Systematic Theology – Work

Vocation and Work

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 1 of 19

Track: #1

Year:

Dictation Name: 1 Vocation and Work

[Rushdoony] Let us pray.

We praise Thee oh God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for all Thy mercies and blessings and Thy sure and infallible government. We thank Thee our Father that all things are in Thy hands who doest all things well. And so we come to Thee in the midst of a troubled and evil generation, knowing that Thou wilt bring forth good out of these things and make all things work together for good in terms of Thy kingdom, and in terms of our prosperity in Thee. Give us grace therefore to take hands off our lives, and to commit them into Thine infallible care. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is Psalm 126 and our concern is in particular with the last two verses; our subject “vocation and work.” We begin now a series on the theology of work. Psalm 126.

“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.

3 The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

4 Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.

5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

The word “vocation” comes from the Latin word meaning “bidding” or “calling” it has the same meaning in English today. This is surprising because words so often dramatically alter their meaning and wind up meaning very much the opposite of what they originally did. The Biblical doctrine of calling came into its own with the reformation. There was a great deal of preparation for this in the late medieval era, but with the reformation it came into its own, but unfortunately within two centuries had largely faded, and to all practical intent, disappeared.

It is a doctrine which requires that men take time and history very seriously. When there is a flight from the world, as with neo-platonism, then there is no regard for time and history. Pietism then prevails. With the rise of pietism men were concerned purely with spiritual exercises and not with exercises dominion and subduing the earth. As a matter of fact so far has the doctrine gone downhill, that today when we speak of a calling we are talking about a calling to become a pastor, to become a part of the clergy; and when we speak of vocation, to go back to the original word, we usually mean by it someone in the professions, a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, or someone in the like calling.

As a result the doctrine has virtually disappeared. I’ve said that time and history must be taken seriously for the doctrine to flourish, but some non-Christian faiths have taken time and history seriously. One such faith is humanism. But humanism has not produced a doctrine of calling, why? The missing factor is God. If there is no God then only an ultimate void exists, and in terms of an ultimate void history itself finally is a void, it has no meaning, in a world that is totally devoid of meaning man is not capable of writing a meaning across the cosmos. Faith means taking time and history as an area of God’s work, this is Christian faith; and when men have such a faith they can then both work and rest with confidence and peace. They know that their labor is not in vain in the Lord, they know that God is their ultimate environment. Whereas for the Humanist the void is their ultimate environment and the void has produced the physical universe. And so they become environmentalist. Man is determined by his environment, whether physical or economic makes little difference. And since that environment arose out of emptiness and returns to emptiness, then they can give no meaning finally to man’s own life or to man’s work.

Thus the Godly man knows he is never alone. He can rest and work in confidence, in God’s efficacious actions. He knows that Romans 8:28 is true, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And therefore he works in confidence and he rests in confidence. A very fine statement of this comes from Martin Luther. It was an off-hand remark very casual, and yet because of its casualness we see his point perhaps better. Luther said, and I quote “give men time, I took three years of constant study, reflection and discussion to arrive where I now am, and can the common man untutored in such matters be expected to move the same distance in three months? Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women, shall we then prohibit wine and abolish women? The sun, the moon, and stars have been worshipped; shall we then pluck them out of the sky? Such haste and violence betray a lack of confidence in God. See how much he has been able to accomplish through me, though I did no more than pray and preach; the word did it all. Had I wished I might have started a conflagration at Worms, but while I sat still and drank beer with Phillip and Amsdorf God dealt the papacy a mighty blow.”

Now that’s a good statement. Note in particular Luther’s comment “do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women, shall we then prohibit wine and abolish women?” A superb statement, and of course the simple fact is that in a godless world when men work in a void, in a vast emptiness, then instead of God’s great harmony of interest prevailing in all things, there’s a total conflict of interest. So what do you do? You work to abolish whatever is a problem, to rule it out of existence. And so you create the abolishonist mentality wherever you are, whenever you have a problem; and so you war against what you regard to be the source of trouble. The result is class war “let’s get rid of the capitalist, or the Communist, or the middle classes, or the lower classes.” Or “let’s obliterate the blacks or the whites, or whoever the problem race is.” Or if it’s a generational conflict “never trust anyone over 30” as the saying was a few years ago, or anyone under thirty. You work to abolish not to change, the result is total war and the result too is that evil is reduced to a metaphysical dimension, it cannot be reformed, it has to be abolished. Whereas we have a Biblical, a moral perspective and we believe in regeneration, that the problem is that they are morally at war with God and they must be converted.

Now all of this has very great consequences for the doctrine of work, it means that because we believe in God, we believe in the ultimate harmony of interests, and we believe that God makes all things work together for good, therefore God says His word never returns unto Him void. Therefore Paul says our labor is not, nor ever can be, in vain in the Lord. In such a world we can have a vocation, we can have a calling.

Now I said the reformation stressed work under God as a calling. But since then the meaning of vocation, as we noted, has been restricted to something professional and the meaning of calling has been made ecclesiastical, church-y. And work has taken on a separate meaning. Work is a job, it’s something menial, physical, it is manual labor. Well the word work comes from the Anglo-Saxon “wark” {?} and it meant an exertion of strength to do something. By the way the word is akin to the Greek “airgon” {?} “work” and airdane {?} – to do or to sacrifice, and orgia {?} a secret rite from whence we get the word “orgy”, a different kind of work entirely [Laughter].

Now work as manual labor has unfortunately become separated from vocation, from calling, with unbiblical consequences. Today not only is work separated from God, but life as well, and both have been rendered meaningless. Work without God, work in a universe that is in conflict, has only one meaning, survival. Its goal is to provide food and shelter. Most work has had this meaning throughout history, it has been work to survive and escape from work then has become a goal, it has been the Biblical, the anti-Biblical concept of wealth. Now in the Bible work has a radically different meaning, beginning with the Garden of Eden. Work is eschatological; eschatology means the doctrine of goals, of ends, of purpose. The great end of all things of course is the second coming, but now the goal of all things is to bring all things under the captivity of Christ, to make everything a part of God’s kingdom. Work thus is eschatological; it has a goal, God’s kingdom. Work can be drudgery, it can be the necessary means of survival, or it can be a means of dominion, of subduing the earth.

Thus work can be a means of sustaining life and no more, as it has been to most men in history, or works can be the means of creating the future. Either the status quo, or the determination of tomorrow. Eschatological work is governed by the dominion mandate to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth. It is constructive, it works to establish today under God and the future as richer under God. The doctrine of progress of course is simply a secularized form of the Biblical doctrine of postmillennialism, of victory in Christ. But without faith in God the doctrine of progress is withered, and men have lost faith in progress because all activity is then in a void and it ends up a void.

Now Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 11:1 “Cast Thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.” And then is Psalm 126, the last two verse, we read “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy” or it can be translated singing; “He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaths with him.” These two passages tell us about a simple farming fact, sewing seed. Both instances use the text symbolically and eschatologically. They are telling us something by illustration of a farming practice. What Solomon says when he says that we should cast our bread upon the waters, and then we shall find it after many days, has reference to rice farming.

Rice farming seems of all things to be the most strange of practice. You take grain and the image is of someone who, as spring is approaching, or the sewing time because it varies from one part of the world to the other what is the best time to sew the rice. He takes what stands between himself and famine, and out of that remaining store he goes and casts his bread, his food, upon the waters. This seems a foolhardy thing to do. It is interesting too by the way, that rice has to be sewn not in standing waters but slightly running waters. Now what an act of faith is involved there, to sew your bread upon the waters, but only so after many days do we reap a harvest.

The Psalms deal with a like image, only here it is more vivid. The image is of one who sews during a famine. They that sew in tears, he that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, is the image we are given. A time of famine, will there be a harvest? Well, to take the last of the grain and then to sew it, leaving very little for life between that time and the harvest, is an act of faith. It is an act of faith in the orderly promises of God concerning the seasons. Moreover there is a multiplication, with rice a very considerable one, with wheat not quite as great, with maize or corn a very great return, a hundred – two hundred –three hundred fold.

There is therefore multiplication. What these texts tell us then is this, when we work in faith and according to God’s promises, when we work to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth, our work is productive, and it leads to a multiplication of our resources, this is what these texts tell us. Productive work, and it multiplies our resources. Work is thus the key to increase, to growth, to dominion, when it s Godly work done in faith, work which the Lord of the harvest blesses. This multiplying process is necessary; it is a part of dominion. Noah was told “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth” To often in history work has only been a means of maintain the status quo. People have worked just enough to maintain life, and no more; so that there is no growth, and if the population increase then there is hunger.

A few years ago we saw water rationing through the west. Here in California we saw it in Merin {?} county and we saw it in Santa Barbra and several other such places, thus two were the most noticeable, in Merin county they had to bring in battle ships which had the power to make fresh water out of salt water, and put them ashore off shore to produce water for Merin, why? Because those cities had determined on a no-growth policy, and they refused to increase easily increasable water resources, and then the drought hit them. Bathing was restricted and washing clothes was restricted, and if anyone violated the rules there water could be turned off. But of course during most of history this has been normal, men have by there work had a no-growth policy, a bar-survival policy, and the result has been hunger as a routine thing.

One of the most amazing things is that a French scholar, Braudel, in his Structures of Everyday Life, a scholar who should know better, goes so far as to say that the key to progress and to the development of resources is economic and where there is too much population, then there is hunger. And yet the facts indicate that in area s of the least population growth the greatest hunger has prevailed, and today the greatest areas of concentration, population wise, are the most prosperous. India has no great population but it has been an area of trouble, of hunger, and the same is true of other areas, such as in Africa. But of course when men have a position of economic or environmental determinism rather than God’s determinism, they will have such views and they will believe that there is a conflict of interest so that there can be no growth without creating conflict and as a result they work for zero population growth and zero economic growth.

I read something by a scholar recently who idealized village life, and felt that we had, since the reformation, done nothing but shatter the idyllic village life of Europe and then of Asia and of Africa, and of all the world. Well, we can appreciate what is good in the past, and that is commendable, but only if we see the past and the present as foundations for the future. Such people believe that the common man should remain in a very primitive state and only the elite are entitled to progress. But work comes into its own when it is Christian, when it is Biblical, when it is eschatological. Then we build houses, we plant trees, we subjugate land because we have a future orientation. The world was not empty when we came into it, and it must not be more empty for our coming.

We work to establish God’s ordained future, we work because he requires it as the means of dominion. Where work is systematically eschatological, geared to God’s purposes, it is also blessed. Work must always have a purpose greater than ourselves, it must be under God.

The world today is turning its back on work, it has become play oriented rather than work oriented. This is not surprising because we live in a suicidal generation when men have a will to death, and it is death they will find because work is associated with life. As far back as the days when I was a university student the statistics indicated that men on the average died 3 years after retirement, but what we did within a few years after those statistics came out was to put mandatory retirement upon one class of worker after another, to sentence them to die; and we have felt that we have done a great thing. Since then the statistics have not changed substantially, retirement is death because work is, under God’s purpose, life. It is what multiplies, it is what produces, it is what creates the future and people who have no future have no life. Work therefore is important, and a theology of work essential.

The sad fact is that we live in a time when a theology of work is rarely ever spoken of, but it is a necessity. We shall in the subsequent weeks explore further what the Bible has to teach us about work and about its nature and its effect on our lives, let us pray.

Our Lord and our God Thou hast summoned us to work, to bring all things into captivity to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to establish his crown rights over every area of life and thought. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee, and give us joy in our labors and confidence that labor is never in vain in Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now concerning our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience member] How much does envy of the wealthy contribute to this modern conception of work as drudgery?

[Rushdoony] A great deal. Where you have envy you have a hostility towards the worker, the man who accomplishes something, and you are insisting that everyone is going to be equally non-productive. In a society of envy anyone who gets ahead of others is punished, his wealth is either taken away, or as with some Indian societies, he has to hold a special celebration and give everything away, he has no right to be better off than anyone else.

Well of course through legislation we’re trying to create such a society today and we are penalizing work. We tax income, which is a way of saying “if you’re doing well there’s something wrong with you and we’ve got to penalize you.” So we have an anti-work society.

Yes?

[Audience member] Matthew five is a passage that says, I can’t word it exactly, but let your light shine before men so that they can see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. What’s the relationship between work and good works?

[Rushdoony] Yes. A very, very good question. The passage is 5:16 Matthew, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Now, unfortunately people tend to limit good works to charitable actions it emphatically includes them, but it has reference to our total life, our total life. Because our Lord then goes on to say “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets” and so on. And then He says “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisee’s, Ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God.” Unless your justice is greater than that of the Pharisees you’re not going to come into the kingdom. So what’s he talking about? Works. And he goes on to deal with it in terms of not only our vocation and not only in terms of justice, but our conduct towards our brother, our conduct towards our neighbor, towards woman, “thou shalt not commit adultery” lust, and so on. So the works he’s talking about are more than just charitable works although they are emphatically inclusive of them.

Yes?

[Audience member] Seems to me that people who deny their vocation and try to do something else are punished, they run into difficulties, they don’t succeed because they’re trying to do things to which they’re not suited. And I think it fits in with envy because there are those who despise their own calling and envy somebody else’s.

[Rushdoony] Yes, and one of the disasters we have on the academic seen today is that we have a career counseling, I don’t know what they call it, but the student is advised what area to go into, not what area he has a calling for. To illustrate, at the beginning of the 70’s on campus after campus across country, and I was speaking on campuses then and I know, students were told that there was a surplus in the field of engineering, and no matter how much they were interested in engineering they should look for work in another area; and they were steered away from engineering in various forms in droves. Before the end of the 70’s there was a serious shortage of engineer’s because it isn’t the planners that know the future, all they look at is “how many engineers do we have today? Well, the market is somewhat overcrowded.” Nothing about what was going to develop in that area, now they did this in one area after another, and what they did was to turn out a lot of unhappy young men who went into businesses or types of work they were not geared to. So we have discouraged people from seeking their calling by looking at it purely in terms of economics and saying “what’s going to pay?” Well a person can be very much underpaid and be happy if their work is their calling.

Any other questions or comments?

Well if not let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee that Thou hast given us work to do, faith in Thee, and joy in one another. Thou hast blessed us richly oh Lord and make us ever mindful of how rich we are in Thee, that all the days of our life we may serve Thee with joy and thanksgiving, and that we may always know how great Thy blessings are. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.