Turning a Garden into a City

In our mid-week Study/Pot-luck extraordinaire at Living Hope Church, we have been studying the topic of work, more specifically, the work for which God made us. When you look at Scripture with this topic in mind, there is a rich and varied theology of work from literally the first to the last page of Scripture. One of those "book-end" details is a tree that shows up both at the beginning of the human story and at the end. When God plants the garden he puts in it a Tree of Life. Then humanity is given the responsibility to tend to the garden. Then, at the end of history as we know it, God's children are re-gathered in a city in which is planted, you guessed it, the Tree of Life.

Genesis 2:9 "And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

Revelation 22:2 "...also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

We begin in a garden, are given the task of cultivating it, and we end up in a city. A lot has been said about the significance of this move, but I find it provocative to pull Socrates into the discussion. Biblically speaking, the garden we are given by God is cultivated by the gifts and resources he gave each of us and the resources he embedded in creation. We work, as God's under-creators, and turn his gift into a city, which is from a certain point of view, the collection of a multitude of trades each laboring for the good of the city. This is, basically, how Socrates described the city in Plato's Republic. Each trade is engaged in for the betterment of individuals and families, but also have the larger purpose of building the just city.

Biblically, humans are creative and productive because they are created in the image of a God who is creative and productive. We take the things God provided for us, we employ our gifts and trades for the good of ourselves and our neighbors, and we build a city. And then, finally, when God rules all in all, that city (that collection of human productivity in the virtues of Christ) becomes the perfect city - the City of God.

Work is a Bountiful Gift

Charles Wesley wrote this hymn encouraging believers to honor God in their workaday lives.

Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I Go

                Forth in thy Name, O Lord, I go,

                my daily labor to pursue;

                thee, only thee, resolved to know

                in all I think or speak or do.

                The task thy wisdom hath assigned,

                O let me cheerfully fulfill;

                in all my works thy presence find,

                and prove thy good and perfect will.

                Thee may I set at my right hand,

                whose eyes mine inmost substance see,

                and labor on at thy command,

                and offer all my works to thee.

                For thee delightfully employ

                What e'er thy bounteous grace hath given

                And run my course with even joy,

                and closely walk with thee to heaven.

This hymn affirms some wonderful things about the Christian view of work and worship.

God has graciously and wisely assigned us our task. Work, biblically speaking, is a bountiful gift from God in which we engage in God's calling, honor God, love our neighbor, and take part in the foreshadowing of the coming kingdom of God. Yes, really, this is how the Christian faith looks at work.

The best way to 'take God to work' with us is to recognize that he is already there. We do not need to bring God kicking and screaming into our daily lives where we do not really know where he fits anyway. He is already ahead of us working in the lives of those we live and work with, and he can even be at work in the labor itself.

When we are aware of God's presence and wisdom within our labors, there can be delight and joy. It is the perspective shift that makes this possible - God is here at work in my/our labors which he has graciously given.

We are having a great time at Living Hope Church on Tuesday nights in our series, "The Work God Made Us For" digging into these issues and what Scripture has to say about them. You are invited!