Toward an Integrated Liturgy of Work and Worship (Matthew Kaemingk)

By Rev. Dr. Matthew Kaemingk & Dr. Dru Johnson on November 22, 2021

There is a deep division between work and worship in the West. However, the worship of the ancient Israelites integrated the sanctuary into the streets. What are ways that our work today (even sending emails) can be celebrated and offered to God as a form of worship?

Matthew Kaemingk explains how the tasks we do every single day can be integrated into our worship and daily liturgy.

Show notes:

0:26 Wandering minds during worship
2:02 Integrated life and liturgy
2:58 Spiritual divide
4:34 Work and worship
6:13 How do we celebrate our work?
12:00 Corey Wilson
12:40 Imago Dei—workers
17:40 Grander work
20:02 Physical participation in the work of God
22:57 Ritual and liturgy
27:37 Gathering rituals, and honesty with God
30:21 When wealth intercedes for work

Show notes by Dominique LaCroix

Image created by Rubner Durais

Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Check out articles from The Biblical Mind.

Credits for the music TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

Rev. Dr. Matthew Kaemingk is a Christian ethicist and public theologian. He serves Fuller Seminary as the Richard John Mouw Chair of Faith and Public Life where he also directs the Mouw Institute of Faith and Public Life. Matthew serves as a research fellow at the Center for Public Justice in Washington DC and scholar-in-residence at the De Pree Center for Christian Leadership.

He is the author and editor of several books in public theology including Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration (2018), Work and Worship (with Dr. Cory Willson, 2020), and Reformed Public Theology (2021). Matthew earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds a doctoral degree in Systematic Theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. In 2011, as a Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands, Matthew researched the European conflict over Muslim immigration and developed Christian ethical response to the issue.

Matthew is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. He and his wife Heather live in Houston, TX with their three sons Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon. Together the five of them serve a springer spaniel named Moses.

Founder and Director of the Center for Hebraic Thought

Dru teaches Biblical literature, theology, and biblical interpretation at The King’s College. He is an editor for the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism series; an associate director for the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project at The Herzl Institute in Israel; and a co-host for the OnScript Podcast. His recent books include Biblical Philosophy: An Hebraic Approach to the Old and New Testaments (Cambridge University Press); Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments (Eerdmans); and Epistemology and Biblical Theology (Routledge).

Before that, he was a high-school dropout, skinhead, punk rock drummer, combat veteran, IT supervisor, and pastor—all things that he hopes none of his children ever become.

He and his wife have four children. Interviews, articles, and excerpts of books can found at drujohnson.com.

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