9 to 5 - The Gospel According to Broadway

Like all good comedy, nine to five is funny because it's true.

We can relate to it in many ways.

Work spaces and work dynamics are a part of our human experience.

They're a part of who we are.

But you know what?

Nine to five isn't really about office supplies and copy machines.

At the risk of ruining your enjoyment of good comedy with a little theological assessment.

It's really about power.

Who has it, who abuses it, who gets ignored.

But more importantly, it's about what happens when ordinary people discover that they have more strength than they realized.

And in case you didn't know that, church, that is a remarkably biblical story.

Throughout Scripture, God has a strange habit of choosing people that the powerful overlook.

A shepherd boy, a widow, a teenager from Nazareth, fishermen, tax collectors, women who weren't supposed to be witnesses, but became the first proclaimers of the resurrection, anyways.

It's almost like God was saying, you think power belongs to the people at the top.

But watch this.

I will show you what and who is important.

And we learn from the prophet Micah what God really wants from God's people because he's brave enough to ask.

And what does Micah find out that what God really wants from God's people?

God doesn't want bigger temples or bigger sanctuaries, not louder prayers, not better religious performances.

It's simpler than that.

To do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God.

That's it.

And somehow that's the thing that we think is the most difficult.

Because to do justice asks us to notice who is carrying the heaviest load.

Kindness asks us to care about people that we've been taught to overlook.

Humility asks us to admit that maybe we aren't always the hero of the story.

Admitting that we are not in control and we don't have the power that we think we do.

Now, one of the reasons that nine to five still resonates decades after it first appeared is because many of those issues have not disappeared.

The powerful are still at work, people are still experiencing harassment, people are still underpaid, working parents still perform impossible tasks, people with disabilities still encounter unnecessary barriers, and many workers still feel invisible.

Technology has changed.

Hello, AI.

But human beings are still human beings.

That has not changed.

And Jesus knew something about systems that treated people as disposable.

When he stood up in the synagogue in Luke's gospel that Lisa read for us today, he announced good news to the poor, freedom for the oppressed, and release for those held captive.

Notice what he didn't say.

He didn't say, I've come so that everyone can have a corner office.

I've come so everyone can be the boss.

Blessed are those who maximize quarterly profits.

Jesus didn't say those things.

Jesus announced good news that actually changed people's lives.

He healed bodies.

He restored dignity.

He crossed social boundaries.

He questioned systems that crushed people while pretending to honor God.

That made some people deeply uncomfortable then.

News flash, it still makes people deeply uncomfortable now.

Here's something that I love about nine to five, y'all.

The heroes of the story aren't superheroes.

They're just really exhausted women.

Anyone relate to that these days?

I feel like that might be the most relatable part of the entire show.

Most of us are not trying to save the world.

We're trying to answer emails, remember our passwords, pay the bills, get dinner on the table before the four-year-old asks for yet another snack, and maybe, just maybe, drink one cup of coffee without having to reheat it three times.

You're laughing because I know you can relate.

But you know what, friends, our faith does not require us to be superheroes.

It's not a part of who we have to be.

It simply asks us to become neighbors with those around us.

Sometimes justice for our neighbors looks dramatic, but sometimes it does not.

Sometimes justice looks like speaking up in a meeting when somebody else's idea gets ignored.

Sometimes kindness is making sure that every person on the project gets credit.

Sometimes humility is apologizing when we get it wrong.

And sometimes love is believing that another person's dignity is not negotiable.

That is kingdom work.

That's the beautiful thing about the musical, and that every woman there eventually realizes something very important in that office.

Individually, they feel powerless.

But together, together they become unstoppable.

Friends, that's called the church.

Not the institution, not the building, not the committee, the people, the community, the body of Christ.

One person can become discouraged.

But a community, a community together can become courageous.

One voice can be dismissed.

But many voices together create a different future.

The ladies of nine to five understood that doing life together was important.

Showing up together was important, and y'all so did the early church.

We see it all over the book of Acts.

The faithful shared resources, they cared for widows, they welcomed outsiders, and they broke bread across boundaries.

They insisted that every person bore the image of our God.

That was radical then, and it is still radical now.

Our society constantly ranks people by income, by education, by productivity, by appearance, by politics, by the number of followers that you have on Instagram.

But meanwhile, God keeps insisting that every person has sacred worth before they accomplish anything at all.

Imagine that.

That makes me release my shoulders just a little bit.

Your value is not your resume.

It's not your GPA in high school or college.

It's not your salary, your identity is not your job title.

Your humanity is something that God has already declared as good.

You are a beloved child of God.

And here's the truth.

Here's the truth that God is not interested in preserving unjust systems just because they're familiar.

God's not interested in preserving that office culture that we see in nine to five.

God is inviting us into a beloved community.

Towards a place where workplaces, where people feel respected, toward churches where everyone belongs, towards neighborhoods where no one is forgotten, towards economies that value people more than profit, towards a world that looks a little bit more like heaven.

Will we get there completely?

We heard about that last week in David's sermon.

The kingdom of God is like a great unfinished symphony.

We won't get there today, probably not tomorrow.

But you know what?

Every act of compassion points in that direction.

One of John Wesley's most famous convictions is that there is no holiness without social holiness.

What does that mean?

That we are to do this work together.

It means following Jesus is something that we get the privilege to do as the body of Christ.

We become holy by learning to live alongside one another, by living in community.

Every word of encouragement, every fair decision, every protest against cruelty, every welcome extended to someone who has been excluded, every refusal to laugh at someone else's pain.

Every table with one more chair.

Church, those are kingdom moments.

Tomorrow morning, many of you will return to work, to your own workplaces.

Some of you love your jobs, some of you just tolerate them.

Some of you are counting down the days to retirement.

Some of you are looking for work.

And some of you care for family members, which is a work that often goes unpaid and underappreciated.

Whatever your work may be.

Remember this.

You carry the image of God into every room that you enter.

You carry the image of God in every room that you enter.

So you can be the person who refuses to participate in gossip, the person who notices the quiet coworker.

The manager who gives credit where credit is due.

The employee who speaks the truth.

Small acts.

Holy acts.

Because God's kingdom rarely arrives with great big fireworks.

God's kingdom usually arrives looking suspiciously like ordinary people.

Like ordinary people who bear the image of God.

Ordinary people choosing to love.

That is what makes the gospel of Jesus Christ revolutionary.

Not because it promises that we all become bosses, because it reminds us that every human being, including the boss, even the one in nine to five, is loved enough by God to be transformed.

And when the transformation begins, workplaces change.

Families change.

Churches change, communities change, the world changes.

I love the flag that was raised by the Daredevil couple who climbed to the top of the Empire State Building.

Did y'all see that the last week or so?

It said, when the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.

When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.

One faithful day at a time.

That's what we're doing here.

So are you working for the weekend?

Are you working for the kingdom of God?

Amen.