Week 6

Exodus 38                           

1 Kings 7:13-51                 

Proverbs 22:29 

Gifts for the people: Week 5

This next set of readings looks at the way God provdies different gifts to different people so that they can complement and aid each other, living in community as a way of survival and prosperity. This is a challenge to the assumption in the UK that people should be independent, self-supporting and contains questions for an education system that largely focuses on conforming people (not very successfully) to society's boxes rather than identifying individual giftings and helping children develop and shape those gifts to contribute to the wellbeing of others.

Genesis 4:1-7                    

Exodus 31:1-6                   

Isaiah 54:11-17 

Week 4

A return to Genesis...

Genesis 34:6-10       

                        

Ephesians 4:25-28           

 
Isaiah 2:1-5

Week 3

Proverbs 16:26                  

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13   

Luke 12:27          

Week 2

An inspiring conversation was had today over tea in Chew Magna discussing week one's passages. I'll try and jot down some of the key issues we were deliberating and theologising over but in the meantime here are week two's readings:

Genesis 5:28-29        

                       

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10          

Job 7:1-10

A brief delay...

Apologies for delaying posting on only the second week! Due to a church meeting we haven't been able to feed back reflections on the first week so the second batch of readings will be delayed until next week.

Week 1- Part of the natural order?

Here are the first set of readings to be looking at and thinking about this week. Please feel free to write any thoughts, observations and reflections as comments to this post. Each week there will be three readings from all across the bible with a theme linking them. The themes span several weeks (for instance "part of the natural order?" is the theme for the first four weeks).

Genesis 2, 3:16-19

Proverbs 12:14,24,27

Psalm 104:19-30

Just what is this "What is this work thing?" thing?

This is a blog designed to follow a course of weekly Bible readings and reflectins exploring the theological nature of 'work'. In our western society work has a tendency to occupy most of our lives... even if we are among the many who have no work. Is what we understand by 'work' (a means of financial stability, social status, definition of self, occupation for 60-80% of the week, security...) really what it was meant to be? How are we to understand a society which is supprting a huge population of the unemployed but is doing little to empower people to find their own means of survival? Should we be looking at an idea of 'sutainance and service' to discern the worth of work? Should our work be more communal? Should our work be less permanent? How can we work with different talents rather than trying to fit people into boxes and value gifts as equal rather than hierarchical? How does our eductaion system fit into the problem? How can we practically begin to change things from the grass roots?

Please feel free to follow along and contribute to the discussions, whoever you are and whatever you think. The aim is ultimately to attempt some kind of paper at the end of the year and to begin to form a community who look at work through the lens of its original purpose in God's creation. First set of readings will be up shortly.