"Shovel That Manure For The Glory Of God"

God used a bull-headed former monk with a red-hot pen to quash the "Sacred-Secular Divide" by putting farming on the same level with the priesthood.

Martin Luther, in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, wrote:

"Therefore I advise no one to enter any religious order or the priesthood, indeed, I advise everyone against it--unless he is forearmed with this knowledge and understands that the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they may be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone."

He also said:

“The idea that the service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without doubt but the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in church and by works done therein… The whole world could abound with services to the Lord ['Gottesdienste']…not only in churches but also in the home, kitchen, workshop, field.”

Luther declared, “A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God. If your job is shoveling manure, then do your best and shovel that manure for the glory of God.”

It’s hard for us to fully appreciate how radical these words were in Luther's time. The “Sacred-Secular Divide” was deeply entrenched, and God raised up a bull-headed former monk with a red-hot pen to quash it by putting farming on the same level with the priesthood. 

Luther understood we are not only saved by faith, but we also work by faith, both priest and shoemaker. Followers of Christ live by faith. Any work done by faith, for the glory of the Lord, is Gottesdienste, “service of God.”

Luther further declared: “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., stood on his namesake’s shoulders when he said this about a person's calling:

“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”

Christianity gives labor dignity.

Martin Luther King's ideals were based upon Christian principles.

Photo by Nobel Foundation (http://nobelprize.org/) [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons