Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, United Church of Christ

Sermon preached by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel

September 4, 2011

The Work of Our Hands

Labor Day was birthed in part in response to conflict. The first Labor Day was observed in 1882. Legislation to establish Labor Day as a federal holiday came about in 1894, in the wake of a bloody labor strike.  U.S. marshals and military forces were responsible for the deaths a number of workers in the Pullman Strike between labor union and railroads in Boston. President Grover Cleveland responded by declaring reconciliation with the labor movement a top national priority. Soon after, Labor Day was officially established.  A day for paying tribute and expressing gratitude to American workers.

Conflict emerged in the parable of the landowner and workers when everyone received their pay. The landowner had work that needed to be done in his vineyard. Early in the morning he hired the workers he needed and promised to pay them the usual day’s wage. When he went out again at 9 a.m. he saw unemployed laborers standing around, hoping to be offered work. So he also hired them. The landowner went out repeatedly over the course of the day. Each time he sees more unemployed workers and hires them, even as late as 5 p.m.

The ones who have worked since early morning receive the fair day’s pay they had been promised. But so do the workers who did not start until later in the day. Those who had been working since morning believed that the landowner was too generous to those who came late in the day.  The landowner told them that it was just as important for the others to have enough to feed their families.  He also made sure that anyone who needed a job was given one. In God’s economy, all people are to be fulfilled, find rest, find rhythms in life, be able to provide for their families. When a person and a community thrive, they have adequate food, shelter and health care. That all are well is an expression of God’s shalom.

To thrive we need our basic needs to be met. Our families need enough food for the day. That means adequate work. Psalm 23 tells us that in God’s realm, we shall not want. We shall not nurture an ache in our lives for more and more and more. We shall not be jealous or judgmental of what our neighbor has, but be responsible with what we have been given. In the parable of the landowner and workers, the pay was the typical wage, so would have been enough to cover a family’s expenses for one day. Many people needed to work daily in order to eat daily. The Jewish law protected those who lived paycheck to paycheck, because pay was given at the end of each day of work. Advertisers tell us that we don’t have enough, not even close. Jesus instructs us to pray for bread enough, to take it one day at a time, to neither hoard nor deprive ourselves.  We can pray for God to tune us in to our finances. If we avoid opening bills or knowing how much or little is in our bank account, we can pray for God to take away our financial fears. Julia Cameron wrote “We can ask God to make us attuned to our financial seasons, to cue us when we are free to spend and when we should curtail our spending. We can ask God to take away our fear of financial insecurity and to direct us to where, from what corner, our prosperity might come from.”

To thrive we need to practice stewardship. We need to give back a portion of what we have been given. It is counter to shalom to deplete the earth of it’s resources. At the present rate of consumption, we will need two earths to support humanity by the year 2030. But we need to do well with one. The word thrift is derived from thrive. Thriftiness is a virtue in some circles, but for the most part goes against the grain of society. Yet thrift is being smart about how we use the resources we have been given. It is a concept of abundance and not of scarcity.  Thrift is re-using for the sake of the planet and the pocketbook.  It also means prosperous and well-being, which is another way of saying, shalom.

To thrive we need Sabbath. We were not created to work ourselves to exhaustion. God rested after creating the world. In the Hebrew the text literally reads, God exhaled. We need to have a rhythm of work and rest in our lives. If we tell ourselves that we do not have time for adequate rest in our lives, we need to make a change. Re-order priorities, schedule time for recreation, realize that we do not need to fill each moment with “getting things done”. It is not as easy for those in poverty to create space in their lives for rest. Sabbath is not a luxury, but essential to well-being. Yet for those who are making minimum wage ($8.67 an hour in Washington state) typically need to work more than one job.

For those of us who have enough, what will we do to help those who must work three jobs? Could we advocate for a raise in minimum wage, could we slip them a gift-card for this week’s groceries? How about providing respite for one who is caring for very young children or aging parents? Sabbath is hard to come by for parents with young children who cannot afford childcare or do not have a strong support system. I wistfully yearn for our culture to break out of isolation and widen our lens of who we consider to be family. Nurturing connections between people allows them to provide one another with Sabbath.

Bruce Epperly wrote “The earth is God's, the economy is a matter of justice, and care for the vulnerable is a moral and spiritual requirement. Labor Day, then, offers us a reminder and challenge to affirm the value of work, seek healthy workplace environments, and support opportunities for entrepreneurial adventure in the context of a just social safety net. On Labor Day, we give thanks for those whose efforts have led to workers rights and care for the least of these.  And we can make a commitment to seek justice for all workers and balance the need for profitmaking with care for our society's most vulnerable members.” We all represent Christ in all we do, seven days a week.

Perhaps some of you practice a morning prayer ritual, in which you ask God to guide you throughout the day.  Every morning is a fresh start for us to remember that God is with us. We can remind ourselves that all our work is for God’s glory. Every day we can be grateful for all we have been given, and pray for daily bread.

The start of school brings with it a lot of emotions. Whether it is preschool, graduate school or anything in between, those first few days are often a mix of excitement and fear. After I came back home from bringing Eva to the bus on her first day of third grade last Wednesday, I squealed with excitement. The next day my neighbor across the street asked, was that you I heard? The changes of seasons is a gift, if we take the time to pause and receive it as such. I began the new school year opening my household notebook, where I keep all of the most important papers I need for the daily ins and outs of my family.  I took out the collage I had put in the front for inspiration because it had been in there for years. I wanted some new inspiration for the start of every day. I turned to the Psalms, a rich source of wisdom. I wrote out the first two verses of Psalm 127. 1Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.  2It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.

This Psalm is such a great reminder that we work for the glory of God. We can teach a class, practice law, medicine, accounting, for God’s glory. We can do the work of trying to find work, manage a household, and practice a meaningful retirement from work all for the glory of God.

Labor Day weekend is a great time to observe shalom. When we work, whether for pay, volunteer, or in the daily ins and outs of daily life, we are God’s hands in the world. (Prayer: God bless the work of our hands)