September 6, 2026 - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: It Is All God's Work

September 6, 2026  Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Genesis 1:1-2:3
“It is All God’s Work”
Douglas T. King
Genesis 1:1-2:3

More heart attacks occur between 8:00 and 9:00 A.M. Monday mornings as people prepare to start the work week than at any other time.  Some Doctors claim that job dissatisfaction is a greater cause for heart attacks than high cholesterol and fatty diets. Psychologists argue that workaholism is a major source of marital breakdown.  The United Nations International Labor Organization once labeled job stress as “one of the most serious health issues of the twentieth century.”  One sociologist notes “Everywhere I go it seems people are killing themselves with work, busyness, rushing...Work addiction is a modern epidemic...”(Fox, pp9-14)  

Happy Labor Day weekend everybody!

Despite the gloominess of the previous statements, work is indeed a good thing.  Humans need work.  We need to engage our abilities in accomplishing tasks.  Our bodies and our minds need to be challenged, to be given opportunities that let us focus our energies.  Some of the most difficult times of life are when a person is unemployed or recently retired and they lose their sense of purpose.  Sometimes we need to create our own work, whether it be through hobbies, or volunteering or whatever else may give us a chance to be engaged in the world.

Some of the problems that work can cause in our lives are not to be blamed on the work itself but our attitude toward our work.  If we are working only for external rewards, our efforts may feel hollow and futile.  If our work functions solely as a means to make money, we will never be paid enough for all our time and effort and we will always be seeking more.  If our work functions as a means of receiving praise from others, no matter how well we perform and how much we are praised, we will always be beset by insecurity and the sense that we are underappreciated for our efforts.

Now I am not saying that our motivation for work has nothing to do with paychecks and pats on the back, but when such external rewards become the sole motivation for our work we run the risk of finding the work itself meaningless.

We need to take a step back and focus on the wider picture, on the nature of work in all of creation.  We just heard about God at work fashioning all of existence.  Perhaps we need to change some of the language which we use to label our work.  Instead of speaking of our job perhaps we should speak of our role.  The theologian Matthew Fox notes that “A role has a sense of play to it but also a sense of seriousness:...it implies participation in a drama;...the origin of the word role is the old French rolle, which referred to the roll of parchment on which an actor’s part was written.  Drama is the news of an unfolding creation story.  Everyone has a role to play in that drama, and that role is our work.
”(Fox, pp. 106-106)  

We could also take a lesson from children, who love to play at a variety of working roles, slipping into the joy of being a firefighter, or a police officer, or a cook.  Somehow as we grow up we lose this valuable insight into the playful nature of the different roles we perform.  

Regardless of the vast variety of forms and worldly functions our jobs and our lives take, they all share one universal purpose.  Each of our roles is part of the grand drama of God’s continual creation of our world.  Genesis may say God rested but it was not for long.  Whether our role is to create legal contracts, or care for a home and a family, or teach Word and Wonder, or volunteer at Isaiah 58, we need to recognize that what we do can be a small but essential part of God’s activity in our world.

Our work, the activity of our days is sacramental.  It is a reflection of God’s sacred ever-creating presence in the midst of our ordinary living.  We have been created in God’s image and given gifts of creativity and intelligence and perseverance.  We may not be creating worlds, but each of us does indeed help to shape some small part of the world by the work we do; by the way we are present in the world.

The work we do is done in response to the work our God has done for us, and is doing for us.  We work in a spirit of gratitude for all that we have been given; in gratitude for this world which has been created; in gratitude for the individual talents which have been bestowed upon us; in gratitude for the role we have been given to play in this drama of the continuing creation of the world by the divine.  

Now, of course there are limits and caveats to all of these grand thoughts.  Persons trapped in work where they are being exploited certainly have little to celebrate.  
As well, persons with work which harms other people in some way are not likely to be contributing to the best of God’s divine plan for creation.  But all other work offers the opportunity to be a part of God’s greater creative work.

I can tell that some of you are sitting out there thinking, “Oh sure that is easy for you clergy to say with your neat and tidy called to serve the Lord in the church job, but I’m an accountant, or a custodian or an investment banker or retired, where does that fit into God’s plan?”  Whatever our job or role may be it serves a purpose in our community.  Each of us is dependent upon the other for goods and services and so much more.  And when we serve each other the best we can using the gifts we have been given, whether it be in a nine to five job or in our volunteer work or in the way we care for our family and friends, we are indeed playing a role in God’s continual creation.  God’s work is far from completed in this world and therefore neither is ours.  When in any way what we do serves the human community we are a part of God’s plan, for what is more important to the divine blueprint than providing for God’s children?

During these days when our headlines are filled with war and tragedy and toxic division it can be hard to reconcile the beautiful elegance of the Genesis creation story with the broken reality we find living in the midst of this world.  All of this suffering cannot be and is not the last word of God’s creative work.  God continues to be at work seeking to bring healing and wholeness to our world.  Jesus Christ is present in the midst of all our human pain and toil, suffering beside us, working beside us, and offering healing grace.  The Holy Spirit is at work around and within us lifting us up and leading us forward.  And if we are to be faithful followers of our Creator we too must recognize our role as healers in this creation.  We have not been gifted with talent and resources by our God to be passive participants in this world.
 
Realizing that our work in all its iterations is part of God’s plan ups the ante.  When we face challenging decisions at work such as those that pit ethical considerations up against profit margins we cannot leave our faith and its implications outside the office door.  When we are retired and have time and talents going unused, we cannot forget God’s call to find the face of Christ on all of those around us and respond accordingly.  No matter what role God is calling us to play, each of us is called to be faithful to the way of Jesus Christ.  Each of us is being called to carry our Sunday Christianity into our weekday lives.  Each of us is being called to be compassionate agents of healing in the midst of wherever we are, whatever our role in the world.
 
Enjoy the day off tomorrow, go for a walk in the park, 
read a book, take a nap.  And when you go to work on Tuesday, do not go in thinking about the money you will make or the praise you will receive, think about your role in the grand drama.  Think about your work not as a burden to bear but as an activity done in gratitude toward God for the talents you have been given.  Seek joy in what you do, and seek out the opportunity to offer joy to others. God wants nothing less for each one of us.  God expects nothing less from each one of us.  

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Fox, Matthew, The Reinvention of Work, HarperCollins, New  York, 1994.