Foundations 5: What Do We Do? (Matthew 5:13-16) - Calvary Baptist Cobourg

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The Church has always had work to do—making disciples, building stronger disciples, worshipping, teaching, learning, feeding, sheltering, adopting, and embracing and forgiving. And always the work that we do is to the glory of God.

In Ephesians Chapter 2 we read, “For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” 

In James Chapter 1, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” 

In First Peter we read, “Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

The way we live, the things that we do, are given to us by God as opportunities for us to join in what he is doing, his redemptive work in the world and to glorify God. From the beginning of the church's existence on earth, and long before, his people have been given his work to do to the glory of God, and whether we're talking about the work we do in in relationships, or money, or our building, everything that we do, everything we earn, everything that we do is turned towards the purpose of pointing people's attention towards God and saying, “Look how great he is!”

The first and most important answer to the question ‘what do we do?’ is... We glorify God.

  
How can we glorify God with our work?

Starting in Luke 10:38:

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made, and she came to him and asked, “Lord don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about so many things. Few things are needed. Or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.”

Often when we look at Martha we criticize her for her busy-ness. We criticize her for missing the point. But that's not really what this story is about. Because busy-ness in itself is not a bad thing. Getting stuff done that needs to be done is not a sin. Martha was providing hospitality. She was doing the work of feeding and housing at least thirteen guests in her house (I don't know how big your house is, but I don't know what I'd do with thirteen guests). She was doing something that was necessary. She was doing what she should do. She had the resources. She was contributing. She was doing a good thing. Mary—countercultural younger sister—sat at Jesus’ feet with the guys (where she wasn't supposed to be) and learned. Both Mary and Martha are examples of the kinds of work that the church is called to do today, and what humanity has been commanded to do from the beginning of time—managing resources, learning, and serving.

But Martha gets told off. Kind of. So we tend to focus on that.

But...I find this really interesting--the story of Mary and Martha begins in Luke 10:38. Luke 10:37 is the ending of the story of the good Samaritan.

In the story of the Good Samaritan, the good example--the guy who gets the pat on the back—is the one who was busy. In Mary and Martha's situation, Jesus pushed back against Martha's busy-ness. But in the story of the Good Samaritan, the hero is a guy who was doing basically the same thing that Martha was doing—providing hospitality, providing shelter, providing care. Isn't it interesting that in these two back-to-back stories, in the Good Samaritan, the bad example is the people who prioritize their religious activity. And the good example is the guy who did stuff?

Isn't it interesting that in Acts Chapter 6 we meet Stephen, who was given the job of overseeing daily distribution of food to widows. And Stephen’s qualifications for this job were that he was “full of the spirit and wisdom,” “full of grace and power.” He's described as “performing great wonders and signs,” but he was put in charge of hospitality. Not because he was good at portion control and networking and fundraising and he had a refrigerated truck. He was put in charge of catering and hospitality because of his spiritual maturity.

Isn't it interesting that in the story of Mary and Martha, the busy person is corrected and the spiritual person is praised. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the busy person is praised and the spiritual people are criticized. And in Stephen’s life, the busy person and the spiritual person were the same person.

Could it be that God wants us to understand that our work and our spiritual life are not two separate things? They are one. To do the work that God gives us—serving, learning, helping, providing for people in need, contributing medical care, teaching kids to read—these are all things that God has given us to do that flow out of the resources he has provided for us and this is all work that glorifies God.

 
Next, how can we glorify God with our rest?

I know there are people in every church who are responsible for filling committees and making sure that things get done and they're probably like, “No, don't tell them to rest!” But rest is important. Rest is necessary. Rest is part of who we are. Just as busy-ness is not a sin, neither is stillness.

You may have heard it said that ‘idle hands are the devil's workshop.’ Well, so is exhaustion and so is burnout. Rest is a gift that God has given us to allow us to enjoy the work, and to provide us with time to focus on growing closer to him.

In Genesis Chapter 2, God establishes this concept of rest. 

“On the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.”

In Exodus Chapter 20, that becomes a mandate in the Ten Commandments.

“Remember the sabbath day (the seventh day) by keeping it holy. Six days you shall work. The seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On the sabbath you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or your daughter, your male nor female servants. Nor your animals. Nor any foreigner residing in your town.” 

God is trying to close loopholes here because we are very good at finding loopholes. “Well, my staff is working, but I'm not. So that's OK. I'm good.”

What God is mandating here is a time of rest for everyone. And he's making it possible for families to rest together. To spend time together with each other and with him.

In Genesis Chapter 3, going back to the garden of Eden, is another interesting example of rest. “The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord God in the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”” This is not a happy chapter in the life of Adam and Eve. But it sets for us an example. It creates for us a picture. It hints towards a picture of Adam and Eve working during the day, and in the cool of the evening setting aside their work and listening for God's footsteps as he came to meet them in the garden, to just spend time together at the end of the day.

In Mark Chapter 2, Jesus reminds us that the sabbath was made for us. We're not made for the sabbath. We're not pawns on the chess board with God wanting us to be on that square at this time. And if we're not on the right square, we're going to get in trouble. Sabbath was a gift to us. Knowing how and when to rest is a form of stewardship. We're stewarding our relationships. We're stewarding ourselves.

In the story of Mary and Martha, Mary wasn't exactly resting, but she was sitting still. She was learning, she was being close to Jesus, close enough to hear his voice above the noise of the pots and pans in the kitchen. She took that opportunity to pause and hear what he had to say to her.

It's OK to rest. We can honour and glorify God by caring for ourselves in rest.

To obey his commands to rest—for some of us that does not come easy. It doesn't come easy for me. I have a hard time actually taking a day off because there's always something to do. “Well, I could do that tomorrow. But I could get it done today and then I don’t have to worry about it tomorrow. Because then tomorrow I can do those other things,” and everything just keeps getting shifted. I struggle with this. I struggle with actually taking a day off. And maybe there are people here who relate to that.

Some of us—it gets thrust upon us, whether we want it or not. Some of us have busy and engaged and productive things going on in our lives. But suddenly we're knocked off our feet. And we have no choice but to rest. Again, that can be difficult. That can be challenging. That can be hard to accept without bitterness and without frustration. But if that is your situation, I encourage you to lean into God's gift of rest, to take ownership of being built for rest, and in that way glorify God.

We can glorify God through our stewardship. We can glorify God in our work, and we can glorify God in our rest.

So what do we do? We recognize who God has made us to be. We recognize that he has commanded us to stewardship, and to work, and to rest, and to look for where he is at work in his world. And to prayerfully  come to understand where we fit. And what steps we need to take, and when.

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