Download a study guide for this article (free to print/Web subscribers) at www.
thelutheran.org (click on “study guides”). To read “What Martin Luther says,” fi nd this article at
www.thelutheran.org/feature/ september.
whom we work, for whom we work, and who are the recipients of our work? Do we see others as objects or as creatures of God as we are, yes, fallible and fallen, but also people who deserve dignity, respect and even love? A big question is: Is our work a way to care, really care, for others?
Dependence & accountability T e world is an intricate network of dependence and accountability. T ink of the many on whom Jobs depended for his success, includ- ing the people who packed and shipped the products, others who changed light bulbs and emptied wastebaskets, still others who wrote ads and made fi lms, and on and on. We are created to fi nd ways to work together and to be aware of our
dependence on, and accountability to, one another.
Co-workers with God T e arena of God’s activity is not some abstract and spiritual world. God continues to work in nature and history. Our responsibility is to join in that work. T e ELCA’s tagline “God’s work.
Our hands.” implies not only the crucial work of witnessing the gos- pel as a church and as individuals, but also the work we do on Monday and each day of the week. Without the energy, sweat, thinking and all else that results in work, chaos would reign. Work is really the only thing we
have to give to others and to God. We don’t produce our talents or the natural resources with which we
work—we do produce our toil. Our energy and thought has gone into the work, whether the result be a bench made by a carpenter, a fl oor mopped by a homemaker, or a pack- age delivered by a truck driver. In that sense, we can say with the
psalmist: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:17).
Author bio: Vos, Maxatawny, Pa., is a former teacher who writes on the connec- tions between faith and daily life.
September 2014 29
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