live with the radical demands of being a kingdom people and we cannot relegate the kingdom teaching of Jesus to some future day of millennial bliss. Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount with these sobering words, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matt 7:24). 1.4 What the Kingdom Demands The kingdom demands a total response in faith (Luke 16:16; Matt 1:12; Matt 10:34‐39; 13:44‐45; 16:24) and a radical lifestyle (Matt 6:33; Mark 10:23‐25). Some, thinking that the kingdom has not really come, reduce the work of believers exclusively to personal evangelism. In so doing they miss much of the presence of the kingdom. Evangelism is the centre but not the circumference of kingdom mission. Others, believing the kingdom has fully come, try to realize all social, political, aesthetic and relational dimensions of the kingdom now, failing to come to grips with fallen human nature and the intransigency of the structures that form the invisible background for the believer's life and work in the world. The truth is that the kingdom has come and yet is still coming. Living with kingdom consciousness therefore requires radical obedience and faith, since we cannot yet see the city to which we are moving. 1.5 Being the Kingdom People While the emphasis of Jesus in his teaching and actions was on a divine government which would not by achieved by human effort, God's people (laos) participates in this divine irruption and becomes his primary agency on earth for the purposes of his kingdom. Once again, the laos is not kingdom as realm but kingdom as rule‐‐God's active governance of the world through his own people. Once again we can refer to an hourglass to present visually the connection of the Old and New Covenants. At the top if the rule of Adam and Eve as priests and kings of creation. They were 29 given "dominion" or "regency" (Gen 1:26) which is the derivative rule of people who represent and participate in the rule of a monarch. They were never intended to be autonomous rulers. But king and queen they were. Indeed, the description in Genesis 2:2 of the situation of creation when "there was no man to work the ground" indicates that the world was not made for humankind, but humankind was made for the world, "to work it and take care of it" (2:15). Every human being has what we earlier called these three full‐time jobs as regents of the King: communion, community‐
building and co‐creativity. As the family of promise became, in the history of salvation, the people of promise, it was expected that just as the whole people would be priests, in the same way they would be kings, or more accurately regents‐‐visible representatives of an invisible (though not absent) monarch. Obviously as time went on, even the tribal confederacy bonded by their common loyalty and regency to Yahweh was not sufficient, and the people demanded a king "like all the nations" (1 Sam 8:5). Whether the monarchy was originally God's idea or a concession to human weakness‐‐the scripture is somewhat ambiguous on this matter‐‐God wove his purpose into the monarchy and envisioned sending his own Son as the true king in the line of David. So the hourglass narrows once again as the kingdom and the monarchy become embodied in the person standing before Pilate and being asked, "You are a king, then!" (John 18:36). Taking the gospel accounts of the trial together it is clear that Jesus is both affirming that he is the true king of Israel (embodying both the rule and the response) but not in the way that Jewish people expected the king to be. His answer could be roughly translated, "Yes I am a king but not in the way you and the Jewish leaders are thinking of the king of Israel." Just as Jesus said, "one greater than the temple is here" (Matt 12:6), so Jesus in effect said that one greater than the Jewish king was here. His supreme kingly act was his work of redemption on the cross where his obedience to death and the sovereign rule of God expressed in this full and final sacrifice, meant the tearing down of the pretentious powers of politics, culture and religion (as represented in the polyglot title on the cross), overcoming the power of satan and sin, and liberating the human race for healing and salvation. The kingdom has come. And believers are invited not only to enter the kingdom (to become citizens and subjects) but to share the rule of Christ the king now (substantially) and eventually in a complete way (Matt 20:21‐23). The hourglass widens to include the people of the kingdom. To repeat, church leaders are not rulers like the kings and elders of the Old Testament. Prophets, priests and kings find their fulfilment in Jesus, not in church leaders. In Jesus all the people share the kingly rule and kingdom response of Jesus. No believer has this authority within himself or herself. It is derivative like the priesthood of all the believers. Some of our African friends in a rapidly growing church understand this better than we do. I asked one pastor whether in his country they cast out demons. He said, "No, we never do. Jesus does!" I asked whether he prayed to get the demon to name himself and he said, "No, why would we do that, when Jesus knows all about the person?" "Do you pray for hours?" "No, two of us go in the name of Jesus. We pray. We leave and then we return the next day to see what Jesus has done!" So sublime, and so true! 2. EXPERIENCING AND SERVING THE KINGDOM OF GOD 30 2.1 Now‐‐The Presence of the Kingdom of God The Christian vocation involves extending the rule of God in and outside the church‐‐bringing in the Kingdom and not just bringing in the church! A few summary remarks are in order to summarize what the kingdom of God means to Christians today: 2.1.1 Christians together should expect Jesus to continue his kingdom ministry through them, liberating people in bondage, preaching good news and bringing peace. Christians announce the rule of God when they proclaim the Gospel and share their faith. In so doing, they bring forgiveness, deliverance, healing and hope. Once again, the "royal" part of the priesthood is not mainly an individual dignity but a corporate one. Christ does not dwell fully in the individual believer but rather fills the people of God corporately with himself. So the kingdom ministry of Jesus is a corporate ministry continued through his people communally. God's varied grace (1 Peter 4:10) can be expressed to the world only as a community, just as white light can only be expressed when are the colours of the spectrum are harmonized. 2.1.2 Christians are not helpless before the principalities and powers which dog their steps in this world. The powers have been stripped of their illusionary power by the cross of Christ. Christ "disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Col 2:15). They are what Cullmann called "chained beasts, kicking themselves to death." When the gospel is preached, strongholds are torn down and satan's demons go screaming for cover. When Christians don the armour of Christ, they are not only protected but empowered for kingdom offensive. Luther was eloquent on this subject: First, as to kingship, every Christian is by faith so exalted above all things that by a spiritual power he is lord of all things without exception, so that nothing can do him any harm whatever, nay, all things are made subject to him and compelled to serve him to his salvation. . . (Rom. 8:28, 1 Cor. 3:22ff). Not as if every Christian were set over all things, to possess and control them by physical power‐‐a madness with which some churchmen are afflicted‐‐for such power belongs to kings, princes and men and earth . . . . The power of which we speak is spiritual; it rules in the midst of enemies, and is mighty in the midst of oppression, which means nothing else than that strength is made perfect in weakness, and that in all things I can find profit unto salvation, so that the cross and death itself are compelled to serve me and to work together with me for my salvation . . . Lo, this is the inestimable power and liberty of Christians. viii 2.1.3 As a kingdom people Christians should thrive on ministry outside the church as well as inside, developing kingdom consciousness, turning their workplaces into arenas where the presence of the kingdom should make a difference in policies and relationships. Christians who embrace the royal priesthood must repent of their bigotry that God is working only inside the church. The church is merely the outcropping of the kingdom, and sometimes not a good one at that. 31 2.1.4 As the agent for the kingdom ix the church should take the big view and step behind the evangelism/social action debate to grasp God's cosmic plan of uniting all things (education, politics, aesthetics, creational stewardship, etc) in Jesus Christ (Eph 1:10; 1:20‐23; 3:10). x The purpose of the church is not to 'bring in' the church, but to 'bring in' the kingdom of God. 2.1.4 P. J. Hoedemacher said that "the church is the suffering form of the kingdom of xi
God." Regarding the church as the agent for the kingdom means that in one sense the church is dispensable. The body of Christ is not the body beautiful, to be preened and pampered, but the body to be given in service of the King. While parachurch organizations have heard this call local churches, by and large, continue their "maintenance" mentality. But the church true to its kingdom calling is always living by dying to itself. 2.1.5 The people of God as a royal priesthood can never be contained within an institution. It is essentially, as Howard Snyder says, "a charismatic community and God's pilgrim people, his kingdom of priests." xii Commenting on Psalm 110:3 Luther expounded the priestly office and adornment of the priesthood of all believers in terms of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Well, what is this "holy adornment," these priestly garments which adorn the Christians so that they become His holy priesthood? Nothing else that the beautiful, divine, and various gifts of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul (Eph 4:11,12) and St. Peter (1 Peter 4:10) say, which were given to Christendom to advance the knowledge and the praise of God, a function which is carried out pre‐eminently by the ministry of the preaching of the Gospel . . . . xiii So the church is organized as the human body is, around life. It is primarily an organism and only secondarily an organization. 2.1.6 Finally, as Howard Snyder says in Community of the King, kingdom consciousness requires living a life of radical discipleship. The present expression of the Kingdom demands crucifixion ethics not triumphal ethics. The church today must not live as if the Kingdom were already fully established; it is called to live the paradox of the King who ended up on a cross. Therefore, a new consciousness of the Kingdom today means a new awareness of the demands of discipleship. xiv 2.2 Not Yet, but Coming‐‐The Certain Coming of the Kingdom Being God's people in the world involves living with practical heavenlymindedness. Eschatology is, as Jurgen Moltmann says, the most pastoral of all disciplines. Biblical eschatology shows us that we are set not at the dismal end of the human story but at the dawning of a new age. Yet, waiting for the second coming of Christ and the full consummation of the Kingdom is not a passive pasture but dynamic as we shape our lives in the light of our ultimate homeland, living by hope, and not just faith and love! 32 The role of eschatology (end times thinking) on the lay vocation can have many positive fruits. (1) It will help us view time as a gift to be received rather than a resource to be managed; (2) it will shows us that work done in this world is not resultless but may in some way beyond our imagination, contribute to a world without end; (3) it will inspire us to holy living since we are preparing ourselves for a great rendezvous with the Lord himself; (4) it will inspire us to share the good news of Jesus since the delay in his coming is simply to give people maximum opportunity to turn to God, and to give his children maximum opportunity to share what they know; (5) it will inspire us to responsible stewardship of the earth as our future is not to be in a "spiritual" heaven, but in a new heaven and a new earth; (6) it will inspire us to see our daily work as a meaningful contribution to the kingdom of God which will outlast this world; (7) it will liberate us from a messianic complex (or inappropriate egoism) since the future is ultimately in God's hands and he will being his kingdom to consummation his own way at his own time; (8) it will give proportion to our life in this world‐‐we do not have to find complete fulfilment in this life or to have every possible experience; (9) it enables us to live hopefully with personal injuries and injustices over which we have no power, knowing that God will judge in the end and make all things right; and (10) it will equip us to live practically in this world with a healthy desire for heaven. C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying that if we find that nothing in this world ultimately satisfies us, it is a powerful argument that we were made for a better world and a better life. Only heavenly‐mindedness can save us from living in the past (in our attempt to find hope in what used to be), or from living in the future (anticipating the next thing we will do in our attempt to create meaning in the future because we have not found it in the present. So, ironically, heavenlymindedness equips us to live fully in the present because the present is secured in the future. The Kingdom is not yet and now. Lesslie Newbigin comments on this with great depth: We can commit ourselves without reserve to all the secular work our shared humanity requires of us, knowing that nothing we do in itself is good enough to form part of that city's building, knowing that everything‐‐from our most secret prayers to our most public political acts‐‐is part of that sin‐stained human nature that must go down into the valley of death and judgement, and yet knowing that as we offer it up to the Father in the name of Christ and in the power of the Spirit, it is safe with him and‐‐purged in fire‐‐it will find its place in the holy city at the end. xv Three metaphors (two of them directly given by the Bible) describe the Christian as a kingdom person and the people of God as agents for the kingly rule of Christ: (1) Salt ‐‐ preserving, protecting and bringing the taste out. (2) Light ‐‐ illuminating, drawing out the meaning of life and pointing the way to God and his kingdom 33 (3) Spy (while this last metaphor is not directly suggested by scripture, the 12 spies going into Canaan (Josh 2:1; Heb 11:31) provide a fascinating analogy for living in one world while spying out the next, being a citizen of one kingdom and sharing fully in its life while being subject to another kingdom and another King. The idea of the Christian as a spy was first suggested to me by Jacques Ellul: (The Christian) is the citizen of another Kingdom, and it is thence that he derives his way of thinking, judging and feeling. His heart and his thought are elsewhere. He is the subject of another State, he is the ambassador of this State upon earth; that is to say, he ought to present the demands of his Master, he establishes a relation between the two, but he cannot take the side of this world. He stands up for the interests of his Master, as an ambassador champions the interests of his country. From another point of view (and here the relation is quite different), he may also be sent out as a spy. In fact that is the situation of the christian: to work in secret, at the heart of the world, for his Lord; to prepare for his Lord's victory from within; to create a nucleus in this world, and to discover its secrets, in order that the Kingdom of God may break forth in splendour. xvi (Ellul also explores the Christian community as a prophet ‐‐ p.50). 3. Kingly Priests and Priestly Kings Our examination of both the royal and the priestly metaphors of lay ministry have led to two crucial discoveries. First, in the new community formed around the resurrected Christ, no one can be a solitary priest or even a solitary king. Lay ministry is people ministry. But the second is equally significant: no one has priestly or regal ministry in himself or herself. It is derived from our real relationship together in Christ. Only together in Christ can believers touch the world for God as priests and through servant leadership and kingdom power demonstrate that Christ is the autobasileia. Priesthood and royalty belong together. Priesthood without kingship could easily degenerate into a new sacerdotalism, albeit a communal one. And Christianity would be considered a superior religion. Kingship without priesthood could easily degenerate into do‐
goodism without the touch of God, world‐transformation without spiritual transfiguration. Together, the royal priesthood is able to praise God in acted words directed Godward in worship, and incarnational mission directed to the world to declare glory among the nations. Like common salt which is composed of two deadly poisons‐‐sodium and chlorine‐‐which taken together are life‐
giving, so the laos of God must be both priestly and kingly. Together they salt the earth. With great eloquence Luther pleads for the recovery of the royal priesthood, and for the faith without which it can never be realized. Who then can comprehend the lofty dignity of the Christian? Through his kingly power he rules over all things, death life and sin, and through his priestly glory is all‐powerful with God, because God does the things he asks and desires. . . (Ps. 145:19). To this glory a man attains, surely not by any works of his, but by faith alone." xvii 34 WORK Contents: A Wider Definition of Work A Biblically Integrated View of Work The Disintegration of Work and Faith Reintegrating Spirituality and Work Redirecting Sunday Toward Monday References and Resources Work, whether in its presence or absence, is a pervasive part of everyday life. One of the first things we want to know about people is what they do. The waking time of most adults is taken up with work, and a person’s passing is often noted in terms of their workplace achievements. Work and worth, industry and identity, are very closely related in contemporary culture. This article deals with work in this modern context. It will examine (1) a wider definition of work, (2) a biblically integrated view of work, (3) the disintegration of work and faith, (4) reintegrating spirituality and work and (5) redirecting Sunday towards Monday. A Wider Definition of Work Over the last two centuries work has become equated with a job. This is a seismic shift in our understanding of ourselves, our world and even our God. It has had earthquakelike effects on people’s emotional, family, social and spiritual life. The tremors have been felt hardest by the overworked, the unemployed, housewives, the forcibly retired and the attention‐deprived children. Despite society’s materialistic definition of work as what we are paid to do, work can include any positive productive activity. A helpful, wider Christian definition of work is this: “Work is the expenditure of energy (manual or mental or both) in the service of others, which brings fulfillment to the worker, benefit to the community and glory to God” (Stott, p. 162). On that definition many people in socially destructive jobs, for example, in a cigarette or armaments factory, might not be working. On the other hand, the unemployed person cleaning up the streets and recycling a cart full of soda cans, volunteers working for schools and churches or parents changing diapers or cooking meals are working. We need to revalue these tasks for both men and women by recognizing fundamental activities that keep the world going, even though they are unpaid and economically invisible. But does this wider view of work have biblical backing? Unlike today, in biblical times work was not a separate sphere of life. Work was integrated with the home (which was usually the workplace) and worship (through sacrifice from God’s gifts and one’s produce). People were not primarily valued or identified in terms of their jobs as they are today. We need to develop a more integrated biblical view of work that does justice to the value of other vital activities and relationships. A Biblically Integrated View of Work 35 There are several ways of developing a biblical approach to work. One is to do a concordance study of the word. Another is a creed‐based approach in terms of God as Creator, Reconciler and Re‐Creator—Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Preece). Here I will identify broad perspectives and principles that can help us place work within a scriptural framework of relationships—to God, humanity and the earth (Wright, pp. 89‐90, 100). God’s work. The God of the Bible is a worker, in contrast to the ancient Near Eastern gods, who slept while their human slaves labored. Sadly, many of us forget that before we get up on Monday morning, God has already been at work: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4 NRSV). Jesus said, “My Father is still working, and I also am working” (John 5:17 NRSV). The sabbath is a reminder that we live by God’s work, not our own (Genesis 2:3; Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4). Exploring the wide‐ranging biblical imagery of divine work can give us a greater sense of being junior partners in God’s work of creation, preservation and redemption. For example, God is an architect and a builder (Proverbs 8:27‐31), a doctor‐healer (Mark 2:12, 17), a teacher (Matthew 7:28‐29), a weaver (Psalm 139:13‐16), a gardener/farmer (Genesis 2:8‐9; Genesis 3:8; John 15:1‐8), a shepherd (Psalm 23; John 10), a potter/craftworker (Jeremiah 18:1‐9; Romans 9:19‐21) and a homemaker (Luke 15:8; Banks). By seeing our work in the light of God’s work, we can see God’s hand in our everyday tasks. Unless we do so, we will underestimate the importance of God’s work and either worship our work or think it worthless. But work can be an expression of worship or communion with God. It should not be confused with or replace our corporate worship, but it is an everyday offering of our whole selves, bodies and minds, to God (Romans 12:1‐2). “Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women” (Ephes. 6:7 NRSV). Human work and human relationships. Work is not only to provide for ourselves (2 Thes. 3:10‐13) and our families (1 Tim. 5:8) but also “to have something to share with the needy” (Ephes. 4:28 NRSV). So work is one of the basic ways we fulfill our social responsibilities. Many things we make at work also provide the stage in which people can interact, for example, telephones and furniture. Making hand‐held video games largely does not. From a biblical view one question we can ask of our work is whether it furthers relationships or not. While we should distinguish ourselves from what we do, we should not divorce the two. Being and doing flow into each other. A mother working in a shop does not stop being a mother while she is at work. Her homegrown experiences and skills are valuable (even if unrecognized) in her paid employment, and her experience on the job will be reflected at home. The author of Ecclesiastes provides a balance between being and doing by emphasizing relationships. He has a word of warning for both the envious workaholic and the lazy shirkaholic who neglect relationships and lead meaningless lives. The alternative is that “two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. . . . A threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccles. 4:9‐12 NRSV). So, after communion with God “community building is every person’s second full‐time job” (Stevens, pp. 15‐16). The same writer provides a commentary on the fallen or cursed dimension of work or toil (see also Genesis 3:17‐19). Work done out of mere ambition and selfishness and work neglected out of laziness are both vain. Even work with good motives will often be ignored or wasted. We all die, and our work will not last; it is transient. While we have opportunity, we 36 should simply enjoy working, as well as the food and drink it puts on the table, as a gift from God. It is best to have modest expectations of work and not try to build lasting monuments (Eccles. 2:18‐26; Stevens, pp. 4‐5). Our groaning as we toil is part of creation’s groaning, longing for liberation from the vanity to which it was subjected by God in hope (Romans 8:20‐23). But under the risen Son, work done for God and others is not in vain, even if society may not value it. In the new heavens and new earth “my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain” (Isaiah 65:22‐23 NRSV). “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58 NRSV). Caring for the earth. According to Genesis 1:28 (NRSV), as those made in God’s image, we are to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” This is balanced by the direction in Genesis 2:15, in which Adam is to till and keep the garden, or serve and preserve it. This has not only agricultural but also cultural dimensions, as Adam’s naming the animals shows. As God’s representatives we are to care for the earth (see Ecology) and each other in the productive realm of work and the reproductive realm of family. Women are involved in both realms. The wise woman of Proverbs 31 is involved in providing food, land and clothing, planting vines, trading and caring for the poor. Her work was publicly recognized, bringing her praise in the city gates (Proverbs 31:10‐31). This needs to be heard in a world in which women are often paid less in jobs and work a second shift at home and in which many people receive no recognition for unpaid work done well. In the divine economy, work is evaluated according to the way it fosters or retards relationships—between ourselves and God, our companions and the earthly resources we are called to develop. The Disintegration of Work and Faith Given the Bible’s integrated view of spirituality and work, how did these two come apart, so that even many Christians do not feel the connection? Historical reasons. In the Greek world work was seen as a necessity or curse for slaves to perform. The truly free and human pursuits were politics and philosophy: “Work was called `unleisure,’. . . ergon or ponos, a burden and toil” (Stevens, p. 26). During the fifth century B.C. some cities issued a decree prohibiting their citizens from engaging in work! This Greek influence appears in the apocryphal Wisdom book Ecclesiasticus, which, though more respectful of the trades than the Greeks or the Egyptians, exalts the scribe over the tradesperson, contemplation and leisure over material action. Only the one who is free from toil can become wise. Workers have to concentrate on their work rather than the wonders and mysteries of the world. The merchant or businessperson “can hardly remain without fault” (Sirach 26:29) for “between buying and selling sin is wedged” (Sirach 27:2). Sadly, this is still the way many Christians see trades and business. In the hierarchy of vocations clergy and missionaries (our equivalent of Ecclesiasticus’ scribes of Bible scholars) are still near the top; the caring professions (for example, social workers and doctors) are next, while business people and trades come last. Working with things such as technology, money and administration is often seen as inferior both by those who stress soul‐winning and those who stress social activism. This stems from the division between spirituality and work, head and 37 hand, wisdom and skill, people and things, which is not present in the more creation‐centered canonical Wisdom literature (compare Proverbs 31) nor in the cultural mandate to rule the earth responsibly (Genesis 1:26‐28). Tradespeople and business people do not have to be social workers or evangelists to serve God at work. Under the influence of Greek dualism the early church and the Middle Ages reinforced the distinction between spirituality and work. As a result the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38‐
42) was reinterpreted to exalt the contemplative over the active life. Martin Luther reacted against the medieval disparagement of ordinary work in favor of the work of priests or monks. He reclaimed the idea of vocation, or divine calling, for the ordinary Christians as homemakers, paid workers or citizens. Luther saw all of these as providential ways in which Christians could serve their neighbor and worship God. The tools of one’s workshop were constant reminders to do this: “In making shoes the cobbler serves God, obeys his calling from God, quite as much as the preacher of the Word.” Luther could say, “God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation it is!” Unfortunately, around the time of the later Puritans (mid‐17th century), the notion of vocation became secularized and narrowed down to the job. It became increasingly individualistic, losing the sense of worshiping God and serving the common good (see Calling). Through Benjamin Franklin (a Deist, not a Christian), the Protestant work ethic became popularized through such maxims as “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” and “Time is money.” Through the concept of a career, work increasingly became a means to the end of status and security rather than a means to the end of serving God and supporting self and others, which becomes a joy in itself. For all its gains in living standards, the Industrial Revolution separated the spheres of work, home and church, institutionalizing working for a wage (something previously regarded as degrading compared with self‐employment). Despite its considerable difficulties preindustrial life had a greater sense of integration between work, home and church. All were within sight of one another, and the church was the connecting link to the whole of life. Contemporary reasons. Today many people are split between the Sunday and Monday, or private and public, areas of their lives. In a highly specialized society we play different roles according to different rules with different parts of our personalities, and our lives slowly disintegrate. Our name is truly “Legion.” Many of the pastoral and spiritual crises people face are a direct result of this disintegration of work, home and church. The absent‐father syndrome has now been extended to include the absent‐mother, as both parents struggle to keep jobs as well as maintain marriages and families. There is often a direct clash between escalating demands on people by family, education, career and church that can be crippling unless an integrative spirituality sensitive to life stages is taught, modeled and nurtured. Surveys indicate that in far‐flung commuter suburbs low church attendance was due not to people there being less religious but to the long hours spent at, or going to and from, work. Some people want to attend church and small groups but have too little time and energy. The church’s mainly female pool of volunteer labor is shrinking rapidly as the personal, social and financial rewards of working prove more attractive (although there are recent signs of a move back from this). In failing to shape and develop a spirituality for the workplace and neglecting to challenge its dehumanizing structures, the church has by default been (mis)shaped by it. 38 Reintegrating Spirituality and Work To maintain spiritual integrity, we need a spirituality that integrates, not separates, our faith and work. The individualistic “Protestant prayer ethic,” which gets the leftovers from the Protestant work ethic, fails to provide this. Under the pressures of modern work many Christians feel isolated and unsupported in the workplace and find it difficult to pray and reflect in a way that integrates their church and work lives. Some theological guidelines for developing a corporate spirituality of work follow. Reemphasizing the importance of the church scattered as well as the church gathered. Both the vocational (the church scattered) and the worship (the church gathered) activities of Christians are important. On Sunday the latter equip and mobilize the scattered people of God for their mission and ministry on Monday. But also needed are small committed groups in which people can honestly share their struggles in faith, home and work. We also need mission groups as well as Christian peers and mentors in the workplace. Without this our professional group unconsciously becomes our church, determining major life decisions concerning where to live, what car to drive, how to dress, where to school our children. This then determines our de facto spirituality, which is then used to justify our professional lifestyle. Recapturing a sense of vocation. From the Bible and the Protestant Reformation emerges the understanding that all Christians have a ministry and vocation to serve in the working world, an understanding modeled on Christ as prophet, priest and king. This does not pit preaching or evangelism against ordinary work but sees kingdom work as healing creation and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19‐20) as fulfilling the creation commission (Genesis 1:26‐
28). So we do not unethically evangelize on the boss’s time, trying to justify our job to the full‐
time preachers, but work, live and speak in a way that represents the rule of Christ over the whole of creation, including the working world. Recapturing the idea of the “mixed life.” We must not abandon Christian people to the totalitarian demands of many workplaces and the Martha life of unreflective activism. Nor should we forfeit the workplace and adopt the monastic, contemplative Mary life. The fourteenth‐century monk Walter Hilton wrote letters to an English man of affairs, involved in commercial and political life, who wanted to enter contemplative life in a religious community. In his Letters to a Layman Hilton wisely counseled a third way, a mixed life combining the activity of Martha with the reflectiveness of Mary (Stevens, pp. xiv‐xv). Such a spirituality needs to be consciously modeled and taught. Reconnecting wisdom, virtue and skill. Developing a spirituality of competence and compassion is needed to overcome the split between Mary and Martha. Work is a major way we can cultivate and develop Christian virtues (Galatians 5) and attitudes (Matthew 5:1‐13). It can develop either the fruit of the Spirit, making us patient, gentle and self‐controlled, or the opposite fruits of the flesh. These virtues do not spring up in a vacuum but emerge through much practice and, above all, grace. The “supernatural” virtues of faith, hope and love have particular significance for a spirituality of work. Paul commends the Thessalonians for their “work produced by faith, . . . labor prompted by love, and . . . endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 1:3). We carry these characteristics, and work characterized by them, 39 all the way to heaven. This idea is captured in a painting of the Second Coming by Swiss artist Paul Robert in Neuchatel, Switzerland. It portrays the people rising to meet Christ, bearing the fruits of their callings: doctors having healed people, architects having built beautiful buildings and so on—each one eager to render an account to Christ of his or her work. Redirecting Sunday Toward Monday If we are to overcome the perceived gap between Sunday and Monday, the church will have to shift its pastoral and mission priorities toward Monday. Today the primary place where men and women meet others is the workplace. Evangelism in the marketplace was common in the New Testament (Acts 16:16‐19; Acts 17:17; Acts 19:9‐10, 23‐29). While we should not be evangelizing on the boss’s time, a truly integrated life and a willingness to speak in a wise and timely way tailored to the needs of others (Col. 4:5‐6) will attract questions and interest that can be explored during breaks and lunchtime and before or after work. As Scripture imaginatively used workplace terminology to express aspects of the gospel message, so should we in sharing our faith. In early Christian times the terms sacrifice (of the work of one’s hands), redemption (of slaves) and debts (of money) all had strong workplace connections. Moreover, teaching topics and illustrations should include work‐related ones. Paul spoke at length of master‐slave relationships (Ephes. 6:5‐9; Col. 3:22‐4:1). In 2 Tim. 2:1‐7 he draws from a range of working illustrations (athlete, farmer, soldier) for single‐mindedness. Corporate worship opportunities should be related to working life. Workers’ testimonies—
drawn from homemaking, volunteer work or the market‐place—can be a great encouragement to others and can be included in services during announcements, the offering (when we give the products of our work back to God) or at the conclusion of the service when we hear the call to mission. Prayers for people’s working lives should be a regular part of intercession. Church rolls or address lists might include work roles to enable members to make connections and offer appropriate prayers. Special services, such as a faith‐and‐work Sunday or urban harvest festival with people bringing symbols of their work, are also a useful way of encouraging a more integrated spirituality. Pastoral care should be extended to the workplace. Preventive pastoral care will often involve standing for justice with God’s people and providing emotional and financial support if they face loss of employment for taking a Christian stand on an issue. Moreover, mutual confession, counseling and discipline need to be restored and related to workplace struggles and sins. Puritan manuals often dealt with issues of conscience in the workplace. Pastors, leaders’ groups, church counseling ministries and small groups could provide appropriate supportive and accountable contexts. The gap between Sunday and Monday can be narrowed further by creatively bridging the physical distance between churches and the workplace. The New Testament church met in homes that often had workplaces in the front room on the street. Masters and slaves shared the same living space and social life. While we cannot turn back the clock, we should bring our work, home and church life as close together as possible. We can use occasional fringe‐work activities over meals or beverages to build relationships. Opening our homes in hospitality to fellow workers can lead to a new level of relationship. Where possible, church buildings should be located near the commercial center rather than be lost in suburban back streets. 40 These wide‐ranging suggestions can begin to turn the tide of a war that has seen the workplace forfeited rather than lost. Together they can enable a greater integration of faith and work, Sunday and Monday, spirituality and activity. » References and Resources R. J. Banks, God the Worker (Valley Forge, Penn.: Judson, 1994); R. J. Banks and G. R. Preece, Getting the Job Done Right (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1992); L. Hardy, The Fabric of This World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990); G. R. Preece, “The Threefold Call,” in Faith Goes to Work, ed. R. J. Banks (Washington D.C.: Alban Institute, 1993) 160‐71; J. B. Schor, The Overworked American (New York: Basic, 1991); P. Stevens, Disciplines of the Hungry Heart (Wheaton: Harold Shaw, 1993); J. Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today (Basingstoke, U.K.: Marshalls, 1984); M. Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); C. J. H. Wright, An Eye for an Eye (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1983). —Gordon Preece —Complete Book of Everyday Christianity, The 41 Executive Brief on a Biblical Theology of Work Most of the difficulties we face in mobilising the people of God towards marketplace ministry are due to an inadequate understanding regarding the theology of work. This shortcoming basically arises out of a less‐than‐comprehensive theology of creation, redemption and eschatology. God the Worker God not only authored work but he himself was a worker (Gen 1, 2; Jn 5:17; Rev 21:5). Throughout the Bible, we see different images of God as a worker namely, shepherd (Psa 23), potter (Jer 18:6), physician (Matt 8: 16), teacher (Psa 143:10), vineyard‐dresser (Isa 5:1‐7) etc. God is as active and creative today – creating, sustaining, redeeming and consummating – as God was when this five billion light year universe was begun. Human Beings – Godlike in Relating and Working Human being are “like” God in being relational (“male and female he made them in his image”) and by working. Our fundamental human vocation is to be people—prizing and people‐keeping. We do this as God dwells in us and indwells us through the Spirit empowering us to be priests in the workplace, in our relational life, in our civic responsibility and priests of creation. At the core of reality is personhood, God being the most personal in the universe. As workers, human beings are called to extend the sanctuary (the Garden) into the world, to “fill” it not only by populating the earth, but by filling it with the glory of God by humanizing the earth. As creatures in the image of God (Gen 1:26‐27), humans are workers by make‐up and design. We are also commanded to work (Gen 1:28). The Bible makes it clear that we are vice‐regents over creation and therefore are commanded to act as stewards of God’s created world. In some religions where matter is deified, humans do not enjoy the same dignity and cannot exercise the same responsibility. Creation is neither a curse not an idol. As God delighted in his creation (Gen 1:31), humans too find fulfilment when they do good work. Hence we acknowledge that our enjoyment of work is also a gift from God (Eccl 3:13, 5:18). No Distinction Between Sacred and Secular The two words used by God in his command (Gen 2:15) to Adam to describe work are abad (work) and shamar (take care); interestingly, these words are also used to mean ‘service to God’ and ‘keeping of his commandments’ respectively. This implies that no distinction between 42 sacred and secular work is to be made. Likewise the word diakonia is used both for the ministry of the word and service at tables in Acts 6:2,4. It is important to note that the command to work was given before the Fall and hence, is meant to be a blessing and not a curse. Toil and conversely, the idolatry of work, are the result of the Fall. The suspicion with which many Christians regard vocations in the marketplace may be because they think such work is often driven by selfish ambition for wealth, power or money as was the case with the Tower of Babel (Gen 11). Redemption of Work and the Cosmic Scope of Salvation Despite the pervasiveness of the effects of sin, God in Christ has redeemed the entire created order (note the repeated use of the words ‘all things’ in Col 1:15‐20 in regard to both creation and redemption). Apart from humans, creation also waits for the day when it will be set free from bondage (Rom 8:19‐23). The cosmic scope of God’s redemption means that everything affected by sin and the curse can be redeemed including human work. God redeems work through his church when by the power of the Holy Spirit, his people bring God’s presence (Matt 5:16‐17) and godly values (Prov 16:11; Matt 5:13‐17; Prov 20:10; Amos 5:10‐12) into the workplace. Obviously, unethical, immoral and exploitative practices have no place in God’s kingdom and purposes. Jesus’ Kingdom Work and Our Kingdom Work We can also derive an idea of the holistic nature of God’s mission from Jesus’ ministry on earth. He not only met people’s physical needs but also ministered to their emotional, psychological and physical needs: he worked at his carpentry (Mk 6:3), fed the 5000 (Matt 14:15‐21), healed the sick and cast out demons (Matt 8:16), raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:43‐44) and washed his disciples’ feet Jn 13:4‐5). The Kingdom of God is not just spiritual: it is personal, social, political, economic and cosmic. Most good work in this world is a way to extend the Kingdom of God and to bring shalom to people and creation. The distinction often made between spiritual work (expressed as Kingdom work) and so‐called “secular” work is both unbiblical and harmful. Gospel work and societal work are interdependent and together are ways of praying “thy Kingdom come.” This would imply that all human work that embodies kingdom values and serves the kingdom goal can be regarded as kingdom work. Likewise, the diverse gifting of the church also testifies to the multi‐faceted nature of God’s mission (Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4). Why We Are to Work According to New Testament teaching, Christians should stay in their professions and witness to Christ in those situations unless God calls them to do otherwise (1 Cor 7:20). Furthermore, we 43 are told to work “to the glory of God” (Col 3:13; 3:23‐24). Christians are also urged to work in order to provide for themselves, to share with others and as an example to other believers (2 Thess 3:10, Eph 4:28). There are many fine examples in the Bible of God’s people who worked and served God and others in the marketplace: Daniel, Joseph, Nehemiah, Esther, Priscilla and Aquila, Lydia. Final Judgment of Our Work At the culmination of God’s purposes when Jesus comes again, Christians will be judged not only for their work that is directly related to evangelism and the church but also for their faithfulness as stewards with the resources and responsibilities that God has given them: material resources, gifts, training and skills (Matt 25:31‐36). The judgement criteria put into perspective God’s expectations of us on a broader scale and thus validate our present human work in various capacities. The eschatological vision in the Old Testament is that of a humanity at work (Amos 9:13, Mic 4:3ff, Isa 11:1‐9, Hos 2:18‐23). This picture is completed for us in the New Testament. Work that Lasts and Work in the New Heaven and New Earth Our final destination as Christians is glorified material destination described as a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21‐22, Is 65). We will not be “saved souls” in “heaven” but fully resurrected persons in the new heaven and new earth. The redeemed community will inhabit this new creation in their glorified bodies (1 Cor 15; Phil 3:21). They will bring their cultures (Rev 21:24,26) and their ethnic and linguistic diversities (Rev 5:9). All of this strongly suggests that there will be continuity with our present existence which will undergo a dramatic, transformative and cathartic renewal. In some ways which we do not fully understand, our human work and labour will surely find a way into the new creation (Rev 14:13). It is not just our spiritual work and our spiritual life that will endure and that matters to God, but all work and life undertaken with faith, hope and love (1 Cor 13:13; 1 Thess 1:2‐3). The kings of the earth bring their glories into the holy city (Rev 21:24) and that transfigured creation will be embellished by the deeds of Christians, deeds that “follow them” (Rev 14:13). So our labour in the lord is “not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). R. Paul Stevens 44 Faith: Discovering the Soul of Work "There is no work better than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a souter (cobbler), or an apostle, all are one, as touching the deed, to please God." William Tyndale xviii "Do you like your new job?" It was a foolish question, a very Western question to ask a Kenyan. But Esther had been my student in a rural theological college in East Africa for three years. She had hoped, like the others, upon graduation to be placed as a pastor of a church. Instead she was given the enormously demanding task of being matron for three hundred girls in a boarding school. It was a twenty‐four hours a day, seven days a week job with little recognition and limited remuneration. So I had reason to ask. But her answer revealed a deep spirituality, one which I covet for Christians in my home country and myself. She said, "I like it in Jesus." She might have said, "I am enduring it for Jesus' sake," or "It is not what I would have chosen but I am trying to accept it as 'my cross'". But to like it in Jesus is the soul of work, and the spiritual centre to which Paul appealed when he affirmed the Thessalonians for their "work prompted by faith, (their) labour prompted by love, and (their) endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus." (2 Thess 1:3) In these three chapters we will explore working in faith, love and hope in order to gain a spirituality of work that is based on the word of God. The Uselessness of Work One strange fact about the word of God is that it sometimes asks a question, rather than gives an answer. The question posed by the Professor in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes is probing and not rhetorical: "What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labours under the sun?" (Eccles. 2:22) The inspired author himself is genuinely searching for an answer and not merely exciting interest in the answer he is about to supply. This question probes the depths of our experience of work. It is asked not only by people at the end of a long hard day at the office or home, and by workaholic professionals who have discovered that their exciting careers are mere vanity and emptiness ‐ this we could understand. But is it also secretly asked by people in Christian service careers who wonder if their preaching, counselling and leadership is, in the end, useless and to no avail. "What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labours under the sun?" Yet it is crucial to observe from the book as a whole that the Professor is not just down on life and needing counselling. He affirms that "a man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This, too, I see is from the hand of God" (3:24). So the Professor is in a bind and so are we. 45 Surprisingly, God's word does not always come to us with packaged answers. Sometimes God lets us join an inspired author like this Professor in the process of inspiration, as he revels in the satisfaction of houses, programs and pleasures as King of Israel and, simultaneously, judges that all he has done is a wisp of smoke, an empty bubble. It is the same mixed feelings Christians have about work: a blessing from God, but also a curse. Work brings great satisfaction and health to us because it takes us "out of ourselves," as Bonhoeffer once said xix . And yet it too easily becomes the idol by which we measure our own dignity and establish a pseudo‐identity and the idol ultimately fails to deliver ultimate significance because we were not made for work. The Professor deepens the bind by telling us why he thinks work is meaningless: First it is temporary ("under the sun" 2:22). Second, we will eventually be unappreciated ("I must leave them to the one who comes after me" 2:18). Third, you may give your best energies and most creative gifts to a job which may be taken over by a fool ("Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?" 2:19). Fourth, you are certain to experience injustice in the workplace ("For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it" 2:21). Finally, one simply must work too hard: ("What does one get for all the toil and anxious striving?" 2:22). So work "under the sun" (a code phrase in this book) is impermanent, unappreciated, resultless, unfair and seductive. Surprisingly the Professor does not counsel us to cope with this by dropping out a squeezing all the pleasure we can out of life, including our work‐life. The reason is breathtaking: he is convinced that it is God's will for work to be useless! And God speaking through this Professor asks us to reflect on our experience of work because he wants to call us to faith in a God who has determined that work should be useless. There is more revelation and faith in this man's dark ponderings than in many Christian testimonies of get‐rich‐quick and exhortations to praise the Lord on the job. Work as Evangelist This question probes our souls deeply. If work, even volunteer work in Christian service, proves to be meaningless then we are invited to conclude that we were not made for work but for God. If the Professor is right then we will not find satisfaction in our work through faith in God (the current "Christian" work heresy); instead we will find satisfaction in our God through our experience of work. It is a subtle but telling distinction. It is the difference faith makes. Paul counselled the Thessalonians that their and our labour must be performed in faith, hope and love (1 Thess. 1:3). He also said our labour "in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58). This is not simply saying that evangelism and edification and other obviously Christian acts of service are the only meaningful forms of work, as an old poem is popularly interpreted to mean: "Only 46 one life, t'will soon be past, only what's done for Jesus will last." But rather it means that all work at home, factory, school and office done in faith will last and have intrinsic meaning, "Only what's done for Jesus will last." In contrast, much "Christian" work done to find meaning in the work itself, especially work that brings glory to ourselves, will in the end prove to be an empty and disappointing idol, and will be burned along with the hay and stubble on the last day. So this deep experience of resultlessness we share with the Professor turns out to be an inspired frustration. His holy doubt gives us the opportunity to find in God what we cannot find in work under the sun. Work is an evangelist to take us to Christ. And the gospel we hear from Jesus is not that if we accept him we will be insanely happy and successful in our jobs, but that we will find satisfaction in Jesus in our work. He alone can fill the God‐shaped vacuum in our souls. So it is not just the Old Testament Professor but Jesus that asks this probing question. With absolute courtesy Jesus comes to us in the workplace not to tell us what to do with our lives but to ask what we are discovering in our search for meaning in our work. And then with infinite grace he offers himself. xx Work is one context in which we can meet, love and serve God. That is the soul of work. But now we must get inside the experience of working for Jesus. Working for Jesus The idea that Jesus is our boss is not a new one in Christian circles; but it is seldom understood. At a very preliminary level it means that we are ultimately accountable to Jesus for the stewardship of the gifts and talents he trusted Us with. The Parable of the Talents would lead us at least that far (Matt 25: 14‐30). It is a sin to squander what God has given us to use, or to wrap up our talents, our ideas and our dreams in a handkerchief and bury them for fear of losing them through a risky experiment or doing our work incorrectly. We are accountable. We may sympathize with the one‐talent person but we must always remember that the source of his conservatism was his inadequate view of God (Matt 25:24‐25). We have a God who wants us to take risks and we are accountable for the risks we do not take! But there is more than simple accountability involved in working for Jesus. It is sometimes suggested that we should treat our boss as if he or she were Jesus, and to do so on the authority of Ephesians 6.5: "Slaves obey...just as you would obey Jesus." But that turns out to be a game of lets‐pretend, and the more difficult our boss is to work for, the harder the game is to play. "Your boss may be a real bear, but Jesus is fun to work for" may appeal to the self‐fulfilment culture of North America but it doesn't go as deep as the spirituality of my sister Esther in Africa. She liked her work and her boss, in Jesus. But there is more to work prompted by faith. Both the idlers Paul was dealing with in Thessalonica and workaholics today want to see the results of their work. The Thessalonian idlers thought there was nothing worth doing until 47 Jesus returned (2 Thess 3:6‐13) and therefore work in this world was deemed resultless. Workaholics want to see the results of their work because it is the measure of their own worth and the means of establishing their identity. But working in faith requires something more, something that will be invisible to the outsider and the onlooker. Working for Jesus is a secret, a mystery. Paul instructs the slaves at Colossae, "Slaves obey your earthly masters in everything, and do it not only when they eye is on you and to win their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Col. 3.22‐24) There are three faith‐secrets being kept here: First, Christians in their work are making a secret appeal ‐ not to draw attention from onlookers or only when the supervisor is looking, which is ophthalmic service. Second, they have a secret purpose ‐ not to win favour from other workers or their human boss, but from God. And third, they have a secret reward in mind ‐ not the paycheck but the anticipated inheritance from the Lord. Jesus as the Recipient of our Work In some way only partly explained to us in scripture, Jesus himself is the recipient of our work, as he is the recipient of all human behaviour in his own body. That transcendent truth is visualized clearly in his representative and substitutionary suffering on the cross. But this is the wrinkle of faith: this reception of our service by Jesus happens in precisely those situations where it was not apparent to us that Jesus was actually there, when the visible results of our work were missing, when it did not appear that this was a work of faith. That is the seldom mentioned crucial point in the parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matt 25:31‐46). On the last day the righteous who are invited to possess their inheritance in the Kingdom will find out that their service on earth was given directly to Jesus who received their work as directed to himself. But they will not say, "I remember serving you Jesus." Instead they ask, "When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" (v.39). And the unrighteous are quite adamant that if they had seen Jesus himself in need they would gladly have served, for they say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?" Jesus replied that "whatever you did not do to one of the least of these, you did not do for me." I must leave aside the vexed question of whether "these brothers of mine" (v.40) refers to Christians in need or merely people. I cannot think it makes any difference. The implication of the parable is disturbing: surprise is the litmus test as to whether there was faith in the original work. One of the goals of all spirituality, to set us up to be surprised by the seeking Father. While on this earth we spend our powers in the service of our neighbour through our daily work and our occasional acts of charity, "but in heaven," Wingren points out, "it is made evident that the poor neighbour whom we served was Christ, the King." xxi I believe that this is true whether our work is 48 obvious service to our neighbours as expressed through the helping professions, or indirectly of service through those occupations that keep stable the fabric of the world, like garbage collectors, accountants and telephone repair‐persons. But the issue is this: how can we be set up to be surprised? Personally I find it unhelpful to imagine that the person or persons I am serving through my work is Jesus. I do not wish to denigrate the beautiful faith of Mother Teresa who advises such a strategy of seeing Jesus as he comes to us disguised in the visage of his suffering, wounded, demanding and hard‐to‐love brothers. But I find little scriptural warrant for believing that faith makes us "see" Jesus instead of the person. There would be no surprise on the last day if we had imagined ourselves doing everything for Jesus and to him. And there is a love reason for refusing this pretence. Love demands that I take my neighbour with utter seriousness as he or she is, especially if that neighbour is my spouse, my boss or my employee. No one wants to be loved by deflection, but rather to be loved as they are. Earlier I mentioned that our neighbour proves to be a means of grace precisely when he or she is not regarded as such, but regarded as a real neighbour! Working in faith means working without being able to see the results at the time. Faith takes a different tack. By faith I believe Jesus actually meets us in the workplace, or in an act of service, in some way that I cannot control, predict and cannot see. And faith in Jesus allows me to decide that my response to that person's need or my bosses' demands will be determined by Jesus and not by that person. The bottom‐line, so to speak is that we are doing it for Jesus, and not for the gains we will make by doing it "in faith". The goal is God, not our inheritance from God or even the joy of working. Attending to God himself even more than the things of God, is the goal of true contemplation, especially contemplation in the marketplace. So working in faith involves the total relinquishment of any attempt on our part to control the presence, the blessings or the grace of God. It recognizes that we cannot generate ministry out of our daily work, even if that work is preaching or counselling. The man or woman who lives by faith has purposed that the totality of his or her life will be lived for God's glory and trusts God with that even when there is no obvious "ministry" attached to the act, I could say especially when that person responds to a call for service or a request for work which is not obviously a Christian service to Jesus. Otherwise there would be no surprise on the last day. Sometimes we may be given the privilege of being aware consciously of ministering to Jesus (and perhaps that is what Mother Teresa is speaking about), but that is a gracious gift given to us from time to time, not a sacred necessity. When we work for Jesus we cannot guarantee experiences. 49 It is a sobering thought that the roles of so‐called "Christian workers" (pastors and missionaries) are often chosen because the work can be obviously done for and to Jesus. Many people go "into the ministry" because it is apparently a direct way of serving God, without realizing that it is the indirect ways that are singled out for conspicuous faith on the final day of evaluation. I can hardly think that is a sin to want to serve God in an obvious way, but it may not be work done in faith even though it was "Christian work". I may interpret the Lord's words in this way: he might say on that day to me, "Much of what you did in teaching and preaching, and even this book you are writing, Paul, was obviously done for me (and my mind will range over the many occasions when I have had that privilege and enjoyed it) but let me tell you what you did in faith." And he will surprise me. I pray he will. Calvin Seerveld tells a moving story from his childhood that illustrates the mystery of working in faith. I am sure his father would be surprised to read it! My father is a seller of fish. We children know the business too having worked from childhood in the Great South Bay Fish Market, Patchogue, Long Island, New York, helping our father like a quiver full of arrows. It is a small store, and it smells like fish. I remember a Thursday afternoon long ago when my Dad was selling a large carp to a prosperous woman and it was a battle to convince her. "is it fresh?" It fairly bristled with freshness, had just come in, but the game was part of the sale. They had gone over it anatomically together: the eyes were bright, the gills were in good colour, the flesh was firm, the belly was even spare and solid, the tail showed not much waste, the price was right ‐‐ Finally my Dad held up the fish behind the counter, "Beautiful, beautiful! Shall I clean it up?" And as she grudgingly assented, ruefully admiring the way the bargain had been struck, she said, "My, you certainly didn't miss your calling." Unwittingly she spoke the truth. My father is in full‐time service for the Lord, prophet, priest and king in the fish business. And customers who come into the store sense it. Not that we always have the cheapest fish in town! not that there are no mistakes on a busy Friday morning! not that there is no sin! But this: that little Great South Bay Fish Market, my father and two employees, is not only a clean, honest place where you can buy quality fish at a reasonable price with a smile, but there is a spirit in the store, a spirit of laughter, of fun, joy inside the buying and selling that strikes the observer pleasantly . . . . When I watch my Dad's hands, big beefy hands with broad stubby fingers each twice the thickness of mine, they could never play a piano: when I watch those hands delicately split the back of a mackerel ... when I know those hands dressed and peddled fish from the handlebars of a bicycle in the grim l930's ... twinkling at work without complaint, past temptations, always in faith consecratedly cutting up fish before the face of the Lord: when 50 I see that I know God's grace can come down to a man's hand and the flash of a scabby fish knife. xxii 51 HOPE: MAKING OUR MARK ON HEAVEN "How can Christianity call itself catholic if the universe itself is left out?" Simone Weil xxiii "I cannot think of a greater tragedy than to think that I am at home on earth...." Malcolm Muggeridge xxiv "Only the heavenly‐minded are of any earthly use." C.S. Lewis xxv Years ago Leslie Newbigin said that "mankind is without any worthwhile end to which the travail of history might lead." xxvi A few believe we are heading into a new world order and paradise on earth but most people nurse a deep foreboding about the future, or refuse to think about it more than they must. The seeming resultlessness of history erodes the nerve of modern persons including, I must add, Christians who have more reason to embrace the future wholeheartedly than anyone. Whether world‐weariness and future fright comes from the terrifying prospect of ecological doomsday, or, as is often the case with Christians like the Thessalonians, from the conviction that Jesus will probably come tomorrow, the result is the same for Christians: all work in this world except the so‐called "ministry" is viewed as not very significant or enduring. The old saying runs deep in our veins: "Only one life, twill soon be past; only what's done for Jesus will last." The saying contains a deep truth that we will explore in this chapter, but it is popularly understood to mean that only overtly Christian work, such as evangelism or Bible teaching will last. But Paul's affirmation of the endurance of the Thessalonians "inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus." (1 Thess 1:3) concerned all work. So he said, "We command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle." (2 Thess 3:6) End Time Idleness This is one of the very few passages in the New Testament on work and Paul appears to be dealing with a problem completely irrelevant to modern Western nations where workaholism is a way of life especially for professionals. Even the title in the NIV, "Warning Against Idleness," (2 Thess 3:6‐
15) seems a dangerous word to people already killing themselves to become successful. But there is more to this than meets the eye. Writing in the Greek world Paul was confronted by people inoculated against work by the culture. In the Greek world work was a curse, an unmitigated evil and to be out of work was a 52 piece of singularly good fortune. xxvii Unemployment allows one to participate in the political domain and to enjoy the contemplative life. The whole of society was organized so that a few can actualize the highest human potential. Work was called "unleisure". The Greeks had no sense of vocation. An individual's activity in society was called ergon or ponos, a burden and toil. During the fifth century before Christ the government of Thebes issues a decree prohibiting its citizens from engaging in work! xxviii It was easy for Greek Christians, and their modern counterparts, to think of work as a curse, only partially redeemed by Jesus. Better not to work if one can afford not to. How revolutionary it was for Christian slaves in such households to be told by Paul to serve their masters as though they were working for Jesus! (Col 3:22‐25) How revolutionary for Paul to send home the runaway slave Onesimus, now converted and liberated, to serve his old master once again (Philemon)! Further, in his ministry in the Gentile churches, Paul had to face a problem that is still with us. Instinctively when people become Christians they feel that the best way to serve God in gratitude would be to leave their "secular" jobs (and possibly their difficult marriages) and "go into the ministry". Paul dealt with that by insisting that people can probably serve God best where they are: "Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. . . . Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him." (1 Cor 7.17, 20) As Gordon Fee says, "The two points Paul makes need to be heard anew. (1) Status of any kind (married, unmarried, slave or free) is ultimately irrelevant with God . . . . (2) Precisely because our lives are determined by God's call, not be our situation, we need to learn to continue there as those who are 'before God.' Paul's concern is not with change, one way or the other, but with 'living out our calling' in whatever situation one is found." xxix The New Testament treats work in the larger framework of the call of God to live totally for him and his kingdom. All are called (Eph. 4:1) and the call of God concerns all of one's life (Eph 4:1‐6:20). Therefore Paul, who earned his living by making tents, was not, strictly speaking, a bivocational missionary (meaning having two vocations one secular like tentmaking and one sacred like church‐
planting), as is sometimes argued by people zealous in promoting tentmaking ministries. Paul was monovocational. He integrated his whole life of service as one passionate response to the all‐
embracing call of Jesus. There was no sacred‐secular distinction for him. But there was a further problem in Thessalonica ‐‐ eschatological idleness. If Jesus might come back tomorrow, what is the point of working today? Missing the chance to work by faith, love and hope, some believers wanted to "see" the results of their work or they would not work at all. If their own projects would be "interrupted" by the imminent return of Jesus, why bother? Let others look after them as they move from house to house absorbing Christian hospitality like sponges, just as many young Christians today travel the world today absorbing the hospitality of missionaries and national Christians. Paul responded definitively: "If a man will not work, he shall 53 not eat." (2 Thess 3:10) Paul modelled what he taught, working night and day not to be a burden, and not eating food he had not paid for. But having a strong sense of the End need not incite us to abandon planning and pray for speedy evacuation. Just the reverse: Christian hope makes sense out of both short‐term and long‐
term planning because we have a certain future in the coming Kingdom of God. It can be argued that eschatology ‐‐ the Biblical doctrine about last things ‐‐ is the most pastoral and helpful doctrine for the ordinary Christian to make sense out of the complicated everyday challenges of living and working in a world that will one day pass away. The last book of the Bible ‐‐ the Revelation ‐‐ is also a book about last things. It tells us how the world looks to a person in the Spirit. We see through the satanic seductions of society to the indomitable Kingdom of God and join the multitude of heavenly beings who shout, "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns." (Rev. 19:6) The Christian has a worthwhile end to which the travail of history will lead. Therefore like the apostle Paul on the ship in the great storm we can say "I have talked with my God and I know we will land on shore safely" (Acts 27:21‐26). Being heavenly‐minded allows us to work on insoluble problems in the world with hope but without being messianic about our own contribution, or burning out in discouragement while we try to make the perfect future happen. The Kingdom has come and the Kingdom is coming. That is the basis of the Christian's hope, and the daily tension in which we live. Ready for the Long Haul Luther once said that if he was sure Jesus would come tomorrow he would plant a tree today. This is totally in line with the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins told by Jesus. The only discernable difference between the wise and foolish virgins waiting for the wedding celebration is that the wise were ready for a long wait for the Lord to come again. Both the wise and the foolish wanted the Bridegroom to come soon. They both slept with impunity when there was a delay. But the wise had enough oil for the long haul (Matt 25:1‐13). Believers are invited by faith to work today as though they had a long‐term future, yet ready for the Lord to come at any moment. It is in this context that we can speak of the durability of our work in this world. We are told in Scripture what will last until the End: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love." (1 Cor 13.13) A Catholic scholar, Haughey, comments on this other occurrence of the triad of marketplace virtues. "It seems," he says, "that it is not acts of faith, hope and love in themselves that last, but rather works done in faith, hope and love: it is not the pure intention alone, nor is it faith, hope and love residing unexercised as three infused theological virtues in a person that last. What lasts is the action taken on these virtues, the praxis that flows from the intention, the works the virtues shape. These last!" xxx Another passage that points to the same perspective is 1 Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in 54 the Lord is not in vain." Obviously Paul's first reference to "the work of the Lord" pointed to the various ministries engaged in by the Corinthian believers. But even these included such mundane things as "helping" and "administrating". In a larger application Paul is assuring his friends that what makes all their labour ‐‐ whether homemaking or bridgebuilding ‐‐ free from resultless is that fact that it is "in the Lord". The Transfiguration of the Universe Far from contributing to a hunger for instant evacuation, or a dichotomous approach to secular and sacred work, the New Testament invites us explore the greatest hope imaginable for the world: Christ is Lord of creation (Col. 1.15‐23). First Christ saves people. But eventually Christ will save all creation. This is the missing note in all environmental concerns ‐ the note of redemption and hope. The oft‐quoted landmark statement of Dr. Lynn White about the source of our environmental disaster goes part way, but not far enough. She says, "Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious the remedy must also be religious." xxxi If it is true that Jesus is Lord of creation then we must honour his intentions for the rest of creation. Creation is not a commodity; it is not "impersonal", but an artistic expression of the mind of God. Now that Christ holds all creation together "impressing upon creation", as Lightfoot says, "that unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos," xxxii we can say that creation is Christian. Further, Romans 8.19‐21 pictures a continuum of the present in which creation "groans" with a future without groaning. As John Haughey puts it, "Creation's hopes will not be mocked by annihilation any more than ours will be." xxxiii The present will be factored into the future. The God who created with no materials will one day recompose the first creation with the materials of that creation over time including the work of human beings. xxxiv How this will be done is not told us but we are invited to consider which of our works will last (1 Cor 3.12‐15). In view of the scope of recreation envisioned, these works cannot simply be ecclesial (or religious). Ironically, Paul envisions a situation in which the person's works are burned in the final fire, but the person himself is saved (1 Cor 3.14). Perhaps many of my lectures and sermons will be burned like hay and stubble on the last day because they were judged not to be done for Jesus, while the deck I built, in some way that takes me beyond mere rationality, will survive the last judgement. But let me press this line of thinking farther. Making Our Mark On Heaven It is apparent that through our daily work we leave our mark on the cosmos and our environment, on government, culture, neighbourhoods, families, on the principalities and powers. The Bible hints that in some way beyond our imagination our marks are permanent. All the visions of the new heaven and the new earth are in terms of what we know and do now (Rev 21.26). The final vision of the Bible is one remarkably connected to our life now. "The kings of the earth bring their 55 splendor" (Rev 21:24) into the New Jerusalem (a city we have known on earth) and "the glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it." (21:26) In one sense our environment is going to heaven. So is our culture, our government, our crafts and our work. The theological truth that undergirds this fascinating and challenging line of exploration is the statement that Christ is the first born of all creation (Col 1.15) and first born from the grave (1.18). We have only to think of the resurrected body of Jesus to realize that there was a historical continuity between the body with which he walked in Palestine and the body which ascended to heaven. He was recognizable. And the most remarkable points of recognition for the apostles were the scars. His resurrected body bore scars in historical continuity with his life in the flesh, though the scars were not now merely signs of faith but had been transformed to become a means of faith for people like Thomas (Jn 20.27). They were transfigured along with the rest of his physical existence into something truly beautiful even though, remarkably, there were still scars. The resurrected body of Jesus is a powerful, evocative Biblical symbol of the way this life is connected to the next life, especially as it relates to the physical environment. Our violent acts against nature and culture may not be erased by the final Armageddon and the final consummation of the travail of history at the second coming of Jesus, but may by God's grace be transfigured. This is part of our hope. Through transcendent reasoning we can imagine that the marks we leave in this life and in this world last: open pit mines, well‐manicured gardens, cedar decks and satellite receiving stations, the good and the bad of what we are doing in this world. But there will be a transfiguration. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. Work That Will Last This brings new meaning to those whose toil is located in so‐called secular work, in arts, education, business, politics, the environment and the home. Not only are ordinary Christians priests of creation past and present. They, and not just missionaries, pastors and Christian educators, are shaping the future of creation in some limited way. Most Christians think that only religious work will not be in vain (1 Cor 15.58) but if Christ is the first‐born of all creation and the first‐born from the grave, then all work has eternal consequences, whether home‐making or being a stock‐broker. Our hope is that we confidently look forward to a time of exquisite transfiguration. And the practical application of that hope is that we are invited in Christ to leave beautiful marks on creation, on the environment, family, city, workplace and nation. When we cannot do this, and cannot undo the violence we have committed against the cosmos, we have faith in Jesus that one day he will transfigure even the environmental, social, cultural and political scars we have left through our work. "Only one life, twill soon be past; only what's done for Jesus will last." 56 LOVE: RECOVERING THE AMATEUR STATUS OF THE CHRISTIAN "To discover God in the smallest and most ordinary things, as well as in the greatest, is to possess a rare and sublime faith. To find contentment in the present moment is to relish and adore the divine will in the succession of all the things to be done and suffered which make up the duty to the present moment." Jean‐Pierre De Caussaude "What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God." Martin Luther "Does God work?" Willie MacMichael asks his father in George Macdonald's book for children. His father answered biblically: "Yes, Willie, it seems to me that God works more than anybody ‐ for He works all night and all day and, if I remember rightly, Jesus tells us somewhere that He works all Sunday too. If He were to stop working, everything would stop being. The sun would stop shining, and the moon and stars; the corn would stop growing; there would be no apples and gooseberries; your eyes would stop seeing; your ears would stop hearing; your fingers couldn't move an inch; and, worst of all your little heart would stop loving." "No, Papa," cried Willie. "I shouldn't stop loving, I'm sure." "Indeed you would, Willie." "Not you and Mamma." "Yes ‐ you wouldn't love us any more than if you were asleep without dreaming." "That would be dreadful." "Yes, it would. So you see how good God is to us ‐ to go on working, that we may be able to love each other." "Then if God works like that all day long, it must be a fine thing to work," said Willie. "You are right. It is a fine thing to work ‐ the finest thing in the world, if it comes of love, as God's work does." Macdonald ends with this insightful comment: 57 This conversation made Willie quite determined to learn to knit. If God worked, he would work too. And although the work he undertook was a very small work, it was like all God's great works; for every loop he made had a little love looped up in it, like an invisible, soft, downy lining to the stockings. And after those, he went on knitting a pair for his father, and learned to work with a needle as well, and to darn the stockings he had made. xxxv In its original meaning, "amateur" described the person who does something for love, but the word has come to mean unprofessional or unqualified ‐ the opposite of "professional." George Bernard Shaw once said that every profession is a conspiracy against the laity. In Christian ministry this conspiracy has dealt a fatal blow to the ministry of every member of the body of Christ since the tendency is to leave ministry to the paid professionals "who know how to do it better," while Christian ministry is essentially an amateur activity. In the marketplace, professionalism has robbed the worker of one of the strongest spiritual motivations to turn ordinary work into a sacred ministry, the motivation of love. What is work without love? "If I give all I possess to the poor," Paul asks, "and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3). If I burn myself out achieving professional excellence but have not love, my soul will be like a withered leaf, and my work will not touch people for God. When it comes to work there is something more excellent than excellence: love. In secular society, identity is established by who you know, how much money you make, where you have been, and, most important of all, what you do for a living. To become unemployed is to face the ultimate identity crisis. But there is a better way to relate work and identity, the way of love. Walter Hilton expounds a statement attributed to Augustine and ultimately derived from the Gospels: "Man is naught else but his thoughts and his loves." So if we want to know who a person is, instead of asking what a person does, we have simply to ask what it is she loves and how she loves it. xxxvi Augustine and Jesus would make us amateurs and restore us to the genuinely human existence we enjoyed in the very beginning before sin marred our identity and our work. The Prototype Amateurs Adam and Eve needed no commandment to love God with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves (Matt 22:34‐40). That law was written on their hearts, as natural to them as breathing. Within that single love vocation they were given three full‐time expressions. Their first work is described rather than prescribed. Implicit in their humanity is the commission to work at communion with God. The first two chapters of Genesis describe the man and the woman experiencing the uninterrupted enjoyment of the presence of God in a relationship of loving awe. The text suggests that the garden was a sanctuary‐garden and a place of real meeting with God. xxxvii No activity was intended to take them away from their center, though like all relationships there were seasons of special intimacy, as suggested by God's walking in the garden in the cool of the day looking for his creatures' love (Gen. 3:8). Whether in love‐making or laughter, naming the hippopotamus or numbering the trees, all of which are acts of worship, Adam and Eve simultaneously celebrated their creatureliness and their God. The practice of the presence of God is not the exclusive vocation of professional ministers and cloistered monks because nothing on earth before the Fall should take us away from God. To make communion a part‐time occupation is to make Christianity into another religion, perhaps not a very good one. 58 The second full‐time work is also described but not prescribed. God's first negative statement in the Bible is that "it is not good for the man to be alone" (Gen. 2:18). In this figurative account of a literal event, God makes humankind innately social and inevitably sexual. "Male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). So community‐building is every person's second full‐time job. Humankind is invited continuously to celebrate cohumanity, living in grateful awareness of the fact that neither male nor female can be the image of God alone but only in relationships. This brings new meaning to the affirmation that "God is love" (1 John 4:8), for it expresses the symmetry of the relational life within God as Trinity and the relational life of his creatures. As Augustine said, echoed in the thought of the contemporary theologian Moltmann, "God is lover, the beloved and the love itself." xxxviii So human beings, made in God's image, are built for love. The world was made in love, runs on love, and so do we. This makes our sexuality contemplative, as we shall see in the chapters on "the Day with the Other Sex." Each sex evokes the other's sexuality. Together they enable humanity to become a mysterious expression of God's own social experience and his covenant relationships (Eph. 5:32). The family becomes God's prototype community on earth and is part of every person's vocational calling, whether one remains single or gets married. People‐making (Gen. 1:28) gives Adam and Eve the further privilege of making people in their own image (Gen. 5.3) as God made them in his. So humankind's duty and destiny is to build community, to express neighborliness, to celebrate cohumanity ‐ in a word, to love. We dare not relegate this to discretionary time activities. For example, it would be dangerous for me to think of myself as a part‐time husband or a part‐time grandfather. Some will earn their salary in community building by being town‐planners or family counselors, just as others will earn it by prayer or evangelism. The way one earns one's living turns out to be incidental. The truth is that Christian vocation demands our all, all the time. xxxix The call of God that comes to every believer (Eph. 4:1) embraces all of life: work, family, neighborhood, politics, and congregation. We must never let our occupations become as all‐consuming as our vocation. Adam and Eve's third full‐time job is co‐creativity. xl They were made regents, earthly rulers representing the interests of a heavenly king. They were to work not only for God but with God in making God's world work. They were made for the world, not the world for them (Gen. 2:5). The human task of cultivating and enculturating the earth included everything from farming to genetic engineering, from landscape architecture to playing the flute (Gen. 4:21). Eventually, Adam's children would do some of these things for a living. But, as I have said, that is incidental because earth‐keeping is everyone's full‐time job. But it will become an idolatry if it is separated from community‐building and communion with God, just as preaching and other forms of traditional Christian service will become idolatrous if separated from home‐making, family‐building and caring for the environment. So we were meant for the whole, not the part, and our health is in finding our down‐to‐earth God right where we are in the business of ordinary life, doing our three full‐time jobs and giving ourselves exclusively to none. This brings deeper meaning to the proposal that, if we want to find out who we are, we need to ask who or what we love. The Search for Loveable Work 59 When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he did not affirm these Christians for "loving their work." Instead he affirmed them for being people whose "labor (was) prompted by love" (1 Thess 1:3 emphasis added), a much deeper thing. Not everyone loves his or her work, but love can turn even routine jobs into ministry by finding new ways to accomplish old tasks or incorporating the extra flair that love inspires. Embellishment is one of the love‐works that make the daily round interesting and, at least potentially, a ministry. As I write this I am perched in a guest house in a tiny Islamic village on the Indian ocean in Kenya. Most of the people are very, very poor, yet almost every wooden doorpost and lintel is rendered beautiful and interesting by exquisite Swahili carvings, each design unique. That required effort, the kind of effort love makes. Falling out of love with one's work is like falling out of love with one's spouse: it is more of an excuse than an explanation. When people tell me they no longer love their spouse, I feel like telling them they are lazy. It is the same thing with work. If people cannot find some lovable dimensions in their daily work it is often because they are expecting lovableness to be presented ready‐made rather than discovered through prayer and hard work. Obviously there is no particular merit in staying in an unsatisfactory job if change is possible. And normally it is a good thing to search for a job that fits personal longings reasonably well (although half the world has no occupational choices at all). But I do not think any job, even one that initially seems to be a "perfect fit," will sustain our love for long without spiritual effort on our part. Just as some people go from spouse to spouse looking for love, so others go from job to job looking for fulfilment. Normally we should find it right where we are. While there are obviously some jobs that are not ways of loving our neighbours as ourselves, I think the list is shorter than some would imagine. Prostitutes and drug‐pushers cannot love their neighbours in their work, but these are obvious examples and it is socially acceptable to reject these. xli Much more complicated is the range of jobs in the "grey areas" ‐ like a stock broker or a collections agent who sells people's furniture from under them. A graphic artist was asked to design an advertisement for jewellery that used sex. As he said, "When I started this work I thought there would be a large area of white, a large area of black, and a small grey area. But now I see it is mostly all grey with a little white and black at both ends." Can these be done for love? Does the politician's work allow for love ‐ or the work of a revolutionary, a soldier, an executioner, or an ambassador for a corrupt government? An international buyer will find that success sometimes requires kickbacks, a complicated challenge that is viewed very differently in other cultures. Is there a place for love in such a business? This pitiful list is enough to drive anyone to apply for the professional ministry. But there is no escape from the dilemma there either. Can a pastor be a minister of neighbour‐love when the job description requires him or her to work in areas of personal weakness rather than strength? If a person does not love her work, can she still work for love? Some parachurch workers struggle when they are required by their mission organization to raise their own financial support. They feel they are compelled to "sell" their ministry to friends and family. Where is the love in that? A 60 poorly‐paid professor in a Christian college is obliged to take on outside work because of his family's needs, but he does so for necessity, not love. There is no safe haven anywhere in the world or the church. Working for love is hard everywhere. I dare say that no one works for love all the time. In all honesty, most of us live in a perpetual state of "sinning boldly but believing in Jesus more boldly still," as Luther would say. We live by grace and by practising continuous repentance. But there are few jobs where the opportunity to love does not present itself. According to Luther virtually all occupations are modes of "full‐time" service to God except those of the usurer, the prostitute, and the monk. xlii In the same way virtually all occupations offer the possibility of loving service to other people. Some Christians are sustained day by day in the workplace by the thought that the product they are manufacturing meets a real need in the world. But some Christians are sustained by the thought that while the product they are manufacturing does not seem to meet a real need ‐ it could be some trivial electronic device to complicate people's lives even further ‐ there are people in the workplace they can love, or there are people at home who are receiving a loving benefit from their work. Unpaid homemakers are also working for love, sometimes only for love. This last point deserves some consideration because the Thessalonian church was having some problems getting some people to make the connection between work and love. Love, Idleness and Workaholism Paul's shocking statement,"If a man will not work, he shall not eat" (2 Thess 3:10) was made in the context of a church that expected Jesus to come back any moment. Some of them were thinking, "Why work, if the whole story will be consummated shortly and our work in this world will be rendered obsolete?" So they went from home to home living off the generosity of those who did work, instead of providing for themselves and their families as a loving act. Paul confronts this heretical practice both by example and teaching. He worked hard to look after himself and his companions as a love gift to the people he served. "We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it" (3:7‐8) ‐ a truly extraordinary statement from the lips of a travelling Christian worker. His teaching was equally radical: "keep away from every brother who is idle" (3:6). In the same way Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, commands the thief to stop stealing and to work "that he may have something to share with those in need" (Eph 4:28). One Christian reason to work is make a love‐provision for oneself and one's family. Viewed this way the idlers in Thessalonica were unloving. But, surprisingly, so are workaholics today. Workaholics want to find their identity and fulfilment in only one of their three full‐time jobs (communion, community‐building, and co‐creativity), whether it is mothering, administering, counselling, selling, or preaching. We were meant to experience a balanced life of living wholly and completely for God. But workaholics invest all their energies in one part of the human vocation, usually the "co‐creativity" part in society. The reasons are well‐documented. Usually raised in non‐
affirming environments, workaholics are attempting unconsciously to prove worthy of the approval of their parents and others. Workaholics are consumed by this inner drivenness and cannot play without feeling guilty. They have to work at play and cannot play at work. Work is too serious a matter. It often becomes misdirected worship as they use work to fill the god‐shaped vacuum in their souls. A definition of idolatry is simply making something one's ultimate concern, 61 other than the One who is ultimate. Even on vacations (if they take then at all) workaholics plan the next piece of work. Amos may be describing them when he rails against the people who spend their sabbaths figuring out how to make more money as soon as it is over (Amos 8:5). The whole of life is oriented around what becomes one continuous work‐week. But the outside effect of the workaholic is the same as the idler: they are a burden to all around them. Workaholics have nothing to give because their love of work consumes all other loves. They require those around them to adjust their lives and priorities to the all‐consuming nature of the workplace. Except for money they have nothing to give to those with whom they live: no affection, no joy, no friendship, no companionship, no love. They are emotional and relational thieves in the family and the community. So idlers and workaholics have some similar qualities when viewed from the outside ‐ their effect on others. But the inside comparison fares no better. Both the idler and the workaholic are guilty of moral laziness. xliii Neither has gone deep enough to see that the reason to work as Christians is not simply for personal expression and to meet personal needs. Work is a divine vocation, a calling. As a vocation it is not something we choose as a way of finding fulfilment. Rather, it is our response to a divine summons that includes our whole life: workplace, family, church, neighborhood and society. Ultimately it is God we must please in our work. And, to our surprise, we discover happily that God is easier to please than our parents, or even ourselves! So both the idler and the workaholic must become contemplative workers: true amateurs who allow the love of God to inspire their work. The Much‐Loved Worker A passage written by Martin Luther is especially eloquent on this theme. Luther compares the love relationship between husband and wife and the love relationship between God and his children, a comparison that illuminates the spirituality of work and the amateur status of the Christian. When a husband and wife really love each other, have pleasure in each other, and thoroughly believe in their love, who teaches them how they are to behave one to another, what they are to do or not to do, say or not to say, what they are to think? Confidence alone teaches them all this, and even more than is necessary. For such a man there is no distinction in works. He does the great and the important as gladly as the small and the unimportant, and vice versa. Moreover, he does them all in a glad, peaceful, and confident heart, and is an absolute willing companion to the woman. But where there is any doubt, he searches within himself for the best thing to do; then a distinction of works arises by which he imagines he may win favour. And yet he goes about it with a heavy heart and great disinclination. He is like a prisoner, more than half in despair and often makes a fool of himself. Thus a Christian man who lives in this confidence toward God knows all things, can do all things, ventures everything that needs to be done, and does everything gladly and willingly, not that he may gain merits and good works, but because it is a pleasure for him to please God in doing these things. He simply serves God with no thought of reward, content that his service pleases God. On the other hand, he who is not at one with God, or is in a state of doubt, worries and starts looking for ways and means to do enough and to influence God with his many good works. xliv 62 Christ himself must have experienced this freedom within love. During the so‐called hidden years, he sanded and planed wooden cradles while he carried in his great heart the knowledge that the world was hell‐bound. How could he have known what he knew and yet done such menial things in the carpenter's shop? Yet the Father said, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased," (Luke 3:22) when he had not yet preached a sermon or worked a miracle. This was probably not the first time God the Father assured Jesus of his love and thus liberated him to do little things for his pleasure before he went on to much bigger things. From Chapter two, Disciplines of the Hungry Heart (Harold Shaw, 1993) 63 Providential Work: Esther “I have had five jobs already and am still searching for satisfying work.” A North American Business Person At some time or other every one of us feels that we are in the wrong place, at the wrong time doing the wrong thing. Maybe even married to the wrong person! If, we think, we were somewhere else, doing something else we could be useful and deeply satisfied. But the reality is that God has a providential purpose in our lives right where we are. And the Creator has been involved, secretly it often seems, in all the details of our everyday experiences as well as our life‐long work trajectory. The early desert fathers and mothers, those spiritual athletes who took to the desert to find God, often told one another, “Stay in your cell. It will teach you everything.” Translated into contemporary English this means:”Don’t go promiscuously from job to job looking for the perfect fit. There is a life‐giving divine purpose in your life right where you are. No biblical story shows this better than the story of a poor, orphaned, Jewish girl who was thrust into the maws of a gigantic corporation. Esther, an orphan, raised by her cousin Mordecai during the Jewish Exile in ancient Persia, was chosen for beauty treatments in preparation for her night with the king (who was looking for a new queen). Can God work through a pagan empire? A secular business? A beauty contest? A multinational corporation? Each woman had a one‐night stand with the monarch. After twelve months of preparation Esther went into the king. King Zerxes was “attracted to her more than any of the other women” and chose her as his queen. But Esther, a Jew, and now Queen of a pagan king, kept her identity as a believer in the living God and as a member of the people of God, a secret. She did this at the direction of her adoptive father, Mordecai. Mordecai keeps in touch with his niece and daughter by spending time in the courtyard of the palace and here uncovers a plot against the king himself. He informs Esther through an intermediary, and the assassination of the king is avoided. The king makes a note of this in his journal but does nothing at that moment. But our life is not a bundle of accidents and there is a divine providence at work in even seemingly meaningless or mundane moments, even in our mistakes, and often in mistakes made against us. Meanwhile an egotistical Haman is raised by the king to become second in command, like Joseph in Egypt, and wants everyone to bow down to him. This obeisance toward another human being, especially one so vile and self‐centered, is something which Mordecai refuses to do. This galls Haman deeply, and knowing that Mordecai is a Jew, he persuades the king with a truth, a half‐truth and a lie that the whole Jewish people scattered throughout his empire 64 should be eliminated. He sets a day for this holocaust a year later and promises to pay for all the costs, a huge sum which might have been attractive to a king about to wage war. Mordecai hears of the edict, dons sackcloth and mourns, weeps and wails. Eventually he gets word to Esther who apparently is unaware of all this. And he sends a message to Esther that she should go into the king’s presence and beg for mercy for her people. She sends back a message that it is not allowed to go into the king’s presence on pain of death unless he lifts his golden scepter, and it has been thirty days since the king has called for her. Mordecai replies in words that are the centerpiece of the book: Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? (4:14 TNIV) Now Esther becomes an initiator. She takes the risk of going to the king uncalled for. He raises his scepter and asks to know her request and offers even half of the kingdom. Cleverly Esther invites the king to a feast and includes Haman, whom she now knows is the enemy of the Jews, and so confident is she of her plan that she has the feast already prepared. At the feast Xerxes asks her again what she wants. And she requests another feast the next day at which she will make her request fully known. During the night, providentially, the king cannot sleep and lulls himself by having his journal read to him. When he discovers that Mordecai has saved his life he asks what has been done for him. “Nothing,” is the answer. During the same night, ironically, Haman is boasting to his family and friends how honored he has been to be the only person invited to Esther’s banquet and yet how incensed he is that Mordecai will not honour him. So he arranges to have a gallows built to hang Mordecai and plans to get the king to agree to his death the next morning. He goes early to the court and just as he enters the king asks, “What should be done for a person the king delights to honor.” Haman is so egotistical that he thinks it must be a reference to him. So he says, “Have him ride on the king’s horse and have someone go through the streets ahead and say, ‘This is the person the king honors.’” “Well, you do it, for Mordecai.” Haman is humiliated and his friends that night tell him he is finished. He is rushed off to the second feast where Esther tells it all. “Grant me my life….And spare my people….For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.” Esther reveals her true identity as a child of God, and a worshipper of Yahweh. “Where is he ‐ the man who has dared to do such a thing?” asks the king. Esther answers, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman.” (7:3,4,5,6 TNIV) The king is enraged and leaves the room to figure out what he will do because the laws of the Medes and Persians cannot be changed. Meanwhile Haman falls on Queen 65 Esther reclining on her couch and pleads for mercy. The king comes in and finds him molesting his queen, so he thinks, and orders him to be hanged on his own gallows, the gallows Haman had prepared for Mordecai. Mordecai then takes Haman’s place as second‐in‐command, just as Joseph was in Egypt – a Jew, a believer, placed in the second most powerful position in the nation. Esther then persuades the king to arrange for a second edict, written this time by Mordecai, to allow the Jews to defend themselves on the day appointed for their destruction a day selected by throwing a dice (the pur, thus the celebration of the Jewish feast of Purim). The first edict could not be revoked but the second allowed the Jews to arm themselves to prevent the carrying out of the first edict. Which is what happened. How is work, our work, providential? First, providence means that God is involved in our work and workplace for God’s own good purpose. This happens in events, circumstances and even in the choices made by human beings. But it does not mean that human beings are helpless pawns being manipulated by a sovereign God. Human beings are to a limited extent free agents, responsible and accountable for their actions. So providence is counterpoised with the following errors: deism (God is detached from the present workings); fatalism (which depersonalizes human action in impersonal forces) and chance/luck. Providence asserts the directional and purposeful character of human history and personal history. It means that God is more interested in our life‐purpose than we are. This should stimulate confidence, gratitude and faith. It means that God is determined to bring the whole human story to a worthy end should inspire hope and risk‐taking. Thus even mistakes get incorporated into God’s overall purpose. Career decisions are rarely irrevocable. And the weight of decision‐making is reduced. We are saved from arrogant egoism and cringing fear. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher once noted that life is lived forward but understood backwards. Second, providence means that where we are is not accidental and that we should know where we are. Providence means that our placement, family background, educational opportunities, even our physical or emotional handicaps, the talents and abilities we bring to the workplace, are not “accidental but part of God’s good and gracious purpose for us. Esther was placed providentially in the court as queen. She was in exile. And yet strategically placed to be an influence. The Greek version of this book includes her prayers in which she says to the Lord how much she loathes the symbols of her position and the bed of the uncircumcised. We too are sent out Monday morning into schools, universities, hospitals, businesses, God has seeded is into significant locations “for such a time as this.” Probably we will not see this “at the time” just as Joseph did not discern the providential purpose of his being rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery in Egypt and then being raised to senior governmental responsibility until much later: “It was not you who sent me here, but God” Joseph said to his brothers (Gen 66 45:6; 50:20). Oswald Chambers says, “Never allow the thought I can be of no use where I am because you certainly cannot be of any use where you are not.” Winston Churchill once remarked, “There comes a special moment in everyone’s life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission – a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he finds greatness. It is his finest hour.” Our sovereign God is at work breaking into time and inviting us to seize the moment, celebrate the possibility and respond to his gracious intervention. He is saying that there is something beautiful going on, as the Professor in Ecclesiastes notes (3:11). There is something aesthetic that calls forth “Aha” or “Oohs and ahs” in us, dare we say something “holy” in being present with the present. But this hint about the beautiful moment points rather sadly to its opposite: not being present, letting the present slip by without seeing its beauty, or being so future oriented, so much on to the next thing you are going to do – in business or in our personal planning ‐ that you are not really present at all – something I have personally wrestled with. The notes of Jean‐Pierre de Causade, a Jesuit spiritual director in the eighteenth century, were originally entitled, Self‐Abandonment to Divine Providence. In the translation from the French he says, “The sacrament of the present moment requires us to do our duty whatever it may be, a carrying out of God’s purpose for us, not only this day, or this hour, but this minute, this very minute – now.” 67 The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job David Strong “In our age, nearly everything we confront on a daily basis is either already under control or it is viewed as something to bring under control and to be made use of. In direct opposition to this way of seeing, interpreting, and taking up with things are the creation stories of the Bible and the vision of wild creation in Job. Wild things in these passages do not need to be rearranged, 'developed,' or made use of before they reach the fullness of their being. Wild things in these passages are already as good as they can be, on their own. Recognizing them in their own right, pausing and lingering unselfconsciously before them, makes one receptive to afresh and refreshing vision of our existence. “ It is easy to blame the way we dominate nature in our age on our Greek and Judaeo‐Christian roots. Yet no one in these earlier traditions would have predicted that we would interpret the texts of these traditions the way we do, since there are so many other possible interpretations of them. For instance, none of the Hebrews would have guessed that the “message” of the creation story in Genesis 1 would have been heard by the movers and stompers of our age as: “In the beginning God formed a big ball of raw material. On the sixth day He put humans on the Earth and said, 'I didn't quite finish the job. Have at it! I hate to see it go to waste. Build! Reshape it. Develop it into something.' “ Why, then, do we read this kind of interpretation back into the tradition? Thoughtfully reconsidered, our Greek and Judaeo‐Christian traditions, even our American pioneering tradition, may teach us a great deal about meeting the deeper issues of our age more resourcefully. We can learn in them of a more respectful way of being with nature and natural beings than we commonly display today. For example, The Odyssey, as full of conquest and an adversarial relation to nature as it is, can, nonetheless, teach us much about the shortcomings of mistaking power as residing in our own right arm. The Bible, David Strong is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana. He recently earned his Ph.D. from Stony Brook. He has essays forthcoming in the journal Research in Philosophy and Technology and in the volume Falling in Love With Wisdom. 171 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
especially, has the power to offer alternatives to the currently reigning views of nature. A fundamental issue of our age is whether or not we will come to terms with technology and its promise to provide a good life. Technology promises to make life good through the consumption of commodities, but this commodity‐fueled happiness, although glamorously 68 attractive, is flawed at its core. If we have an alternative understanding of what is good in life and of what makes us whole, we can willingly relinquish consumerism and may adopt ways of life more in harmony with the earth. The Bible, generally, and the Book of Job in particular, through poetic illumination of the goodness of creation and the possibility of wholeness, help us to envision this alternative way, thus enabling us to meet this issue of technology and to come to inhabit the earth in ways that make sense spiritually and ecologically. I Nowhere does the Bible teach what Albert Borgmann, in Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life, calls the promise of technology: Technology promises to bring the forces of nature and culture under control, to liberate us from misery and toil, and to enrich our lives…. [More accurately], implied in the technological mode of taking up with the world there is a promise that this approach to reality will, by way of the domination of nature, yield liberation and enrichment.1 If Borgmann's language of the “promise” of technology is correct, we can see that our culture has made an implicit covenant with technology. Cast into Bible‐like terms, the covenant might read something like this: “If you dominate nature, you will live a free and prosperous life.” How? By becoming liberated from suffering and toil and by being provided with all the fruits of the earth. One need only consider the technological achievements of the last century or glance at a few advertisements to realize how plausible and attractive this promise seems. However, many people have serious reservations about this technologically‐fueled view of freedom and happiness, and those reservations often arise because of the teachings of the Bible. There we are not told to consume in order to be happy, but we are admonished that we cannot serve both God and mammon. Following the promise of technology, we seek the blessed life through items that are possessed and under our control. We have them at will. Yet the items most traditional religions point to are usually beyond the will, and much religious language focuses on the renunciation of control and on an openness to events that are beyond our control, that are more and other than we expected. Hence, religious language is the language of inspiration, insight, healing of spirit, gift, 1
Albert Borgmann, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 36. 172 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
creation, blessing, miracle, and grace. In contrast, the language of commodities is that of bargain, possession, and fingertip control. The only trait that the promise and goods of technology shares with the promise and blessings of the Bible is people's devotion to them as ways of life. 69 Still, one may wonder if the Judaeo‐Christian tradition is too other‐worldly to provide a coherent view of our relation to the earth. Taken literally, nothing seems more unnatural, more earth‐denying, than miracles or God's intervention in history. It may seem that the Judaeo‐
Christian tradition, trying to avoid idolatry, deliberately downplays the importance of “things.” To the contrary, the Book of Job gives us an opportunity to see how important things (and in Job it is “wild things”) are in at least one strand of the biblical tradition. II The Book of Job is better thought of as a meditation on the character of divine power rather than as a meditation on divine justice or as an attempt to justify God. Divine power is assumed to be manifested as the exercise of coercive power, meaning the ability to manipulate, control and, generally, overpower nature and natural beings. God seems to be able to coerce anything at will, when, as it turns out, power experienced as genuinely divine is found from an entirely unsuspected direction. In the prologue and epilogue of the Book of Job, written in a mythological style, God's power is made out to be the exercise of this coercive power overpowering creation. God grants permission to Satan to bring on calamity and to touch the body of Job; God restores Job's body, brings him new children, and doubles his wealth. Both Job and his friends assume God exercises this kind of power over creation. Because God is in control, both the good and the evil, the rewards and the punishments, that come to humans are justly deserved by them. The righteous and good prosper, while the wicked are punished and perish. Were not such the order of the creation, something would be wrong with God in terms either of goodness or of the power to control. Job's friends read Job's condition through their theory of God and the universe. Since Job is being punished and is perishing, great wickedness must have occurred before. More deeply, the Book of Job shows the friends to be worried about themselves. Job's affliction presents them with a possibility of human existence to which they are vulnerable, one they wish to avoid, and they do so by setting Job apart. There must be something wrong with him.2 At first, Job, too, tries to avoid any new way of being by rationalizing the first calamity that befalls him. But the second calamity will not 2
For my reading of the Book of Job, I'm indebted to Henry Bugbee and John Lawry, my teachers at the University of Montana. I am also indebted to Simone Weil, “The Love of God and Affliction,” Waiting for God (New York: Capricorn Books, 1959), pp. 117‐136. 173 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
70 allow him to stand at a safe distance, as his friends do. Suffering now touches his body inescapably as affliction, rendering this possibility of being undeniable for him. Job, who maintains and defends his integrity, cannot deny this possibility of a way of being that should be impossible within the framework of a good God exerting overpowering control of creation. The greatness of Job is his unwillingness to accept a false answer. Yet, even in these impossible conditions, he still believes that an answer is possible, and it is only this possibility that keeps him alive. Somehow, the revelation of the voice out of the whirlwind makes all the difference to Job. The character of this difference needs careful analysis. First, according to the text, Job repents of having “uttered what I did not understand” (Job 42:3). The text, thus, implies he understood something through direct acquaintance, rather than understanding merely in conformity with the wisdom of the tradition. Secondly, Job has been healed, although the meaning of that healing remains a question. Merely having his sores removed and recovering his wealth would not fully heal Job, a man whose integrity has been challenged. To the contrary, these restorations are in fact unnecessary for a true healing of Job's deepest condition. So, thirdly, if a true healing takes place, it does so because Job is somehow answered. His friends recognize his having been healed and having been answered. Finally, whatever answer Job finds in the revelation, it is certainly not from an expected direction, not from a God exerting absolute control, explaining (and justifying) to Job why he suffers. If this is good drama, that is, if a warrant for Job's affirmation and healing is generated in what comes to pass in the Book of Job, then there must be something that occurs in the revelation that answers a person of Job's integrity in his condition. It seems unintelligible that such a person could be healed through an overwhelming display of coercive power. Humiliation is not what heals Job; that would only compound his affliction. We need, then, to attend closely to the address to Job out of the whirlwind. This speech begins by invoking creation, and it remains throughout a kind of creation story. We notice, surprisingly, that the view of creation expressed in this revelatory speech is not anthropocentric: Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the Thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life… ? (Job 38:25‐26). Neither is sentient life the center of creation. “Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?” (Job 38:41). In fact, this is not even a biocentric creation. “Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?” (Job 38:37‐38). It would be more accurate to say that this is a world without center, where things are as they are without reason. 174 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage. For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them. It deals 71 cruelly with its young, as if it were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear … (Job 39:13‐
16). If this is a creation where intention is absent, it could not be, then, an order that aims at touching Job with affliction. The coercive, heedless force of nature is indeed heedless. Fine, one may rejoin. The world may be this way, but only at the price of its divine or religious character. The problem of evil is resolved through a dissolution of its premises. Indeed, we may expect Job to take just such a position. But such resignation on the part of Job would preclude the possibility of remaining open to what can speak to his condition. At the same moment that these negating steps are carried out in the revelation, something unexpected is coming to be. We see in fact that the rain, which falls on the desolate ground, also makes “the bud of the tender herb to spring forth” (Job 38:27‐KJV). Here we are not presented with a biocentric universe, but with poetry. The effect of this line is not unlike that of a passage near the ending of James Welch's novel Winter in the Blood, in which, after a long, dry summer in the enormous distances of the Montana plains, a miserable, estranged, and resigned Indian finds a healing touch in a rainstorm, and, thereby, a determination to live: Some people, I thought, will never know how pleasant it is to be distant in a clean rain, the driving rain of a summer storm. It's not like you'd expect, nothing like you'd expect.3 Similarly, we are not simply left with the characterization of the ostrich suggesting the nonsense of creation. “When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and the rider” (Job 39:18). Things have a dignity that calls on us to behold them: “Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3). The vision of Job is essentially a vision of wilderness and wild things: “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?” (Job 39:26‐27). Wild country and wild things are what they are, quite apart from human assistance. In a culture where things are viewed as needing to be reshaped, such character is seen either as so much raw material or worthless. “What good is it?” “I hate to see it go to waste.” And yet the fresh vision of things in their created wildness, in their being what they are, quite apart from both being for us or being assisted by us, is what, I take it, heals Job. What is this fresh vision of things stripped of their everydayness? Allowing creatures to be, not being over them, is the distance from which creatures appear and are acknowledged in their own right in Job's vision. Yet to say this is not yet to enact it. The insights Job comes 3
James Welch, Winter in the Blood (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 172. 175 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
72 to are known neither by theoretical speculation nor by observation and the method of induction. These are insights that Job comes to; he could not have grasped them at first because he lacks both the preparation that readies him and the experience that funds these insights. Accordingly, Job's friends may not have heard the voice from the whirlwind at all, though they may well have registered its significance in the eyes and face of Job. It follows that the reader is in this position as well. We may not be ready for or have had the kind of experience that would yield the disclosures presented to Job by the voice from the whirlwind. Certainly, the answer is not arrived at by either a careful analysis of the text alone or by following some proper procedure. Rather, the revelation and its healing effect on Job are set forth as something to be realized in experience through living the questions themselves. For instance, what about Leviathan and Behemoth, those strange monsters? Why are they included in the whirlwind's revelation? What effect do they have on the healing of Job? Once, on a hike, I startled a massive bull moose in a small meadow. After the initial jump, which alerted me to his presence, his head swung around, with what I imagined was anger and possibly contempt, to eye this undersized creature who had surprised him. “Behemoth” leaped to my mind. I was ready to drop my pack and run for safety, yet I found myself overtaken with awe and fascination. Not the fearful, but the beautiful, held me there. Delicate yellow pollen dusted lightly the gleaming black hair of his powerful shoulders and back. Such an experience may transport us to a different place and let us know all is well. Job is healed, I believe, because he is restored to the goodness of creation, a sense of goodness resonant with the Genesis 1 creation story. He is restored to this sense of creation through a vision of wild things in their own right. Divine power here is not the exercise of coercive power over creation. The mightiness of divine power is seen by what it can do in a spiritual way: healing this person who is suffering affliction. This power is known not by theoretical belief, but by direct acquaintance. The sense of being found in Job is a staying with creation and creatures. In fact, it is the renewing and restoration of the with‐relation, where divine power is most manifest. Wild things in Job have re‐creating powers. Stripped of their everydayness, they stand out in their createdness, their re‐created goodness. They are discovered in their own right as independent, wild, wondrous, and, as wild, not susceptible to possession. In their re‐created presence, they reach Job in a way he can acknowledge as good, in a way that recreates him, too. Through his response to the re‐creating powers of wild things, Job finds himself created again and made whole. It is through the re‐creating address of wild things that Job finds his way into being again, or, perhaps, for the first time. The sense of being here is a sense of restored creation, restored for both creatures and self. It is important to see that the re‐creating powers of things do not play the only role in Job's enlightenment. Adversity plays an essential 176 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
73 role, too. Affliction makes him confront in an undeniable way possibilities of being with which he would otherwise be too patient, as he was in the prologue. In this way, affliction forces the assumptions of his thinking to come forward and be; challenged. Ultimately, it empties and opens him to creation. Affliction readies him to hear the re‐creating address of wild things. III How can this sense of restored wholeness and restored creation, this healing, inform our existence in today's world? Before headway can be made here, we must be sure that we have come to terms with another, earlier way that the wild land and wild things appealed to many of our ancestors. The wild country of the American West confronted the pioneers as an adversary to be struggled with and overcome. Usually, we view the pioneers' relationship to the land as consistent with the domination of nature in our time. Indeed, theirs was a time when the wild land was brought under control and tamed. So, just as it is easy to blame our attitudes toward nature on the Bible, so, too, it is easy to blame them on the pioneers. However, the conquest of nature at this early time is very different than the domination of nature in the twentieth century.4 As we will see later, this difference is most tellingly true with regard to the loss in our century of an awareness of the divine, recreating powers of things. Wild things and the wild land still had these re‐creating powers for the pioneers, even when they did not formally understand this to be the character of divine power. They, nonetheless, discovered the goodness of creation, a renewal that kept pioneering alive and defined, as genuine pioneers, those who were capable of participating in it. The novelist‐historian Marie Sandoz's account of her pioneering father in Old Jules exemplifies the most profound attraction of the wild country. What we find in her narrative account is not merely a record of actions, but a portrayal of a man whose ambivalence, impetuousness, and violence might have time and again carried him away back to Zurich, or on to Canada, Mexico, or South America had not the land itself (he had no religious convictions) claimed him, and renewed and deepened its claim upon him after each estrangement: But the land straight ahead, The Flats, as the Hunter cook called it, was absolutely bare, without a house, even a tree‐a faint yellow‐green that broke here and there into shifting aspects of small shimmering lakes, rudimentary mirages. There, close enough to the river for game and wood, on the hard land that must be black and fertile, where corn and fruit trees would surely grow, Jules saw his house and around him a community of countrymen and other home seekers, refugees from oppression and poverty, intermingled in peace and contentment. There would grow up a place of orderliness, with sturdy women and strong children to swing the hayfork and the hoe.5 4
5
Borgmann, pp. 182‐185. Marie Sandoz, Old Jules (New York: Hastings House, 1955), p. 19. 177 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
74 Yet even within a few days he gets discouraged: Suddenly he flung the dark liquid and cup from him, and piled his plough, his axe, and his spade into the wagon. In the morning he would go back, not to Estelle and Knox county, to Neuchatel and to Zurich… .6 Still renewal occurs that very night. A wagon with a husband and a pregnant wife emerges from the shadows. Jules, who was trained as a doctor in Switzerland, is called upon by the circumstances to deliver the baby. In a later incident, Jules himself, like Job, suffers calamity. As his two friends pull him to the top of a sixty foot well, which he just finished digging, the rope breaks and his foot is crushed in the fall. Eighteen days later, as the young Dr. Walter Reed prepared to amputate the foot, the nearly unconscious Jules came alive: His gaunt cheeks flushed a violent red under his beard, his bloodshot eyes glittering. “You cut off my foot, doctor, and I shoot you so dead you stink before you hit the ground.”7 Against his better medical judgment, Reed did not amputate. Five months later, returning to the site of his homestead, Jules thought of himself as a “miserable cripple.” His spirit broken for pioneering, he was unwilling even to go back to Europe: Even an animal hid from its kind when injured…. He did not see the brilliant web of prairie sun, the tinge of green spreading over the buffalo‐grassed hills, the antelope bounding away from the trail, to stop curiously on a knoll when there was no pursuit…. There was nothing but his clumpy foot…. Suddenly a little valley opened before them, with a long, thin strip of sod stretching over the prairie; a bug‐like speck that was a team with a ploughman creeping along the edge. Jules saw that and sat up.8 Here we see the land bringing Jules back to life. A few pages later, relating a reunion with his brother, Sandoz writes, “And the world became a good place once more, even for a man with a bad ankle.”9 This good world and his affirmation of it echoes the Genesis 1 creation story. So, here we see the kinship of Jules with Job, both of whom suffer and yet regain a sense of the goodness of things. Though he had periods of estrangement, Jules never lost this faith in land to the very end. As a lifelong acquaintance said of him: There was something of the prophet in him, a prophet who remains to make his words deed. He is rooted in a reality that will stand when the war and its hysteria are gone, a sort of Moses working the soil of his promised land.10 However, this does not mean he was always respectful of others or other things. Often he could be quarrelsome and ruthless with others, 6
Ibid., p. 22. Ibid., p. 43. 8
Ibid., p. 57. 7
75 9
Ibid., p. 61. Ibid., p. 406. 10
178 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
especially women, and cruel to his family. His egotism was unsurpassable. Yet, in old age, even his family members do win acknowledgment in small but telling ways: He dropped his hand on Mary's rounded shoulder, stooping under the weight of hoe and fork. “The trees look fine, plums ripening on rows a quarter mile long. A couple of years and we'll have one of the finest plum and cherry orchards in the state,” Jules predicted. And now, at last he said we.11 What has been won through here is a kind of American Odyssey. Through an encounter with adversity and adversarial nature a selftranscendence and redefinition of things takes place. The land, other things, and other people are met in ways that steadily deepen the relationships. They change from adversaries to partners, to beings with dignity and worth welcoming in their own right. Yet this redefinition and self‐transcendence does not come easily. It comes about with struggle and hardship, and through conditions of necessity that exact from one what one would not give them otherwise. The land leaves its hard mark upon them. As another character in Old Jules says: One can go into the wild country and make it tame, but, like a coat and a cap he can never take off, he must always carry the look of the land as it was. He can drive the plough through the nigger wool, make fields and roads go every way, build him a fine house and wear the stiff collar, and yet he will always look like the grass where the buffalo have eaten and smell of the new ground his feet have walked on.12 One must not read these lines romantically but closer to what war means for Heraclitus. Some died. Some went insane. Others left embittered and with animosity toward old friends. Some became heroes. IV In today's world, unlike that of Job's, we have medical, fire, and earthquake insurance. If our skin breaks out with sores, we expect a physician to help. Expecting a further answer from God seems similar to expecting an answer from astrology. A foot and ankle injury may call for an ambulance, but possibly not much of the virtue of endurance. We have, indeed, at least for the present time, been relieved by science and technology of many of the harsh conditions of life, and I, for one, am thankful for this change in the human condition. However, without the struggle with these threatening conditions of human existence, without the desolate, looming, wild land, for instance, we seem to have lost touch with the possibility of healing and renewal in a profound spiritual sense. Misery and toil were good for the full maturing of human beings in past ages. In this age, what seems to have disappeared 76 11
12
Ibid., p. 388. Ibid., p. 375. 179 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
is the reliance on any powers other than human ones in order to be healed. Should we seek out and live with these conditions in the present so that divine power can again flourish? Even if such a return were possible, it would not be intelligible or desirable. In the prevailing technological culture, what we do not seem to have discovered in a consequential way is the manifestation of divine power in any alternative mode. Most people look forward to‐not many turn down‐a high and rising standard of living. More money means more commodities. The acquisition of more commodities means we will fill our time, fill our human condition, with objects that are designed just for us and that are completely under our control. So, neither in coming to terms with frustrating, harsh conditions nor in seeking to live a good life does the divine power disclosed in the Book of Job play an important role in consumer life. That is not to suggest that this state of affairs is as it ought to be. For all its thrills, frills, and glamour, consumption as a way of life seems to evoke only the more superficial qualities of our humanity and leave us with voracious, restless, insatiable appetites. Such a life is bound, now and then, to lose its shiny appeal and show its emptiness. Dread in the face of this nothingness calls for a different way to be with our technology. We stand in need of a different re‐creation, healing, and renewal than the one we receive from modern medicine. In spite of all our excitement we have become disengaged. We have become disengaged from things, isolated from others, and lead unexamined lives. Healing this with‐relation is where Job and other works in the tradition have much to offer us. V How can this healing take place in our time and in a way appropriate to the benign changes in the human condition? Where can we know of the re‐creating powers of things by direct acquaintance and not just what we have overheard from the tradition? Job is healed of his affliction by a vision of wild things and a wild creation. On this side of the Enlightenment, we seem to need a spiritual healing without having to pass through the fires of affliction and genuine suffering. In our age, nearly everything we confront on a daily basis is either already under control or it is viewed as something to bring under control and to be made use of. In direct opposition to this way of seeing, interpreting, and taking up with things are the creation stories of the Bible and the vision of wild creation in Job. Wild things in these passages do not need to be rearranged, “developed,” or made use of before they reach the fullness of their being. Wild things in these 77 passages are already as good as they can be, on their own. Recognizing them in their own right, pausing and lingering unsetfconsciously before them, makes one receptive to a fresh and refreshing vision of our existence. Such a transcendent (but not nonmaterial) encounter with wilder‐ 180 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
ness and wild things can happen in our time, too, because we have voluntarily not brought everything under control, having for some time now protected from this unsettling, rearranging process, wild places in the form of legal wilderness areas, wildlife reserves, and national parks. The experience of the profound goodness of these things and places is found in the inspired and enthusiastic accounts of many people. Thoreau, for instance, speaks of such consummatory encounters with wild things as the tonic of wildness. We see such encounters as Thoreau greets sunrise, sunset, the first signs of spring, a balmy spring day or a delicious evening. It is manifest in wild things: midwinter pickerel, geese, owls, nighthawks, and even, paradoxically, the rooster's crow. Yet there are other kinds of encounters with this tonic of wildness, this healing, restoring, refreshing, and invigorating quality of wild things. Often one cannot say exactly where one has become reacquainted with animating nature or the tonic of wildness in a consummatory way. Hikers sometimes carry it out of the wild like the yellow pollen fallen on the back of the moose. Colin Fletcher tells of arriving at the end of a road and feeling he had gone as far as someone could go: So I stood there looking out beyond the edge of the world. Except for a thick wall, I am no longer sure what I saw, but I know it was wild, wild impossible country…. All at once, without warning, two men emerged from that impossible country. They carried packs on their backs, and they were weatherbeaten and distilled to bone and muscle. But what I remember best of all is that they were happy and whole. Whole and secure and content… . I talked to them briefly in considerable awe…. Then they walked away and I was left, still awestruck, looking out once more in the huge black mysterious wilderness. The awe I felt that day still hangs in memory. But my present self dismisses it. I know better. Many times in recent years I have emerged from wild country, happy and whole and secure and content, and I have found myself face to face with astonished people who obviously felt they were 13
at the edge of the world. What do we make of such experiences? Thoreau sees that such encounters and an openness to such encounters are missing in those around him who are so busy building America, building the technological society. This is why much of his writing in Walden is criticism directed against this endless, pointless building. Such pointlessness, he thinks, makes life vacuous and restless. On the other hand, his walks to the “holy land” are the awakening keynotes in his life, which harmonize everything for him. They are momentous events, which enable him to affirm his life in a way that would conform to Nietzsche's standard of the eternal return of the same. After speaking of such an encounter mythologically as visiting a noble family, Thoreau writes, “If it were not for families as this, I think I should move out of Concord.”14 78 13
14
Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker III (New York: Knopf, 1984), p. 5. Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” The Portable Thoreau, edited by Carl Bede (New York: Penguin, 1975), p. 323. 181 ‐ The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job
The tonic of wildness keeps him where he is in Concord, in life. Without it, the passage suggests, he would report the “meanness of life to the world”15 and move out of it. Just as significant, it keeps him from leaving this local, particular place with a proper name. The tonic of wildness serves both as foundation and as keystone for the building of the life Thoreau sees himself constructing. Unlike the building of his neighbors (who are not willing a world worth living in), this building has in view dwelling, living well in the here and now, inhabiting earth. What difference does it make? The appetite driven rationality of the technological existence keeps us on the go without ever getting anywhere. Wildness can bring us to a pause. It can enable us to affirm life. As a consequence, it teaches us to affirm life in the here and now, to make room for, and to be on the alert for, the experience of this tonic. Through an understanding of what is good in life, what is worth living for, and what won't play us false, we are enabled willingly to give over consumerism as a way of life, and we are persuaded to adopt gentler and more compassionate attitudes and ways toward the Earth and all its inhabitants. Since commodity production is no longer held as ultimate, the quality of our lives and the quality of the environment will not be seen in conflict with one another as they are now. The dissolution of this conflict will make the most significant gains for coming to inhabit the earth in a way that is at peace with it. Moreover, having a more compassionate attitude and simpler ways will help the cause of an altruistic regard for nature and natural beings where such altruism is called for, that is, when there is genuine conflict between natural beings and our own well being. Wilderness areas, wild places, and wild things seem to me to be rich metaphors for what we need in our time, a time which, in its systematic effort to get everything under control, threatens to exclude them altogether. We need things to counter our pointless, always overtaking, rushing about. We need a cynosure around which even the heavens turn. We need room in our lives for sacred places where and sacred times when we learn to be receptive of that which overtakes from behind, healing, enlivening, harmonizing, and enlightening us. “That man that does not believe each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way.”16 Not the Bible alone, but the Bible surely does, through its poetic illumination of goodness, the goodness of creation, and the possibility of a good world, yield insight into the wildness that preserves the world. 79 15
16
“Walden,” The Portable Thoreau, p. 344. “Walden,” The Portable Thoreau, p. 343. Theology Today Vol 48, No 2 (July 1991) 80 Gendered Work: Eve R. Paul Stevens One of the great things that has happened in my lifetime is the substantial liberation of women in the north and west of the globe to give leadership in politics, business, and even the church. But one thing seldom appreciated in all the celebrated liberation is that women have something distinctive to bring to the workplace and leadership. And it all started with Eve. There has been a lot of helpful research on the maturing of the women’s movement (and the corresponding men’s movement). As Jack Balswick notes the latest model is supported by research evidence that males and females are normatively different in: •
•
•
Moral decision‐making Styles of conversing and relating The basis on which one gains self‐esteem There is more to this than mere gender stereotyping. While gender stereotypes come from the media, modelling in the home, the church, and literature, we are dealing with something innate, something in the creative purpose of God. The specialness of femininity in the workplace is variously described as developing a web of relationships rather than seeing relationships in a hierarchical way – more complementary than competitive, being more sensitive to the emotional and relational tone of what is going on, processing information through the gut and responding intuitively rather than just rationally. Women tend to gain their self‐esteem from relationships; men from success in their work. So to explore the meaning of Eve in the earliest account of the human race is critical not only for how women work and what work means to women, but to the fact that men desperately need women not only in the home but in the workplace. In the beginning God made human being in two genders to resemble himself. God is a social unity of Father, Son and Spirit, a Being in communion. To be human is to be a being in communion. The second chapter of Genesis, sometimes called the “second creation story,” seems to answer an implied question, “Why does it take both male and female to be in the image of God?” In Genesis two the first negative word of judgement by God is a negation of human solitude: “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen 2:18). So God awakens in the man a desire for a partner by bringing all the lesser creatures to him for Adam to give names, which is an act of human sovereignty and creativity. The man looks at the hippo and says, “She has the constitution of a cement mixer but she simply will not do.” But for the man there was 81 no suitable partner to be found among the giraffes, crocodiles and lions. So God decides ‐ for that is the meaning of putting Adam to sleep ‐ to provide Adam with a suitable partner. It was God’s calling, not a human invention. And from his side, his rib – and this is a figurative account of a literal event – God makes the woman. As the father of the bride God brings her to the man and he cries, not “this is my lost rib” but “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23). That was the first hymn of praise in the Bible, a cry of relational joy in the presence of God: “At last” (roughly equivalent to “Hallelujah”). Therefore, says the narrator of the story, a man leaves father and mother, cleaves to his wife and the two become one flesh. And before sin messed up their relationship they were completely transparent with each other, “naked,” with true intimacy (Gen 2:25). But humankind needs not only intimacy but adventuresome enterprise. It is essential to affirm that women and women, from the point of view of Scripture are ontologically equal. •
Both men and women are made in the image of God. Neither men nor women are the image of God by themselves. Humankind is a social icon of the triune God. •
Both men and women are blessed by God (Genesis 1), hear the voice of God (Genesis 3 and the rest of the Bible) and are accountable to God (Genesis 3 and Acts 5:1‐11). The “chain of command” theology that God speaks to the husband, who controls (spiritually) the wife, who is over the children, is unbiblical and destructive. The husband is not responsible for his wife’s spirituality. Further some stereotypes to which Scripture is fraudulently used as support include the following: •
Men must always be the ones to take initiative; women are to be responders. But Moses’ wife intervened in circumcising their son and so saved his life (Exod 4:25). Ruth takes initiative in securing a husband. The Syrophoenician women insists on Jesus’ healing (Mk 7:24‐30). And Deborah is a superlative leader of Israel. •
In creation (Genesis 1‐2) men and women were ontologically (in their existence) equal, but the man was governmentally superior. Eve is Adam’s helper. But “helper” is a word used for God and there is no hint of subordination until sin enters and makes the husband the ruler of the wife, to which the wife responds by revolting (Gen 3:16). Further the text of Genesis 2:18 actually states that the women is equal and adequate to the man, not as subordinate. Creational Perspectives on Gender Distinctiveness 82 Men and women, as shown in Scripture, are whole persons, not immortal souls imprisoned in evil bodies (the Greek idea) but ensouled bodies or embodied souls. We do not have bodies but are bodies, have souls but are souls, have spirits but are spirits. Consequently our spiritualities – which are our wholistic response to the seeking God in all of life – does correspond in some measure with our bodyness. •
Women are receptors of the husband’s organ and seed. In the sexual act a woman allows a man to enter her person and she must feel safe and loved for this to be satisfying and not a violent act. •
Women are determined by a monthly cycle and live spiritually in a more circular way rather than in a linear way. As Nancy Ring affirms, “Archetypal symbols used to portray this cyclical aspect of feminine spirituality are the vessel, the circle, the moon and the ocean.” •
Women have wombs and breasts and are naturally nurturers. •
Women give birth. •
Men penetrate women in the sexual act. •
The male sexual organ is “outside” his body and he is identified differently, even more objectively, with his sexuality. He can penetrate a woman when he is angry or as an act of violence. Women have a more wholistic experience of their sexuality. •
Men, not determined by a monthly cycle, think act and live spiritually in a more linear way. Scripture on Gender Distinctiveness First, in creation the assignment to subdue the earth and take care of it (Gen 2:15) was given to the man even before the women was created (though in Gen 1:26‐28 that calling is given to humankind male and female). Does this mean that the male normally turns to the work of his hands and mind and the women, taken from man’s side, normally turns to relationships? Both men and women have a need for adventure that requires something of us and a need for intimacy, that someone will know us for ourselves. As Curtis and Eldredge note in The Sacred Romance ``the emphasis is perhaps more on adventure for men and slightly more on intimacy for women.`` But these needs can only be met in a relationship of heroic proportions – in covenant love of the Creator. Second, when the first humans sinned the curse is experienced by the man in frustration in his work, and with the woman, frustration in her relationship to the man. As the popular book 83 The Shack alludes, the man in his brokenness generally turns toward his work to find meaning, but finds it cursed ‐ “by the sweat of the brow you will eat your food”(Gen 3:19), and the woman turns to relationships, but finds them politicized: “Your desire will be for your husband” (not a positive desire but the same word as in Genesis 4:7 – the desire to overmaster) “and he will rule over you” (Gen 3:16). Is what God originally intended that masculine spirituality is expressed perhaps mainly towards one’s work, and feminine spirituality is expressed mainly in relationships? Third, the models of men and women in Scripture point generally but nor absolutely to women being “receptive,” “attentive,” and waiting, with the acceptance of pain as intrinsic to bringing forth life, while men are more initiatory and active. Mary, the mother of Jesus said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to our word”–the contemplative posture. The writings of such women mystics as Teresa of Avila and Katherine of Siena recognize the basic dynamics of prayer as response to the initiative of God which leads to union, a union frequently described in sexual imagery. In contrast men, such as Paul, Moses, David, are initiatory, and active. Yet Scripture shows men being contemplative – for example Moses and Paul – and women being initiatory – Esther, Junia, Deborah and Priscilla. Fourth, Scripture strongly affirms co‐spirituality, co‐humanity, interdependence, complementarity of male and female in work, life and spirituality. This means welcoming and depending upon the uniqueness of the other without requiring the other to become the same as oneself. In so doing we reflect the image of God, have a richer personal spirituality, richer work life and a richer experience of church leadership. We also demonstrate to the world something beautiful for God, prophetically pointing towards the new heaven and new earth, and demonstrating redemptively the work of Christ in healing the war of the sexes. So men and women need each other. Undoubtedly some of the failure in the world’s leadership, in the workplace as well as the home, is the failure to see Adam and Eve as complements. 84 Towards a More Biblical View of Matter LT Jeyachandran C. S. Lewis has remarked that if he had not turned to Christ from atheism, his other alternative was Hinduism. This comment is striking because he made it in the 1930’s, long before eastern religions and philosophies had come to be the influence they are today. Lewis perceived that only these three alternatives are possible: No God; Christ is God; All is God. My plea in this essay is to identify the most plausible of these three views that would bring about the right perspectives on work. In rather paradoxical ways, both the atheistic and Hindu views deny hierarchy in matter. Atheism is reductionistic and therefore sees nothing other than matter in the entire universe. Hinduism, on the other hand, elevates all of matter to the level of the divine. It will be clear as we go along that views that deny hierarchy in the nature of matter eventually end up introducing hierarchy in work and thus ultimately affect our attitude to work. It is not an accident that the Bible begins with a not‐so‐religious theme – a world of matter! It seems to be preoccupied, not with the creation of the spirit‐world, but with a world of matter to be ruled over by humans. A correct theology of matter and the material world must precede a correct theology of work within the confines of that world. The theology of matter as laid down for us in the Bible is thrown into relief as we contemplate the two competing views of matter. The Atheistic Perspective The view that matter is all that exists – the atheistic perspective – does not actually do matter a great deal of honor. This view does present the world’s diversity in all its glory, but it lacks a unifying framework that provides the basis for the harmony and interdependence we see in nature. The atheistic perspective cannot explain the beauty of the world because humans, who alone are capable of appreciating this beauty, are “nothing but molecules in motion,” in the words of the late Cornell astronomer, Carl Sagan. No specific purpose or meaning to the mosaic of the universe exists, except in a purely utilitarian sense – manipulation for the use of humankind. The reason for looking after nature is purely utilitarian again, and is stated as the survival of the human race. 85 The Pantheistic Perspective The New Age view holds that all reality – including the divine and the spirit ‐‐ is of one essence; thus, there need be no distinction within the different manifestations of matter – say between vegetables and humans. The world of matter we inhabit and we, the inhabitants, are all seen to be extensions of the divine essence. Thus, because the world is one with us in every sense, we need to look after our environment. Here again, nature is deified and is considered outside the pale of responsible manipulation. In elevating matter to the divine, popular Hinduism encourages devotees not only to worship forces of nature but also to worship implements of work. September 17 is an important date in the calendar of the engineering community in India (of which for many years, I was a part), when the community celebrates a festival called Vishwakarma Puja. This celebration involves worship (Puja) of the machines and other instruments. Unfortunately, those who worship these instruments are not necessarily the ones who wield them most efficiently! I must hasten to clarify the phrase responsible manipulation. Because of the hierarchy in creation, we have the capacity to order and reorder matter in order to achieve productivity and efficiency. However, we are to do it in a way that reflects the character of the Creator. In Gen 2:15, the two verbs (in the NIV) work and take care can be translated more accurately (but not in the English idiomatic sense) as serve and guard or keep. The idea is that we must do so in respect of nature and not in a commercial sense. In Contrast, the Trinitarian Perspective The Trinitarian understanding of creation straddles the truths in the two opposing views mentioned above. The real diversity in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit as distinct persons ‐ endorses the reality of the diversity in the universe. Similarly, the unity in the perichoresis, or total interpenetration within the Trinity, guarantees the underlying harmony and interdependence in the created order. Unity and diversity in the effect – creation ‐‐ requires unity and diversity in the Cause – the Creator. Thus, the Nature of Ultimate Reality underwrites the nature of created reality: 86 •
First, the doctrine of the Trinity emphasizes the real diversity in nature. At three points in the account of creation in Genesis 1, God divides existing reality – darkness from light, waters above the expanse from those below the expanse, dry land from the oceans. He calls light as day and darkness as night, dry land as earth, waters as seas. We can therefore conclude that the variety in creation is real, not illusory. •
Second, diversity in nature is not one of purposeless confusion triggered only by the evolutionist’s infamous dictum: matter + time + chance. Behind the mosaic of variety is the ordered, purposeful, and aesthetic design of unity, harmony, and beauty. It is not without reason that the evolutionist has been piqued by beauty ‐‐“The sight of a peacock’s feather makes me sick,”(Darwin). •
Third, the words transcendence and immanence upon the lips of the theologian acquire fundamental meaning when rooted in reality. Because of the sense of otherness within the Trinity – the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father – the doctrine of the transcendence of God is implicit within the Godhead without it needing to depend upon creation to be actualized. Similarly, perichoresis ensures the immanence of the Creator in his creation. When workers ascribe to popular views of matter, their views of the world and work are flawed. They tend to either deify or idolize work in two wrong types of ways. Either they worship instruments of work – so common in India – but do not conscientiously commit themselves to work, or they talk about work itself being worship and end up as workaholics. Results of an Atheistic Perspective on Matter •
•
First, one construes matter as a byproduct of a huge cosmic accident. Science has to make five major philosophical assumptions about the material world for its inception and development; however, none of these assumptions would really be possible in an unintelligent or purposeless world. 1. There is a real world. 2. The world functions in a reasonable way. 3. Humans have enough reason to comprehend the world. 4. Behind every finite event, there must be a cause. 5. The same cause must produce the same effect under the same conditions. Second, one’s approach to the world is not selfless. Whether regarding the environment or work, the motive is selfish – for the sake of descendants ‐ and pragmatic. Accountability to a Creator‐God does not figure in the thinking of the technocrat who takes this outlook. 87 • Third, one pursues unbridled growth with purely materialistic and economic considerations. Failure to believe in a Creator‐God obviates the need for accountability in the management of His creation – the only standards are then pure unbridled consumerism! Results of a Pantheistic Perspective on Matter •
First, one fears the responsible manipulation of the material world. Advanced civilizations that cradled polytheistic or pantheistic views of matter could not birth modern science and technology. •
Second, one adheres to a fatalistic approach to the world and carries a slothful and lackadaisical attitude to work. If matter is divine, we have to be under its authority, in some way. So, even the position of the planets – the basis for astrology – could influence our decisions. Thus we begin to lose a sense of moral responsibility. The next step is fatalism. •
Third, one idolizes the instruments of work. Stewardship is only possible with a hierarchy in the world of matter ‐‐ humans presiding over it as responsible stewards under their Creator. How Perspectives on Matter Affect Work Our view of the material world affects our outlook on work. If we adopt a deified idea of the world, we sink not only into idolatry but also into a patent disregard of the world. If we take the other idolatrous approach and believe the world is the only reality there is, we recklessly plunder our resources in the absence of the One to whom we are accountable. Conclusion The world of matter is God’s gift to humankind. We have a responsibility to manage it ‐‐ not only in the present world, but in the new heavens and the earth as well. A sound theology of matter has to be the bedrock of any involvement of God’s people in God’s world. 88 BUSINESS AS A CALLING AND PROFESSION: TOWARDS A PROTESTANT ENTREPRENEURIAL ETHIC Gordon Preece Note: adapted from the above title in Samuel Gregg and Gordon Preece, Christianity and Entrepreneurship; Protestant and Catholic Thoughts. (St. Leonards NSW: Centre for Independent Studies, 1999) printed here with permission. All Bible references are NRSV unless noted. Introduction A retired Protestant businessman told me recently how he had once spoken about business at an Anglican church only to be told by two young men that a Christian could not possibly be engaged in such a sordid activity. They would not be alone. A large number of Protestant Christians today would be uneasy with the claim that business can be an avenue of one's Christian calling. Given the bad press that many transnational business corporations get, and some deserve, this feeling is understandable. Yet, I will argue, it is ultimately misguided, representing an amnesia about one of Protestantism's great distinctives, the doctrine of the universal calling or vocation of all believers, in whatever biblically lawful places of service these believers find themselves. For some, this dis‐ease about business is justified rationally, drawing on a range of sources ‐ Scripture, Aristotle, Anabaptism, Marx. Some others simply have a gut reaction that business is only about filthy lucre. Still others “may say that the pastors, teachers, physicians and social workers ... may have callings but not the managers, marketers, financiers and accountants” (Lambert, 1). They are concerned that the title of “calling” may dignify a dirty business or perhaps offer a Christian blank check to a morally murky area. But are the former occupations intrinsically better than the latter? I think not. My aim in this paper is to retrieve the Protestant doctrine of vocation and the related concept of profession in order to affirm contemporary business and guide it in a more ethical and accountable direction. Some may be skeptical of the relevance of religion in general and Protestantism in particular to a global business environment. Yet Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order argues that the major world conflicts today are increasingly religiously and culturally based. This is even more pertinent post September 11. It is vital therefore to address this more explicit religious dimension in economic affairs and multinational corporations as we move out of our parochial Western, but implicitly religious secularism into regions where religion matters much more publicly, such as Islamic nations (McCann, 3). Many business people are spiritually rudderless in navigating the sometimes treacherous waters of transnational commerce. Increased secularization in public life has left the Protestant 89 doctrine of vocation unacknowledged, and increasing work mobility has rendered the notion of one vocation for life rare (Volf 1991, 105‐9; Preece 1998, 268‐69). Yet people hunger for a sense of personal and public coherence in an increasingly fragmentary postmodern society that tears them apart. They want to connect their real, ongoing selves with their changeable working roles. Recovering and revising the doctrine of vocation for a mobile society provides a richer resource for this task than contemporary new age quests for a spirituality of work. Currently, business people have difficulty connecting Sunday to Monday because they suspect their work is unspiritual and cannot be a calling (Lambert, 2; Preece 1995, 3‐5; Diehl, v, vi). Recovering a sense of vocation helps make the Sunday‐Monday connection real. In an effort to address this difficulty, I will begin with this article by engaging with our basic text, the Bible, concerning economics and business. In subsequent articles, I will address the development of the idea of vocation throughout church history and apply the concept to contemporary business and corporations. 1. The Bible, Wealth and Business Protestants are people of the Book. We will therefore look at the Bible for light on business. For anyone concerned with modern economic life who has not wrestled with the biblical materials that have shaped our society is not yet fully professional. The manager [etc.] who attempts to speak of business matters does not know whence certain of the deepest patterns in modern business derive unless that person knows something about Scripture (Stackhouse, 37). a. Differences Between Biblical “Wealth” and Contemporary Productive Capital Some people make a common assumption, backed by biblical texts, that engagement in wealth creation is not a valid biblical calling. Yet, we should beware of anachronistically reading back our economic structures into Scripture. Biblical anthropologist Bruce J. Malina notes how biblical and Mediterranean economies did not exist in themselves but were embedded in kinship and political contexts of belonging. Wealth and poverty, including the prohibition of interest for loans to Israelites (e.g. Deut. 23:19‐20), were evaluated by whether they brought honor or shame in kinship and political terms. Jim Halteman, an Anabaptist economist (a more anti‐capitalist Protestant group), notes that: [A] no‐growth subsistence orientation ... leads naturally to strong admonitions against accumulated wealth and to a concentrated focus on income distribution questions rather than production questions ... Not until AD 1000 did capital inventions and innovative processes begin to expand production in ways that caused some to think of continued growth as a possibility (55‐58). Reformed theologian John Schnieder (24) agrees. Ancient economic systems failed to create freedom and wealth for the majority. They were top‐down, trickle up, autocratic systems, profitable for a few. Poverty was seen as something always with us. The idea of arming people to eliminate it, rather than merely giving alms to alleviate it, is relatively recent. The new 90 political order of democracy and economic order of capitalism gave many people unprecendented wealth and control of their circumstances, despite continuing deficiencies. However, as Halteman (62‐63) wisely notes western consumer junkies are not let off the hook: It would be inappropriate to downplay the sharp condemnation of wealth in Scripture simply because productive wealth is now more common than hoarded wealth. The danger of idolatry is present in all times. However, ... it is inappropriate to condemn a wealthy business person today by using the anti‐wealth passages of Scripture if his wealth is accumulated in productive tools for socially desirable output and he successfully resists the temptations of being rich ... In reaction to those who link today’s productive wealth to the hoarded wealth of the first century (and thus oppose it), the Christian business person often seeks scriptural texts, usually in Proverbs, to show that Scripture is not anti‐wealth. In its extreme forms, this view becomes an individualistic “health and wealth” gospel (God wants you wealthy!) which brings about a consequent reaction from South American and other liberation theologians. Though understandable given their contexts, neither approach understands the whole biblical context in a balanced way. In determining whether we’re being productive for the kingdom or hoarding our wealth, a key question is, “What has God called us to?” It must be answered in a corporate not individualistic way, also considering our local and global context and connections. b. Genesis ‐ God's Great Risk on Human Dominion Over Creation To understand the whole biblical perspective on business and wealth it is best to quickly work our way through its main forms of literature, law, prophets, wisdom, gospels, and epistles from beginning to end. In Genesis God is depicted in personal, relational, almost entrepreneurial terms as “The God Who Risks” (Sanders). God ventures on a partnership with humanity ‐ God bets on humanity, above all the humanity of Jesus. Most of all, God risks by making a distinct creation and a free humanity to rule it, each with its own identity. Genesis 1 depicts God's delight in the sheer extravagance of creation and creativity and his invitation to humanity to exercise “dominion with delight” (Schnieder). As Tolkien says, we are “sub‐
creators,” imaging God by developing and keeping the earth (Gen 1:26‐28; ch. 2). In Genesis, the image of God and dominion is ascribed to all. Without this democratized dominion, modern technologies or economies are inconceivable. The dominion or cultural mandate unleashes the universal creativity and initiative of every man and woman. However, this God‐given sense of initiative is soon directed away from creation in a futile quest for infinite, divine prerogatives (Gen 3:1‐7). Work and birth both became literally hard labor (Gen 3:16‐19). And yet the mandate to develop the earth is renewed, though modified, through Noah (Gen 9:1‐17). Humans were made to be enterprising, entrepreneurial beings, in partnership with God and each other, even if fallen. 91 c. The Exodus and Jubilee Laws of Economic Liberation Unfortunately, unlike Israel, Egyptian rulers believed dominion was only theirs. Like most ancient civilizations, theirs was built on the backs of slaves (in this case Hebrews). God's demonstration of dominion over the Nile and the Red Sea in liberating Israel from Egypt ended their exploitation and opened up the possibility of true dominion over creation again in an Edenic “land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8 NRSV). Israel's laws are extrapolations of the Exodus, the enshrining of freedom and democratic dominion into the very fabric of its social and economic life. However, forms of economic domination over others’ means of production or land soon arose. But the Jubilee laws were developed to counter it. While neither socialistic nor capitalistic, their vision of justice, individual liberty, irrevocable property rights and banking, lending, and productivity probably has more in common with democratic capitalism, at its best, than proposed alternatives. The problem is that capitalism has still to be properly democratized, according to jubilee principles. God liberated Israel into a life of extravagant productivity. He was the Creator God, but if they forgot God and their less fortunate fellows in their newfound prosperity, and worshipped wealth and other gods, their prosperity would soon vanish (Deut 8:7‐20). This loss happened; they were exiled into landlessness for forgetting God as the source of their salvation and its outward sacrament ‐ land and material blessing. d. Prophets and Profits Many today assume that Israel's prophets were against profits. Numerous texts, especially in Amos, thunder God's wrath at the oppression of the poor. Yet Amos does not condemn delight in the good things of life in themselves, but rather the people's narcissism and callous indifference to the poor (Amos 6:1‐7). Instead of practicing Exodus principles of material and social liberation and solidarity, they adopted an Egyptian way of life; thus, they were to be judged and exiled. However, God's people would return, refined, to unprecedented fertility and abundance (Amos 9), and the liberty and justice of the Jubilee laws would be proclaimed (Is 61:1‐2). e. Proverbial Wisdom Perhaps the most business‐friendly biblical traditions are found in Proverbs. Proverbs provides a strong middle‐class ethic of family loyalty, hard work, and honesty grounded in respectful fear of God. Wealth is good, though tempting, while poverty is bad and tempting. “Give me neither poverty nor riches; ... or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or I shall be poor and steal, and profane the name of the Lord my God” (Prov 30:8‐9 NRSV). It is dangerous, however, to develop a rigid retributive scheme which turns generally descriptive proverbs into prescriptions claiming that honesty and hard work always pay. Job's friends pushed this literalistic line ‐ Job's suffering was due to sin. Satan the utilitarian claimed Job only feared God for what he could get. Job, however, held to his integrity and was finally 92 rewarded: first, with a vision of God's transcendence and creative and spontaneous delight in the diversity of creation with all of its inherent riskiness, mystery and freedom to flout rigid rules; and second, with much more than he lost before (Job 38‐42). Job’s story illustrates God’s wholistic, relational covenant with humanity, not a rigid utilitarian contract. f. Jesus and Wealth The common romantic picture of Jesus as a rustic Galilean peasant, possibly even a Che Guevera or Zealot revolutionary, does not fit the evidence. Jesus' birth was not only attended by the poor shepherds but also by the well‐off Eastern astrologers bringing expensive gifts (Mt 2:1‐12). Jesus belonged to a small business family of builders (Mk 6:3), part of the Galilean middle class of skilled workers (Hengel, 26‐27). While not rich, he probably had ample work on the big construction projects at the sophisticated Greco‐Roman city of Sepphorus a few kilometers away (Batey). Jesus' middle class‐ness probably helped him to move inclusively across classes, to identify with the poor crowds and the rich tax collectors alike. John Schneider (112‐13) highlights the implications of the locus of Jesus' incarnation, unappreciated by many contemporary ethicists and church leaders: Jesus' chosen place in his society as a tradesman reflects a certain goodness on property, on creative, productive work and on the sort of personhood that goes with it. The commercial system is thus, in a way, redeemed through his economic person .... He was a builder and a businessman, and this was apparently part of what expressed his perfection as a human being. Jesus “benefitted from the stability of peace, legal order, good road systems, stimulated cash flow and building projects ... that improved standards in his own region” (Schneider, 115). But the evil structures of Roman power included totalitarianism, militarism, slavery, extortionate taxation, and occasional genocide. To think that Christians must stand somehow outside the system of sinful economic structures, while taking sin seriously and the West's complicity in such structures, downplays two key facts: we cannot, and Jesus did not, simply slip out of the system; and the Creator God still sustains and blesses the sinful world. This observation of the life of Jesus discredits a rigid rule of perfectionism or withdrawal as a criterion for Christian economic and vocational life. Yet having earthed Jesus economically in the Galilean construction industry, it is important to stress that he primarily constructed God's kingdom and his main business was God's business (Lk 2:49). This fact relativizes all earthly activities, entrepreneurial or socially activist, even revolutionary, in the light of what Karl Barth calls “the revolution of God” against all unrighteousness (544‐5). Business is good, but it is not God. g. Jesus' First Followers Many assume that Jesus' followers were mainly poor. Though Jesus announced a Jubilee upon the Jewish and Gentile poor (Lk 4:18), his followers came from all walks of life. The first group, 93 the disciples, included middle‐class fishermen with their own boats and servants ‐ one of the biggest businesses on the lake – and a wealthy tax collector (Lk 5:29). To follow Jesus they left behind relative wealth and security. The second group who followed Jesus supported him and his disciples from their relatively well‐
off positions (Hengel, 27). These include “Peter's mother‐in‐law, Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, wealthy men like Joseph of Arimathea, and the wealthy women ‘who provided for them [Jesus and his disciples] out of their resources’” (Lk 8:3). A third group, the crowds, included poor and rich. The latter, tax collectors like Zaccheus (Lk 19) were people of high status inconsistency ‐‐ high in economic but low in social status. This opened them up to Jesus. Jesus took both the relatively privileged and underprivileged and created a rich and vibrant Jubilee community (Mk 10:28‐31). But if Jesus did not condemn the material world as evil, how should we interpret his life of poverty and his blessings upon the poor and woes to the wealthy (Lk 6:20‐27)? Catholics distinguish between the counsels of perfection for an elite, like Jesus and the disciples, who take vocational vows (of poverty, chastity and obedience) and ordinary Christians in “secular” jobs with families to support. However, Jesus’ commands are to be taught to all baptized disciples (Mt 28:20). Protestants often limit Jesus' poverty to the unique circumstances of his mission. His poverty is “not for us to imitate, but to venerate, and more loosely to emulate.” They see Gospel ethics as descriptive then, more than prescriptive now. Liberation theologians working with the poor rightly question these two groups’ means of voiding Jesus' demands. Yet they catch themselves in a paradox if the poor are blessed and yet Jesus comes to bring them out of their economic poverty or “blessing” (i.e., if poverty is so blessed why take them out of it?) (Schneider, 129‐30). An alternative reading sees Jesus as the true human who fulfils the dominion mandate to rule creation, now gone wrong, with delight and compassion. He miraculously calms storms, feeds the hungry, heals blind eyes. He spends much of his time feasting. Jesus was crucified even for the way he ate and who he ate with. He was condemned as “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners’” (Luke 7:34 NRSV). While Jesus challenged his followers to disinvest in this world's ways and invest their resources and talents in his reign, we often confuse the means ‐ disinvestment and self‐denial ‐‐ with the end, an extravagant experience of God's abundance for all (Lk 18:28‐30). Jesus does not deny the principle of “profit”, but radically relocates it in relation to one's whole life and his kingdom. “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” (Lk 9:25 NRSV). His reign is the best risk, the best investment, the best bet. The calling to be disciples of Jesus in the business world involves great tension between these different principles of profit, but no more than in any other area of life. 94 In sum, Jesus called his followers to lives of redemptive sacrifice and celebrative delight. Perhaps the outer ring of followers, especially Zacchaeus, is the best “type” for professional [and business] people ... (Schneider, 143‐44). Conclusion Probing the biblical text for its insights into wealth and business provides the first step toward recovering a sense of vocation. In studying how this sense has travelled through the centuries, and how the church has understood it, we will lay a greater foundation of knowledge and insight from which to present a contemporary case for vocation in the workplace. This is the agenda for the next article I will present in Vocatio. Bibliography Barth, K. Church Dogmatics III/4, ed. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance. Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1961. Batey, R.A. Jesus and the Forgotten City. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992. Diehl, W. E. God and Real Life. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976. Halteman, J. Market Capitalism and Christianity. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988. Hengel, M. Property and Riches in the Early Church, trans. J. Bowden. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963. Huntington S. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. London: Pocket Books, 1998. Lambert, L. Called to Business: Management as a Profession of Faith, Princeton Theological Seminary Ph.D. dissertation ms., Princeton Theological Seminary, 1997. Available from UMI, Ann Arbor, MI. Malina, B.J. “Wealth and Poverty in the New Testament and its World,” Interpretation 41:4 (October 1987): 354‐66 and in M. Stackhouse, M. ed. On Moral Business. McCann, D.P. “A Word to the Reader,” in On Moral Business, ed. M. Stackhouse et al. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. Preece, G.R. “Everyday Spirituality: Connecting Sunday and Monday,” Zadok Paper S76, 1995. Preece, G.R. The Viability of the Vocation Tradition in Trinitarian and Reformed Perspective. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1998. 95 Sanders, J. The God Who Risks: A Theology of Providence. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998 Schneider, J. Godly Materialism: Rethinking Money and Possessions. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994. Stackhouse, M.L. et al., ed. On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. Volf 1991, 105‐9. 96 IS BUSINESS A CALLING? DOES SCRIPTURE WARRANT REGARDING ENGAGEMENT IN COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY AS A PARTICULAR CALLING OF GOD? R. Paul Stevens “The Christian Church has never found it easy to come to terms with the marketplace.” Brian Griffiths xlv INTRODUCTION This subject is of great interest to me because I grew up in a business home where my father conducted himself in business as a company president as though this was a calling of God. But he never spoke of it that way. In fact he always verbalized that it would have been a better thing for him to have gone into pastoral ministry. The subject is of some importance to Regent since a significant number of people come to Regent from business life but leave it and find their way into pastoral or parachurch ministry. They do this, often, on the basis of what Calvin called “a secret call,” a call within the general call that all Christians have received. A few go the other way. But behind some of this occupational transition is not only the question, Is business my calling? But is business anyone’s calling? This question is certainly important for the church. By and large the church honours the call of the pastor and missionary but does not speak of, or commission to, serve roles which people undertake in civic life or commercial enterprise. My friend William Diehl puts it this way in his earlier book, Christianity and Real Life when he was sales manager for Bethlehem Steel: In the almost thirty years of my professional career, my church has never once suggested that there be any type of accounting of my on‐the‐job ministry to others. My church has never once offered to improve those skills which could make me a better minister, nor has it ever asked if I needed any kind of support in what I was doing. There has never been an inquiry into the types of ethical decisions I must face, or whether I seek to communicate the faith to my co‐workers. I have never been in a congregation where there was any type of public affirmation of a ministry in my career. In short, I must conclude that my church really doesn’t have the least interest in whether or how I minister in my daily work. xlvi ABSTRACT In this paper I will attempt to trace in broad brush strokes the rise and fall of vocation historically in the West ‐ the history of the church’s antipathy toward and occasional love‐affair 97 with business as legitimate Christian vocation . Then I will explore whether the Bible supports the idea of business as a calling, first textually and then theologically. Finally I will ask what it all means. And, of course, I will not have dealt with the important question of how one would go about discerning a call to business. THE LITERATURE The literature on business as a calling is sparse. There is a wealth of literature on Christianity and the economic order, the title of a fine course taught by Craig Gay. And in due time we will refer to the seminal work by Max Weber. And there is a rich resource on the doctrine of vocation or calling, as evidenced in the bibliography. But there is very little on business itself as a calling. Perhaps, a cynic might argue, that it because it isn’t a calling! The most significant book in print is Michael Novak’s Business as a Calling. xlvii Novak is arguably the leading Christian theologian of capitalism (or more accurately, the market economy) and winner of the Templeton Prize. Though he speaks of business in “Reformational” language he is actually drawing on his Thomistic tradition by arguing that business is a virtuous activity. xlviii Put differently. Novak defends business as a calling because people find an oughtness about it, because it brings satisfaction to people, and because it is a strategic way of serving our neighbours near and far. xlix Business, he claims is a morally serious enterprise; l it is a morally noble enterprise even though there are major patches of ambiguity; li it is able to build praiseworthy forms of community; lii it is creative, transforming human life for the better or the worse; liii it is a source of endless personal challenge; liv it enables people, through the new wealth generated, to give back to society through goods, services and philanthropy; lv and it is the best real hope of the poor of the world through their being raised rather than patronized. lvi This last point has been the most hotly contested not only by opponents of the World Trade Organization and the IMF but in the public press and thoughtful theologians, especially in the Developing World. As Gilbert Meilander notes in his perceptive review of Novak’s book, he is not sure that a world in which all were like John Wesley, who preached that we should “gain all we can, save all we can and give all we can,” lvii is as attractive as a world in which some are like Wesley and a few like St. Francis. lviii With further regard to literature I note the unpublished but comprehensive paper on “Business as a Calling and Profession: Towards a Protestant Entrepreneurial Ethic” by Gordon Preece of Ridley College, Melbourne, presented at the international consultation on marketplace theology hosted by Rob Banks and myself in June 2001. There is a Ph D dissertation at Princeton Theological Seminary by Lake Lambert III on “Called to Business: Corporate Management as a Profession of Faith.” Additionally there are a few articles seeded in Max Stackhouse, Dennis McCann et al, On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life. And, additionally, there are chapters in the four Navpress volumes on Biblical Principles 98 and Economics and Biblical Principles and Public Policy edited by Richard Chewning, among them one written by J.I. Packer in which he says, “We need to see, and say, that business life is as much a calling from God for some Christians as missionary service or pastoral ministry for others.” lix But serious examinations of business as a calling in a biblical framework are few and far between. The obvious question is, Why? As Lake Lambert says, “The doctrine of vocation has fallen into desuetude for a number of reasons, leaving those who are considering business or those who eventually become business leaders without a critical resource to understand what they do and how they should do it.” lx It is important to distinguish the question of whether a Christian might work in business from she or he might be called into business. The central idea of calling (from the Latin vocatio or voco) is that for there to be a callee there must be a caller, and that caller is God. If one were called that person would not only be permitted to work in business enterprise as an acceptable human occupation but actually summoned by God to this work to fulfill God’s will and purpose. To explore this we put the question of calling into a historical context. THE RISE AND FALL OF CALLING The Greek World and the Middle Ages The Greek world had no concept of vocation. Work itself was a curse and the citizens of Thebes were even forbidden to work! The influence of the Greek world which surrounded, even enfolded, the early church is well known. lxi Plotinus, the single most influential philosopher of the ancient world, and one who profoundly influenced Augustine and Western Christianity, stated in a classic way the great opposites of spirituality and materialism. “The pleasure demanded for the Sage’s life cannot be in the enjoyments of the licentious or in any gratifications of the body….Let the earth‐bound man be handsome and powerful and rich, and so apt to this world that he may rule the entire human race: still there can be no envying of him, the fool of such lures.” The Sage, in contrast, will wear away the “tyranny of the body…by inattention to its claims.” lxii Trade to Aristotle was essentially suspicious if not downright perverted. “Anybody who does anything for pay is by nature not a truly free person.” lxiii While trades are needed for maintaining the fabric of this world (Ecclesiasticus 38:34) the scribe/philosopher has chosen the better way. Most of the early church fathers took on this “upper and lower” approach to life: the higher for the monk, nun, priest and pastor who reject ordinary work in the world, and the lower for the person who works in the world. Clement of Alexandria (150‐215 A.D.) seems to have been alone in taking a positive view of entrepreneurship and capital. lxiv By and large the two‐level regime was followed universally. Eusebius (about AD 315), put it this way: 99 Two ways of life were thus given by the law of Christ to His Church. The one is above nature, and beyond common human living; it admits not marriage, child‐bearing, property nor the possession of wealth, but, wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, devotes itself to service of God alone in its wealth of heavenly love!… Such then is the perfect form of the Christian life. And the other, more humble, more human, permits men to join in pure nuptials and to produce children, to undertake government, to give orders to soldiers fighting for right; more secular interests as well as for religion; and it is for them that times of retreat and instruction, and days of hearing sacred things are set apart. And a kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them…. lxv This became incarnated in the supremacy of medieval monasticism, the way of Mary over and against the way of Martha. As the historian Karl Holl notes, “The seizure of the title vocation by monasticism prevented for a long time in the West the development of a proper religious evaluation of secular occupations and made it possible for the word vocacio to become customary for them.” lxvi The result was that by the fifteenth century only the monk, nun and priest had callings. Ordinary Christians had no vocation. Karl Barth’s summary is apt: “According to the view prevalent at the height of the high Middle Ages [secular work] only existed to free for the work of their profession those who were totally and exclusively occupied in rendering true obedience for the salvation of each and all.” lxvii This is not far from the contemporary idea that business people in the church are “walking cheque books” needed to support the pastor. But in the late Middle Ages German mysticism challenged the monastic monopoly on having an “inner voice” or “feeling God’s presence” and even Max Weber observed that Johannes Tauler held both spiritual and worldly callings as equal. lxviii Martin Luther It is well known that Luther’s radical universalizing of calling to all human occupations except that of the monk was a reaction against medieval monasticism and, at the same time, to the world‐denying Anabaptism. lxix But it was based on a fundamental biblical truth. The monk elected a superior way of discipleship – a self‐chosen path to follow the evangelical counsels, whereas the nature of Christian discipleship is that one does not elect; one is called. In one of his Christmas sermons Luther said, “I should rather be one of the shepherds tending the flocks in the field than to be canonized by the Pope.” Luther urged people to accept the position in which they found themselves. lxx He was addressing a fairly stable society represented by the children’s hymn: The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate; God made them high and lowly, 100 And ordered their estate. lxxi In every station in life there are opportunities for service with absolutely no expectation of reward either from God or man. “A cobbler, a smith, a farmer,…by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another.” lxxii Vocation is given “structure by God through ‘orders’ and ‘offices’ which, because divinely decreed, serve good and necessary purposes even though some of them may involve evil men and seemingly evil actions.” lxxiii Thus the Christian should remain in his station rather than try to escape it. Here is where Luther (and later Calvin) expounds on 1 Corinthians 7:17: “each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.” Only if a station is inherently sinful should it be abandoned. “When I speak of a calling which in itself is not sinful, I do not mean that we can live on earth without sin. All callings and estates sin daily; but I mean the calling God has instituted is not opposed to God, as for example, marriage, man‐servant, maid‐servant, lord, wife, superintendent, ruler, judge, officer, citizen, etc. I mention as sinful stations in life: robbery, usury, public women, and, as they are at present, the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks and nuns, who neither preach nor listen to preaching.” lxxiv Luther put it this way, “If you find a work by which you serve God or His saints or yourself and not your neighbour, know such a work is not good.” lxxv Thus being a monk was not a calling and not good work. While Christians may with equal confidence hold the lowest and the highest offices, certain offices in themselves are of greater significance than others. lxxvi The highest is pastor‐preacher, then teacher, then worldly government, then below, physician, writer, secretary, and scholars of the liberal arts. Nevertheless there is debate about how medieval or modern was Luther’s attitude to business. Along with medieval theologians Luther saw usury as an important problem and this was a very hot theological topic until a hundred years ago. lxxvii And Luther was concerned about the emerging mercantile system. Lake Lambert finds him dismissive of Christian involvement in trading companies, probably without understanding what he was condemning: lxxviii This is why no one need ask how he may in good conscience be a member of a trading company. My only advice is this: Get out; they will not change. If the trading companies are to stay, right and honesty must perish; if right and honesty are to stay, the trading companies must perish. lxxix John Calvin 101 Calvin’s teaching made calling closely related to predestination. Your election is confirmed through your vocation. lxxx 2 Peter 1:3‐11 is a case in point: “Therefore brethren be the more zealous to confirm your call and election…..so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom…” Calvin and Luther agreed that all are called, that all stations enjoy divine approval, that persons should not lightly leave their callings. They disagreed in that Luther said that God gives a vocation to encourage a life of loving service, while for Calvin it is for the proper ordering of the world, lest there be confusion. A passage in Calvin’s Institutes is illustrative: The Lord bids each of us in all life’s actions to look to his calling. For he knows with what great restlessness human nature flames, with what fickleness it is borne hither and thither, how its ambition longs to embrace various things at once. Therefore, lest through our stupidity and rashness everything be tuned topsy‐turvey, he has appointed duties for every man in his particular way of life. And that no one may thoughtlessly transgress his limits, he has named these various kinds of living “callings.” Therefore each individual has his own kind of living assigned to him by the Lord as a sort of sentry post so that he may not heedlessly wander about throughout life. lxxxi Unlike Luther, Calvin recognized the burgeoning world of commerce as an arena of legitimate activity for a Christian and this had much to do with the direction vocation took in Reformed Protestantism, noticed of course by Calvin’s followers whom Max Weber studied. lxxxii In particular Calvin read the parable of the talents (Matt 25) in the more literal sense of economic stewardship. Thus, while lending for consumption at interest (usury) was a crime akin to murder, lending for production and enterprise with low rates of return [up to 5%] was acceptable. lxxxiii Calvin’s influence on the Puritans and the capitalist spirit as observed by Max Weber is a matter I have considered elsewhere. lxxxiv Drawing on the Puritans and Deists like Benjamin Franklin, Weber argued that Calvin’s view of the transcendence of God and his concept of predestination served to ratchet up the anxiety level of believers who were motivated to prove they were among the elect. But, with the monastery door closed as the most direct way to prove one’s salvation, believers were thrust into this‐worldly activity, especially in business. “Thus,” says Weber, “. . . all the Calvinist faithful’s ethical eggs were placed in the basket of his calling.” lxxxv The attainment of [wealth] as a fruit of labour in a calling was a sign of God’s blessing. And even more important: the religious valuation of restless continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as the highest medium of asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of that attitude toward life which we have here called the spirit of capitalism. lxxxvi 102 Gianfranco Poggi puts it this way, “Only a religious vision that turns worldly reality into a field of experimentation, and the individual into a ‘tensed‐up being’, relentlessly working that field in the pursuit of a dynamic design, could plausibly be said to have offered such an inspiration.” lxxxvii At the same time Calvinism, espoused an asceticism of self‐denial and this meant that the fruits of entrepreneurial activity would be held back and reinvested, the very thing necessary for capitalism to thrive. Poggi’s conclusion is apt: Weber’s argument is partial (addressing only a distinctive part of a large historical problem), complex (“it comprises a number of discrete points, connected by a correspondingly high number of steps or transitions”) and momentous. lxxxviii And, most important of all, as Charles Handy has aptly observed, while Weber was wrong about many things he was certainly right in saying that spiritual motivation is a critical factor in enterprise. And it is this which calling primarily addresses. The English Reformation and the Puritans This sense of universal calling continued in the English Reformation. Joseph Hall said: “The homeliness service that we do in an honest calling, though it be but to plow or to dig, if done in obedience and conscious of God’s commandment, is crowned with an ample reward; whereas the best works for their kind (preaching, praying, offering Evangelical sacrifices) if without respect of God’s injunctions and glory, are loaded with curses. God loveth adverbs and careth not how good, but how well.” lxxxix The Puritans divided calling into two parts, the general call which comes to all, namely to invoke the name of Jesus and become his disciple, and the particular calling which is one’s special contribution to serve God and the commonweal, whether magistrate, homemaker, pastor or business person. xc Both the general and the particular are from God. xci And all particular callings are holy. William Perkins, whose consummate work on calling is the epitome of Puritan reflection on the subject, says: The meanness of the calling does not debase the goodness of the work…for God looks not at the excellence of the work but the heart of the worker. And the action of a shepherd shearing a sheep, performed as I have said, in his kind, is as good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving sentence…or a minister in preaching….Now if we compare work with work, there is a difference betwixt washing dishes and preaching the Word of God; but as for pleasing God, there is no difference at all. xcii When the Puritan commonwealth collapsed after the English Civil War, the particular calling got separated from the general call and became secularized, undermined as it was by war and wealth. xciii One’s particular calling was simply that person’s occupation, self‐chosen and executed without an overarching commitment to faithfulness as a Christian called to 103 discipleship. xciv As Weber has pointed out, certain aspects of Protestant theology, notably post‐
Calvinism, may have inwittingly contributed to the secularization of calling. Thus, as Lambert summarizes, “While Luther and Calvin sacralized the secular by liberating vocation from the monastery, their later followers secularized the holy. The term ‘vocation’ now has only traces of a religious meaning, and its English equivalent, ‘calling,’ has been largely exiled to an ecclesiastical ghetto.” xcv Calling in a Post‐Vocational Era xcvi The current situation in the Western world is not hard to read. “Calling” is reserved for those who are going into “full time ministry” (as though a part time option were available!). “Vocation” is now identified with career, a path normally chosen for personal fulfillment rather than the public good. Calling has been secularized in the world and clericalized in the church. xcvii Business people like my friend William Diehl whose main service to God is outside the gathered life of the church, xcviii find the church unsupportive except for financial contributions business people can make to the church budget. Spokesman for the displaced souls of the twentieth century [and we could add, the twenty‐
first] is Franz Kafta. Kafta pictures us as makers of the tower of Babel attempting to scale heaven but cutting ourselves off from God and creating self‐enclosed structures of purely human meaning. As Kafta describes the person this way: “He no longer has even his old vocation; indeed he has actually forgotten what he once represented. Probably it is the very forgetting that gives rise to a certain melancholy, uncertainty, unrest, a certain longing for vanished ages, darkening the present.” xcix IS “BUSINESS AS A CALLING” WARRANTED IN THE TEXT? From the historical survey, all too brief, we turn to the Scripture, asking once again whether call language in the Bible is used for business enterprise. The Old Testament The first call in the Bible is the summons of God to Adam and Eve to find themselves (“Where are you?” – Gen 3:9). Earlier in Genesis, without using explicit “call” language, God mandates the man and woman to rule and have dominion over the rest of creation and to take care of it (Gen 1:28; 2:15). Further, humankind was created male and female in God’s image, built for community, and told to be fruitful and multiply. Thus co‐creation and procreation, stewardship and community‐building are fundamental to the human vocation. c Humankind is called to develop the potential of creation and to cultivate the world. This involves everything from agriculture to genetic engineering, from hedge‐clipping to business enterprise. To this end Abraham was called (Isa 51:2) to be blessed himself, to bless the land and to bless all the 104 nations. While Abraham was one person he was to be the prototype of a royal priesthood that would represent God’s interests on earth (Exod 19:6). I have surveyed the many instances of “call” in the Old Testament in chapter four of The Other Six Days. Generally in the Old Testament the people as a whole were called of God, as witnessed in Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son.” The people were the kahal – the assembly – those called, to belong to God, to live holy lives and to serve God’s purposes in the world. But, out of the people as a whole some individuals were called to special functions: the patriarchs, prophets, priests and princes. While the “average” Israelite did not have a personal “call” (except as part of the whole), God gave an inviting and compelling summons to some for the sake of the whole. Donald Heiges says, “God raises up the prophets to give vocational guidance to his people in the hope that Israel may fulfil her destiny.” ci As we turn to the New Testament there is continuity with the Old Testament: the people as a whole are called (as before). The root of ekklesia is the noun klesis, meaning the call or the calling. As with qahal, ecclesia is a people summoned by God for a unique purpose ‐ witness. But there is also discontinuity: now each and every person in the people is a called person. It starts with Jesus. The Call of Jesus Jesus was called (Luke 4:18‐19): “The Spirit of God is on me…anointed me to preach good news to the poor…[and] sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” This suggests that there is calling within the Triune God. In John’s gospel “send” is used 32 times of sending within God and by God. In John the vocation of Jesus is expressed in terms of work. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34. See also 9:4; 5:36; 5:19ff: 10:25ff; 6:29; 10:37ff; 17:4.) There is a one to one correspondence between the works of God and those of Jesus. The Son does greater works (5:19ff) and the disciples do greater works. Paul Minear notes, “It is assumed throughout the Gospel that the author and his readers belong within the same chain, continuing the sequence of glory, knowledge, love, and of being sent and doing the same works.” cii The Call of the Disciples In the Synoptics the men called by Jesus were first called “learners” (disciples) but after a decisive moment of sending them out on a preaching mission they were called “apostles” (Matt 9:9‐13; 10:1‐4; Mark 1:16‐20; Luke 5:1‐11). John uses “disciple” throughout. The New Testament word which gives the apostolic calling significance is the word “authority” – over unclean spirits. The apostolos of the gospels was the shaliach or fully appointed agent of the Hebrew community – sent to act with full legal authority. In an MCS thesis for Regent David Falk 105 examines the critical question whether the call of the disciples in the Synoptic gospels functions paradigmatically for leaders of the church today. Calvin took this approach. “The ministers of the Word ought, in a particular manner, to be directed by this example, to lay aside all other occupations, and to devote themselves unreservedly to the Church, to which they are appointed.” ciii In contrast Falk argues, These first four disciples [Matt 4:17‐22] participated in an historical event never to be repeated, and demonstrated metaphorically the meaning of total allegiance to Jesus….Therefore, using this periscope to legitimize a ‘call to the Ministry’ as many pastoral theologians do violates the literary purposes of the Evangelist. Instead, Matthew calls everyone to follow Jesus with the same commitment the disciples exemplify. civ This interpretation is implicit in Whittier’s hymn: In simple trust, like theirs who heard Beside the Syrian sea, the gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word, Rise up, and follow Thee. The Call of the Church and Paul in the Acts cv When we come to the call of Paul we have a particular problem. Many support the “call” to professional ministry either on the basis of the Older Covenant witness to the calling of prophets (prior to the universal call of all under the Newer Covenant) or they support it on the basis of the call of the apostle Paul. But Paul never uses his call, narrated over and again in Acts, as a paradigm for the call to church leadership. Paul is called to be an apostle (Rom 1:1‐7) but there are two parts to his call, one repeatable and the other unique. The first (repeatable) is the call to conversion – the call which comes to all Christians – and then (unique) there is a commission to be an apostle to the Gentiles, a call unique to Paul cvi Again, Calvin, commenting on 1 Corinthians 1:1 uses Paul’s second call as a model for the pastoral call: “But two things are required in anyone who would be heard in the Church and occupy the position of a teacher; he must be called by God to that office, and be faithful in carrying out its duties.” cvii In contrast with Luther, who argued that the call to pastoral leadership comes from the church, a mediated call, cviii not directly from God, Calvin spoke of a “secret call” known only to the person so called to the ministry of Word and sacrament. cix In so doing Calvin effectively transferred language previously used for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic system, to the minister of Word and sacrament, leading in result to a two‐level calling: higher for the “doctors and ministers of the church” and lower for others. cx Tragically, in my view, the evangelical church has gone generally with Calvin rather than Luther on this matter. 106 The Call of Believers in the Letters of Paul The primary sense in which Paul uses “call” language is the call into fellowship with his son (1 Cor 1:7). The call is primarily soteriological. Paul refers to the members of the church as “called saints” (1 Cor 1:2) – chosen ones and beloved (Col 3:20). In his ground‐breaking work, Toward a Theology of the Laity, Hendrik Kraemer says, “All members of the ekklesia have in principle the same calling.” cxi We are also called into holiness (1 Thess 4:7), to freedom (Gal 5:13), called to hope (Eph 1:18; 4:4), called to the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18‐9), called “according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28) – that we would become conformed into the image of his son (8:29). Thus calling involves belonging to God (a relationship), being (a way of life) and doing (serving God and God’s purposes). Before we are called to do something we are called to Someone. 1 Corinthians 7:17‐24 is a critical passage in the question of whether God calls to a specific occupation including, of course, business. The NIV offers a nuanced difference between verse 17 (“the place in life…to which God has called him”) and verse 20 (“remain in the situation which he was in when God called him”), suggesting that the call is both to a place (v. 17) and that the place is the location for receiving a larger call (v. 20).This apparent distinction seems not to be supported by the original language. cxii Verse 20, however, is a critical verse for the Reformation doctrine that each person is called, some to be magistrates and some to be scholars. “Every one should remain in the state [klesei] in which he was called [eklethe].” Luther translated klesei as Ruf and eklethe as berufen ist. Commenting on the crucial implications of this for the Reformation, Heiges says, “For all practical purposes Luther uses vocation (Beruf) to cover both calling into the church and calling into a station.” cxiii Gustaf Wingren notes that non‐
Christians have a station (Stand) and office (Amt or Stelle) but only Christians have a Beruf or vocatio. “Beruf is the Christ’s earthly or spiritual work.” cxiv Both Luther and Calvin leaned heavily on this verse to argue for a worldly calling, as did the Puritans later. But the point Paul is making is that change, which the Corinthians wanted, whether in marriage, ethnicity or social‐economic, is not spiritually significant. Christ sanctifies the place they were in when he called them. Gordon Fee interprets this way: “Under the theme of ‘call’ Paul seeks to put their ‘spirituality’ into a radically different perspective. They should remain in whatever social setting they were at the time of their call since God’s call to be in Christ (cf. 1.9) transcends such settings so as to make them essentially irrelevant….Thus one is no better off in one condition than in the other.” cxv This is in contrast to the way the Reformers interpreted this verse. On this point Paul Marshall observes, “The interpretation of calling as ‘external conditions’ would mean that Paul was using klesis in a sense nowhere else in the New Testament. Indeed, it would be a usage without parallel in the Greek of the period. He would have to be coining a new term….This means that the Bible does not contain a notion of vocation or calling in one of the sense in which these terms were used in Reformational theology.” cxvi 107 That being said, 1 Corinthians 15:58 (“your labor in the Lord is not in vain”) means that each person’s achievements will be taken up into the new order. Their own activity is not just his activity but carried on “in demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Cor 2:4‐5). So rather than setting up a dichotomy of sacred and secular work Paul sees all directed to the new life in Christ and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. In his study of human achievement and vocation in Paul’s writing, W. A. Beardslee shows how the divine call may use and fulfil the human striving for achievement which can only be frustrated unless it becomes a response to God’s call: “In his view of work, obedience to Christ is the only factor that gives work any enduring or ultimate meaning, and this obedience, specified by the figure of Christ himself, has the content of self‐denying love and is oriented toward the confrontation of God and toward the vision of a society of men freely giving of themselves to each other….The old work takes on a new significance. Since it is informed by a new Spirit, it is seen in an entirely new structure, and it can serve concrete ends in the new community. Paul opposes the tendency to set up specific patterns of ‘Christian’ work. Instead he insists that only as man’s activities are authentically directed toward the distinctive goals of Christ are they real work, and if they are so directed, many of the traditional activities can be taken up into the new pattern of obedience.” cxvii Summarizing, we do not find a textual basis for speaking of business as a calling. There is not a single instance of a person in the New Testament being called into a societal occupation by an existential encounter with God ‐ not Paul the tentmaker, not Lydia the textile merchant and not Peter the fisherman. Nor is there a single instance of a person being called to be a religious professional ‐ not Timothy, not Barnabas, and not Priscilla. Nevertheless, Scripture witnesses to people being led into positions of societal service where they could make a difference without a supernatural call: Joseph, Nehemiah, Daniel, Esther, Priscilla and Aquila. Further the only person in the Old Testament of whom it is definitively said that he was “filled with the Holy Spirit” was the craftsman Bezalel (Exod 31:1‐5). The Bible shows us God as a vocational director but not a director who, apparently or normally calls people to service in various occupations just as God called people like Amos and Elijah to serve as prophets, or Paul as an apostle. God may, of course, exceptionally give an existential call to persons for any specific service. IS THERE A BIBLICAL THEOLOGICAL BASIS? While our textual study does not lead to a positive conclusion I intend to show, in contrast, that biblical theology does. And this is demonstrated primarily with the doctrine of creation, and secondarily with the doctrines of salvation and end times. The story of vocation has a beginning, a middle and an ending. Of the beginning we ask: “What were God’s basic intentions before the foundation of the world? What disturbances since then 108 have distorted these intentions? What have been the long‐term effects of those disturbances upon the present human situation?” cxviii How does business fit with this? In the middle we note, as Minear does, the three crucifixions – Christ, self and the world. There is the overpowering of the powers, the miracle of the new humanity, the unity and unifying of all and the call to be agents of reconciliation. Of the end we must ask what final goal God has for creation and creature and what must we do and be as we anticipate that End. There must be congruence between the beginning and the end. cxix What work is worthwhile? What work will last? And how shall we then live? The Business Side of Creation Kenneth Kantzer argues that “being in business is itself a divine call.” cxx He insists that Scripture speaks of the conduct of business not in a direct textual way but as a corollary of the creation ordinance. “By creation, human beings are social beings, never intended to live alone. Because of our social nature, we are specialized (each person is in one sense unique), interdependent and, therefore, necessarily dependent on exchange. Exchange is built into our very nature. And this is business.” cxxi Within the context of a good creation (including the principalities and powers), once corrupted by sin and Satan, now partially redeemed, and into which God calls his people to serve cxxii we may speak of the human vocation and business as a calling in three senses: First, business is a legitimate part of undertaking the stewardship of creation to humanize the earth, to embellish and enhance human life and to glorify God in so doing. Business and commerce are implicit in the creation mandate ‐ subduing and caring for creation. This seems apparent from the list of occupations of the descendents of Cain: Jabal – the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock – implying commerce. Jubal – the father of those who play the harp and flute – implying culture Tubal‐Cain – who forged all kinds of tools of bronze and iron – implying crafts (Gen 4:20‐22). To say that business will always be good work is saying more than we can in this fallen and partially redeemed world. But neither can one say that God is not glorified and creation is not served and developed by trade and the development of goods and services. Second, business is, as Michael Novak rightly asserts, “a praiseworthy form of community.” We are created in community to build community. “Male and female he created them.” The corporation is a community – literally a company is “com” – “pani” (shared bread) – a community of shared life and enterprise, providing a relational context for ministry often deeper than the local church or the neighbourhood. “From its very beginnings,” notes Novak, 109 “the modern business economy was designed to become an international system, concerned with raising the “wealth of nations,” all nations, in a systematic, social way. It was by no means focused solely on the wealth of particular individuals.” cxxiii Whether pencils or automobiles, coffee or telephones, most goods cannot be created through the work of an isolated individual and require cooperation of several, often many, towards a common goal. While some will shrink from using the word co‐creativity for our engagement with God in the work of creation, preferring to speak of sub‐creativity, we are in fact co‐workers (though not of course as equal partners) with God in the continuing work of creation. God is as creative today as God was when the universe was first being made. And in a continuing act of divine condescension God invites us to join with him in God’s own work, business being a small part of that. We are to do so in an environmentally responsible way as this is what being stewards implies – a matter with which business has a tarnished record. But business also is a partial expression of God’s call to participate in the work of redemption. The Business Side of Redemption In the same way the doctrine of redemption points in the direction of a this‐worldly and whole‐
person mission. Philip J. Wogaman says, “attending to business matters practically and creatively, seeking to solve problems of economic life and thereby to serve humanity, can surely be a worthy ministry for may Christians to undertake.” cxxiv Reflecting on Col 1:15‐20 and Romans 8:29‐23 Paul Marshall says “the scope of redemption in Christ is the same as the scope of creation.” cxxv It started with God’s work under the Old Testament. God’s redemptive purpose through Israel (which includes the stewardship of the land, economic laws, and the development of creation) sought “to restore a measure of conformity to the original economic purposes of God in creation.” cxxvi The failure to see the unity of the testaments (OT/NT) has contributed to the erroneous view that “the New Testament is more ‘spiritual’ than the Old, and is, because of this, superior to it.” cxxvii Turning to the New Testament we discover that Jesus, in announcing his ministry in terms of the Jubilee (Luke 4:18; Lev 25), declared the full extent of his Kingdom ministry – to make people fully human and to humanize the earth. We know from Leviticus 25 that this involves even economic shalom. As agents of the Kingdom the people of God are to proclaim the Word of God, to show love and compassion, to exercise responsible stewardship of creation and to engage in spiritual warfare against Satan’s dark kingdom. All human work that embodies Kingdom values and serves Kingdom goals can be rightly termed as Kingdom ministry. Gospel work and so‐called “secular work” are actually interdependent. Biblically we should speak of a single mission rather than prioritizing evangelism and social action/stewardship of creation. cxxviii Business can be an agent of the kingdom of God bringing in some measure shalom to people and to nations. 110 First, business is a consummate context for witness. Every Christian called to declare the wonderful deeds of God (1 Pet 2:9‐10). And business is a mission field. cxxix William Carey envisioned the gospel going into all the world through the means of international trade. He drew on the text in Isaiah 60:9: “Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your sons from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honour of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you [Zion] with splendour.” cxxx The reasons for thinking that the marketplace is a key mission field are so obvious that one could only think that an enemy has blinded our eyes to the possibilities: access (professional missionaries cannot enter most workplaces); a relational context (usually we are working with people eight hours a day); ethical and existential issues in the marketplace (openings for the Gospel and pastoral care ‐ identity, relationality, priorities, credibility, life‐purpose, success and failure); proximity to people in times of crisis and life‐centredness. Opportunities abound for relational evangelism in which a person may hear the Gospel not only be word but in the lived‐out behaviour of the witness, far surpassing the openings created by parachuting into a new neighbourhood in door‐
to‐door visitation or short‐term missions. In this context note Paul’s emphasis on “my way of life” (1 Cor 4:17; 2 Tim 3:10). As R.F. Hock has indicated in his study of Paul’s tentmaking, far from being at the periphery of his life “Paul’s tentmaking was actually central to [his life]…and “his trade was taken up into his apostolic self‐understanding, so much so that, when criticized for plying his trade, he came to understand himself as the apostle who offered the message free of charge.” cxxxi In his fine study of business theology Richard Higginson suggests that we enter into the Lord’s redemptive work in a quasi‐redemptive manner through humble service, through the creation of new beginnings, through bearing the cost and through taking the blame. cxxxii What would happen if every theological student preparing for pastoral ministry were to spend a semester in the workplace listening and learning how to empower people for full‐time service in the marketplace? What gain could be made in modelling if every theological faculty included people who modelled full‐time ministry in the world, since education is essentially an imitation process and students become “like” their teachers (Luke 6:40)? Or what cultural transformation that would come if every local church were to commission her servants in the marketplace? Second, business is one way in which we are called, with Abraham and his seed, to bless the nations and to build unity interculturally and internationally, not as a tower of Babel but perichoetically. Novak addresses this eloquently: Commerce, as several of the Eastern fathers of the Catholic church wrote, notably St. John Chrysostom, is the material bond among peoples that exhibits, as if symbolically, the unity of the human race – or, as he dared to put it in mystical language, shows forth as a material sign the “mystical body of Christ.” The human race is one. The 111 international commerce that shows forth the interdependence of all parts of the human body knits the peoples of the world together by the silken threads of a seamless garment. cxxxiii While it is true that we eat our breakfasts from all around the world, and commerce is a sign of human solidarity all too often, however, the seamless garment is a Western one. And globalization has been more the homogenization of culture rather than a rich unity through diversity ‐Unitarian rather than Trinitarian. cxxxiv Third, business can have a redemptive purpose in alleviating poverty, creating new wealth, and enhancing human existence. Michael Novak has probably overstated the case: “Business is, bar none, the best hope of the poor. And that is one of the noblest callings inherent in business activities: to raise up the poor.” cxxxv This point is particularly difficult to make in the context of a world where the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. cxxxvi The September 27 issue of the New York Times noted that the three richest people in the world have more than the GNP of the 48 poorest countries, that the richest 20% of the world’s people consume 86% of all goods and services, that the poorest 20% consume 1.3 % of all goods and services; that Americana and Europeans spend 17 billion dollars a year on pet food, his being 4 billion more than what is needed to provide basic health care and nutrition for everyone in the world; and that Americans spend 8 billion a year on cosmetics, 2 billion more than needed to provide basic education for everyone in the world. cxxxvii Generally, however, people are better off today than they were because of enterprise, even though huge discrepancies exist. Globalization of business holds, as we have already seen, both promise and peril. cxxxviii But Novak is right: “to rise out of poverty, the poor need jobs; prospective employees need to find employers; and inventors and originators needs to create new industries.” cxxxix The work of MEDA, Integra (Eastern Europe) and Opportunities International are stunning illustrations of the redemptive value of work in business. Wealth creation is not evil as some preachers have asserted. It is part of bringing shalom to people and the world as Brian Griffith ably shows in his The Creation of Wealth. Lesslie Newbigin asserts, “It is in the ordinary secular business of the world that the sacrifices of love and obedience are offered to God. It is in the context of secular affairs that the mighty power released into the world through the work of Christ is to be manifested.” cxl But is there a business side of the ultimate end of it all? The Business Side of the Eschaton First, business activity in the creation of wealth points to the end when the kings of the earth come marching in (Isa 60:3; Rev 21:24‐26). In the Bible wealth is a blessing, a sacrament, and a temptation. cxli Jacques Ellul speaks of the “scandal of wealth” since God gives it indiscriminately, sometimes even to the wicked (Job 21:7‐21; Psa 73:12‐13). Wealth is not only 112 a free gift of God in this life. It points to the final consummation when our wealth will be taken into the Holy City. cxlii Second, even business activity may last and find its place, purged of sin, in the new heaven and the new earth. The question of what work lasts is a vital one. Typically the church has taught that only soul work lasts. “Only one life, t’will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Paul Minear speaks of calling as being a movement from Christ’s first coming to Christ’s second coming: Christian vocation comprises a calling and sending by the living Christ whose presence is manifested both in inner compulsions and in outer tasks. Such a vocation has the power to redefine the meaning of life for each disciple….There is only one calling and only one hope that motivates that calling. According to Ephesians 4:1‐16, this communal vocation provides the vantage point from which one can comprehend virtually every basic Christian conviction….Vocation is a communal movement from Christ’s coming to Christ’s coming…. cxliii Moltmann refers to eschatology as the “doctrine of the return to the pristine beginning” through which God will achieve His purpose for creation in “’the new creation of all things’ and [in] the universal indwelling of God in that creation.” cxliv The doctrine of the last judgement means that we are accountable for our use of talents and the stewardship of our lives (Matt 25:14‐30). Judgement and accountability mean that our work and lives are meaningful, resultful and significant. The resurrection of the body as the Christian’s future means that “our labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). cxlv As Miroslav Volf notes, “the continuity or discontinuity between the present and future orders is the key issues in developing a theology of work.” cxlvi There are ten biblical reasons why we can expect that some of our work in non‐gospel activity, including business enterprise, may last and contribute to the new heaven and the new earth: (1) There is continuity between this life and the next ‐ the new Jerusalem is related to this world – a city, the land (Rev 21‐22): (2) the kings of the earth bring their glories into the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:24); (3) the glory and honour of the nations is found in the Holy City (21:26); (4) the Old Testament prophesies that during the reign of the Messiah we will not cease to work: “my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands” (Isa 65:21‐22); (5) the resurrected body of Jesus bore scars from this life – but these scars were transfigured (John 20:27); (6) in the final judgement Jesus declares that he personally received even humble acts of service in our everyday life (Matt 25:31‐46); (7) the fire of judgement (2 Pet 3:7) does not mean annihilation but transformation for “in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13); (8)1 Corinthians 3:10‐
15 indicates that our work will be tested by fire and may even survive! (9) Romans 8:19‐22 proclaims that the earth groans and waits for liberation from bondage, this 113 being associated with the revelation of the sons of God; (10) Revelation 14:13d indicates that the deeds of the Christians will follow them ”the indelible imprint” of their work on their lives (Volf). cxlvii Miroslav Volf wisely cautions that while God will somehow include our efforts in the new creation, we must not imagine that the “results of human work should or could create and replace ‘heaven.’” cxlviii Along the same lines and with consummate wisdom Lesslie Newbigin says: We can commit ourselves without reserve to all the secular work our shared humanity requires of us, knowing that nothing we do in itself is good enough to form part of that city’s building, knowing that everything – from our most secret prayers to our most public political acts – is part of that sin‐stained human nature that must go down into the valley of death and judgement, and yet knowing that as we offer it up to the Father in the name of Christ and in the power of the Spirit, it is safe with him and – purged in fire – it will find its place in the holy city at the end. cxlix Is business a calling? Yes. But not for everyone. In conclusion I return to the perceptive comment by Gilbert Meilander in his review of Novak’s book, namely that he is not sure he would want to live in a world in which all were John Wesleys gaining all they can (translated as a world composed of all business people). Rather, he asserts, he would want to be in a world with some like Wesley and some like St. Francis. But this merely underscores the gift that each calling of God is to the commonwealth, including, and not excluding the calling to business. For the persons so engaged and so called business and economic enterprise can be purposeful and one way of serving God and God’s kingdom in full time ministry. BIBLIOGRAPHY Louis T. Almen, “Vocation in a Post‐Vocational Age,” Word and World, Vol IV, No 2 (Spring 1984): 131‐140. Ray S. Anderson, Minding God’s Business (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986). Karl Barth, ‘Vocation,’ in Church Dogmatics, trans. A.T. Mackay, T.H.L. Parker, H. Knight, H.A. Kennedy, and J. Marks, vol 3, part 4:595‐647 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1961). W.A. Beardslee, Human Achievement and Divine Vocation in the Message of Paul (London: SCM Press, 1961). 114 Peter L. Berger, The Capitalist Spirit: Toward a Religious Ethic of Wealth Creation (San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1990). Klaus Bochmuehl, “Recovering Vocation Today,” Crux, Vol XXIV, No 3 ((September 1988):25‐35. William J. Byron, S.J., “Business: A Vocation to Justice and Love,” in The Professions in Ethical Context, ed. Francis A. Eigo, O.S.A. (Villanova, PA: Villanova University Press, 1986). John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, trans. William Pringle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956). __________, The First Epistle of Paul The Apostle to the Corinthians, trans. John W. Fraser, eds. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1960). __________, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans, Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960). William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (Leicester, 1792). Richard C. Chewning, John W. Eby, Shirley Roels, Business Through the Eyes of Faith (HarperSanFrancisco, 1992). Richard C. Chewning, ed., Biblical Principles & Economics: The Foundations, Vols 1,2 (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1989). _____________________, Biblical Principles & Economics: The Practice, Vols 3,4 (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1991). William E. Diehl, Christianity and Real Life (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976). Jacques Ellul, Money and Power, trans. L. Neff (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1984). David John Falk, “A New Testament Theology of Calling with Reference to the ‘Call to the Ministry’” (MCS thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 1990). Mark Gibbs and T.R. Morton, God’s Frozen People (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965). B. Gordon, The Economic Problem in Biblical and Patristic Thought (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989). Bob Goudzwaard, Capitalism & Progress: A Diagnosis of Western Society, trans. Josina Van Nuis Zylstra (Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1979). Brian Griffiths, The Creation of Wealth (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984). 115 Os Guiness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville: Word, 1998). Charles Handy, The Hungry Spirit: Beyond Capitalism ‐ A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World (London: Hutchinson, 1997). Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990). Donald R. Heiges, The Christian’s Calling (Philadelphia: United Lutheran Church in America, 1958). Paul Helm, The Callings: The Gospel in the World (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987). Richard Higginson, Called to Account: Adding Value in God’s World ‐ Integrating Christianity and Business Effectively (Guildford, Surrey: Eagle, 1993). R. F. Hock, The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), p.166. Rowland Hogben, Vocation (London: Inter‐Varsity Press, 1940). Karl Holl, “The History of the Word ‘Vocation,’” Review and Expositor, Vol 55 (1958). Kenneth C. Kantzer, “God Intends His Precepts to Transform Society,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed. Biblical Principles and Business: The Foundations (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1990), Vol 1, pp. 22‐34. Howard C. Kee and Montgomery J. Shroyer, The Bible and God’s Call: A Study of the Biblical Foundation of Vocation (New York: Cokesbury – The Methodist Church, 1962). Marc Kolden, “Luther on Vocation,” Word and World, Vol III, No 4, pp. 382‐390. Hendrik Kraemer, A Theology of the Laity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958). Lake Lambert III, “Called to Business: Corporate Management as a Profession of Faith,” (PhD Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1997, available through UMI Services). Gregg Levoy, Callings: Finding and Following the Authentic Life (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1997). Martin Luther, “That a Christian Assembly or Congregation has the Right and Power to Judge all Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers Established and Proven by Scripture,” Luther’s Works, XXXIX, 310‐1 116 Paul Marshall, A Kind of Life Imposed on Man: Vocation and Social Order from Tyndale to Locke (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996). Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert, Heaven is Not my Home: Learning to Live in God’s Creation (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998). Gilbert Meilander, “Professing Business: John Paul meets John Wesley,” Christian Century (December 4, 1996): 1200‐1204. Prabo Mihindukulasuriya, “Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life,” (review) Crux, Vol XXXIV, No 2 (June 1998), 46‐48. Paul S. Minear, To Die and to Live: Christ’s Resurrection and Christian Vocation (New York: Seabury Press, 1977). Jurgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996). Laura Nash, Believers in Business: Resolving the Tensions between Christian Faith, Business Ethics and our Definitions of Success (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995). Richard John Neuhaus, Doing Well and Doing Good: The Challenge of the Christian Capitalist (New York: Doubleday, 1992). Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986). Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: The Free Press, 1996). ____________, Toward a Theology of the Corporation (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981). ____________, The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Catholicism (New York: The Free Press, 1993). ____________, The Fire of Invention: Civil Society and the Future of the Corporation (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997). J.I. Packer, “The Christian’s Purpose in Business,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed., Biblical Principles and Business: The Practice (Colorado Springs: Navpres, 1990), p.??? C. Rene Padilla, “The Mission of the Church in the Light of the Kingdom of God,” Transformation, Vol 1, No 2 (April‐June, 1984): 16‐20. 117 Palmer Parker, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (San Francisco: Jossey‐
Bass, 2000). Palmer Parker, “On Minding Your Call – When No One Is Calling,” Weavings (Sept‐Oct, 1996): 15‐22. William Perkins, “A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men” in The Work of William Perkins, ed. and intro. By Ian Breward (Appleford, UK: Courtenay Press, 1970). Gianfranco Poggi, Calvinism and the Capitalist Spirit: Max Weber's Protestant Ethic (London: Macmillan, 1983). Gordon Preece, “Business as a Calling and Profession: Towards a Protestant Entrepreneurial Ethic” (unpublished manuscript delivered at the International Marketplace Theology Consultation, Sydney, June 2001). Alan Richardson, The Biblical Doctrine of Work (London: SCM Press, 1952). Max L. Stackhouse, Dennis P. McCann, Shirley J. Roels, Preston N. Williams, On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995). Richard Steele, The Religious Tradesman (Trenton NJ: Francis S. Wiggins, 1823). R. Paul Stevens, “The Spiritual & Religious Sources of Entrepreneurship: From Max Weber to the New Business Spirituality, Crux, Vol XXXVI, No 2 (June 2000), 22‐33; reprinted in Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice, Vol 9, Issues 1 (Feb 2001):2‐11. _____________, “The Marketplace: Mission Field or Mission?” Crux, Vol XXXVII, No 3 (September 2001): 7‐16. _____________, “Vocational Conversion: An Imaginary Puritan‐Baby Boomer Dialogue” Crux, XXXVII (December 2001), No 4, 2‐8. _____________, The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans and Vancouver: Regent Publishing, 1999). _____________, “Wealth,” in Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens, The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997): 1102‐1106. Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches, trans. Olive Wyon (Louseville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992). Elton Trueblood, Your Other Vocation (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952). 118 Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). _____________, “Human Work, Divine Spirit, and the New Creation: Toward a Pneumatological Understanding of Work,” Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (Fall 1987), p. 175 (173‐193). Robert A. Wauzzinski, Between God and Gold: Protestant Evangelicalism and the Industrial Revolution 1820‐1914 (Rutherford: Furleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993). Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958). Philip J. Wogaman, “Christian Faith and Personal Holiness,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed. Biblical Principles and Business: The Foundations (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1990), Vol 1, pp. 37‐50. Christopher J. H. Wright, Living as the People of God: The Relevance of Old Testament Ethics (Leicester: Inter‐Varsity Press, 1998). NOTES ON BEING KINGDOM PEOPLE i. History and Eschatology, p. 120, quoted in George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, ), 131.
ii. Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (New York: Seabury Press, 1967), 42.
iii. Alan M. Stibbs, The First Epistle General of Peter (Tyndale, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 103-104. For a
detailed analysis of the options for interpreting basileion see Ernest Best, "1 Peter 2:4-10--A Reconstruction," Novum
Testamentum 11, No. 4 (1969), 270-293.
iv. R.T. France, Divine Government: God's Kingship in the Gospel of Mark (London: S.P.C.K.: 1990), 12-13.
v. Ibid., 15.
vi. France, op., cit., 29.
vii. R.T. France masterfully analyses Jesus' use of the "son of man" language in the gospel of Mark and concludes that
while there is not a complete divorce of enthronement and parousia language in relation to Daniel 7, the primary
meaning of Jesus' statement about the coming of the Son of Man is to his own enthronement at the inauguration of his
kingdom rather than its completion at the time of his second coming. Thus France proposes we view the coming of
kingdom as a process rather than a simple event. France, op, cit., 75-84.
viii. "Christian Liberty," Phila. Ed., ii, 232, 235, quoted in Fisher, op.cit., 298.
ix. Howard Snyder, The Community of the King (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1977), 12.
x. Ibid., 25.
119 xi. Quoted in Ibid., 30.
xii. Ibid., 41. See his discussion of the Reformers refusal to address the hierarchical/institutional view of the church of
their day on p. 31.
xiii. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehman, eds., Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, and St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1956-75, Vol. 13, pp. 294-295, quoted in Snyder, op. cit., 200.
xiv. Ibid., 30.
xv. Newbigin, op. cit., 136.
xvi. Jacque Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (New York: Seabury Press, 1967), 45.
xvii. "Christian Liberty," Phila. Ed. ii, 232, 235, quoted in Fisher, op. cit., 298.
xviii. William Tyndale, "A Parable of the Wicked Mammon," (l527) in Treatises and Portions of Holy Scripture
(Cambridge: Parker Society, l848), 98, 104.
xix. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. John W. Doberstein (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 70.
xx. Most of the foregoing appeared first as an article in The Regent World (May 1990), and was later published in
Marketplace (January 1992).
xxi. Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation, Carl C. Rasmussen trans. (St.Louis: Concordia, l957), 143.
xxii. Calvin Seerveld, “Christian Workers Unite!” in In the Fields of the Lord: A Calvin Seerveld Reader, ed. Craig
Bartholomew (Toronto: Tuppence Press, 2000), 242.
NOTES A DAY AT WORK: FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
R. Paul Stevens, published in Seven Days of Faith (Navpress).
xxiii. Quoted in Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion and the Healing of the Global Village, Humpty
Dumpty and Us (Minneapolis, Mn.: Winston Press, l979), iv. Check for original reference - footnote 3 in Fox preface.
xxiv. Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered....p.
xxv. C.S. Lewis, .....p.
xxvi. Leslie Newbigin, Honest Religion for Secular Man...p.
xxvii. Aristotle, Politics, I.viii.9; Nichomachean Ethics, X.7.
xxviii. Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World.....p.
xxix. Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament,
ed. F.F. Bruce (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, l987), 321-322.
xxx. John Haughey, Converting Nine to Five: A Spirituality of Daily Work (New York: Crossroads, l989), 106.
xxxi. Lynn White, Science 155, March 10, l967, no. 3767, 1203-1207.
120 xxxii. Quoted in Expositors Greek Testament on Col 1......
xxxiii. Haughey, op. cit., 104.
xxxiv. It is possible that the meaning of "The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire,
and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare (or burned up)." (2 Pet 3:10) is not the total annihilation of the cosmos
but the purifying of the created order as ore in a smelter.
xxxv. George Macdonald, The Genius of Willie MacMichael (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1987), 18-20.
xxxvi. David L. Jeffrey, trans. in Walter Hilton, Toward a Perfect Love, op. cit., xxv.
xxxvii. William J. Dumbrell. Creation and Covenant (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1984), 38.
xxxviii. Jurgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, trans. Margaret Kohl (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1991),
32
xxxix. See chapter four in Stevens, The Abolition of the Laity: Vocation, Work and Ministry in a Biblical
Perspective (Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Paternoster Press, 1999).
xl. Though the idea of co-creativity has been co-opted by such authors as Teilhard de Chardin, Gibson Winter, Matthew
Fox, Chalene Spretnak, Brain Swimme and Thomas Berry, and fits the post-modern cultural framework of the day with
its ecological-mystical reformulation of religious traditions, it would be tragic to label all thoughts of co-creativity as
"New Age" or "post-modernism". There are, however, some dangers. One Christian author, Joe Holland, seems to lose
sight of the Biblical perspectives of the transcendence and immanence of God, and comes dangerously close to deifying
human creativity and diminishing God's. But he makes the important point that "Jesus's gospel speaks to the work
process not because he grew up in a carpenter's family but because he proclaims a new creation." Joe Holland, Creative
Communion: Toward a Spirituality of Work (New York: Paulist Press, 1989), 58.
xli. Remarkably the Bible does not give us a list of unacceptable occupations. When soldiers came to John the Baptist he
did not tell them to leave the military but to be content with their wages. Jesus welcomed the tax collector and even with
his extraordinary sign of repentance, did not tell him to get an honourable job. Arguably the only two prohibited
occupations in Paul's letters are prostitution and extortion (1 Cor 6:9-10). It was not long, however, before the church
started to develop a list, a list which by the time of the puritans included such things as fashion design.
xlii. Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 48.
xliii. The medieval definition of "sloth" as one of the seven deadly sins was "too much" as well as "too little" work!
xliv. Martin Luther, "Treatise on Good Works," W.A. Lambert,trans., James Atkinson, ed. Luther's Works, Vol 44
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 26-27.
NOTES: IS BUSINESS A CALLING?
xlv
Brian Griffiths, The Creation of Wealth (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984), 9.
William E. Diehl, Christianity and Real Life (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), pp. v-vi.
xlvii
Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: The Free Press, 1996).
xlviii
Virtue in general is a prominent theme in Catholic moral theology. Lambert notes that a similar approach is
made by William J. Byron, S.J. who draws on character as “the internal source of external behavior” and cites the
virtues of compassion, humility and trustworthiness as virtues needed in business. William J. Byron, S.J., “Business:
xlvi
121 A Vocation to Justice and Love,” in The Professions in Ethical Context, ed. Francis A. Eigo, O.S.A. (Villanova, PA:
Villanova University Press, 1986), p. 130. Lambert wonders “why we should listen to Aristotle on the subject of
virtue when we must ignore is comments on money and trade.” Lake Lambert III, “Called to Business: Corporate
Management as a Profession of Faith,” (PhD Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1997, available through
UMI Services), p. 90.
xlix
This is a point well developed in the review by Lisa Klein Surdyk in Christian Scholar’s Review, Vol XXVII, No
1 (Fall 1997): 265-6.
l
Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: The Free Press, 1996), pp. 8, 54. li
Novak, p. 8.
Novak, pp. 36, 125ff.
liii
Novak, pp. 119ff.
liv
Novak, p. 36.
lv
Novak, p. 36.
lvi
Novak, pp. 37, 78, 84.
lvii
John Wesley, “The Use of Money,” in Max L. Stackhouse, et al, eds., On Moral Business: Classical and
Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), pp. 194-7.
lviii
Gilbert Meilander, “Professing business: John Paul meets John Wesley,” Christian Century (December 4, 1996),
1204.
lix
J.I. Packer, “The Christian’s Purpose in Business,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed., Biblical Principles and Business:
The Practice (Colorado Springs: Navpres, 1990), Vol 2, p. 20.
lx
Lake Lambert, p. 3. lii
lxi
See Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990).
Quoted in Max Stackhouse et al, On Moral Business, p. 39.
lxiii
Quoted in Gordon Preece, “Business as a Calling and Profession: Towards a Protestant Entrepreneurial Ethic” (unpublished manuscript delivered at the International Marketplace Theology Consultation, Sydney, June 2001), p. 14. lxii
lxiv
B. Gordon, The Economic Problem in Biblical and Patristic Thought (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989), p. 87, quoted in
Preece 2001, p. 15.
lxv
Quoted in W.R. Forrester, Christian Vocation (New York: Scribner’s 1953), p. 43, italics mine.
lxvi
Karl Holl, “The History of the Word ‘Vocation,’” Review and Expositor, Vol 55 (1958), p. 136.
lxvii
Karl Barth, ‘Vocation,’ in Church Dogmatics, trans. A.T. Mackay, T.H.L. Parker, H. Knight, H.A. Kennedy, and
J. Marks, vol 3, part 4:601 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1961), quoted in Marshall, A Kind of Life, p. 22.
lxviii
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1958), p. 212.
lxix
Klaus Bochmuehl, “Recovering Vocation Today,” Crux, Vol XXIV, No 3 (September 1988): pp. 30‐1. lxx
Howard C. Kee and Montgomery J. Shroyer, The Bible and God’s Call: A Study of the Biblical Foundation of Vocation (New York: Cokesbury – The Methodist Church, 1962), p. 11. lxxi
The German word Beruf may have been generally used to describe someone’s status or profession in society but
Luther was almost certainly the first to use the Latin word vocatio in this way. Lambert, 18.
lxxii
Works of Martin Luther, Philadelphia Edition, II, 69 (“An Open Letter to the Nobility”), quoted in Donald R. Heiges, The Christian’s Calling (Philadelphia: United Lutheran Church in America, 1958), p. 53. lxxiii
Heiges, pp. 50-1.
Luther’s Table Talk, trans by William Hazlitt (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1873), p. 447, quoted
in Heiges, 58.
lxxv
Martin Luther, “Church Postils,” in The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther, vol 10 (Minneapolis:
Lutherans in All Lands Company, 1905), 27, quoted in Heiges, 53.
lxxiv
122 lxxvi
Heiges, p. 54.
Resources on the scholastic discussions of usury include Off Langholm, Aristotelian Analysis of Usury (1984),
Thomas Wilson, A Discourse Upon Usury (1572/1925) and John T. Noonan, Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Harvard
University Press, 1957). A fine study of usury in Scripture and business today is found in Richard Higginson, Called
to Account: Adding Value in God’s World - Integrating Christianity and Business Effectively (Guildford, Surrey:
Eagle, 1993), pp. 107ff.
lxxviii
Lambert, pp. 79-80.
lxxix
Martin Luther, “Trade and Usury,” Luther’s Works, vols 31-55 ed, H.T. Lehmann (Philadelphia/St. Louis:
Concordia and Muhlenberg/Fortress Press, 1955-76), Vol 45, 272.
lxxx
Heiges, p. 61.
lxxxi
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans, Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1960), III, 11, 6, p. 724.
lxxxii
Heiges, p. 63.
lxxxiii
W.F. Graham, The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio-Economic Impact (Michigan State
University Press, 1987), p. 124, quoted in Preece, 2001.
lxxxiv
“The Spiritual & Religious Sources of Entrepreneurship: From Max Weber to the New Business Spirituality, Crux, Vol XXXVI, No 2 (June 2000), 22‐33; reprinted in Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice, Vol 9, Issues 1 (Feb 2001):2‐11. lxxvii
lxxxv
Weber, 66.
Weber, 172.
lxxxvii
Gianfranco Poggi, Calvinism and the Capitalist Spirit: Max Weber's Protestant Ethic (London: Macmillan,
1983), 61.
lxxxviii
Poggi, 79. While Poggi argues that the set of conditions Weber described were not sufficient to account for the rise of capitalistic entrepreneurship, Weber described “a necessary part” in these phenomena. The multiple factors essential for a capitalistic economic system to emerge from feudalism are considered in Brian Griffiths, The Creation of Wealth (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984), 94. lxxxvi
lxxxix
Joseph Hall, Holy Observations (London, 1607), quoted in Kee and Shroyer, p. 11.
It is noteworthy that in Calvin’s teaching the “general” call is the invitation of God that goes out to all through the
preaching of the Word, while the “special call” which God gives to believers alone is the inward illumination of the
Spirit which enables the preached Word to dwell in their hearts. Institutes, III, XX, 8, p. 974.
xci
See R. Paul Stevens, “Vocational Conversion: An Imaginary Puritan‐Baby Boomer Dialogue” Crux, XXXVII (December 2001), No 4, 2‐8. xc
xcii
William Perkins, Collected Works (London, 1612-13), quoted in Kee and Shroyer, p. 13.
Paul Marshall, A Kind of Life Imposed on Man: Vocation and Social Order from Tyndale to Locke (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp. 48-53.
xciv
Gordon Preece notes that one who tried valiantly to resist the secularizing trend was the Puritan Richard Steele
(1629-92) who wrote The Religious Tradesman. Preece comments, “Steele affirms business as a calling for
Christians if “His devotion disposes him for business, and his business makes devotion welcome.” Although not
strong on the Reformed meaning of vocation and simplistic in his criteria for selecting a calling (“lawfulness,
suitability, advice and interest of the soul”), Steele articulated a ‘vision of the calling to business which many
Christians had sensed and enacted.” Preece, see Steele, 66 and Lambert, 82-83.
xcv
Lambert, p. 38.
xcvi
See L.T. Almen, “Vocation in a Post-Vocational Age,” in Word and World, Vol 4, No 2 (Spring 1984): 131-140.
xcvii
Novak argues that calling can be secularized. People speak of knowing themselves, finding what they ought to
do, doing what they sense inwardly they are here to do and in so speaking, says, Novak, they are witnessing to
calling even though they may be uncomfortable with religious language. Novak, Business, 37-9.
xcviii
See the distinction between Christians active in the church and those active in the world in Mark Gibbs and T.R.
Morton, God’s Frozen People (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965), 22-23.
xcix
Franz Kafta, The Great Wall of China (London: Secker, 1933), p. 259, quoted in Heiges, p. 15.
xciii
123 c
I develop this in The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1999), pp 89ff.
ci
Heiges, p. 27.
cii
Paul S. Minear, To Die and to Live: Christ’s Resurrection and Christian Vocation (New York: Seabury Press,
1977), p. 115.
ciii
John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, trans. William Pringle
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), 1:244.
civ
David John Falk, “A New Testament Theology of Calling with Reference to the ‘Call to the Ministry’” (MCS
thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 1990), p. 107.
cv
For a more complete study of New Testament instances of “call” see Stevens, The Other Six Days, pp. 85ff.
cvi
Minear, pp. 98-9.
cvii
John Calvin, The First Epistle of Paul The Apostle to the Corinthians, trans. John W. Fraser, eds. David W.
Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1960, 15, quoted in Falk, 135.
cviii
See Martin Luther, “That a Christian Assembly or Congregation has the Right and Power to Judge all Teaching
and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers Established and Proven by Scripture,” Luther’s Works, XXXIX, 310-1,
and Luther’s Works, Am. Ed., “Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4”, (pp. 13-78) Vol 26 (1963), Jaroslav
Pelikan, ed., p. 17. These passages are explained in Stevens, The Other Six Days, pp. 154-5.
cix
Calvin, Institutes, IV, 3, 10, p. 1062.
cx
Ibid., IV, III, 1-11. This has led, in recent time, to an attempt by one New Testament scholar to disprove that
Ephesians 4:11-12 is not about equipping the saints so that the saints can do the ministry but rather keeping the
ministry with the “minister.” T. David Gordon, “’Equipping’ Ministry in Ephesians 4?” JETS, Vol 37, No 1 (March
1994):69-78.
cxi
Hendrik Kraemer, A Theology of the Laity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958), 160.
cxii
Gordon Fee maintains that this strong distinction is not maintained by the original. It is “each as God called” in
verse 17 and “remaining in the situation in which he was called,” in verse 20.
cxiii
Heiges, p. 49.
cxiv
Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation, Trans. Carl C. Rasmussen (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957), p. 2,
quoted in Heiges, 49.
cxv
Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), p. 307. Fee notes,
“Although he comes very close to seeing the setting in which one is called as ‘calling’ itself, he never quite makes
that jump.” p. 309.
cxvi
Paul Marshall A Kind of LifeImposed on Man: Vocation and Social Order from Tyndale to Locke (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1996), 14.
cxvii
W.A. Beardslee, Human Achievement and Divine Vocation in the Message of Paul (London: SCM Press, 1961), pp. 19‐20. cxviii
Minear, p. 136.
Minear, pp. 135-6.
cxx
Kenneth C. Kantzer, “God Intends His Precepts to Transform Society,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed. Biblical
Principles and Business: The Foundations (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1990), Vol 1, p. 29.
cxxi
Kantzer, p. 24.
cxxii
In his Minding God’s Business (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986) Ray S. Anderson’s offers four theses that summarize the doctrine of creation: cxix
Thesis 1: The existing cosmos is a world order originally designed by God as Creator and Lord; this order is determinative for the existence of human persons (social order) as well as of the world order….The present order of human society, as God created and intended it to exist as part of the world order, is ‘good.’ There is no intrinsic evil embedded in the created order, nor is the created order to be despised as unworthy of our attention. Christians sometimes forget this, and make the mistake of thinking that the ‘business’ of the world is basically evil and therefore cannot be ‘of God.’” (22) “The created cosmos is intended to serve as an environment of space and time for the preparation of human society to be the people of God.” (23) 124 Thesis 2: “The existing cosmos has suffered a radical disorder that cannot be renewed through the natural world itself; this disorder alienates both social and cosmic structures of creation from their created order and destiny.” (26) “We know how bad it really is only when we know how good it is meant to be.” (26) Thesis 3: “Through God’s intervention by the giving of his Word, first of all to Israel as his new order of humanity, and finally through Jesus Christ as the new humanity, both human society and the cosmos are brought back under the creation mandate.” (30) Thesis 4: “This present world and social order, though under the power of the new and creative order established through Jesus Christ, continues to suffer a tension between the new and old order. This present and continuing ministry of Jesus Christ takes place through the provisional forms of the church and its organizations as a sign of the kingdom of God.” (34). cxxiii
Novak, p. 125.
Philip J. Wogaman, “Christian Faith and Personal Holiness,” in Richard C. Chewning, ed. Biblical Principles
and Business: The Foundations (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1990), Vol 1, p. 50.
cxxv
Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert, Heaven is Not my Home: Learning to Live in God’s Creation (Nashville: Word
Publishing, 1998), p. 46.
cxxvi
Christopher J. H. Wright, Living as the People of God: The Relevance of Old Testament Ethics (Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 1998), p. 89.
cxxvii
D.J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
1996), p. 405.
cxxviii
C. Rene Padilla, “The Mission of the Church in the Light of the Kingdom of God,” Transformation Vol 1, No 2
(April-June, 1984), p. 19.
cxxix
See my “The Marketplace: Mission Field or Mission?” Crux, Vol XXXVII, No 3 (September 2001): 7‐16. cxxiv
cxxx
William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens
(Leicester, 1792), p.68. Carey says, “This seems to imply that in the time of the glorious increase of the church, in
the latter days, commerce shall subserve the spread of the gospel.” “As to their distance from us, whatever
objections might have been made on that account before the invention of the mariner’s compass, nothing can be
alleged for it, with any colour of plausibility in the present age. Men can now sail with as much certainty through the
Great South Sea, as they can through the Mediterranean, or any lesser Sea. Yea, and providence seems in a manner
to invite us to the trial, as there are to our knowledge trading companies, whose commerce lies in many of the places
where these barbarians dwell.” Ibid., p. 67.See Michael C.R. McLoughlin, “Back to the Future of Missions,”
Vocatio, Vol 4, No 2 (December 2000), pp 1-6.
cxxxi
New York Times, September 27, 1998, p. 16. cxxxii
Higginson, pp. 139-141.
Novak, Business, 46-7.
cxxxiv
Meilander notes, in critique of Novak’s assertion that commerce binds people together and is what people do
when they are at peace, that “the very same business that testifies to and encourages human solidarity becomes – or
can become – a means by which we acquire the wealth that gives us a considerable measure of independence from
others.” “Professing Business,” p. 1201.
cxxxv
Novak, Business, p. 37.
cxxxvi
In his review of Novak’s book Prabo Mihindukulasuriya notes that while earlier migrations to North America
in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s show the superiority of the capitalist system, the current economic migration
from developing countries are composed of predominantly skilled workers and elites, thus actually hindering the
development of healthy economies in those countries. “And so it will not be capitalism per se that will offer the
cxxxiii
125 solution to Two-Thirds world development.” Prabo Mihindukulasuriya, “Business as a Calling: Work and the
Examined Life,” (review) Crux, Vol XXXIV, No 2 (June 1998), 46.
cxxxvii
cxxxviii
See my student’s study, John A.C. Morrow, “The Global Economy and Global Free Market Capitalism:
Towards a Christian Perspective,” (unpublished paper for Marketplace Theology Seminar, Regent College,
November 2000).
cxxxix
Novak, Business, 60.
cxl
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), p. 230.
cxli
See my “Wealth,” in Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens, The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity (Downers
Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997): 1102-1106.
cxlii
Jacques Ellul, Money and Power, trans. L. Neff (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1984), p. 66.
cxliii
Minear, pp. 89-90.
cxliv
Jurgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1996), p. 57.
cxlv
“The resurrection of Christ redeems from meaninglessness the whole of our life and work. It is in the
resurrection of Christ that we find the final vindication of all the work we do in this life, our assurance that all our
toil and struggle and sufferings possess abiding worth.” Alan Richardson, The Biblical Doctrine of Work (London:
SCM Press, 1952), p. 58.
cxlvi
Miroslav Volf, “Human Work, Divine Spirit, and the New Creation: Toward a Pneumatological Understanding
of Work,” Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (Fall 1987), p. 175 (173-193). Volf contrasts
the view of work as cooperation with God in creatio continua (which has dominated Reformational theology) with
work as cooperation with God in transformatio mundi.
cxlvii
Volf, “Human Work,” pp. 175-179.
cxlviii
Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p.
92.
cxlix
Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1986), p. 136.
126