These  quotations about work are part of "Work in Worship," a collection of material for work-themed services compiled by David Welbourn. For more prayers, songs, readings and sermons, click on the table of contents to the right.

QUOTATIONS

The Good News is Good News for everyone by being Good News for the poor…
This says something quite revolutionary: what’s good for the poor is what’s good for everyone. It’s quite hard to be convinced by that – particularly if you are rich. Trickle-down economics says – contrary to all the evidence – what’s good for the rich is also good for the poor. Just suppose we had the reverse policy: what’s good for the poor is, in the end of the day, good for the rich. That, I think, would be better economics – and in tune with the Gospel.
(Rev Jim Sweeney)

People are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls markedly behind that of the community. Then they cannot have what the larger community regards as the minimum necessary for decency… They are degraded, for, in the literal sense, they live outside the grades or categories which the community regards as acceptable.
(J K Galbraith, ‘The Affluent Society’)

What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty, thoughtful poor people call with equal justices a problem of riches.
(R H Tawney)

The religion of money exacts its harshest tribute in its demands on time… The old Cathedral clocks which summoned monks to prayer and measured the time which belonged to God have long been superseded by the digital microseconds which measure the time that belongs to money.
(Anthony Sampson, ‘The Midas Touch’)

Resurrection as our final and ultimate future can be known only by those who perceive resurrection with us now, encompassing all we are and do. For only then will it be recognized as a country we have already entered and in whose light and warmth we have already lived.
(H A Williams, ‘True Resurrection’)

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us how to live every hour of the day as his disciples. Every hour of the day is useful and may lead to divine inspiration, discovering the will of the Father, the prayer of love and the life of holiness. Every hour is holy. What matters is that we should live as Jesus taught us. And for this, it is enough to accept the realities of life: work, play, parenthood, family life with all its obligations, community and caring for others.
(From the Prayer Book of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas, c. The Methodist Publishing House)