Warren's Wanderings/Wonderings

February 2, 2007

In his book, "The Place Of Fierce Landscapes", author Belden Lane writes "Work is paying attention to what matters most."

What matters most, for Christians, is honoring God as we know God in Jesus Christ.

When we come to worship together on a Sunday, we pay attention to what matters most. We sing, we pray, we listen to the Word read and preached, we confess our faith, we offer ourselves in thanksgiving. These are all ways of paying attention to what matters most. The very term "liturgy" that we use to describe the form of our Sunday worship means "work." We come together to do the joyful "work" of praise! That seems pretty clear; we understand it.

But how do we "pay attention to what matters most" in our jobs, in our families, in the community? How do we honor God in our daily living?

In the book "Spiritual Literacy", Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin tells of a conversation he had with a taxi driver who picked him up to take him to the airport. The driver asks the rabbi what he would say to a Jew who had not been inside a synagogue for decades. The rabbi recalled that in Hasidic lore, the wagon driver is an honored profession. So, he responds. "We could talk about your work." "What does my work have to do with religion?" "Well, we choose how to look at the world and at life. You are a taxi driver. But you are also a piece of the tissue that connects all humanity."

The rabbi then tells the taxi driver that he has a part to play in the rabbi's trip to give a lecture that might inspire his hearers. He tells the taxi driver that he might be the first non-medical contact with a person riding home from the hospital, or be bringing a man to the home where he is going to propose marriage. The rabbi says to him, "You are a bridge builder, a connector. One of the unseen people that makes the world work the way it does."

In our jobs, in our homes, in the community, in the Kirk, we work to make the world work the way it does. We work for the benefit of others. When we do our jobs, parent, exercise our citizenship, we surely are paying attention to what matters most, and in so doing, honoring God.

Warren