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Last time I preached was on mothers day. I realized then that I tend to pay more attention to the secular calender then I do to the ecclesiastical one. But by that time I had already committed myself to preaching about labor on Labor day. So I decided as a punishment for these woefully bad priorities I would preach from the lectionary texts found in the ecclesiastical calender. I wasn't sure how it would work out. I wanted to use Labor day as an opportunity to repeat the great truth that God values us all equally, despite the different gifts we may have. This is particularly worth repeating on the day after celebrity worshiping paparazi demonstrated their distorted values by chasing Princess Diana to her death. I didn't know if the preselected scriptures from the lectionary would support this point, or even be relevant. But as I read them, I realized that with a bit of a stretch, I could make them fit. Everyone knows I've never shrunk from stretching the evidence to make a good point.
When I first started thinking about my labor day sermon, someone mentioned a phrase from a Charlie King song: Our life is more then our work and our work is more then our jobs.
Life is more then just labor. Our work is more then just labor.
Labor day is the traditional start of school, the end of summer, a transitional point on which we turn to more serious pursuits, when we buckle down again to work after the season of vacations, weekend trips to the shore, lazy summer novels read by the pool or torturous feats of athletic prowess undertaken for the sheer expression of youthful strength and exuberance. Summer is over. Like most holidays, on labor day we will really be celebrating the excesses of the stomach, but on this day we will eat and drink to the ones who do the hard physical work. Or so popular culture has it.
I found over one hundred references in the Bible that contain the word "labor". After taking out the times when the word was referring to childbirth, there were still many references left. In the Old Testament, labor seemed to invariably refer to the physical act of work. I imagine that was shoveling and carrying and pouring and pounding, throwing, dragging, herding, chasing. All those physical activities that we envision in the agrarian economy of the Old Testament times. It was this work and the times during which it was performed that were governed by the laws that are referred to in the Deuteronomy passage that was read this morning.:
DT 4:1 Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
It isn't until the New Testament that we see a reference to the word labor as reflecting the expenditure of energy in the pursuit of things other then mounds of clay, grain, or animals. Paul talks about his labors in teaching and evangelizing in several of his letters.
But it is also in the New Testament that we find the puzzling condemnation of labor and the philosophy of earning and accumulating behind it:
MT 6:28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. [29] Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. [and in vs: 33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Life is more then labor. Before we labor we are better off seeking God's kingdom and God's righteousness.
And yet we labor on. In some ways, the labor movement is a reflection of the great truth that God values us all equally. The demand for fairness to laborers is like the many laws that are laid out in the Old Testament that even the playing field for rich and poor: prohibitions against usury, the fifty year celebration of the Jubilee, and others.
But the labor movement is not one that Mennonite Christians can identify with fully. I remember when I interviewed my father for the family history that was required by a family therapy course, he told me about a breech between my grandfather and my grandmother's brothers. What was it, I wondered, that would separate them? It turns out that my Grandmothers brothers were union members and my Grandfather was opposed to this. It didn't make much sense to me. Unions were good things, I had always thought, at least before the corruptions of the fifties and sixties. Why would my Grandfather, who was a worker for part of his life, be opposed to collective bargaining and worker solidarity?
It was when I was reading about the history of the labor movement in preparation for this sermon that I realized why my Grandfather and many Mennonites were opposed to the early labor movement efforts. They were often violently confrontational. People died. It wasn't just the "evil" capitalists who brought in militias or hired Brinks guards to beat and kill striking workers, it was also the enraged workers who destroyed property, beat and killed scabs, even on at least one occasion murdering the factory owner.
3 February 1930 "Chicagorillas" -- labor racketeers -- shot and killed contractor William Healy, with whom the Chicago Marble Setters Union had been having difficulties.
10 October 1933 18,000 cotton workers went on strike in Pixley, California. Four were killed before a pay-hike was finally won.
These are but two of the hundreds of violent events my Grandfather and other Mennonites of his time read about in the papers.
The early labor movement was more frequently the victim of violence then the perpetrator, however both sides of the issue generated angry violent words, plans and actions. Learning this, it was no small wonder for me that Mennonites during this time would not support unions. These efforts to level the playing field was frequently not one of law, but of violence.
This labor violence was reduced when just laws were added in the United States: the legislated 40 hour work week, child labor laws, OSHA and many others.
Labor day was another result. It is but a nod, from this nation, to the great truth that we are all of equal value. And it is certainly appropriate that we recognize and honor the laborers who transport our food, build our homes, maintain our transportation, support the efficient delivery of our gas, electric, water, phone services, government services and even deliver packages.
Frequently jobs like these are devalued and treated with disrespect. A few years ago someone who was unhappy with her job at a local grocery store exclaimed to me about the work that "a monkey could do it!"
Well, a monkey can't do it. By this criteria, almost all the labor done by God's people in Old Testament times could have been done by a different species. But it was these laborers who God valued sufficiently to give the gift of law.
But before we labor, we are better off seeking God's kingdom.
There are other labors besides those of the traditional laborer's work. Labors of the mind or the imagination or the heart that also function to provide sustenance, labor for which we are paid either directly in money, or indirectly in an important result. Sometimes they are our jobs, and sometimes these things are more then jobs -- they are our work.
How is our work more then our jobs? We labor, often with great dedication, at tasks both in the church and in the community. These include planning committees, educational activities, facility management and maintenance, fund raising, doing child care, doing tasks for those who are sick, and many other things, even preaching.
One of the things that was of great benefit to me when I was first diagnosed with MS was the wealth of information that was available about the disease on the Internet. At the time after my diagnosis I was very frightened. I felt great internal pressure to continue to build my practice and see as many patients as I possibly could because I didn't know how long I would be able to continue to work. My spare time was spent in exhausted rest. I didn't have the energy to go to a support group or to go to the library for books. But I had plenty of time to sit in my recliner, exploring online services. And so that is where I started educating myself about my illness. It wasn't long before I found a community of others with MS. The bulletin boards where we gathered were developed and maintained by volunteers. People who were motivated to provide a service.
There are many such projects in the world. People are often motivated to do something for their community. That community may be defined by a common affliction, as the Internet MS community, or by common geographic boundaries, as neighborhood associations often are, perhaps by something as mundane as a common interest, as community choirs or stamp clubs, or more profoundly by a common conviction, like that which joins the volunteers at places like the other side, magazine or which join us here.
These labors go beyond our jobs. They are often work that is unpaid, not career related, yet very important. It is important not just for our identities, but as part of the maintenance and strengthening of the fabric that binds us together as children of God.
I believe that these efforts, these labors that go beyond our jobs, in part, answer the demands in our lectionary readings today from James.
James 1:27a (The) religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress...
Our work goes beyond the task of making a living and making a home for our families. God has given us more work then that. Sharing our energies with those who need them is another way of leveling the playing field, of living out the great truth that we are all God's children and God values us equally.
But before we labor, we are better off seeking God's Kingdom and God's Righteousness.
So we can see how these lectionary readings for today relate to the topic of labor. But there was another lectionary reading that wasn't read this morning, but is among several other selections for today. Let me read a portion of it:
SS 2:10 My lover spoke and said to me,
"Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, and come with me.
SS 2:11 See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
SS 2:12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
SS 2:13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me."
What should we do with the passage from the Song of Songs? There is nothing about work in that. There is no labor in this.
Let me return briefly to the question of value. In our culture we overvalue the work of the select few -- the managers of many people, the magicians of the technical world, the artists, musical, literary, who inspire the masses -- and we undervalue the real day to day work that is performed by the vast majority of us. Our jobs may be mundane and devalued laboring, but for most of us our work goes far beyond these repetitive tasks. It includes building family, supporting communities, loving our neighbors, serving God. It is this work that I believe is of great value.
But life is more then work.
And this passage from the Song of Songs shows how we go beyond labor and see one way that our life is more then our work. It is also yet another leveler of the playing field, because no matter what kind of work you do, no matter what kind of opportunities you have, the kind of intimate, joyful play referred to in this passage is available, in one way or another, to everyone.
Life is a gift, a precious gift that God has given to all of us. In it we are given our jobs and our work and they can be endless labor. But we are not valued by these labors.
These labors do put bread on the table and a roof over our heads. But we are not valued by these labors.
These labors bear children and raise them; they also challenge and create in many other ways, but we are not valued by these labors.
These labors serve those in pain, they challenge injustice, they bind the fragile ties between us, but we are not ultimately valued by these labors.
And I think it is here that we apply these words from the Song of Songs and also Jesus' wonderful, challenging and comforting words found in Matthew. We must stop our labors and listen to the cooing dove, smell the fragrant vines, and watch the blooming flowers. We must give ourselves a break from the worries, the focusing on the details of our projects and our careers and give time to open ourselves to the spirit of celebration, of love, of boundless joy. We must spend time with our beloved and the beloved aspects of life.
It is here that we should be like the lilies of the fields. For we must be done with our labors. We must stop and give them up. We are more then our jobs, more then our work. We are God's children, God loves us all and God will take care of us. It is to God that we commend our labors, it is on God who we depend to bring our labors to fruition. And it is with God blessing that we stop them and celebrate the great gift of our jobs, our work, our intimacies, our lives.
Be thankful for your job, do your best, do it well.
Be thankful for your work, do it for love, for conviction, because you are inspired, because others need you.
Be thankful for your beloved, be she spouse, sibling, child or friend or beloved activity, avocation or memory.
And be thankful for life. Immerse yourself in it's fleeting pleasures when you can, for life is but a brief gift and in living it we please God.
Let us pray together.
Almighty God we give you thanks for the great gifts that you have given us. We thank you for those who work to keep us. We thank you for the opportunity we have to do our part in the labors of the world. And we ask that you bless all of your children with the same opportunities for jobs, for work and for joy. We Pray In Jesus Name, Amen
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