24 February 2013

13/22. "Why Work?" part ii

"Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade--not outside it.  The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not their meet [meant] they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meet for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.  The official Church wastes time and energy, and, moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work--by which she means ecclesiastical work.  The only Christian work is good work well done.  Let the church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery, or sewage-farming."
 
Dorothy Sayers, "Why Work?"