Dr. Rodney Plunket

       This morning’s sermon is the third in our series focused upon Broadway’s mission statement, “Discovering Jesus.”  On June the 1^st we looked at Philippians (Php) 3:4-11 with the purpose of deepening our desire “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, . . .” (Php 3:10).  Last Sunday morning, June the 8^th, we focused on Php 2:1-11, and we saw and felt the connection between “Discovering Jesus” and the way that we are to love our fellow Christians and all people.

Today is Father’s Day, and I wanted our sermon this morning to be one to which most of our fathers could relate; but I also wanted it to keep us focused upon “Discovering Jesus.”  Since, traditionally, it is the father to whom families have looked to make a living and since it has been fathers who have asked me for a sermon or sermons on our working lives, I decided that on this Father’s Day I would seek to make clear the connection between “Discovering Jesus” and our working lives.  I believe that most of our fathers will be fed by this lesson, and I believe that many who are not fathers will be as well.

I want to begin in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus, in Ephesians (Eph) 6:5-9; but before we look at that passage, I should make you aware that Paul is addressing, not employers and employees, but slaves and masters.  In fact, that will be the case in both of the New Testament (NT) passages that we will note this morning.  In spite of this significant difference between the target audience of these NT passages and my audience today, I believe that there are principles contained in these passages that should be applied to our working lives.  That is what I will seek to do.

Now, please look with me at Eph 6:5-9.  There Paul writes,

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.  Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.

And, masters, do the same to them.  Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.

You might want to put a marker at that passage and then turn with me to a very similar passage also written by the Apostle Paul.  Please follow along as I read Colossians (Col) 3:22-4:1. 

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.  Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inher­itance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.  For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.  Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

Through these two passages, Paul reveals that a slave and a master’s relationship with Christ should affect profoundly the way that the slave and the master relate to one another.  They are to rise above a “this-worldly” view of their relationship.  They are to view it from the perspective of the world to come.  A slave, from a this-worldly perspective, is owned by some master; and it is that master who bene­fits from the slave’s labor and for whom the slave works.  Masters, on the other hand, have absolute power over their slaves, even to the right of execution.

Paul exhorts his readers to view their relationship from the perspective of the world to come.  Slaves are to serve, not because they fear their masters, but because they fear/revere/submit to the Lord.  They are to obey their masters, not according to the standards of the day, but in accordance with the standard of obedience which Christ deserves.

Through these two passages, Paul makes clear that what we discover about and in Jesus changes the way we view our labor.  Our labor comes under the lordship of Christ.  We no longer view it as something we do just for other men and/or women.  We view our labor as a direct service to God and to Christ.  It is as if we hold up our labor at the end of every working day and present it to the Lord.  We do that “knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord” (Eph 6:8).  In other words, if we do good work, we will receive good from the Lord.  To put it another way, we are rewarded for doing work that demonstrates that we really are “Discovering Jesus.”  That discovery takes place as we work, and it blesses our work.

I want to focus upon one Greek word that is used in both of these passages.  That word is a�plo/thß (haploteœs).  In Eph 6:4, it is rendered, in the New Revised Standard Version, as “singleness” in the phrase “singleness of heart.”  In Col 3:22, it is rendered as “whole” in the compound word “wholeheartedly.”  I looked this word up in the most respected lexicon of New Testament Greek in our day.  That lexicon let me know that this word refers to “personal integrity expressed in word or action.”  That same lexicon goes on to compare this word to our colloquial expression, “what you see is what you get.”[1]  In other words, relative to work this word conveys something like this:  ‘I have no hidden agendas or ulterior motives.  I work hard and do what I do well because of who I am and what I am.’  As Paul uses this word, it seems to me that it conveys something like this:  ‘I am not going to try and trick you into thinking I work hard when I don’t.  I really am going to work hard.  I am going to work hard and do what I do well because my heart is devoted to pleasing God and my Lord Jesus Christ.  I will work as hard and as well when you are watching me as when you are not watching me because I am seeking to please my God who sees me all the time.’

Sisters and brothers, let’s take that attitude to work with us.  Let’s make a living with the same kind of “world-to-come” perspective that Paul describes here.  Whatever our position on the ladder at our workplaces, let’s do all that we do to please God.  Let’s give ourselves to our labor in a way that conveys to our God how hard we would work if God were the explicit and sole recipient of that work.  God will reward us if we do that.  Paul makes that very clear!

Last week I told you a story about my father.  Since today is Father’s Day I hope you will not mind if I do that again.

I think I was only about four-years-old when my father came home one night with a man I did not know.  Later I found out what had happened.

My dad had been driving home to Florence, AL, from Sheffield, AL.  To do that he had crossed the Tennessee River via the O’Neal Bridge.

The O’Neal Bridge is a very high bridge and a notable landmark in that region of the country.  I guess because of its height and noteworthiness it has often been used by desperate and despairing persons seeking to end their lives.  And the death rate from suicide attempts is very near 100%.  I only knew of one person who jumped from that bridge in search of death who managed to land in such a way that she did not die.  The many others who did so were, sadly, successful.

On the night that I am recounting, Dad approached the bridge only to find traffic stopped.  A man wanting to die decided not to just jump over the handrail as most people do.  He had climbed onto the very top of the superstructure of the bridge and was planning to jump from there to make absolutely sure that he would not survive.

Dad realized that he knew the man.  The man was an alcoholic whom Dad had been trying to help.  He got out of his car and told the police that he thought he might be able to help.  He tried to give counsel to the man from the roadway of the bridge, but the distance between the roadway and the top of the bridge’s superstructure formed too great a divide.  Finally Dad managed to talk the man into allowing him to climb up and joining him on top of the bridge.  So up he climbed.  The distance down is truly dizzying.

Dad stayed up there and talked to the man.  He convinced him to come down.  Dad went first.  The man followed; but halfway down and still out of reach of others, the man realized he had left his coat up there.  He climbed back up and got it.  The despair descended on him again.  Again he began to think about jumping.

Again Dad climbed up, sat with the man, and talked to him.  Again they climbed down, with the coat this time.  Dad saved that man’s life.

None of the elders who supervised my Dad’s ministry would have ever known if Dad had been unwilling to do that.  No member of his congregation would have either.  And even if they had known, no one would have held his unwillingness against him.  This act was dangerous in the extreme.  One slip and you die.  Simple as that.

Dad believed in giving his all to his ministry.  No one had to follow Dad around to make sure that he worked hard and well.  He worked with a sense of God’s presence.  He knew who his real master was.  He knew that his Lord was Christ.

Sisters and brothers, may we all work everyday in such a way that we can happily leave our workplace knowing that we could have worked no harder if God were the explicit and sole beneficiary of all we did.  Let’s shine to the glory of God by the way we make a living.

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