Living and Working with Faith

Living and Working with Faith
8/7/22
 
Ecclesiastes 5: 2, 6-19; Ps. 33; Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-12; Luke 12: 13-34
 
          A group of friends and I are reading and discussing a book by Jesuit priest Henri Nouwen, called The Genesee Diary. It is the journal Nouwen kept when he went to live and work in a Trappist monastery in upstate New York, for seven months, in 1974. In it, he tells a story that he said helped him understand the purpose of work. When he was not praying and studying, Nouwen was assigned lots of different jobs around the monastery property, like moving rocks in a riverbed, or pulling tree stumps out with a tractor. Nouwen found this work pretty menial, and wondered at first what the point of it was. It was a great contrast with his usual work of writing books and giving lectures. Another job was to help bake the bread which this monastery sold to sustain itself. Part of that work was to wash the raisins for the raisin bread, sieving them through a grill while running them under water, to prevent any fragments of cardboard, stones, or other debris from getting into the bread. One day, while Nouwen was washing raisins with some of the monks, the supervisor stopped the line because he said he had heard a rock go through one of the sieves. He had heard it clink against the metal of the sink. He said all the raisins of that batch would have to be washed again. Nouwen asked why- why wash millions of raisins another time, just to find one little rock? To prevent a customer from breaking a tooth on that rock, and suing the monastery, was the answer. Finally, on the second washing, they found the tiny rock. And over time, Nouwen got the point that they were working vigilantly to prevent harm- to a person eating bread, or to a monastery. They were doing work both menial and profound to make the world better for every creature in it, little by little. And they were relaxing their minds to be more present to the inspiration of God. They were learning to work contemplatively, to turn all their labor into a prayer, and to invite God’s blessings on all they thought of while working.
          Much has been written about how the COVID-19 epidemic has caused people to reconsider why they are working, or if they need to change jobs. Many seem to have realized that their labor is worth more compensation, and their lives are impaired by work conditions that are too intrusive. Our society seems to be having a long-overdue healthy debate about work/life balance, the need for better and more affordable childcare, workplace racial and gender equity, and the unjust cost of higher education necessary to qualify for better-paying jobs.
          Our readings convey many beautiful truths about work. Ecclesiastes pointed out that working only for the sake of accumulating material goods or power is inherently frustrating, but that what is good it is to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in the work that we do, whatever it is. This wisdom writer recommended finding work that seems purposeful to us, and sincerely enjoying the blessings that work affords us, without envy of others or seeking to coerce.
          The writer of Hebrew illustrated the connection between God’s creativity and ours, the love God has shown in inviting us to participate in the divine plan of the ongoing creation of the world. By recalling how Sarah gave birth in her later years, we can realize the potential we have to continue create all our lives—artistically, scientifically, contemplatively, compassionately—God gifts us with unlimited potential. By faith, we can be God’s partners in caring for God’s creation and improving life for all its inhabitants.
           In our passage from Luke’s gospel, Jesus echoed the Ecclesiastes teaching that accumulating possessions is not life-giving, but that enjoying our work and the beauty of nature can lead to happiness. But Jesus took the idea of work a step further. He taught that God’s mission for us is working to make sure that everyone in our community has what they need to survive and thrive. God loves and wills happiness for everyone, and asks us to transmit that love, by giving from our abilities and our possessions to care for one another.
           So just like Henri Nouwen, we can learn, by faith, and with contemplation, to make all our work a prayer, and not just drudgery to earn a paycheck. Like Sarah, with respect for God’s creation, we can help create the liberated community God planned for all. And like Jesus, with humility, we can learn ways of turning our work into ways of loving one another as God loves us.