Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
Introduction Video
Opening Question
What was your first job?
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
– Ephesians 4:25-32
Freedom For Our Work
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
– Exodus 20:8-9
What work are you most invested in currently?
What motivates you to do that work?
How do you think God views the work you are doing?
Freedom In Our Work
A calling is something inside you that longs to be expressed outside you.
– Morgan Stephens
It is pure fiction that Pope, bishops, priests, and monks are called the “spiritual estate” while princes, lords, artisans and farmers are called the “temporal estate”. This is indeed a piece of deceit and hypocrisy.
Yet no one need be intimidated by it, and that for this reason: all Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them…we are all consecrated priests…as St. Peter says, “You are a royal priesthood and a priestly realm. [Revelation] says: You have made us to be kings and priests by your blood.”– Martin Luther
How does your work fit into Peter’s teaching that we are all part of God’s holy priesthood?
How have you experienced God’s divine calling (the drive to express on the outside of you something God put inside you)?
What kinds of sacrifices are necessary in our pursuit of competency and growth of our callings to support a greater capacity for service?
Freedom From Our Work
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
– Matthew 11:28-30
Do internal or external pressures typically drive you toward overworking?
What thoughts help you to rest in seasons of work that require a lot of you physically, mentally, and emotionally?
Practically speaking, do you practice resting from work? How does rest help you to feel God’s freeing grace?
Closing Thought
A sign hangs on the wall in a New Monastic Christian community house: “Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes.” I was, and remain, a Christian who longs for revolution, for things to be made new and whole in beautiful and big ways. But what I am slowly seeing is that you can’t get to the revolution without learning to do the dishes. The kind of spiritual life and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith—the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small—that God’s transformation takes root and grows.
– Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life
Spend the final moments of your time together sharing one ordinary thing you will do this week in faith that you will witness God’s revolutionary presence in your home, workplace, or community.