RECOGNIZING OUR LABOR ON LABOR DAY

Dear Friends in Christ,

Does your Monday seem fully connected to your Sunday? Is your work during the week informed and motivated by worship and study of scripture at the church? Do the daily questions that arise in serving customers or considering new business strategies or cleaning your house and disciplining children start you thinking about the principles of Christianity?

I hope that the answer to all these questions is “yes”, but if we are honest, we may very well answer “No”.  The “Monday Connection” is often lost for Christians, who hear sermons on sin and grace, sing praise to God, and share a cup of coffee with other members for a couple of hours on Sunday morning, but then when the next day dawns find themselves wondering what that all has to do with frustrating customers who demand better service or how to gain a greater market share for your product. The link between our labor and our love of God is likely limited.

The church needs to make that link clearer, and one way we can do that is by helping you see that your labor is valued by God, that your 9-to-5 connects to your Sunday 8:30 or 11. Therefore, this year on Labor Day weekend I want you to bring to worship a symbol of your work, something that epitomizes the way you spend 40 or 50 hours earning the hard cash that buys the bread and pays the bills and fills the tank. If you work for a store stocking shelves, bring in a box like what you stock. If you cut grass and trim hedges, wrap a short line of weed-whacker filament around your wrist. If you are retired, bring in a picture of when you were at work or some vegetables from your hobby garden. If you cook and clean and raise kids, bring their clean shirts. If you are a student, bring the calculator from science class or the eraser from spelling class. Every one has some symbol we can bring that demonstrates how we spend our days away from church, the labor we put into our jobs, the work that makes us or made us or will make us productive citizens.

We will gather those symbols of your work and bless them in worship. I have crafted a litany that lets us ask God to use these symbols and the work they represent as part of His plan. I will preach on how our work can become our calling, our “vocation”. We will sing songs that remind us of how our labor serves the Lord. Through the worship I want us to gain a whole new way of looking at our jobs and daily occupations, so that they are not just the drudgery of rising each morning wondering how you will make it through the day but are instead a welcome opportunity to serve God and enhance the presence of Christ in the world. Then after the service ends you can come forward and collect your symbol of work. If we do this at least once a year on Labor Day weekend, little by little we can gain that new perspective on labor, and better connect Mondays to Sundays and work to faith. Let us all be 7 day-a-week Christians, at home, at play, and on the job. Christ expects nothing less.

                                                                                    Shalom,

                                                                                    Duane