Staff Service - 17 May 1955

‘Not slothful in business’, or as Moffat translates, ‘Never let your zeal flag.’ ‘Fervent in spirit’ or according to Moffat, ‘Maintain the spiritual glow.’ Maintain your spiritual glow both in your worship, without which your worship will become a dull formality, and in your workaday world, where it is so hard to maintain the glow of spiritual power. ‘Serving the Lord’ – We do service to the Lord by our spiritual activities such as prayer and worship. We also serve the Lord by doing our ordinary business of daily work with its wear and tear and strain and stress. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. I think the translation of the text by J.B.Phillips makes the meaning quite clear: “Let us not allow slothfulness to spoil our work, and let us keep the fires of the Spirit burning as we do our work for God.” The message of the text is that the glow of spiritual power, that is ours during worship, should be carried into our daily work. The love for God and our fellowmen that is stirred up in us during worship on Sundays should be carried into our work on weekdays. The text challenges us in a new way our work and our worship.

This is the beginning of a new term and it is also Rogation Tide. Last Sunday was Rogation Sunday and the three days following it – Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – are Rogation days. From about the 5 th Century it has been the custom in the Church in Europe to have special prayers at this time for a rich harvest. We sow the seed and we pray for God’s blessings on the labours of our hands. This is therefore a suitable time to face afresh the task of relating work and worship more rightly to each other.

What is our experience of the relationship between work and worship? In the experience of many, the vision of God they have during hours of worship does not remain with them as they face their daily duties during the week. The sense of power and spiritual energy which is theirs during hours of worship seem to have left them as they face the hard problems of their daily tasks. No doubt the nature of the work most people are called upon to do, and the conditions of their employment make it difficult for many to bring into their work religious beliefs and ideals. They find no enjoyment in their work. They look upon their job merely as a means of making enough money to find interest and entertainment outside the job itself. We are fortunate in that our work affords simple opportunities to work out our ideals. The work that we do gives full scope for the exercise of our talents and the practice of our religious beliefs. We must be truly thankful to God that we can find all the enjoyment and satisfaction we need for our daily lives in and through our work.