Author: Jonathan Dodson

I am in historic Cambridge, England today, visiting some good friends, Stephen and Emma Witmer. This picture is taken in front of Trinity College.

Yesterday we roamed the city of Austin looking for a home. If you’ve ever looked to purchase a home, you know that the initial buzz of becoming a homeowner quickly wears off when faced with the number-crunching and tricks of the real estate trade. Starting at 9:30 AM and ending the day at 7:30 PM, we were weary by the time we made it to our friend’s house, where we are staying…and this morning we will do it all over again!

When will we move? Fall, Spring, never? Where will we move? East, South, North, Central Austin? Somewhere else? As we continue to walk by faith in our journey towards churchplanting in Austin, I am poignantly reminded that our home is nowhere to be found, or at least the form of our home.

If home is where the heart is, then we will have to wait until the end of the age to kick up our feet. Abraham’s life is a parable of this reality. He left his family, home, and culture to obey a call from God which was pretty unclear–“go to a land I will show you.” Of course, as with everything with the eternally faithful and covenantal God, it wasn’t without a promise: “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” If Abraham obeyed, God would thrill his heart by making it a conduit of divine blessing…for the whole world. In short, Abraham was promised everything, the universe, if he would follow God.

Our search for a home is no different. The world we walk is our inheritance, but in rare form. God in Christ is redeeming it, peoples and cultures, through the Spirit in partnership with the people of Abraham. The heavenly blessings promised to Abraham are breaking into this curse-ridden world, transforming families, homes, cultures and cities. This is the gospel. This is the promise to Abraham and to my family. It is his promise to you, wherever you go. You are insufficient, but have been called to go and collect on an inheritance purchased by the death of Jesus. Ready this world for the world that is come, his Kingdom, by denying your sufficiency and the satisfaction of home with four walls. Accept the sufficiency of Christ to give you a multi-dimensional home, a new heavens and earth, where the world will be your couch and the universe your ottoman…and until then long for home, home with Christ and his new creation.

These videos from a churchplant in Raleigh, NC do a pretty good job of exposing Christian legalism from a very funny perspective. Be sure to check out the one on “achohol.”

Vintage 21

In Celebration of Labor
The Value of a Good Day’s Work

September 4, 2006

What does Labor Day mean? For most of us, it’s nothing more than a welcome break from what we tend to see as “the daily grind.” Work to so many people is simply a necessary evil. The goal in life is putting in enough time to retire and relax.

But that attitude and that goal is contrary to a Christian worldview perspective on work.

Christians have a special reason to celebrate Labor Day, which honors the fundamental dignity of workers, because we worship a God Who labored to make the world—and Who created human beings in His image to be His workers. When God made Adam and Eve, He gave them work to d cultivating and caring for the earth.

In the ancient world, the Greeks and Romans looked upon manual work as a curse, something for lower classes and slaves. But Christianity changed all of that. Christians viewed work as a high calling—a calling to be co-workers with God in unfolding the rich potential of His creation.

This high view of work can be traced throughout the history of the Church. In the Middle Ages, the guild movement grew out of the Church. It set standards for good workmanship and encouraged members to take satisfaction in the results of their labor. The guilds became the forerunner of the modern labor movement.

Later, during the Reformation, Martin Luther preached that all work should be done to the glory of God. Whether ministering the Gospel or scrubbing floors, any honest work is pleasing to the Lord. Out of this conviction grew the Protestant work ethic.

Christians were also active on behalf of workers in the early days of the industrial revolution, when factories were “dark satanic mills,” to borrow a phrase from Sir William Blake. In those days, work in factories and coal mines was hard and dangerous. Men, women, and children were practically slaves—sometimes even chained to machines.

Then John Wesley came preaching and teaching the Gospel throughout England. He came not to the upper classes, but to the laboring classes—to men whose faces were black with coal dust, women whose dresses were patched and faded.

John Wesley preached to them—and in the process, he pricked the conscience of the whole nation.

Two of Wesley’s disciples, William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury, were inspired to work for legislation that would clean up abuses in the workplace. At their urging, the British parliament passed child-labor laws, safety laws, and minimum-wage laws.

But here in America we’ve lost the Christian connection with the labor movement. In many countries, however, from Canada to Poland, that tradition still remains strong.

Much of our culture has a distinctly Greek view of work: We work out of necessity. But, you see, we are made in the image of God and as such we are made to work—to create, to shape, to bring order out of disorder.

So this Labor Day, remember that all labor derives its true dignity as a reflection of the Creator. And that whatever we do, in word or deed, we should do all to the glory of God.