The document discusses the outcomes of work based on Ecclesiastes 2:1-11. It notes that the Teacher found pleasure in his struggles but ultimately found his achievements to be meaningless. His work provided fulfillment through struggle, reputation by surpassing others, and consumption by denying himself no pleasure. However, it was all futile in the end.

1. THE OUTCOMES OF WORK CCL Open Night 2

2. Jon Telfer reads the Bible for us Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 1 I said to myself, "Go ahead, I will test you with pleasure and enjoy what is good." But it turned out to be futile. 2 I said about laughter, "It is madness," and about pleasure, "What does this accomplish?" 3 I explored with my mind how to let my body enjoy life with wine and how to grasp folly —my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

3. Ecclesiastes 2 cont. 4 I increased my achievements. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and planted every kind of fruit tree in them. 6 I constructed reservoirs of water for myself from which to irrigate a grove of flourishing trees. 7I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned many herds of cattle and flocks, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8I also amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered male and female singers for myself, and many concubines, the delights of men. 9Thus, I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me. 10 All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles. 11When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

4. THE OUTCOMES OF WORK CCL Open Night 2

5. 1. Work in the hive

10. 1. Work in the hive www.gospelgroundwork.com.au

11. GospelGroundwork.com.au “If I forget to set my alarm for the morning, I am woken up by one of my daughters. I get out of bed and walk to the far end of the house to have a shower. I dress, then check the fridge for milk, the cupboard for bread, the basket for fruit, and the third drawer for snacks. As we live close to shops, we tend not panic if we run out of such daily necessities; rather, I will duck out to procure whatever is lacking for breakfast and the kids’ lunches. This involves a walk to a supermarket for bread, to the grocer’s for fruit, and sometimes to a café to pick up a takeaway cappuccino for my wife: three shops in about fifteen minutes. And then I return home to help get breakfast ready and to help get the kids to school. Sometimes they walk, and sometimes I drive them. Then I head off to work, sometimes to an office a few suburbs away, or sometimes to a nearby café, to get some writing done. (I am sitting at a café this morning.)…

12. Gospel Groundwork cont. “There is nothing remarkable about this morning, and yet I could not have done it without the work of thousands of people — probably tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands. I wake up in a bed I did not build, in sheets I did not create. I did not produce the raw materials; I did not manufacture them; I do not own the shop where they were bought, and; in the case of the bed, at least, I needed help to get it into the house. As I go to the shower, I am walking on floorboards I neither laid nor polished (though I have swept them). I did not grow the wood from which they were crafted; I did not cut the tree or fashion the timber; nor did I transport them or sell them. And these floorboards are in a house I did not build, owned by someone who is not me, and rented to me through an agent. While in the shower, I benefit from water piped from somewhere, heated by electricity generated somewhere, most likely fired by coal (which alone includes the work of thousands of people). And as I drink my coffee, I try to imagine how many people's labour it involves. Someone grew it, someone harvested it, someone transported it, someone imported it, someone roasted it, someone distributed it, someone set up a café (in a building, owned by someone, rented though someone), and then a barista made it for me, using piped water and an electric machine, which itself was also made, transported, imported, distributed, sold and repaired. Moreover, the barista has been trained: he is using techniques developed by others. And so the morning continues: simple acts utilizing the work of thousands of people…

13. Gospel Groundwork cont. “But I did not just benefit from the invisible work behind the visible work. I also benefited from a whole lot of completely invisible work. For example, as I left the house, I did not walk through a pile of rubbish, because someone had cleared it; before that, someone had organized to clear it, funded it, passed legislation enabling funds to be raised, and so on. Similarly, I did not fear for my life: I experienced the fruit of legislators, public servants, and police. All this before I checked e-mail and started writing on a computer.”

14. 2. Working for Me me

15. 2. Working for Me Fulfilment: me

16. 2. Working for Me Fulfilment: Reputation: me

17. 2. Working for Me Fulfilment: Reputation: Consumption: me

18. 2. Working for Me Fulfilment: ‘I took pleasure in all my struggles’ (Ecclesiastes 2:10b) Reputation: Consumption: me

19. 2. Working for Me Fulfilment: ‘I took pleasure in all my struggles’ (Ecclesiastes 2:10b) Reputation: ‘I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem’ (v. 9) Consumption: me

20. 2. Working for Me Fulfilment: ‘I took pleasure in all my struggles’ (Ecclesiastes 2:10b) Reputation: ‘I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem’ (v. 9) Consumption: ‘All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure’ (v. 10a). me

21. THE OUTCOMES OF WORK CCL Open Night 2

22. Q: If your work is fulfilling, what makes it so? Some of the answers that we came up with were: “the moment where it all comes together” Interpersonal moments at work and relationships formed there Working for something that you believe in Feeling successful

23. Q: If your work is fulfilling, what makes it so? ‘Work’ has various purposes or ‘ends’ – primary outcomes to do with communities, with creation, and with God.

24. us me 3. The Work of Community

25. The Teacher:’‘Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if some body overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.’Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 us me 3. The Work of Community

26. 3. The Work of Community them us me

27. 3. The Work of Community ‘Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders [orig: ‘might walk honestly/properly toward outsiders’] and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.’ (1 Thess. 4:11-12, niv)

28. 3. The Work of Community ‘Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders [orig: ‘might walk honestly/properly toward outsiders’] and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.’ (1 Thess. 4:11-12, niv) ‘The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.’ (Eph. 4:28, hscb)

29. 3. The Work of Community ‘Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders [orig: ‘might walk honestly/properly toward outsiders’] and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.’ (1 Thess. 4:11-12, niv) ‘The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.’ (Eph. 4:28, hscb) ‘Now if anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’ (1 Tim. 5:8, hcsb)

31. Q: Who outside of your organisation, does your work affect? What effect does your work have on the wider social world?

32. Q: Who, Outside of your organisation, does your work affect? For some, there was a tangible answer to this question: The clients (for example, students borrowing books from a library that you work in); or Working as a physio to assist someone to start walking again.

33. Q: Who, Outside of your organisation, does your work affect? For some, there was a tangible answer to this question: The clients (for example, students borrowing books from a library that you work in); or Working as a physio to assist someone to start walking again. But for others, it was very hard to answer this question. Who is really affected by your work when you are deep in the middle of an organisation?

34. The Light Half… The Dark Half…

35. them us me

36. 4. The Work of Creation it them us me

38. Q: What does your work affect? What effect does your work have on the wider created world?

39. Q: What does your work affect? Some of the answers we had were: “This question is very hard to answer” “We use social structures to affect the created order”

40. Q: What does your work affect? Some of the answers we had were: “This question is very hard to answer” “We use social structures to affect the created order” “We have both a positive and a negative effect on the environment” For example, a publishing company might be consuming a lot of natural resources, while at the same time helping others to know how to use and care for the environment.

42. 5. Jesus: ‘The Work of God’

43. 5. Jesus: ‘The Work of God’ ‘Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him. … This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He has sent’ (John 6:27–30).

44. 5. Jesus: ‘The Work of God’ ‘… dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked … [We all lived] in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and by nature we were children under wrath …’ Ephesians 2:1–3

45. 5. Jesus: ‘The Work of God’ ‘But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved! For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift – 9not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are His creation – created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.’ Ephesians 2:4–10

46. So our best work simply participates in and responds to God’s work

47. So our best work simply participates in and responds to God’s work ‘No salvation by works’ also means ‘no salvation through work’

48. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands The shape of Christian work

49. God’sCharacter The character of the worker:e.g. kind, just, caring, faithful, truthful, merciful … 

50. God’sCharacter Creation The work of creation:know, use and care for the created order 

51. God’sCharacter Creation New future The work of God:participate in andrespond to God’s workof ‘redemption’ (i.e. rescue and repair)

52. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future  The work of community:share God’s good gifts in to promote communities where people care for each other

53. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging e.g. verses about sharing Commands to offset obsession withfulfilment, reputation, consumption

54. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging with God’s help!(because we workers are broken) Commands

55. me Expandingour imagination

56. us me Expandingour imagination

57. it them us me Expandingour imagination

58. HIM it them us me Expandingour imagination

59. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands

60. Creation 

61. Community‘in Christ’ Creation 

62. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation  Commands

63. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future  Commands

64. God’sCharacter Community‘in Christ’ Creation New future Christ’s Spirit:reordered desires, true inclusion (‘love’)  Fall / ‘Flesh’ :disordered desires false belonging Commands

65. Q: If your work seems pointless, what would you wish for to make it better? Q:What forces leave you feeling that you have no power to change your workplace?

66. An idea for the future ‘Job Club’

67. An idea for the future ‘Job Club’ And our upcoming Open Night, April 18: “Christianity and culture: Stepping Up”