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Last week I looked at the question of “how do we get back on
the rails with God”, after what has probably been a difficult,
trying and exhausting week.
I found from scripture three principles: which I
put together under 3 “C”’s –
1./ A Covenant with Righteousness.
2/ A Commitment to Equipment, and 3/ a Challenge to
Perseverance. All
three are needed to keep on track.
We need to DO what is right, we need to Equip ourselves
for our Christian life and Journey, and we need to be aware that in
order to complete our journey we will need to exercise Perseverance.
We may think that living the Christian life should be fairly
easy, - simply a matter of joining in worship services, being involved
with Home Groups, enjoying choir and music practices – but the fact
is that most of us don’t spend the greater proportion of our lives
actually doing those things.
Most of you will be on your way to work early tomorrow
morning, and you wont arrive home until its starting to get dark.
It’s there – at work – where many of you will be spending
the majority of your day. And
its there, at work – for those 8 or 10 or 12 hours -
where we either
win or lose in the Christian life.
For most of us, its
when we are at work that we are challenged most of all as to
how we conduct ourselves, how we speak to our colleagues, how we
relate to the opposite sex, how we tell the truth and are open with
others, or whether we bend the truth to suit our own purposes.
And of course by “Work” I don’t just mean those in paid
employment! I know that some of you are retired- but where do you
spend the greater part of your day?
Most likely its with other people, in community groups, perhaps
helping at the Op Shop, or in one way or another doing things
for others. The same principles apply – whether you get paid for
your work, or whether you are a voluntary worker – it is there
– wherever you are – where your Christian faith will be tested and
tried. And it is there,
in that same place, that your Covenant with Righteousness – the
desire and determination to Do what is Right before God – will
either happen or not.
And it is this matter of Doing what is right, not just
storing up Biblical and Spiritual insights from Sunday Church, that
James, the author of the epistle from which we read this morning, is
wanting to emphasise.
The Letter of James
stresses that our faith in Jesus Christ must issue forth in good work
– in Righteousness – in Righteous Work! – the kind of work that
is approved of by God and serves His Kingdom.
James criticises
those who only hear the word, but fail to do it .
So James’s letter has a great deal to say about embodying our
faith in the world. And
we all know that sometimes we DON’T do that very well.- We fail, and
sometimes we fail miserably.
This past week I was rung up by a woman who’s father had died
some time ago.
She was single, very lonely, had few if any close friends,
and had been devoted to her father, though they didn’t always
get on very well, and she had ended up having to take responsibility
for many of the decisions regarding not only his care but the funeral
arrangements as well. She
hadn’t been able to come to terms with his death. She had a brother who was married with a family,
and who lived overseas. He had not taken much interest in his home, or
his parents, since he had first moved overseas some twenty or so years
ago, and seemed to show even less interest or concern now for his
sister, who also battled with mental problems. The brother was very
much involved with his local church and spoke very enthusiastically to
me about what he did. Yet
when his sister rang me, in tears, the other day, it was because she
found him to be uncaring, money grabbing, and inconsiderate of her,
now very lonely, plight. It
seemed to her that he couldn’t care less about her.
With much venom spat out the words -
“And he calls himself a Christian!”
And the little I knew of the situation, I was rather inclined
to agree with her.
If we call upon the name of Jesus Christ here in this place,
and we are willing that others should know that we are committed to
serving Him - then
whether its at work or at home – with colleagues or with family –
we must be prepared to have our lives carefully scrutinised by others
to check out whether we are true disciples of Christ or not! –
whether we show in our deeds what we profess with our words.
Perhaps a growing problem today is that people are being
required, often through no fault of their own
but by employment forces and financial pressures – to work
longer and longer hours. So we are spending more time with the people
in the office, at the warehouse, at the checkout counter.
We are losing the balance between home life and work life. And
the stresses are mounting – and that means that our Christian faith
is probably under more stress today than it has been in the past.
Some statistics I came across the other day showed that in
America, - and probably the same holds true for N.Z.
– beginning in the late ‘40’s
- Americans have worked increasing hours each decade. So
by the 1990’s, when the Futurist’s were predicting that within ten
years, thanks to computers and new technologies we would be working
only 3 days per week and would have difficulties adjusting to all our
new leisure time -- the average American worked a month longer per
year than in the 1970’s.
If we are all working longer, where did these additional hours
come from? If we
are going to work more, we must find those extra hours somewhere.
So our leisure time suffers, and then we work Saturday’s –
and now, Sunday has
nearly gone too! Americans
today have 40% LESS free time than they did in 1970.
I would think you would probably say
- Yes – you have less free time now than you did in
the past. And clergy are
not exempt either! A study amongst American clergy showed that 70 % of
clergy worked more than 60 hours per week.
I think that if ever there was a time and a generation to take
seriously the fourth Commandment to keep Holy the Sabbath Day – to
observe at least one day off in seven - then this is it. Where do we
otherwise draw the line with trying to keep a proper balance between
our work, our home and our leisure life.
A day of rest is not a luxury – it is essential for our total
health and well-being.
But our work
life, and how we conduct ourselves in that context
will most likely be the place where we will either show the
light of Christ, or where
we will fail and dishonour Him.
Our primary call, regardless of what we do, is to be a
disciple of Jesus – anywhere -
all the time. Let
us not be just hearers of the Word – but doers of the Word.
Rev.M.L.Spackman
31-8-03
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