[Author's note: I don't want to have to point this out, but I know someone will miss it: I've posted this under 'fun.']

“I’ve started a new job this week.” That’s the part of the conversations I’ve had lately that has gone normally for me the past few days. Things would take an interesting turn soon thereafter, however, when I answered the inevitable follow-up question. “Oh, what are you doing?” “Janitorial work, mostly.”

Apparently, most people don’t leave one job to become a janitor like I did.

I have some definite reasons why I did—some holier than others such as wanting to serve the church I’m a member of, and making sure to get more definite hours throughout the week now that I’m married. The majority of reasons aren’t quite so sanctified though, and we’ll find out this Saturday just how easily the two I did mention just now will be kept in the front of my mind as I’m cleaning up after a concert that doesn’t even start until 8pm (Over the Rhine, at the 930; Doors open at 7! It’s going to be an awesome show).

So in light of the above reality, as well as the reality that as a sinner I am just plain prone to be lazy and hate work, I’ve constructed a theology of janitorialism. Enjoy, and adapt:

In the Beginning… Eden, Sacred Space, and the Janitor

Adam and Eden
Genesis is an extremely important book for the Christian. If we follow what Jesus, Paul, and the other New Testament authors have to say about creation, Adam, and Eve, then we will soon find out that they believed that this period of time before the fall was supposed to be normative for all people. So, when Jesus is questioned on divorce, He responds by taking it back to the original marriage and saying divorce wasn’t God’s original intent and plan.

One of the most frustrating things about this reality (to me at least), is that Adam was commanded to work before the fall (see Genesis 2:15). So apparently “work” was a part of God’s plan, which means we can’t even blame working on sin. There is a sense in which “work” is more frustrating to us after the fall (Genesis 3:17), but we can’t blame the Fall wholesale for having to work.

Its interesting what the command to work consisted of:

“So YHWH, the true God, placed [Adam] in the Garden of Eden, in order to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, my translation).

I’m particularly fond of the NLT here:

“to tend and watch over it.”

Adam’s job was to cultivate the Garden, and if my reading of Genesis 1:26 is correct, to expand its borders to cover the entire earth. Obviously, this would be too much work for just Adam, even with Eve, and so the connections in 1:26 with 1:28 and reproduction make sense. Because this was intended to be normative, we still have that calling on each of us—which most of us tend to fill through our vocations. It’s interesting that the calling was to work/cultivate, and keep/tend the garden. Adam was essentially doing the work of a cosmic janitor-gardener.

The work of the janitor is to work and keep the building that they are working in, making sure that everything runs smoothly, is efficient and in top condition. The janitor, in essence, cultivates the space he is given to care for.

The Priesthood
Many authors have pointed out that Adam, in doing the work he was called to, was being pictured as a priest working in the cosmic temple. One of the arguments given is that the words for “work/cultivate” and “keep/tend” are used of the priests within the tabernacle and temple. Adam and the priests are connected as the ones whom guard over and keep the “sacred space,” the places where God’s presence is said to be in a special way. Now the terms “work” and “keep” here are certainly being used within a context of worship and temple practice, but I’m certain that with all the sacrifices going on, the temple had a lot of upkeep that was needed!

Now, I push the idea that Church is a people and not a building pretty hard. It is Jesus who fulfills the temple motif, but it is also us Christians who house the presence of God via the Holy Spirit (which is why we too can be called a temple, see 1 Cor 3:16). Unfortunately, in our protestant zeal, we have forgotten (largely) that the building is still important—not as the church, but rather the particular, consistent place that the Church gathers for weekly worship. In other words, it houses the house of God. Which leads me to my next section.

The Tabernacle and the Temple: Sacred Space and Aesthetics

If there’s anything we learn from the account of the building of the tabernacle (Exodus 25 and following) and the temple (1 Kings 6-8) is that God is very detailed, very organized, and very interested in beauty. Only the finest materials, explicit detail, and most skilled artisans would do.

Again, Protestants have largely lost a sense of aesthetic. I’m lucky enough to belong to a church who is by-and-large artistic, and so they have a sense of shapes, colors, and design that invite worship and community. Though important, this understanding of aesthetic isn’t essential (the early church were too buy meeting in catacombs to figure out which shade of color looked best for their walls), there is a biblical paradigm for honoring God in such a way. The idea, of course, is not who can be more artistic but that we each honor God in offering our best, and this is where the role of the janitor can come in. In our Protestant loss of aesthetic and continual (and true!) mantra that church is a people and not a building, is it no wonder then that members of the church do not care for the building itself? The buildings where our churches gather can get trashed fairly quickly on Sundays, with hardly any of the members giving any thought to what that might communicate to outsiders about how we respect God. Moses would take off his sandals in the presence of God, and we leave our coffee cups under our seat. Or our bulletins strewn about everywhere.

Enter the Janitor, whose act of aesthetic worship is offering up his best in an act of true cultural restoration—the restoration of the building to its rightful pristine state previous to the “fall” of sloppy humanity. Is it any wonder that Ezekiel picture the new creation in terms of a “washing with water?” Could the untold story be the mop behind that washing? I kid of course, but really, for the janitor whose calling is to “work” and “keep” the building, his aesthetic best is itself a picture of the Gospel, a restoration and cleaning. Which, coincidentally enough, brings me to the third section.

Paul’s Vision of the Resurrection

Now, that’s an odd section title, isn’t it? What in the world does Paul’s vision of the resurrection have anything to do with being a janitor? Pretty much the same as what ever passage in the New Testament that teaches on the “end-times” has to say about it. A lot, actually.

Whenever the New Testament speaks on the “end-times,” it’s referring to the period of time between Jesus Christ’s first and second comings. For us, the first arrival is in the past, but the second coming is in the future. That means we are smack-dab in the middle¹ of the “end-times” or “last days.” No wonder, then, that every time a New Testament author mentions something about the resurrection, or the second-coming, or the destruction of the temple in 70ad (well, it was still future for them after all) they end with some sort of ethical imperative for the present. In other words, the teaching usually ends with a “therefore, you should be doing this (whatever “this” is) now.”

For Paul and the resurrection, it’s no different. Consider 1 Corinthians 15:59 which gives just such a “therefore” following a lengthy discussion on the resurrection:

“So [therefore], my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” (NLT).

What does that have to do with the resurrection? Well… I won’t go into defending why I think its connected, but the short of it is that our resurrection is linked to Jesus’ resurrection (his was the “first fruits,” 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Jesus’ resurrection was, in a sense, an inbreaking of the new creation (Revelation 20) into the present, as our physical resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:23) coincides (or precedes, depending on your millennial views) with the inbreaking of the actual new creation. Our callings, our skills, our vocations matter now because they will have some part to play in the new creation, and we know that the new creation is guaranteed because of our resurrection, and we know that our resurrection is guaranteed because Christ has already risen. The work of the janitor matters now because by doing it, the janitor is glorifying God and is somehow (in what way, I don’t know) pointing to the reality that God is redeeming all things to himself through Jesus Christ. Christian, be encouraged: the work that you do now is not in vain. Even if that must become your mantra to get through the day. It isn’t in vain. That goes for janitors too.

This is true for Paul because Paul has a radical view on just how the redeemed community of God is to go about glorifying God: in everything. There is nothing, according to Paul, that ought to be done without the glory of God as its primary motivator. 1 Corinthians 10:31:

“So, whether you eat or drink, [clean for a living] or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

This isn’t something new, of course. The Qohelet (probably Solomon, see Ecclesiastes 1:1 “the Teacher” or “The Preacher”) states it this way in Ecclesiastes 9:10:

“Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.”

His motivation seems a bit different than Paul’s… work well because soon you’ll die. However, he ends his book with this: “Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty .God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” This is the controlling idea to understanding the Qohelet’s laments—”Vanity! Emptiness! All is nothing!” That is, apart from knowledge of the promise of restoration. The grave is just the grave, until you realize that the graves will one day burst open again because one already has.

It goes back further than Solomon, however. It goes back to Genesis 1:26 and 28. It is shown preeminently in Genesis 2:15. It’s the janitor-priest, taking care of and looking after the garden God placed him in—all as an act of Worship between man and his creator.