Holy Work - Colossians 3:17

Let me tell you the stories of two hard-working folks.

The first is that of a young pastor who has just accepted his first appointment.  He spends time each week visiting among the congregation, trying to get to know the membership and the church’s history. He spends hours each week preparing for Bible Study and seeking God’s direction in the crafting of each Sunday’s sermon.  The pastor spends time sitting with families in the hospital, and the shut-ins in the nursing home.  He becomes involved in various groups within the community that seek to touch the lives of the of those who struggle from day to day.

The second is a florist within the same congregation. She sits quietly in the pews each week. On Monday morning she opens up her business. She prepares each arrangement carefully, as if each were a work of art that would be on display, conscious of the hearts and lives each delivery would affect. With her sales complete, she looks through her inventory and selects the most beautiful flowers left. She then prepares three more arrangements, carefully removing any indication that they come from her shop, writes on each card “You are not alone,” and drops them off at the front desk off the hospital with directions for them to be delivered anonymously to their three members who had been admitted during the past week. On Thursday nights, she teaches a free class on creating artificial arrangements on a budget for a group of widows in the community.   

Which of these two were undoubtedly doing holy work?

The answer is both.

Too often in our minds we limit our thinking about holy work to the work of ministers and missionaries.  If a lay person is involved, they must be working alongside a pastor or at least under the direct sanction and design of the church, and most definitely must mention the name of Jesus.  Others of us think that if it is in the church, or in the name of the church, it is sacred, if it is outside the church, or doesn’t include the name of Jesus, its secular.  That’s just not the case.

We have to realize that it is not the action that makes work or an activity holy, it is the attitude of our hearts behind it.  Last year I read a devotional that included a quote from Rev. Dr. A. W. Tozer that really seemed to capture this line of thinking.  Tozer wrote is his book, The Pursuit of God, “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.”

Your heart, your motive, determine whether your work is holy…not what you are doing.  That’s why it doesn’t matter whether you are a pastor of a church or the owner of a florist shop, the work of either can be holy work.

According to Tozer, according to the Word of God, what makes a work holy is whether we are seeking to glorify God or ourselves, whether we are doing it with hearts filled with love, or hearts fill with resentment over what we are having to do.

Paul writes, “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

With this understanding, doing whatever we do in the name of Jesus, and remembering to have thankful hearts as we do them…then anything and everything becomes holy work.

Preaching, teaching Sunday School, assembling manna bags, filling a transport of supplies for Liberia, visiting shut-ins, setting up tables for a fellowship meal, washing dishes after a church dinner, can all be holy work.

Teaching math to a class full of sixth graders can be holy work.

Coaching a children’s soccer team can be holy work.

Painting a room or a picture can be holy work.

Working in the flower garden or trimming shrubs can be holy work.

Building a house can be holy work.

Running a business can be holy work.

Working in a textile mill can be holy work.

Doing laundry can be holy work.

Cooking dinner can be holy work.

Vacuuming the house and even cleaning the bathrooms can be holy work.

There is no task that is too challenging or too mundane for it to become holy work.  I remember a conversation I had with a member of one of the congregations that I have served over the years who had turned her weekly ironing into holy work.  She spent time in prayer as she was ironing.  As she would work the wrinkles out of each garment, she would pray for the member of her family who would be wearing that.  Thanking God for that person and asking God to protect and guide that family member.   She would also thank God that she had the ability to perform that task for her family.

Anything we do, if it is done in the Name of Jesus Christ and giving thanks to God—meaning that our labors are seeking not to satisfy ourselves, but to glorify God, reflecting the redeeming, life-giving, self-sacrificing character of God, can become holy work.  When our labors become more about God and seeking to reflect Him, in whatever we are doing, whether through our words or our actions, and not about us or what we can get out of it, or are not getting out of it, then all our labor, all that we do, becomes holy work.

This morning we gather to receive and celebrate a meal in which we are reminded of the Holy Work of Christ…may this meal of simple bread and juice that becomes the holy body and blood of Christ remind us that God can take even the simplest, even the most common of items, and make them holy, using them as a means of pouring out His grace upon the world.

My brothers and sisters, as we come forward to receive this meal, and as many of us celebrate this Labor Day Holiday, may we consider why we do what we do, make every effort to glorify God through our labors, giving thanks to God, if for nothing else, that we have the ability to do them, and offer all that we do in the name of Jesus Christ, so that all things become labors of love, so that “whatever we do, in word or deed,” becomes sacred, holy, work.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.