MP3 length: 15 minutes 30 seconds
Individual podcast:
http://godatwork.org.uk/2008/01/23/podcast-episode-1-work-matters
Subscribe via RSS or iTunes:
http://godatwork.org.uk/2008/12/05/god-work-podcasts
Is work important? Why should God get involved in it? Why should we get God involved? Are some jobs more holy than others?
These are some of the issues Ken Costa (Chairman of Lazard International) and Nicky Gumbel (Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton Church) discuss in this series of podcasts, taking a different work-related topic in each podcast.
This first podcast looks at ‘Work matters’. In the New Testament ‘there is no division between our faith and our work’. God made us to enjoy our work, and although there will be spiritual battles out there, our work is inherently of value to God – and not just because, through work, we can reach other people.
Ken explores some of the theology of work: the ultimate model of the Trinity as a team (God loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Spirit reflecting the love between the two of them, and the three as one).
This throws light on the way we think of work: we talk of business ‘partnership’, ‘Joint Ventures’, the nature of a company as a joint stockholders coming together for a common purpose, having the liabilities of a partnership and sharing their assets.
Christ identifies with us in the world of work, and sets an example for us to work – both in the secular world as a carpenter, and overall as ‘doing the Father’s work’. He said in John Chapter 5: ‘My Father is still working, and I am also working.’
That work came to ultimate fruition on the Cross, where he disarmed the spiritual powers of greed, economic power, advancement, excessive motivation, that stand between us and God. Christ worked to a purpose, as we are intended to – so much so that at the end of His Passion he said of his work, ‘It is finished!’
Particularly relevant also in these times of employment churn!
