Work is something we seldom discuss in Church.
Stories of work and the holiness of work are threads we seldom pull, despite the time and energy our work consumes.
However, when we turn to Scripture, we find that the Bible has a lot to say about work, both our own and God’s.
Scripture illuminates this truth: work is deeply connected with worship, justice, healing, holiness, Sabbath keeping. and rest.
In fact, according to the Bible, work is designed to be one of the primary ways we worship.
In God’s vision, work and worship are seamless, emerging from and flowing into, the same divine source.
Mondays Connect to sundays
The Hebrew word avodah is used over 250 times in Scripture, and its translation varies, depending on context.
Avodah can mean worship, service, or work.
For the Hebrew people, these actions were so intertwined, they shared the same root word.
Avodah invites us to see that what we do on Monday is deeply connected to what we experienced on Sunday.
Our God is a working God.
Our God had hands in the dirt, forming and creating.
In the original paradise, there was work to do for God and humanity, and in the vision of the restored paradise in Isaiah 60, there is more work to accomplish.
Our savior came to us as tekton, builder: a laborer who carried the tools of his trade in calloused hands.
Jesus spent most of his life working, perhaps engaged in a small business.
For most of his life, the incarnate Word of God worked to provide sustenance for himself and his family and to participate in the economic life of his community.
Work is something God does, and for this reason, our work matters deeply.
The cost of splitting Work from Worship
Today, we live in a world that has broken this sacred connection between work and worship.
We have split apart the word “avodah” into distinct and separate meanings and disrupted the rhythmic dance that balances work and sacred rest.
We struggle to connect the holiness we experience on Sunday with the holiness hidden in Monday.
This brokenness has serious consequences for our spiritual, emotional, and physical health—and for the health of our partner in creation, the earth.
Our society is increasingly rooted in a vision of a world and an economy that does not cease, in a massive international production line designed to keep people in a constant state of work and motion just to survive.
Many Americans are convinced that in a 24/7/365 world, we must run as fast as we can or be forever left behind.
Yet, a world that has severed work from worship—a world that will not stop, a people that will not pause, a land that cannot rest—will eventually shatter and break.
Exhausted people bear wounds that are difficult to diagnose and heal.
Drugs that treat gastro-esophageal reflux, heartburn, and stomach ulcers are among the most prescribed medications in the United States, with over 100 million prescriptions at last count.
We are gulping down stress related medications as fast as they can be produced.
Exhausted land bears equally festering wounds.
The loss of biodiversity, land and water degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, the state of the oceans, and the rise of climate disruption need no elaboration here.
Pope Francis minces no words challenging those who deny this reality.:
“Despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over, or relativize the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident. No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought and other cries of protest on the part of the earth that are only a few palpable expressions of a silent disease that affects everyone” (Francis. 2023. Laudate Deum, 5).
Scripture offers us a vision of human life grounded in three deeply intertwined covenantal relationships: God, humanity, and the earth.
But these three vital relationships have been broken by sin, leading to a distorted theology of worship, work, and rest.
Many people have lost a sense of work as a response to God’s gracious gift of life, and so they pour out their energy in a frantic effort to “get ahead.”
In that process, we break health, spirits, relationships, and ultimately the land in an ever-spiraling cycle of production, consumption, production.
How Do We Mend the Split?
My upcoming talk with Backstory Preaching’s Collective+, “The Earth Shall Have Its Sabbath: Preaching Sabbath Spirituality in a Wounded World” explores the impact this brokenness has on creation and offers practical suggestions for preachers to explore the issues of work, land, Sabbath spirituality, and creation care in ways that can bring hope and healing.
Dr. Susan McGurgan
I have served in pastoral ministry and lay formation for 30 years as a parish minister, formation director, professor, and administrator. I hold a BA Honors History degree from Oklahoma State University, an MA Pastoral Ministry from the Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary's Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry in Preaching from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (Now Bexley-Seabury).
Along the way, I completed three years of doctoral work in Ancient History/Classics at the University of Cincinnati and a full-time museum internship at the Cincinnati Art Museum in the department of Ancient and Near Eastern Art. I am active in the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, serving previously as Vice-President and President, and in the Academy of Homiletics, serving as Member at Large on the Executive Committee and Co-Convener of the Theology of Preaching Work Group.
In 2020, I was named the Marten Visiting Associate Fellow of Preaching at the University of Notre Dame. I currently teach pastoral formation at Mount St. Mary's in Cincinnati, and Advanced Preaching at United Theological in Dayton.