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September 6, 2009 Gen. 3: 17-20 1 Cor. 12: 4-26 Labor Day Meditation: The Theology of Work Labor Day has never had any real meaning for me. It always symbolized the end of the summer and a time to get organized for the fall: students are back in school, the school busses are on the road again, the rhythms of life change, and everything seems to get a little more serious. In preparation for this sermon, I thought I should learn a little more about the origins of Labor Day. I learned that Labor Day was enacted as a national holiday in 1894. The bill was initiated by the labor unions as a workmen’s holiday “dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.” The holiday is meant to be “a national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country” (U.S. DOL website). In recent years, the holiday has lost much of its original meaning and is seen more as a celebration of the end of the summer. With the national unemployment rate at nearly 10%, and much higher in cities like Detroit, where the rate is almost 30%, this Labor Day may not be the festive occasion that it usually is for some workers. Many people find themselves unemployed for the first time in their lives and search desperately for any kind of work to sustain their family’s needs. For the first time, many people may have a new appreciation of what it means to be employed. As a purely secular holiday, Labor Day has no overtly religious overtones, unless work is considered in the larger context of life, and life in the larger context of service and dedication to God and the strength and well-being of our country from God as well. This elevated view of work and life may be an ideal that is easier to grasp if you are an ordained minister and have taken vows to dedicate your life to God’s service, but I believe in the priesthood of all believers, a tenant of faith initiated by Martin Luther and crucial to our Protestant heritage, that all of our lives should be understood in this elevated way as service to God, as a contribution that is valuable and important to God and God’s creation. This elevated view helps us to feel important and loved and emphasizes the importance of our work in the grand scheme of things. In our Christian faith, we believe that all of us together represent the living Body of Christ, and so whether we are in church worshipping or whether we are at work or home, we are the living Body of Christ. It is our work and our lives in communion with the Holy Spirit that enables us to do the work of Christ in his name. With that elevated understanding of work, Labor Day, could be understood as a celebration of our life’s work and perhaps a re-dedication of our work in the service of God. In our scripture lesson this morning, Paul speaks about the one body of Christ with many members and the importance of each member. Each member, he writes, “is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” He uses a clever analogy of the parts of the body and the importance of each part to the whole. He writes, “If the foot would say, ’Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body…. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?” Paul wants us to understand that it is the same with our membership in the Body of Christ. Our work, whether as a paid professional or as a volunteer, is important to the whole creation, each one of us has value and can make a difference. In Indian spirituality as well, life is considered in the overall service of the good. Each member has an important role to the whole. Ohiyesa, a 19th century Dakota wise man, writes “we are never permitted to forget that we do not live to ourselves alone, but to our tribe and clan.” He reminds us that we are all deeply connected to each other, all of nature and to God – known to him as the Great Mystery. Considering our work theologically may be difficult to do. We live in a secular society that has neatly separated the religious realm of living from the secular realm – a division of church and state. I understand in the spirit of religious freedom why this is important for all faiths: Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists, Buddhists, whatever the faith may be, that one particular faith should not be singled out above others and used in policy making decisions. But that separation of church and state in the public sphere does not mean that we should separate our lives in to a religious sphere and a secular sphere. We have one life, one way of living, we have our faith that guides us everyday not simply on Sundays. In the workplace and in every aspect of our lives, we must remember that we are important members of the Body of Christ in our work and deeds. That our faith should impact the decisions of our lives. We are Christians 24 hours a day, 7 days a week no matter where we are, no matter what the circumstances may be. With that in mind, I would like us to consider the work that we do and the way in which we do it from a theological point of view. A theology of work is understanding work and life as a whole as from God, connected to God, and contributing to God’s overall plan for the creation. It is a way to consider our work as an important aspect of bringing forth God’s kingdom here on earth. I would like us to consider today how our work is a contribution to God’s plan? How are our gifts and talents, which are gifts from God, used to make the world a better place? Are we utilizing our gifts and talents as fully as we might? All of our lives and our talents are important to the smooth functioning of our society. Teachers, carpenters, bankers, gardeners, childcare workers, doctors, parents, plumbers, politicians, bus drivers, lawyers – all are important. Our salaries are not indicators of the importance of our work to God or God’s creation. Consider the multitude of volunteers. The countless hours of service generated around the world in service to others. What would our world be like if we had no more volunteers? Think about the volunteers of our church: the multitude of people who work in the food ministries, who teach in our Sunday School, who help us with our worship services, our finances, who help lead the church. Consider the work of parents, grandparents, and guardians – who could ever attach a dollar figure to the value of parents. What could be more important than the role of parents and teachers as they teach the future generation of leaders in the world? I remember when I was a young ‘stay at home’ Mom with 3 children under the age of 4, some one asked me if I worked. And I said ‘no’ I stay home with my children. But looking back at those years, I remember how hard I worked and how valuable that time was to my children. Too often greater value is placed on jobs that have larger salaries, and those with lower salaries or no salary somehow feel less important. Many people are defined by what they do, which can be positive, but it also can be negative as well, especially when someone retires from that job or loses their job, and with that loss of employment, there is also a loss of identity. It would be healthier if our self identity was not totally dependent on our paying job. For example, I am Becky Crosby and I ‘work’ in the field of ordained ministry. This makes the statement that I am more than my profession. Our role as members of the Body Christ and our intimate relationship with God remains a constant throughout our lives, it never changes even though we may go in and out of employment, in and out of human relationships, in and out of volunteer commitments. This membership may not pay our bills, but this elevated view of work and life helps in our spiritual well-being and self esteem, and in the feeling of intrinsically belonging to a community that is larger than ourselves. If we believe in our work theologically as good and a contribution to God’s overarching plan, then our attitude about our work must reflect that belief even if we are dissatisfied with our job. How many times have you been served in a restaurant or at the D.M.V. by someone who hates their job? Negative attitudes at the work place abound. In an interview posted on the Department of Labor website, over 50% of the people interviewed stated that they were not happy with their job for various reasons. The negative attitude about the job may affect the quality of the work and the way in which fellow employees and the related public are treated. There are many people, I am sure, that are dissatisfied with their jobs but treat their fellow human beings with kindness, but there are many who do not. The practice of love of neighbor in all areas of our life in all circumstances is crucial to who we are as Christians. How do we work with love in our hearts, and how is that love made visible in the quality of our work? If we are the priesthood of all believers and each a member of the Body of Christ, how does that belief carry into our work places? Kahlil Gibran, the well-known Lebanese poet, wrote his book The Prophet in 1923, and it continues to be well known today by young and old. The book offers enlightened wisdom about all aspects of daily life, and I found a very helpful section on work and its relationship to love and life. We read a piece of it as our unison reading this morning. He speaks of our sometimes negative attitude on work. He writes: Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, and in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life and to love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret. No one can deny that it is truly a gift to love what you do for a living. And no one can deny that there are some professions that are very difficult. But there are some people who grumble no matter what kind of work they do. They simply do not want to work. Work is seen as a negative, as something to try to free themselves from. Work seems as a punishment. This long standing attitude of work as punishment is reflected in our reading from Genesis. The author tries to make sense of the origins of human struggle and toil and puts the blame on human disobedience. Genesis tells us that after Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, God cursed the three of them, the serpent as well as Adam and Eve. Part of the curse was directed at Adam. God says, “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life…. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground …” In other words, you must work to make a living, work to put food on your plate -- no longer is life one continuous vacation in paradise. So life and work is understood as the opposite of Eden, the opposite of pleasure, a curse of toil and hardship. I don’t believe that God cursed humankind in its beginning, nor do I view our work and our lives as negative, but life can be very difficult for many people, and work can be a toil that is hard to bear. I think our attitude plays a major part in the perception of toil and that a new view on life can alter the view on work as well. I have met many people throughout my life who work hard and long hours who have wonderful dispositions and are kind and thoughtful. They see their work as important and valuable to the whole. Kahlil Gibran offers a way to think about our work as a necessary part of the rhythm of the earth. He writes: You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of Earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite….. All work is empty save when there is love, and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another and to God. Gibran connects our work with the rhythms of life and the very heart and soul of God’s creation. Our life and our life’s work connects us to the creation in a personal way and enables us to feel as members of the whole – a sense of participation and belonging. It is through our love of God and love of neighbor that we are able to love our work and see how it fits in the larger picture. God blesses each one of us in our daily lives, and our gratitude for our lives can be expressed in our understanding of our life and work as service to God. Gibran writes that, ‘Work is love made visible.’ If we believe that God is the source of love and the essence of love itself, then it would follow that our work makes God visible. God works through our hands and hearts in ways that we can only imagine. We have no idea how the work that we do and the way in which we treat our fellow human beings affects the lives of those we touch. On this Labor Day, let us reconsider our lives in an elevated way -- an ideal way; let us celebrate the gift of life and the talents that we have to share, and let us re-dedicate the work of our lives to God’s service. Amen
The Rev. Rebecca Crosby First Congregational Church of Old Lyme
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