The Joy of Not Working
The more I read the Bible the more often I am offended by commercials I see on TV. We have been watching television quit a bit lately because the Olympics are on.
Unfortunately VISA is a sponsor and so regularly I see this awful ad about this flock of penguins who approach a human family on the beach. They play with them and the family is touch by the encounter with the birds. Suddenly the penguins leave and the family waves good-bye. The penguins leave because they have gotten what they wanted - the family's VISA card. The penguins make excited, chirping sounds because they have possession of a VISA card. Now, if anyone should be safe from North American, materialistic temptations, it should be penguins. Especially since penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Bay has a new advertising campaign that offends me regularly. In one ad a woman talks to someone or something that is off camera like a baby. She says that the baby won't be lonely because she brought all her little sisters. Then the camera cuts to who the woman is talking to - a new, large collection of shoes. The ad ends saying, "Shopping is Good." Yeah, is so good it makes you loose your mind and talk to shoes.
There is also a mini van commercial that shows a couple driving to one of God's most beautiful and awesome creations - the Grand Canyon. When they get there, they don't even get out of the car. They simply take a snapshot through the window and leave. Apparently, driving in a minivan is more fulfilling then seeing the Grand Canyon.
Then there are the countless Lottery Commercials and Banking Commercials that equate money with happiness and fulfillment.
We are constantly barraged with commercials that emphasize the Western cultural values of saving, collecting possessions, increasing our status and working hard. What is more, we are consistently told that if we do these things we will experience contentment, happiness, fulfillment and peace. They won't, of course. We'll just want more.
To go against these cultural values and expected behaviour is so difficult when so much is pushing us to conform. In both of today's passages, the way of God's wisdom challenges our common understandings of success, power and greatness. Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Jesus says that all those things society values are of no value in the Kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is where true joy, happiness and fulfillment is - the kingdom of God here on earth and in heaven.
James writes "Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind." Today this kind of envy and selfish-ambition might display itself as workaholism.
Tom Peters is the co-author of two of the most widely read books on the subject of work in the twentieth century. His second book, A Passion for Excellence, sets forth the mandates for excellence in the work arena. He's emphatic about the need to work for the customer, to provide thorough customer service, and of working with integrity. He draws his discussion of excellence to a conclusion by talking about its cost.
An honest but alarming statement appears in the last page of the last chapter of the book.
We are frequently asked if it is possible to "have it all"-a full and satisfying personal life and a full and satisfying, hard-working professional one. Our answer is: No. The price of excellence is time, energy, attention and focus, at the very same time that energy, attention and focus could have gone toward enjoying your daughter's soccer game. Excellence is a high cost item.
And I would add, that at the very same time, that energy, attention and focus could have gone toward volunteering in your community or your church. That energy, attention and focus could have gone toward helping your neighbour, loving the stranger, laughing with a child. Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."
Throughout the Old and New Testaments is the message that the wisdom of the world is foolishness in the Kingdom of God.
James writes, "God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us." If God yearns jealously for the spirit to move in us and guide us, then does he want us to work 60 hours for our own sense of achievement, for our own benefit, for our own selfish-ambition?
And is working to spend, working to have the mini van and the shoes ethical when we could be helping the neighbour, loving the stranger, laughing with the child? When we could be servants of all?
What culture has taken this on as a cultural value? For it is so radical we can hardly gasp it, let alone live it.
I try. I try not to want. I avoid opulence because I don't want to see things I want. I hate that feeling of wanting. I love to go skiing but I hate seeing the ski bunnies on the hill look so good with their new, fashionable outfits and their new skies because I don't want to want. Because I know that feeling of wanting is never ending and not easily satisfied. And I know that envy and selfish ambition is a dead-end road that leads to disorder and wickedness and every kind. Actually, I do much better here than in Toronto, the opulence in Toronto is hard to take.
"Resist the devil," James writes, "And he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."
Resist the devil of consumerism, of worrying about saving for your retirement, of work ethic, of selfish ambition. Jesus tells us not to worry about those things. Jesus says, "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Jesus tells us that God will take care of those things. We need to put our time, energy, attention and focus into spiritual things, into working for the Kingdom of God, into our relationship with God and others.
I know a woman named Kathy. Kathy has lived a bizarre life. She moved every year or two looking for spiritual fulfillment. For all the problems you may have with this life style she has lived this passage. She has put her energies and focus into her relationship with God and not in the pursuit of possessions. And God has taken care of her basic needs. While she spent her youth trouping around now she has landed in a little piece of paradise. She has her needs taken care of, not that she ever saved anything or invested in an RRSP. The lifestyle she has is only through the grace of God.
We have often heard of the phrase 'Protestant work ethic'. Too often this implies that people are proud that they work hard at their jobs and proud of their money and success. This kind of work ethic is not a Biblical ethic. Jesus teaches us that our earthly successes are not worth anything in the Kingdom of God. If we want to work hard, it should be for God's sake. That is, working for the benefit of others.
The Biblical understanding of work ethic is when we work for the kingdom of God. The Good News is that when we spend our energies working for God, God takes care of our needs. God works hard on our behalf to provide us with a life where we need not worry. Draw near to God and God will draw near to us - granting us true joy, peace, comfort and security. Amen.
