Working as Unto the Lord

Today’s message seems to take a rabbit trail from which it never recovers… and perhaps was never meant to. It begins by talking about the ongoing stand-off in the workplace, between management and staff, or in the biblical terms, slaves and masters. It traces the roots of this timeless tension to our fallen nature, and parallels it with the Fall of Humanity – the desire to be free from the authorities above us, and the intrinsic appetite for greater power and freedom. But then the message turns to reveal the futility of pursuing power and promotion. It introduces us to this paradox within the Christian faith, which flies in the face of conventional wisdom: that it is better to serve a good master than it is to be free. This idea will be strange, even infuriating to us, unless we discover in our own lives that we always have been, and always will be enslaved by something. Once we acknowledge our inevitable bondage, we may dare to abandon the delusion of freedom, and start looking for a righteous Lord.