Work and rest and eternity
CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER 24 February 2023
Friends in Christ,
This morning, I was pleased to attend the first two-thirds of the annual Sydney Mothers Union conference. Mothers Union is a fellowship of "Christians supporting marriage and family worldwide".
Our own Ruth Schroeter delivered the key-note Bible exposition from Psalm 90. Here are a few of my notes from what most stood out to me from her talk.
You might like to read the Psalm first. (By divine providence, Canon Tim Swan also addressed this Psalm at the Evensong for Ukraine yesterday evening!)
Psalm 90 compares the eternity of God to the brevity of human life.
We find our dwelling place in the eternal character of God. Even in exile (the context of the psalms immediately prior to no. 90), we are assured that God is still the home for his people (vv1-2).
We too, today, must find our anchor point in the Creator, not in created things.
God holds time in his hand, not caught up in its rush like us. But has has designed time with us in mind, setting up rhythms for us in nature and human life, in our days and weeks and seasons.
But the older we get, the sicker we get, the more we are bereaved, then the more aware we become of the fleeting nature of life. We no longer believe we are immortal as teenagers or young adults sometimes feel.
Ruth asked: Why do we die? Because we are - rightly - under God's wrath. He is angry at our sin (vv3-11).
So we pray, with this psalm, we appeal to God for help, for greater wisdom.
This wisdom includes a realism about what we should expect from ourselves each day or week... But also, in seeking God's perspective on what a faithful and rich life might look like (vv12-16).
But Ruth also asked: how can God relent and yet express his righteous anger? How can sorrowful days ring with songs of joy? How can we give hope to our children?
The answer that we know, but Moses, (Psalm 90's author) was yet to realise? Through Jesus, 'Emmanuel", God with us, who entered human time and limitation, only without the stain of sin.
Jesus was therefore the only human who did not deserve to live under the shadow death that Psalm 90 reports. And yet he died to bear our sins.
Therefore if we live under the banner of Jesus Christ, we can be confident God will establish the work of our hands (v17).
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After a brief break, Paul and Cathy Grimmond from Moore College shared on "days well spent". They began by critiquing the mixed messages sent in words like these (from Sydney University Assoc. Prof. Elizabeth Hill, the deputy director of the Gender Equality in Working Life Research Initiative):
“Once people have children, there’s all the data on cutting back days, cutting back hours, staying in positions that are less well remunerated. Lack of flexibility in good jobs with high levels of responsibility means women don’t go for these.
It’s such a crazy waste of resources.” [Source: SMH]
They pointed out the number of mixed messages this sends:
Intelligent, well educated people in less well remunerated jobs (like their daugher who is teaching primary school) must be wasting resources!
Women raising their children (and working less or not at all in a paid job) do not have a high level of responsibility!
We must think differently about our work. In the Bible, your work ≠ your job, let alone your career! It's everything you do that's good for others, paid or unpaid, whether in workplace or home or elsewhere in the community.
Of course, Paul and Cathy affirmed there is lots of freedom about whether mothers seek paid work and to what extent.
But we all need to beware the trap of finding all your status or significance in your job/career. And we must certainly must refuse that "just a mum" description when asked, "What do you do?"
And I would add, we must also never say "just a volunteer" either.
Paul also noted that we do not fix the world nor save ourselves through the labour of our hands. Rather the Bible is the story of the failure of human work and the success of God's good work for us in Christ. Jesus said of himself (making himself equal to God as his Jewish hearers realised):
‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.
...For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.'
– John 5:17, 21
So we don't start with our works for God, but with his work for us, in and through Jesus. Notice how Jesus puts it one chapter later in John...
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’
Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’
Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’
– John 6:27-29
They also noted, therefore, that true rest won't be found in the perfect holiday but in eternity with God.
Then in terms of the good works God has prepared for us to walk in (after realising we are saved by his grace and not our works, Ephesians 2:8-10), Cathy noted the Bible says little about what job to do, and not even very much about what particular works to do.
But it says lots about how we do our job or other works. That is, what matters most is that we work in ways that honour Jesus and display the fruit of his Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
However, if you did want a worthwhile description of some worthwhile works, Cathy shared the list ascribed to the godly older widows in 1 Timothy 5:9-10 that had been encouraging to her...
faithful to her husband, and ...well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
Given they commended an 8 week sermon series on the topic of work and rest, there's plenty more we could say, but I hope these jottings are helpful to you.
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney