Mondayitis! series (part six)
“A Working Faith”
Small group devotion
The purpose of this discussion is to get your group thinking about what work is, and what its relationship is to faith.
On Sunday, we were grateful to have Alistair Mackenzie (theology-of-work guru) sharing with us on what it means to have “a working faith”. He has been part of a project called “Theology of Work“.
To get discussion going, how do you define work? What counts? What doesn’t? (See leader notes)
Alistair introduced three ways to approach faith and works:
1. Faith not works. We are saved by faith alone and therefore what we do for work doesn’t really matter to God.
What does a Christian who has this view look like? How does she/he behave? How do they approach work?
2. Faith is works. My faith is expressed solely by my work. I do good deeds and understand myself according to what I do.
What are the implications of conflating faith and works? What does a Christian with this view look like?
3. Faith that works. My faith in God cannot be understood separately of what I do. Faith produces works and gives value and meaning to what I do.
What does this mean for our work during the week? What does a Christian with this view look like?
Which of the three views do you think has affected you most? Why?
Read James 2:14-19
Which view do you think James would advocate? Why?
What about students, mothers, retired folk, unemployed people? What does work mean when you don’t have a paid job?
Get practical — what are some things you can do during the week that remind you your work is an act of faith and that your faith is expressed by your works.
Leader’s notes:
- Alistair took a broad view of work. He separated it out from our employment/job but talked about all of life as work. In the scripture reading, James is talking about far more than just our employment — in fact the word “works” is translated in the NIV “deeds”. It is about our actions in every aspect of life. This gives renewed value to work of mothers, or unemployed people, or retired folk. Just because they’re not earning money doesn’t mean their work is any less valuable. It doesn’t take into account spiritual work, relational work, domestic work for instance.
- Alistair introduced five categories: Work as worship, work as formation, work as witness, work as service, and work as creation care. What does it look like to think about our working in these terms rather than the traditional categories of work, family, leisure etc. etc.
- The dangers of faith not works is that we end up with a faith totally removed from our day-to-day existence. We are saved by faith but that doesn’t render our works meaningless. Rather our works are given value as a working out, a living out, of our faith.
- The dangers of conflating faith and works is that we start to believe we are saved by what we do rather than what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Also, if we lose our job, or aren’t do the good things we would like to do, our very worth is thrown into question.
- Liturgy comes from the Greek meaning “work of the people”. It’s become a term referring to the structure of worship. But what if we start to view our whole lives as an act of worship — a liturgy of participation in the life of God? Sunday worship is therefore only the starting point, the locus, around which our whole-of-life worship gives expression.